The Lore of Briarwood Rebirth - A Dramatic Retelling

Blog post by LarkspurXX, written 31st October, 20XX

Declared missing 5 and a half years ago, certified dead a month after.

This blog post was the last known record written by Margarette Hanson, a part time video game streamer and fourth on the PVP Arena leaderboard in the RPG game Briarwood Rebirth, before she disappeared.

Once, many centuries ago, the world belonged to the Faeries. Born from nature, they worshipped the earth and the sky, and built up kingdoms of their kind from the life around them. One of such lands was the vast kingdom of Briarwood, one inhabited by Faeries of different types as equals, ruled by the wise Faerie King Oberon. The Faerie Court assisted the Faerie King in all his rulings, and Briarwood was peaceful.

This peace was not long lived, however. A small race of ape-like creatures soon gained power over the earth and all its creatures, and harnessing the power of metal, they build towers from mud, heavy vessels that floated as well as feathers, and eliminated forests in a single night. They were not particularly strong, or quick, or intelligent. They could not feel the flow of mana or harness its power. Yet somehow, they were able to bend nature to their will and shape it into twisted monstrosities of their own desire. These creatures were afterwards to be known as Humans.

The Faerie Kingdoms knew that soon, the Humans would no longer be satisfied with building their mud towers and sailing down rivers in their wooden vessels. Soon, they would attempt to venture deep into the forest glades, and cut down the Faeries themselves. So each Faerie Kingdom began preparing for war, equipping its subjects with the finest weapons with which to defend their kingdoms.

Yet only Briarwood did not arm themselves. Instead, the Faerie King commanded the formation of a great spell to be cast over the forest that housed the kingdom, a great illusion of Glamour that would distort reality and set Briarwood on another plane of existence. No creature without the ability to feel the flow of mana would be able to enter on their own volition, and would instead go wandering around in circles in the depths of the woods. And, in case any traitor should open the gates and guide Humans within, the wise King Oberon cast another spell, one with his body as its source, so that all who might stumble upon the kingdom may enter, but none may leave to tell the way to others. The defences set, the protection fulfilled, the King went to sleep and would not wake until the Glamour was destroyed.

The other Faerie Kingdoms mocked Oberon for his decision. If the Humans were to ever unveil the Glamour protecting Briarwood and storm the kingdom, the King and his subjects would be sitting ducks, unable to flee from the cage that was their kingdom. They were confident in their abilities, that as long as Humans were not allowed to grow too strong, the Faeries would be able to easily defeat them with the blessings of nature granted to them. Yet, how wrong they were!

For the Humans came with new weapons, one that, with a single touch, caused the burn of a thousand fires to any Faerie unfortunate enough to come into contact with it. With charms of cold iron and fistfuls of salt, they came storming into the Faerie Kingdoms and burnt it all to ash. Any Faerie that touched iron was burned in agony, and any that touched salt felt the unbearable sting of swarming hornets. Then, in pain, they would die, and the Humans trampled over their corpses as if they were worth nothing more than dirt. Thus, the Faeries, immortal as they may be, learned the invaluable lesson of death from the Humans, and anything associated with it was henceforth called Ruin.

One by one, the Kingdoms fell, and the Humans destroyed the forests that once housed them. Then atop the ruins of the old kingdoms, they expanded their mud towers into stone spires, then ones of gold and silver, and any Faeries that had survived the purging fled to Briarwood, having been protected by Glamour, was the only safe sanctum from the new world of iron and salt.

With the news of the tyranny of Humans, Briarwood fell into despair and split. From the Faerie Court came the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court, one who opted to continue living in hiding, while the other wished curses upon the Humans and all who might suggest coexistence with them. With the Faerie King asleep, his children young and unfit to rule, and the Faerie Court in shambles, the Faeries continued to live false security, unaware of the horrors of Ruin that would soon creep up to them.

The Faerie King had two children, a younger son and an elder daughter, both as beautiful as a new day, and charmed any who might set eyes on them. The elder was the Briar Princess, Rosa, her resolve and determination decorating her unparalleled beauty like thorns wreathing a rose. The younger was the Thorn Prince, a child as gentle and kind as light spring showers, whose name was, in agreement, declared erased by the Faerie Courts for reasons that will be explained later.

Now, although Briarwood had been sheltered from the torment of humans, in the end, it could not stay safe from the threat of Ruin. Every so often, a Faerie child who strayed too close to the edges of the Glamour would be corrupted by Ruin, bearing sickly grey skin and a twisted mindset that could only be described as malevolent. The Thorn Prince was one of said children, kind and gentle as he might have once been, he, too, was corrupted by Ruin and became sheming, calculating and manipulative.

In secret, he learned how to harness the power of Ruin, how to drain the life out of living creatures and reanimate corpses to do his bidding. Every night, he would sneak out of Briarwood, past the Glamour, out of the forest, and into Human villages. He would take newborn children from their cots and replace them with Faerie children corrupted with Ruin, Changelings, as Humans came to call them. Then, with the Human children he had kidnapped, he would experiment with his dark power, playing with the dead like puppets on strings.

Soon, however, the Briar Princess came to know of his plans. She saw of his evil deeds and was horrified by the monstrosities he had caused, despite having never felt empathy for the Humans before. Her brother had become dangerous, and the once kind and gentle Thorn Prince no longer existed. With sadness in her heart, and the weight of the kingdom on her shoulders, she challenged the Thorn Prince to a duel. They fought long and hard, but eventually, the Princess prevailed. Yet at the moment of the finishing blow, the Thorn Prince cowardly jumped from the terrace instead of accepting his fate, and escaped to the outskirts of Briarwood, where the Ruin lay thick as low, creeping fog. There he hid away in his fortress of Ruin, a towering structure of decayed brambles and the naked frames of whatever mysterious contraption Humans had left before the Glamour.

The Briar Princess and her followers gave chase, but soon realised that they were no match for the heavy stink of Ruin, nor for the puppet monsters that lay in wait for them outside the fortress. So, in the name of the wise Faerie King Oberon and agreement of the Seelie and the Unseelie Courts, the Briar Princess cursed the Thorn Prince to never be able to enter any Briarwood town or city uninvited, and stripped him of his position as the Faerie Prince of Briarwood. No one would ever speak his name again, and from then onwards, he was to be known as The Decay, the enemy of Briarwood and all Faerie kind.

Then began the long conflict between Briarwood and The Decay. The Decay continued draining the life of Human children as fuel, sending his puppet corpses through the undergrowth and amongst the crowd, to stir up and weaken the foundations of the kingdom, and spread the Ruin through the supposed safe sanctuary. The Briar Princess would occasionally send the Wild Hunt, an elite band of Faerie huntsmen, to retrieve the children, in hopes of ridding The Decay of his fuel source. These children would soon after be known as the Champions of the Faeries, aiding their saviours in Briarwood to fight off The Decay, with faith that, one day, The Decay may be sealed, and all Faeries freed from the terror of Ruin.

Game Review - Briarwood Rebirth

Excerpt from blog post by Trixnoct, written 1st January, 20XX

Declared missing 3 years ago, certified dead 2 months after.

This blog post was written 2 years before Samuel Lopez disappeared. Records show that it was written not long after the account Trixnoct was created.

The part that I liked about the concept, was how the game developers tried to use an old idea and turn it into something new. It’s not the first time games have had fairytale settings, but Briarwood Rebirth takes the nitty grittiness of the old folklore and turns it into a fun, interesting game. The way they implemented the whole idea of fairy deterrents in superstition, iron and salt, was very interesting. Iron weapons deal the highest damage to fairy characters in the game, but if any class other than human tries to use it, they get their HP drained for every second it’s equipped. It’s not the best way to introduce an OP weapon, but it was certainly an effective way to grant value to a starter class with no specialty and the lowest max stats out of all the other classes. They tried to introduce this kind of idea to the other classes, but it was a shame that they ended up sticking to the classic RPG archetypes instead of going for something new. Kobolds are assassins, Trolls and Dwarves are two parts to the usual knight class, Brownies are paladins, Fae are bards, Briar Elves are mages, Pixies are rangers and Druids are medics.

The lore ties together surprisingly well too. Even during event quests, you can see the influence of The Decay on the story as a whole, even if he never appears personally in the event. Environments change when something big happens in story mode, and it feels like what you’re doing really has an impact on the NPCs. Well, they could probably get a bit more creative with the side quest stories though. It’s either The Decay being evil, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts squabbling, or Rosa wants something and you have to go get it for her. So far the main story mode is still unfinished, but Briarwood Rebirth’s got some decent writers, and I’m eager to see how it all progresses.

The one thing I don’t like, however, is the aging system. Whenever your level is increased, your character looks older by a year. At first it doesn’t seem too obvious, but when you watch your five year old character grow into a middle aged one, it’s a bit jarring. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a purpose to this mechanic, and even then, over half of the level 100 players just use the Glamour skill to change their character’s appearance so they don’t have to look like badass grandpas. It looks like a lot of work to put in such a… let’s say, unique feature, then have it be rendered pointless by a game mechanic that only exists because players were complaining.

In Defence of The Decay

Forum post by Hana4U, written 24th May, 20XX

Declared missing 4 months ago, police are still searching.

This forum post was written 3 years before Hannah Jenkins, an acclaimed fanartist for the game Briarwood Rebirth, disappeared. Records show that it was posted a few days after the End of Ruin update patch.

So, I know the game devs are trying really hard to antagonise The Decay and make him look bad, and yeah, the things he did behind the scenes in the story modes and event descriptions are pretty evil, but let’s be honest, he lives a pretty sad life. He was all the way at the top, and had a nice pretty face and plenty of authority, and then, because of this Ruin that the game devs will never actually explain, he just dropped. All the way to the bottom. And then instead of helping him get over the Ruin, his sister just? Disowns him? And kicks him out of the house? His dad doesn’t even bother waking up to solve all this? Don’t tell me the “wise king” can erect a massive magical barrier that keeps out everyone he doesn’t like, but can’t even stop his own son from getting infected by some weird disease. And now, we, as the Champions of Briarwood, have to go to his place and fuck him up because Rosa said so? I dunno about you, but that sounds like bullying to me.

Also, that bullshit about Faeries getting Ruin and suddenly becoming evil? I don’t buy it. People don’t just “become evil”. It doesn’t work that way. Try harder game devs.

Ode to Rosa

Poem by WindWalker, written 31st December, 20XX

An old friend of the game developer of Briarwood Rebirth, and ex writer for the game. This poem was written 2 weeks after he quit the dev team.

Last Online: 3 years ago

Oh Rosa

Lovely as spring flowers,

Bringing life to all around.

Your hair of gold like summer shines,

Your lips of cherry melodies,

Raise my heart and cure my blight,

I wish to hear you sing once more.

I will thee rest in mine arms,

Your glowing eyes shut tight.

Fear no more the Ruin and Decay,

Your Champion will do the rest.

Your tinkling voice, your determined gaze.

Your speech of childlike naivety

For all the world I will protect,

My sword loyal to your graceful countenance.

Yet now, sweet Rosa, we must part.

To the edges of the world I go.

On another day, in another realm

I pray we meet again.

Not as a Champion, but as your Hero.

Eat Shit

Forum Post by Bad_Luck, written 14th March, 20XX

One of the oldest players of Briarwood Rebirth, and has been active since the beta launch of the game. This forum post was written 5 minutes after Bad_Luck reached first on the PVP Arena leaderboard. Records show that he was able to keep that position for a day before he dropped down to 100th place.

Last Online: 30 minutes ago

@Bad_Karma, I know you don’t play this game anymore, but look at this. Inspect, survey, admire. Do you know what this is? It’s a big fat number 1. You keep saying that I play like shit compared to all the new players coming in but you know what? Fuck you. I know the Kobold class like the back of my hand, it’s just that finishing my equipment collection and interacting with Rosa is a good deal more interesting than trying to keep some stupid rank. I could have gotten to number one eons ago if I tried.

You’re paying my share of the rent this month, Johan, eat shit.