imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

2026-09-18T10:36:21Z

imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:36, 18 September 2026
(No difference)

imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

2026-09-18T10:06:26Z

imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:06, 18 September 2026
(No difference)

imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

2026-09-18T06:44:11Z

imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

New page

{{Infobox organization|name=Heralds of the Cycle|kind=Independent adventuring party|goal=Defending the weak and the common people|seat=None; the party moves with the war|status=Active|enemies=[[Winter Elves]], [[Blackice]]|tier=gm|src=heralds-b#1}}

The '''Heralds of the Cycle''' are an independent party dedicated to defending the weak and the common people. {{Src|heralds-b#1}}
They give their name to the sub-campaign run inside the campaign project ''[[Aenarch: Last Winter]]'', and this page is that sub-campaign's main page. {{Src|heralds-b#1}}

== Overview ==
The party formed amid the Winter War, in which the [[Winter Elves]] have been conquering the other elven domains, and it has taken up the fight against that invasion. {{Src|heralds-b#3}}

== The campaign ==
''Heralds of the Cycle'' is the sub-campaign played inside ''[[Aenarch: Last Winter]]'', which is the wider campaign project and the frame the party's story is run in. {{Src|heralds-b#1}}
The war that frame is built on is the [[The Winter War|Winter War]]: the Winter Elves' campaign of conquest against the other elven domains, fought on the ground of the [[Velfald Regency]] by [[House Ursa]] out of [[Oavenia]]. {{Src|heralds-b#3|last-winter#643}}
Where ''Last Winter'' follows the collapse of a Regency, this sub-campaign follows what that collapse does to ordinary people: the party rises not as generals or kings, but as defenders of the weak and of the common folk against the invasion. {{Src|heralds-b#3}}
The record of play itself is kept at [[Campaign Log]]; the events of the war in order are at [[Timeline of Aenarch]]. {{Src|heralds-a#5|heralds-b#27}}

== The Cycle and the name ==
The party is named for [[The Cycle]], the divine or cosmic principle of death and rebirth tied to nature and to the balance of the world. {{Src|heralds-b#1|heralds-b#4}}
The same principle gives the arc its title, and it is the concept the party is held to stand for against the Winter Elves' war. {{Src|heralds-b#1|heralds-b#3}}
Within the world, the Cycle is also a contested religious claim: [[Kardinal|Kardinal Severan Malvayn]], the Legion's spiritual commander in [[Timbermire]], holds that it is divine truth hidden by the Aenarch Church, and reads the curse of Timbermire as its first awakening. {{Src|heralds-b#8}}

{{Unresolved|What "Heralds" means in the party's name — whether the members are held to announce the Cycle's return, to resist it, or only to be named after it. The sources tie the name to the Cycle but never define the word.|heralds-b#1|heralds-b#4}}

=== Themes ===
''Editorial note. The lines below are the theme and tone notes the opening conversation of this arc records for the campaign, not in-world facts. They describe what the campaign is about at the table.''
* The conversation that opens the arc sets its themes as rebirth and decay, divine cycles of life, death and the seasons, forgotten prophecies, and ancient powers awakening. {{Src|heralds-b#2}}
* Its tone is given as grim fantasy but mystical — a world on the edge of transformation rather than of simple ruin — with play turning on prophecy, corruption, divine omens and ritual choice. {{Src|heralds-b#2}}
* Alongside those, the campaign's own framing names the cost of war, a faltering Cycle, moral conflict and sacrifice as what the party is made to carry. {{Src|heralds-b#4}}

== The party ==
The Heralds of the Cycle are made up of four player characters and one character run by the game master. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17}}
The table below is game information rather than lore: it records who plays each character, and the class each one is built on under the campaign's system, [[Mechanic:System|D&D 5e (2014)]]. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17}}

{| class="wikitable"
! Character !! Player !! Class !! Status
|-
| [[Lucerion]] || Tolunay || Ex-Paladin || Alive
|-
| [[Elnaril]] || Cankut || Ranger (Hunter) || Alive
|-
| [[Nycoris]] || Alp || Fighter (Scofflaw) || Alive
|-
| [[Scuto]] || Yalçın || Monk (Way of the Long Death) || Alive
|-
| [[Mila]] || ''NPC'' || Sorcerer (Wild Magic) || Alive
|}

[[Mila]] is not a player character; she is run by the game master. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17}}
The transcripts call [[Nycoris]] "Nico"; they are the same person. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17}}

=== Who the members are ===
* [[Lucerion]] — a dragonborn who was a paladin of the [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Aziz|Aziz]] until his divine bond was severed at Deadreach, and who answers to the High Priest as well as to the party. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-b#453}}
* [[Elnaril]] — the elf field leader of the party, called '''Broodkiller''' by the goblins for the killing done in the hunt for [[Grizzleflame]]. {{Src|heralds-b#27|heralds-a#13}}
* [[Nycoris]] — the party's fighter, whose own demon is the thread that sets the group's course after Deadreach. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-a#149}}
* [[Scuto]] — the monk who chose the power of death over the power of life, which opened him to the visions of the Rakshasa [[Breath Reaper|Virsakha]]. {{Src|heralds-b#19|heralds-b#27}}
* [[Mila]] — the party's wild-magic sorcerer, run by the game master, who died at Deadreach and was brought back by the Golden Flower. {{Src|heralds-a#107|heralds-a#144}}

== Adversaries and lines ==
The party's story runs along several lines, each with its own opposing power.

=== The Winter Elves ===
The [[Winter Elves]] are the war the campaign is set in: an elven people conquering the other elven domains for power, whose invasion of the [[Velfald Regency]] is led by [[House Ursa]]. {{Src|heralds-b#3|last-winter#643}}
They avoid open battle where they can, fighting instead by raiding, propaganda and the deliberate collapse of their enemies' legitimacy. {{Src|heralds-a#3|heralds-a#6}}

=== Blackice, at Iceverf ===
[[Blackice]] is the secret organization that guards [[Iceverf]]'s ancient history from the Empire and works the city from its sewers and cellars. {{Src|last-winter#134|last-winter#141}}
Its hidden architect is [[Godwin White|Godwin "Pale" White]], and beneath him the organization runs in three arms: the City Hand under [[Crowcoin]], the Deep Hand under [[Vaelis]], and the White Veil under [[Aurelian White|Aurelian]]. {{Src|heralds-b#396|heralds-b#398}}
The party broke bandits acting in Blackice's name outside the walls, raided the organization's abandoned inn, and found there the concealed door onto a man-made tunnel running to [[Old Iceverf]], where Pale's phylactery lies. {{Src|heralds-b#361|heralds-b#444}}
Blackice was purged in the end, and Pale withdrew into silence so as to be forgotten, waiting for the Winter Elves to win and to take losses in winning. {{Src|heralds-a#5}}

=== Draven ===
[[Draven]] is the grey elf who founded and leads the guild [[Dark Crescent]] out of [[Moonward]] while searching for the dark power he lost. {{Src|last-winter#382}}
[[Kaelen]] pursued him to the portal he had opened to the Shadow realm from the forbidden section beneath [[Graymond Library]], took Draven's right arm, and was left stranded when Draven escaped — which is how Kaelen's rescue became the first mission the players chose. {{Src|heralds-b#255|heralds-b#263}}
After the Shadow Rescue succeeded, Kaelen was back in Moonward, where Draven was also present and a coup was being prepared; [[Dark Crescent]] had by then become known as Moonless Night. {{Src|heralds-a#5}}

=== The Deadreach line ===
[[Deadreach]] is what became of the port county of [[Rosereach]] after [[Naevys Duskbloom]]'s modified ''cloudkill'' ritual killed the invading army and raised its dead beyond her control. {{Src|heralds-a#51}}
The party closed that line by killing the [[Reminder]], after which the Remains network collapsed, [[Elnaril]] released a high-realm cold over the city, and the survivors were evacuated by ship. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-a#149}}
Naevys herself survived and turned on the party at the end of that arc, which leaves her an adversary rather than a closed account. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-a#149}}

=== The Snakecross line ===
[[Snakecross]] is the barony of rose gardens and volcanic mountains that faced an undead threat while its baroness, [[Bella Worthmore]], gave up on it and prepared to cross into her own realm with the god-splinter. {{Src|heralds-a#5|last-winter#300}}
The party went with the [[Snowshield Count]] into the artificial tunnel north of Snakecross, reached the burial ground, found Legion remains and a cleric's notes, and fought there the being called a splinter of a god. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}

== What has happened so far ==
''A short summary. The full record, with its own editorial note on how the entries are ordered, is at [[Campaign Log]].''
* The party held [[Rosereach]] while an assassination team, sent over the death of a member of the Ursa family, locked onto [[Elnaril]] on the wall and waited in the sewers. {{Src|heralds-b#27|heralds-b#34}}
* It staged a false assassination attempt to get the Count out of danger; [[Naevys Duskbloom]] used that pretext to evacuate him, the palace servants were killed on suspicion of being changelings, and Naevys was granted the title of Arcane Protector of Rosereach. {{Src|heralds-b#43|heralds-b#49}}
* At [[Hollowbridge]] the party came into the middle of a gnoll ambush on the [[Snowshield Count]]'s camp and intervened. {{Src|heralds-b#67|heralds-b#71}}
* The players chose [[Kaelen]]'s rescue as their first mission, and the Shadow Rescue succeeded: Kaelen was brought out of the [[Shadow Annex]] to [[Moonward]]. {{Src|heralds-b#263|heralds-a#5}}
* At [[Iceverf]] the party worked against [[Blackice]] — beating its bandits outside the walls, questioning its agents, and finding the tunnel from the abandoned inn to [[Old Iceverf]] — and the organization was purged. {{Src|heralds-b#361|heralds-b#444|heralds-a#5}}
* North of [[Snakecross]] the party took the artificial tunnel to the burial ground and fought the being called a splinter of a god. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}
* Beyond [[Scuto's Village|Scuto's village]] the party found the floating glacial fragment connected to [[Kelruun]], where [[Mila]] had a vision, and fought a six-armed creature that fled and was destroyed in its own realm. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}
* At [[Deadreach]] the party reached the [[Flower Vault|Flower Goddess temple]] beneath the dead city and killed the [[Reminder]]; Naevys's people attacked as that fight ended. {{Src|heralds-a#138|heralds-a#146}}
* The arc cost the party dearly: [[Mila]] died and was returned by the Golden Flower, [[Lucerion]] lost his divine bond and is no longer a paladin, [[Elnaril]] loosed the cold that left Deadreach a frozen quarantine wound, and [[Scuto]] lost one of his souls. {{Src|heralds-a#144|heralds-a#146}}
* The survivors were evacuated and settled near Heartpoint, the High Priest took [[Lucerion]] off the city assignment, and the party set out for the place connected to [[Nycoris]]'s demon. {{Src|heralds-a#149|heralds-b#453|heralds-a#146}}

== Where the party stands ==
The party has investigated the unrest around [[Snakecross]] and its tunnels, which it has tied to the secret society [[Blackice]]. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}
At the end of one such tunnel, the party fought a being described as "a splinter of a god". {{Src|heralds-b#446}}
After the Iceverf work the game master expects the party not to press that affair further, leaving the local [[Magnus Arcanum]] and the priests of the faith to hold the line against Pale and to keep the prisoners in custody so that Blackice cannot rise again. {{Src|heralds-b#453}}
The party's next steps regarding the [[Iceverf]] affair are not yet settled. {{Spoiler|GM:Heralds of the Cycle}}

== Related pages ==
* [[Aenarch: Last Winter]] — the campaign project this sub-campaign is run inside
* [[The Winter War|Winter War]] — the war the campaign is set in
* [[Campaign Log]] — the running record of play, session by session
* [[The Cycle]] — the cosmic concept the party is named for
* [[Winter Elves]] — the invading power the Heralds resist
* [[House Ursa]] — the house leading the invasion
* [[Snakecross]] — site of the tunnels at the center of the party's investigation
* [[Blackice]] — the secret society tied to the unrest the party uncovered there
* [[Iceverf]] — the city whose Blackice-linked unrest concerns the party
* [[Deadreach]] — the dead city whose arc the party closed
* [[Draven]] — the grey elf whose escape stranded [[Kaelen]] in the Shadow realm
* [[Naevys Duskbloom]] — the Arcanum officer whose ritual made Deadreach
* [[Magnus Arcanum]] — regional arcane authority active in the Iceverf area
* [[Timeline of Aenarch]] — the events of the war in order

== Unconfirmed ideas ==
''The source conversations contain proposals for Heralds of the Cycle that the campaign owner never confirmed. They are collected on [[:Idea:Heralds of the Cycle|Idea:Heralds of the Cycle]] so they cannot be mistaken for canon.''

[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Heralds of the Cycle]]
[[Category:Aenarch: Last Winter]]

Heralds of the Cycle - Revision history

imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)

imported>LoreBot: imported from campaign transcripts (pages/heralds-of-the-cycle.wiki)