The Garden Lands

Three beautiful areas of carefully tended wilderness in the midst of the Garden Lands. These were created by the Bodach, territorial bird-men who guard them fiercely and who once served the Burned Lord known as the Lord of the Gardens. Following the Breaking of the Third Garden, the Bodach become even more insular and protective, either honouring the Lord of Grey Roses or forever mourning the Lord of the Gardens. Two of the Gardens are as they once were, but one has become corrupted into…

The Broken Garden was once one of the Three Gardens created by the Bodach, before it was recently blighted by an unpleasant succession of Blood, Ash and Glass sorcery. Following the destruction of the Lord of the Gardens, many of the Bodach were stricken instantly insane. Now it is a terrible, broken wasteland of madness, reflections, and vitrification. Scholars tentatively suggest that the area is probably now sacred to the Broken Gardener.

After the arrival of the Necromancer in the Garden small patches of it were slowly becoming cultivated, after a fashion, although much of it still remains untamed. Towards the centre of the Garden one encounters a maze of red roses. It is still rumoured to filled with undead and statues of living glass, who tend to the roses, as well as all manner of other horror.

From the very heart of the maze rises a Great Oak, visible from anywhere in the Garden. This great tree, the product of a vast Blood ritual, is believed to be slowly restoring the natural order to the Garden, but it could be decades before the health of the land is fully restored.

The current state of The Broken Garden within The Hakardi Garden States is currently unknown.

• The entire Garden Lands have become a strict police state, now known as The Garden States under the eye of “The Prince” and his servants, The Hakardi, following growing ire towards the White City's lack of care and general laisez-faire attitude towards The Bodach. The state of The Broken Garden within this new regime is currently unknown. (An Unearthly Child, 04/12/2010)

• Lizardmen attack. It is horrible.

• Selena Curiana is slain within the Garden, her tower is burned, and a great oak tree rises in its place. (Operation Certain Death, 01/03/2008)

• The Necromancer at Three Rivers tries to kill Selena Curiana and commend the entire Garden to ash by sacrificing the Lord of Grey Roses within it. Adventurers stop him. (The Master And Selena, 16/06/2007)

• The Church of the Light and the Temple of Ash move paladins into the Broken Garden to fight the ash abominations. The former priest of the Lord of the Gardens, Porostock Talmer, is slain in the Broken Garden. (Tough On Glass, Tough On The Causes Of Glass campaign, Autumn 2006)

• Selena Curiana takes up residence in the Broken Garden. (No, Nay, Never, 13/05/2006)

• A team of Glass loyalists slay the Burned Lord aspect of the Lord of the Gardens and complete his transformation into a Vitriach. The Lord of the Garden's followers either go mad, embrace necromancy, abandon their faith, convert to the Lord of the Faithful, or kill themselves. Brynna Mortivelli is killed by beavers while trying to prevent this. (Broken Gardener campaign, Spring 2006)

• To help the Port of Glass invade the Garden, Selenda Curiana performs a ritual which pollutes the blood flowing through the Garden's undergrowth and ejects Bill. As a side-effect, the Garden is Broken (infested by the undead and Glass Magic creatures) and the Lord of the Gardens is sent into a fugue state between his Burned Lord personality and a new Vitriach personality. (Bill and the Bodach and the Broken Guard, 03/10/2005)

• To help the Bodach resist a Port of Glass invasion, Bill McKenzie performs a Blood Magic ritual that merges himself with one of the – then fairly normal – Three Gardens and brings the undergrowth to life. (Bill and the Bodach, 22/10/2005)