Blackbarrow Hold and the Ghoulmarsh

“The dead are restless, and the living must not falter.”

Overview

On the southern fringe of the Jade Marches, where misted valleys sink into the Ghoulmarsh, stands Blackbarrow Hold — a Wardenship sworn to House Drachenwald. Built atop an ancient burial mound, the fortress watches daily as corpses claw free of the swamp and spectral lights flicker across stagnant waters. Its soldiers — criminals offered pardon, veterans too stubborn to die, and adventurers seeking one last purpose — are grimly known as the Wardens of Blackbarrow.

The Ghoulmarsh

A festering mire of green-black waters, twisted willows, and barrows half-swallowed by muck, the Ghoulmarsh is infamous for the dead that refuse to rest. Each night, skeletal forms rise from the sludge, ghouls prowl beneath the reeds, and eyes like lanterns peer from the mire. Travelers whisper that the marsh hungers — it remembers every death within it and demands more.

Theories of the Dead’s Stirring

No single cause is agreed upon, and each power has its suspicions — and agendas:

The Serpentkin of the Steppes
To the south, serpentkin warbands roam the Serpent’s Steppe. Some say they practice ancient rites that poison the land, their shamans binding souls with venom and shadow. The Dominion’s spies whisper of scaled necromancers weaving storms of bone.
The Ascendent Carrion
Devotees of Veythrak, the Carrion Lord, worship decay as sacred renewal. They see rot not as corruption but as divine cycle, opposing the healing light of Seraphyne and the strict order of Aurelion. It is whispered their priests bury fetishes in the marsh and chant hymns that quicken corpses.
The Sultanate of Zahara
Rivals of the Caliphate of Sahrim, the sultanate is rumored to seed chaos in the marches to harry their enemies. Some claim Zaharan warlocks unleash plagues and curses through the marsh, turning it into a festering wound to bleed into Sahrim’s borders.
The Curse of the Barrows
Oldest of all theories: that the Ghoulmarsh was cursed in the Second Age, when nameless kings raised armies from the graves and bound them with broken oaths. The barrows themselves are cracked with runes, half-swallowed by mud, and still glow faintly at night.

Blackbarrow Hold’s Role

The Hold is not just a fortress but a crucible. Its Wardens fight nightly skirmishes, burning corpses and breaking skeleton ranks, while peasants till guarded fields under the shadow of pikes. Recruitment is constant and desperate:

Crown Levies – Criminals and debtors are offered pardon if they take the oath of the Wardens.
Noble Retinues – Adventurers past their prime or unwanted heirs find exile here under House Drachenwald’s banner.
Foreign Volunteers – Coin and honor attract mercenaries from the Caliphate and even deserters from the Dominion.
True Believers – A few zealots see it as holy duty — whether to Seraphyne, Aurelion, or darker gods.

Political Knives-Edge

Blackbarrow Hold embodies Drachenwald austerity: olive-and-grey banners, pike walls bristling against the night, and bison-horn signals echoing across the marches. Yet politics bite deeper than ghouls:

House Drachenwald holds the line, but whispers persist that their “understandings” with Caliphate preachers and Dominion envoys may invite corruption.
House Halcrist, their overlords, exploit the Wardenship as both shield and pawn in their wider bid for the crown.
The Caliphate of Sahrim quietly aids the Hold, hoping stability weakens Zahara’s ploys.
The Iron Dominion lurks in the northeast, watching for cracks to widen.
The Magisters' Tribunal points to the Ghoulmarsh as a reason why necromancy is banned outright, and sometimes sends a magister to aid with the fortress seals.

The Barrow Walk:
Beneath Blackbarrow Hold lie the barrow-tunnels, where the restless dead claw upward from the Ghoulmarsh. Here the Wardens fight their most desperate battles, and here some choose the Barrow Walk — a final passage into the dark to face the undead hordes and die with honor. All who walk it do not return, for it is a death sentence to fight until they can fight no more.

The fate of the dying, the disgraced, and the damned: old or ill soldiers with nothing left but duty, traitors to from the watch seeking redemption, or criminals whose crimes cannot be pardoned. Once the gates open, all are equal. None return, but each earns a measure of respect, for every step of the Barrow Walk is paid in defiance of the endless dead.

In-World Flavor Quote

“The Ghoulmarsh doesn’t care why the dead rise. Serpent-kin, carrion priests, curses — it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the pikes hold when they come.”
— Warden-Captain Brisa Haldrek of Blackbarrow Hold