Lore: Kernath – Under the Ashes of the Flame

Long ago, the valley of Kernath was nothing but a mining outpost at the edge of the Erenwald Kingdom. The soil was rich with red ore, the kind kings build empires on. When the mines dried up, the crown sent monks of the Order of Saint Ochr to bring order, faith, and discipline to the restless workers.

They built a monastery on the hill, calling it the Abbey of Saint Kernath. Officially, they prayed and copied holy scripts. In secret, they followed a royal command: to forge a way to make men stronger, tireless, unbreakable. The monks turned to alchemy — a forbidden art in the eyes of the Church — and began their work on what they called the Golden Blood.

The blood was said to grant immense strength and resilience, but it came at a cost. Those who drank it lost themselves piece by piece. Madness spread through the abbey’s halls like wildfire.

Fifty years ago, the Church sent inquisitors to seize the research. The monks refused. What followed was chaos — fire, screams, and a blast that shattered the valley. The abbey burned, the records vanished, and the Church declared it a “divine punishment for sin.”

Since then, Kernath has been struck from all official maps.

Yet the stories remain.

Some say the alchemists survived. Others claim the Golden Blood still seeps through the soil beneath the ruins, keeping the land cursed and alive. The king’s agents search the area quietly, hunting for what’s left of the formula — a weapon he believes could turn the tide of a coming war.

Now, only a handful of settlers live near the ruins: a drunken former monk, a sharp-tongued healer, a few deserters turned mercenaries. They all say they came here by chance, but everyone knows that’s a lie. A small circle of locals guards the old secret, pretending they know nothing.

And then you arrive — carrying a letter written in your own hand, though you don’t remember writing it.

> “The Golden Blood is not a treasure. It’s a debt you were born to repay.”

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Faith and Fire

The Church of the Flame still rules Erenwald. Its priests believe that only fire can cleanse corruption. They despise alchemy, blood rituals, and anything that bends the laws of nature. Their symbol — an iron cross with a coal inside — burns red whenever someone swears falsely upon it.

Before the Church came, people here prayed to the Three Mothers — Zora, Myrha, and Erda — ancient spirits of birth, decay, and death. Those old ways never truly died. In Kernath, some still whisper the Mothers’ names before sleep, or hang small bone charms in their windows to keep “the hungry ones” from coming.

The monks of Saint Ochr once stood between both beliefs. They preached that “God’s power flows in blood, not in prayer.”

The Church branded them heretics after the explosion. Their writings were destroyed — or so it’s said.

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Present Day

The valley is quiet now.

The abbey’s ruins still stand by the river, half-buried in moss and ash. The bridge creaks, the forest grows too fast, and the river sometimes flows against the wind.

The Church sends penitents here for “cleansing.” The king sends spies to dig for gold that isn’t gold.

And a few stubborn souls — people who have nowhere else to go — simply try to live, pretending not to hear the whispers that rise from beneath the old stones.

Some nights, light flickers among the ruins.

Some say it’s ghost

s.

Others say the alchemists’ work never ended.