Rosereach
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| Rosereach | |
|---|---|
| also known as Rosereach County | |
| Kind | County and port city |
| Region / realm | Velfald |
| Ruler | Count Aric Rosemen (House Rosemen) |
| Power in play | Magnus Arcanum (Arcanum Tower) · Legion · Roseguard |
| Status | Destroyed by a modified Cloudkill ritual; the site is now Deadreach |
| GM canon | |
| first cited: [last-winter#862] | |
Rosereach was a port city and county on the coast of the Velfald Regency, ruled by House Rosemen and known for its rose gardens. [last-winter#300 · last-winter#862] It was destroyed during the Winter War, when Naevys Duskbloom cast a modified Cloudkill ritual over it; the site has been called Deadreach ever since. [heralds-a#47 · heralds-a#48 · heralds-a#51]
This page covers the city as it stood before the catastrophe. What stands on the site today is covered at Deadreach. [owner-form-2026-09-17]
Overview
Rosereach was a county, not a duchy. [last-winter#862] No Cardinal resided there, and the imperial presence amounted to a Legion Barracks and a Seer. [last-winter#862] The barony of Snakecross lay inside the county, and the land was known for its rose gardens. [last-winter#300] A barony called Snakepass is also placed administratively under the county. [heralds-b#53] The city itself stood on a peninsula. [last-winter#751]
Rosereach was the only major port in what later became the invaded region. [last-winter#663] It sat on the main trade road to the northern and eastern fronts and on the supply line feeding the Spring Elves' armies. [last-winter#663]
Rule and institutions
The county was held by House Rosemen at count rank, and Count Aric Rosemen governed from the city. [last-winter#323 · last-winter#375] The city had its own mage tower affiliated with the Magnus Arcanum, led by its own archmage. [heralds-b#43] Rosereach Castle and the elven Palewood Mansion both stood in the city, alongside the Legion Division of Rosereach. [last-winter#717 · last-winter#721 · last-winter#725] The War Council of Rosereach met here and directed the city's defence. [last-winter#753 · last-winter#755]
The city was built over a temple of the Flower Goddess. [heralds-a#125]
Defence in the Winter War
Rosereach was defended by the Velfald Regency, whose supply and reinforcement routes ran through it; the regency's war council met in the city. [heralds-b#5 · heralds-b#6] Walls were built and the city prepared for a possible siege. [last-winter#663] South of the city, the Winter Elf-controlled western front began a landing near a village that belonged to the county but lay outside the city's own bounds; the county's knights and the duchy's soldiers moved to stop it. [last-winter#663]
The coasts and cliffs were held by Moonward soldiers and the Legion against Winter Elf attempts to land. [last-winter#764 · last-winter#779] In those assaults the Winter Forces used no siege engines, monsters, magic or allied warbands — only arrows and soldiers who climbed the cliffs on ropes. [last-winter#779] When they used ships at all, it was to land on the shores rather than to strike the cliffs directly. [last-winter#779] The Legion was stationed in the city and commanded from here by Legion Lieutenant Cassius Dravenhall. [last-winter#800]
The Heralds of the Cycle defended the city. [heralds-b#27] The enemy did not strike it directly and the war continued around it, leaving the defenders feeling they were not engaged at the front; an assassin team infiltrated through the sewers instead. [heralds-b#27] An army once tried to force its way past the city while Elnaril watched; had the city fallen, more than Rosereach alone would have been lost. [heralds-a#121]
The ship and the catastrophe
A ship carrying unknown cargo arrived at Rosereach's harbour, and rats infested with that cargo came ashore with it; Naevys Duskbloom was running a protective project in the city when the arcane catastrophe struck. [heralds-a#17]
During the war, the Count was drawn away by a staged assassination attempt, followed by an evacuation and a massacre of the palace's household staff on suspicion that they were changelings; both the Count and the city's battle-archmage went missing. [heralds-b#43 · heralds-b#46 · heralds-b#49]
As the Winter Elves and Bella Worthmore's forces threatened the region, Naevys cast a modified Cloudkill ritual to stop their combined advance — in her own words, "I sacrificed a city to save a region." [heralds-a#117 · heralds-a#119] That ritual is the origin of both the Modified Cloudkill Spell and the Rose Rot that followed it. [heralds-a#117 · heralds-a#119] The ritual tore bodies apart; thousands died, and many victims did not remain whole. [heralds-a#74 · heralds-a#76]
Players, stop here. What is hidden behind this point is game-master material. The full detail is on GM:Rosereach.
What happened next
Rosereach became a dead but moving city. [heralds-a#48 · heralds-a#51] The Winter Elves, having lost their army there, withdrew from the plains around it and no longer enter it. [heralds-a#51] The ruin has been known as Deadreach ever since. [heralds-a#47] What remains of the city, its dead and its tower is covered at Deadreach. [owner-form-2026-09-17]
Unresolved questions
Needs a decision: Whether the barony of Snakepass is a second barony of the county or another spelling of Snakecross was never settled.[heralds-b#53 · last-winter#312]
Needs a decision: Whether "Inkveil," named alongside the war council in Rosereach, is a separate place or another name for part of the city was never settled.[last-winter#841]
Related pages
- Deadreach — what the city became after the ritual
- House Rosemen — the house that held the county at count rank
- Aric Rosemen — the Count who governed from the city and went missing during the war
- Roseguard — the guard order that protected the city
- Velfald — the regency that defended the county and whose war council met here
- Snakecross — the barony inside the county
- Magnus Arcanum — the order whose tower stood in the city
- Naevys Duskbloom — the archmage whose ritual destroyed the city
- Legion Division of Rosereach — the Legion formation stationed in the city
- Flower Goddess — the goddess whose temple lay beneath the city
Unconfirmed ideas
The source conversations contain proposals for Rosereach that the campaign owner never confirmed. They are collected on Idea:Rosereach so they cannot be mistaken for canon.