Crowbriar Dominion
Crowbriar Dominion
The Crowbriar Dominion is an elven border-kingdom rooted in Crowbriar Deep, a forest built for defense. It survives through strict control of movement, water, and information. The Dominion treats scarcity as a permanent condition, not a crisis. Its leaders believe that mercy without limits invites collapse. Outsiders often call the Dominion cold. Inside its borders, people call it stable.
Territory and Borders
Crowbriar Deep is shaped into layered thorn belts and controlled corridors. The Dominion maintains choke paths that are hard to find without a guide, and easy to kill within if you do. Clearings are used as trap zones, not farmland. Settlements are low to the ground, concealed by brush and thornworks, and built to be abandoned quickly if discovered.
The Dominion’s borders are not a line on a map. They are rings of terrain control: thorn barriers, false trails, and guarded “break points” where passage is allowed under supervision. These break points are designed to delay large groups and expose them to inspection.
Government and Law
The Dominion is a disciplined state built around service duty. Rule is enforced through a chain of authority rather than popular consent. Local leaders answer to higher border-command offices, and those offices answer to a central ruling body (often framed as a council or war-court).
Law is direct and severe. Most crimes are treated as threats to collective survival, especially:
water theft or water fraud
tampering with seals, cistern locks, or pump components
unauthorized travel near water sites
hiding sickness, plague signs, or “plague-touched” traits
sheltering raiders or smugglers
Justice favors proof, witness marks, and long probation records. The Dominion keeps detailed service ledgers that follow a person for life.
Water Control and Survival Systems
Crowbriar’s power comes from sealed wells and underground cistern vaults. Water sites are treated as sacred assets and military targets at the same time. The Dominion uses “thorn gates” to restrict approach to wells, often forcing travelers into single-file lanes with multiple inspection points.
Aquifer knowledge is compartmentalized. No single office holds full maps. Water distribution is measured, scheduled, and guarded. Ration breaches trigger immediate audits and public punishment. Plague-touched individuals are never allowed near water infrastructure. This is enforced without exception.
Food is secured through controlled hunting, limited orchard pockets, and small hidden grow-halls where possible. The Dominion avoids large open farms that can be burned or raided. In bad seasons, the Dominion reduces intake rather than expand exposure.
Economy and Trade
The Dominion prefers self-reliance, but it still trades. Trade is selective and political. Common exports include:
crafted hardwood goods taken from tightly regulated cuts
resins, thorns, and treated fibers used for ropes, bindings, and filters
rare forest medicines gathered under permit
Imports are focused on what the forest cannot safely produce in bulk:
salt and preserved staples
metal components, especially for locks, valves, and tools
medical supplies that stabilize famine and injury cycles
All trade is channeled through controlled exchange points and sealed under Dominion marks. Unauthorized merchants are treated as infiltrators, not civilians.
Military and Security Doctrine
Crowbriar is a border kingdom by design. Its military structure is built around patrol duty, ambush control, and denial of access. The Dominion fields:
border walkers who monitor thorn lines and false trails
choke-path squads trained for close-range fighting
well-guard cadres who never leave assigned water sites
internal auditors who investigate sabotage and bribery
The Dominion fights most often against raiding camps that move along old roads and ruin corridors. It favors attrition, pursuit, and controlled extermination over open battles. Captives are rare. Refugee groups are treated as security risks until proven otherwise.
Magic Policy
Magic is rare and treated as both weapon and liability. The Dominion allows magic only under oversight. Casters are categorized by stability and obedience. Unstable magic is expelled or contained. Magic suspected to be plague-linked is treated as contamination.
Approved uses of magic focus on:
concealment and boundary defense
warding of water sites
controlled reconnaissance
Unregistered casting near wells is treated as attempted sabotage. Even registered casters are watched. The Dominion does not romanticize magic. It treats it as a tool that can ruin a city if used carelessly.
Faith and Public Ritual
The Dominion recognizes the major faiths of Life, Death, and Fate, but does not allow temples to outrank the border state. Faith is permitted when it supports survival discipline.
Common patterns include:
Life rites tied to ration triage, childbirth control, and recovery houses
Death rites tied to strict corpse handling, clean burials, and anti-undead boundaries
Fate rites tied to service oaths, witness marks, and punishment legitimacy
Blessings are respected but never treated as permission to break protocol. Priests who challenge water law often disappear into reassignment or exile.
Foreign Relations
The Dominion keeps humans at distance. It cooperates only when threats are shared and terms are enforceable. It treats treaties as tools, not friendships.
Other elven realm: Relations are cautious. Crowbriar sees softer border policies as weakness.
Human kingdoms: Trade exists, but entry is tightly controlled. Human logging, road building, and refugee movement are primary sources of conflict.
Goblinoid camps and ruin-road raiders: постоян pressure. The Dominion treats them as a recurring border disease.
Orc warbands: treated as trespassers and hunted if they push into controlled corridors.
The Dominion rarely seeks expansion. It seeks denial: keep threats out, keep water safe, keep movement predictable.
Internal Tensions
Crowbriar stability has costs, and those costs produce internal stress:
Service duty creates exhaustion and quiet resentment.
Strict entry policies reduce new labor and skilled arrivals.
Water secrecy breeds corruption risks inside the auditing ranks.
Harsh plague rules can become political tools during faction disputes.
Long probation systems can trap families in permanent low status.
The Dominion’s greatest fear is not invasion. It is loss of discipline. Leaders treat dissent as a precursor to collapse, which can turn small disputes into severe purges.
Symbols, Titles, and Structure
Crowbriar authority is marked by thorn motifs and sealed ledger tags. Common identifiers include:
thorn-gate seals on travel permits and trade casks
service scars or ink marks recorded in ledgers
rank cords or pins made from treated briar and dark metal
Typical rank ladder:
Thorn Warden (water-site authority)
Path Marshal (choke-path and patrol commander)
Briar Auditor (ration, seal, and sabotage inspector)
Border Council / War-Court (top governance body)
Crowbriar endures because it assumes the worst and plans for it. It survives by making survival a duty, not a hope.