By James Walker

Straddling the conjunction of the Near Marches and the realms of Blandine & Beleth, Broceliande is the largest ethereal realm outside of the Far Marches. Humans dreaming of the Arthurian courts, chivalry or of a heroic protector are drawn here in their sleep, while angels battle to control it.

Broceliande is mostly forested, and divides neatly in two. Entering Broceliande from Blandine's March brings a traveler to a gentle realm of fairy tale castles and rolling hills known as Avalon; the realm is patrolled by knights and studded with villages, towers and monasteries. In the center of the realm (but never easily found) on the Isle of Manannan is Corbenic, the Grail Castle. Entering Broceliande from Beleth's March is less pleasant, drawing you into the dark and brooding Weald in which monsters and the Wild Hunt roam, where the only buildings are the grim fortresses of robber barons - and in the center, the gray battlements of Castle Perilous, which are reflected in the gloomy waters surrounding it. Adventurers may move between the realms voluntarily with a Will or Lucid dreaming roll; they may be moved against their will as if they were moving across the Vale. Some ancient heroes dwell in this realm with the ethereals who have formed from their legends; usually one of the pair will be found in each realm - when one crosses to the other aspect the other member of the pair must do so also. All but the most recent pairs are in mind to mind contact, or even perceive the two aspects of the realm simultaneously, allowing them to deal with whatever situation their 'twin' was in.

The more heroic Archangels have castles in Broceliande, usually to shield the Locus of a forked Tether. The mightiest of these is held by Uriel, and the other Exiles defer to him in this realm. The Exiles battle to help Arthur defend Camelot from the attacks of Iblis & Laurence, while Eli may be found wandering the realm as a tattered beggar, or as the bleeding king on the Throne in Castle Perilous. The Host is stronger in the Weald (where Beleth controls many Dolmens); in Avalon their main Castles are Spada, controlled by Laurence (the attached convent is controlled by Beth, who is fond of the local habit of chaining books to the shelves) and Skyda, held jointly by Iblis & Zadkiel.

The major reason to come to Broceliande (other than fighting the War) is to perform a Grail Quest. The nature and purpose of the quest is determined by the Castle that the Quester seeks. The journey to the Grail Castle is a quest for self-knowledge and understanding. Success will remove a point of dissonance from a Celestial or a level of Ethereal Discord from an Ethereal or human. If a questor begins the quest by going to sleep in a dead zone, he may seek to heal the Symphony itself! This quest is slightly different in that, if successful, he will find within the Grail Castle an aged and injured king, flanked by a blood-tipped spear and a cauldron; if the questor asks the purpose of the two treasures the king will immediately be healed and begin to explain the items to the questor. His words will not be consciously remembered, but the questor will wake to discover that the dead zone has been (at least partly) healed, and that he now possesses a level of Charisma (vs. opposite sex only) while within the dead zone. Asking the king any other question cause the quest to fail, and the questor is inflicted with a level of the same Discord the dead zone suffers. If the king was in fact Eli, then the questor will also awake with a level of Charisma + 1 towards all who seek to repair the Symphony, irrespective of their alignment in the War. Servitors of Creation and the Symphony will recognize why they feel drawn to the questor and will generally treat the questor as a hero.

[Suggested] Mechanics: A successful Grail Quest will reduce the disturbance in the dead zone by 10 points for each of the questers Forces is performed by an angel or ethereal; or by 10 times (total Forces squared) disturbance for a human. Although occasional rumors exist of faithful dogs or horses following their master into Corbenic and completing the quest which their master failed, this has never been confirmed, and no rules are included for such an event. Alternatively, fulfilling a Grail Quest will patch the Dead Zone with a Discord possessed by the Quester (if the quester has multiple Discords, they may chose which is used for the patch). Eli will never be on the throne if this is attempted.

<sidebar>

It is possible, although very unwise, to attempt a quest specifying Eli as the Fisher King. No one has every survived such a quest. On one occasion the quester's body was being guarded by another angel who possessed the ability to detect Discord - he watched in horror as the questor radiated thousands of levels of every known form of Discord, the amount increasing every second. When the questor died, a few minutes later, the guarding angel was no longer able to comprehend the amount of Discord warping his friend.

</sidebar>

A quest to Castle Perilous is a quest for power. The quest may be made in place of a the final ceremony for enchanting a talisman, or to bond an already exiting item. More often it is performed by humans aiming to acquire a 6th Force or as part of a Sorcerous Initiation. It can sometimes establish an Ethereal Connection, although this only seems to work for a human who had an Ethereal Connection in a previous incarnation, or has some other link to the Ethereal realm. Although completing the quest does not provide any of the Character points necessary, defeating the challenges on the way may well! While questing, the questor may move (or be moved!) between the aspects of Broceliande. This is not a problem; the two halves of the realm reflect each other sufficiently to continue the quest. Making it to the isle of Manannan draws the questor to the correct castle for his quest.

What is now Broceliande began as the lowest level of The Summer Country. While Saint Patrick was in Ireland, he met and converted an ethereal spirit named Oisen (the spirit had been formed by the tales of the hero Oisen, grandson of Finn.) who in thanks taught Patrick about Castle Perilous, and handed him the keys to the castle. As Castle Perilous became a stronghold of the new religion, the realm split into it's current two aspects, with Corbenic representing the Celtic beliefs that the new faith had decided to keep and Castle Perilous those that the Christians rejected. The growing Celtic church used Broceliande as a base, and as generations passed the realm filled with Christian dream-shades. Broceliande attracted the attention of the Exiles, who saw it as an excellent final resting-place for their Soldiers, out of the reach of the punishments Laurence would otherwise inflict on them for their 'treason'. When the Host learnt of the existence of Broceliande, they moved swiftly to destroy the Celtic Church, using the Norman invasion of England, and later (aided by Pope Adrian IV declaring that Ireland was to belong to the King of England permanently) of Ireland. This move backfired as the tales of King Arthur's court spread across Europe, increasing the flow of souls to the burgeoning realm and attracting Ethereal 'immigrants' who established Camelot. A raid by Heaven on the realm was beaten off, and revealed to the Host the true strength of the realm. Their final attempt to destroy the realm was with the Inquisition. Once the Host realized that Grail Quests could be used to patch the damage to the Symphony, they stopped trying to destroy the realm and now seek to gain control of it from the castles that Laurence and Iblis maintain. Broceliande continues to grow as Christian myth grows - the Narnian dream-realm has begun to fuse with Broceliande, as has Middle-Earth.

<side bar>

An Ethereal 'killed' in their own realm normally loses a Force in addition to gaining Discord -The Summer Country was created by the Celtic Pantheon to avoid this fate. The Summer Country is layered like an onion, each layer slightly more delightful than the last, and there seems to be an endless number of layers. 'Dying' in the Summer Country simply pushes the Dream-shades & native Ethereals who suffer ethereal death in this realm are flung into the next level of The Summer Country. They must remain there (unless killed and driven to the next level, of course) for a year and a day before they can return to the previous layer. They may only leave the Summer Country with either the permission of a Celtic god or via Broceliande. (Battles can rage across multiple layers of The Summer Country, as warriors slain in one level continue the battle in the next layer - the prevalence of the Berserk Discord encourages this).

Losing one layer from an infinite supply did not worry the Celtic gods in the slightest, and they occasionally visit their first kingdom. Further, any Ethereal or Dream-shade who 'dies' in Broceliande will reappear in The Summer Country, which creates almost as much angst for Christian dream-shades as turning up in Broceliande does to pagan ones.

</side bar>

There have been several 'King Arthur's' over the millennia, and each is represented somewhere in The Summer Country. The current King Arthur in Broceliande is (thanks to Mallory) Richard III. Previous 'King Athurs' - such as Artos, the Romano-Celtic Dux, and Finn, Warlord of the Fianna, rule deeper levels of the Summer Country.

Mundane items may be conjured into existence within Broceliande using either Will or the Lucid Dreaming skill. Doing so only takes one action of 'real' time, however the individual will feel that they have spent an amount of time creating the object equal to how long it would have taken them to create it in the Corporeal Realm. Such items grant no combat bonuses. Items inappropriate to Broceliande (e.g., Uzis) can be formed, however if the roll is failed the character takes Mind hits equal to the CD of the failed roll. Artifacts may be used as normal. Further, items granted by the Treasures may be enchanted, and usually are. Note that even a mundane human in Broceliande can have an Enchanted item; if they persuade someone else to collect the necessary materials they can complete the Enchantment with a Grail Quest.

Of the 13 treasures of the Summer Country, four remain within Broceliande: The Spear, The Sword, The Cup, and the Stone. These treasures infuse the entire realm with power, and grant abilities to those within the realm, according to ones' age and gender. These abilities do not operate outside Broceliande and/or the rest of the Summer Country. Normally ageless, genderless creatures, such as angels, have their age and gender defined for them when they enter Broceliande. Malakim are always considered male, Lilim are always considered female; Servitors of Children are always considered children. Players should decide the age and gender of their characters, but they should understand that their characters did not make the choice; Broceliande did.

Boys are granted the ability to summon a staff; girls a mirror. A boys' staff will not break, and most domesticated animals will avoid conflict with the boy while he wields it. As he ages the staff grows thicker and stronger, and is always his height. A girls' mirror shows tantalizing glimpses of her surroundings, distant (and not so distant!) place, and of people she knows. As she grows older, she gains more control over the mirror, until she can command it at will to show anyone to whom she has granted essence (this ability is lost when the target spends the essence, and requires the girl to be able to control her essence. Sneaky girls will grant essence to trees etc to allow them to spy on specific areas), spent more than six hours with during the last week, and the last place where she slept . The items change when the child hits puberty; a girls' mirror becomes increasingly concave until the mirror becomes a cup, while a boy gains the ability to turn his staff into a spear or other pole-arm.

When a boy transforms the staff into a weapon, it gains a Power equal to his Corporeal Forces, unless it is a lance in which case it additionally gains Power equal to his mounts' Corporeal Forces. Unfortunately, until he chooses to transform the weapon back into a staff [this process takes several minutes (although it may be transformed from staff to weapon instantly)] he also gains an equal number of levels of one or more of the following Discords/Disadvantages: Angry, Berserk, Murderous or Lustful . The sole exception is if he has the Hatred (Dishonor) Disadvantage/Discord: If so the weapon enhances the Hatred. Young men with Hatred (Dishonor) will be trained to be knights. When not a weapon, the mans' staff has the same abilities it did when he was a boy.

A woman's cup always has the abilities it had as a mirror (though, during puberty the concave images are easily misinterpreted). Far more importantly, whenever any adult agrees to undertake any task for her, she may offer them a sip from the cup (which is always full). Drinking from the cup grants the drinker a pool of essence equal to the woman's total Forces which may only be spent on the task to be performed. Additionally she may spend her own essence to assist any actions the drinker performs towards fulfilling the task (and note that she can observe them at will using the cup). Despite the usefulness of this ability, most women are fairly choosy about who they will grant it, as doing so also grants additional levels of the Seduction skill towards the woman equal to the number of times they are granted the right to drink from the cup. These levels are lost once used.

A final use of the cup is used even more rarely - poisoning. If a woman has been insulted while in Broceliande she may offer the insulter a poisoned chalice. (Threatening violence is always an insult, of course. If the woman wishes to kill someone for a reason other than an insult - say, politics - the targets' Savoir-Faire (Broceliande) Skill should be rolled, with a failure indicating that the target has unwittingly given sufficient offence to allow this ability to be used. Broceliande is a polite society - now you know why!) The target may make a Will roll to resist drinking from the cup; children automatically succeed and other women gain a bonus of +2. If unsuccessful the target will drink from the cup, even if they have to fight their way past other people to do so. The poison has a level equal to the woman's level in the Lucid Dreaming skill and a Speed equal to her level in the Focus Sorcery skill (even if she is not a sorceress). If she lacks the skill, treat the level as 1.

The gifts of Sword and Stone are only granted if the individual achieves a position of authority. A man who leads a force of ten or men into battle will gain the ability to form a short sword (Power +1) at will; larger armies grant more powerful swords - a force of a hundred soldiers grants a blade with a Power of +2, one thousand soldiers plus three, and so on to a maximum power of +6 for leading a force of one million. The ability is kept after the army has disbanded, and even once the warrior has retired; the blade will only be lost if his army mutinies (in which case the sword breaks). Additionally, if the man gains the title of Lord of a Castle or Dolmen, he may add the power of the sword to his Tactics and Detect Lies skills. A warriors' sword will sometimes be give to him directly by the spirits of Broceliande (e.g., The Lady of the Lake).

The Abbot of a monastery is granted a slightly different power. He is granted a crucifix with a level dependant on the number of monks who electing him abbot (although some churches insist that their Bishops have the right to appoint Abbots Broceliande will not grant power to the Abbot until he has been accepted by the monks). Although this is useless as a weapon (unless he has also lead a force into combat, in which case he will be granted a sword engraved with the prayer known as The Breastplate of St Patrick), it does grant increase the Abbot's ability with the Tactics & Detect Lies skills, and additionally grants Knowledge (Administration). The similarity of form between the swords and crucifixes granted to their leaders has been noted by the inhabitants of Broceliande.

The powers of the Stone are granted to any woman who gains the title of The Lady of the Keep; only one woman in any Castle/Convent/Dolmen may possess this title - generally (for a Convent) the Abbess, or for a Castle or Dolmen the mother, wife or eldest daughter of the Lord. The title is rarely contested, as doing so, or challenging the Lady's running of the Keep is considered insulting (and is usually fatal). Where there is no clear succession to the Title it may be granted by the Lord's recognition, general agreement, or if neither option is viable, the first woman to acquire a key to every lock in the Keep will be granted the Title directly by Broceliande.

The Lady of the Keep has a number of powers. Firstly, her key ring has a key for every lock within the Keep; whenever a new lock enters the Keep a new key will form. More importantly, her presence buttress the walls of the Keep, rendering them invulnerable to anything less than a celestial artifact, and the walls have addition Protection equal to her total Forces (this Protection is granted to both the walls themselves and to anyone using the walls as cover, whether complete or partial cover). Finally, each Keep has a central stone - possibly a foundation stone, a raised stone or even a stone seat. The location of the Stone is always commonly known. To claim the title of Lord, a man must publicly place his foot on the Stone and claim the title of Lord of the Keep. When he does so, the Lady will immediately be aware of this, (even if she is not in Broceliande) and may choose to accept or refuse the claim. If she refuses him, he is immediately struck dead by the power of the stone. In a Convent this power works somewhat differently; the floor of the entire establishment is a single stone and any man present who did not request the Abbess' permission before entering, or who has violated the rules of hospitality while present, can be struck dead at the will of the Abbess so long as he (or any of his possessions) is in contact with the floor.

Two Christian denominations struggle for mastery in Avalon - the Celtic Church (which is supported by the Protestant denominations in Broceliande) and the Church of Rome. Which group a monk belongs to can be determined by his tonsure - the Celtic monks shave the front of their heads and let the rest of their hair grow long. Other religions are present, of course. The Celtic pagans hold ceremonies in the forests, hoping for (or fearing!) the return of their gods. The Saracen knights hold a handful of Castles, under the watchful protection of Khalid, while the worshippers of Ba'al operate from Baal's Castles, and often campaign in the Weald or the next few layers of the Summer Country.

A Knight may choose to join a religious order. The Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights and the Knights of St Lazarus are all present (although the Templars have defected to protect the Celtic Church). The Spanish and other German orders have small establishments, but are not a major power in Broceliande. One order that is influential in Broceliande, although never being powerful in the Corporeal realm, is the Hospitallers of St Thomas of Canterbury. This order has become the guardian of the Anglican monasteries within Broceliande, and include several influential members, including C. S. Lewis, who now battles his old friend Tolkien (who has joined the Hospitallers).

What are they?

All are stone fortresses (referred to as Keeps), used as bases by their owners; comfortable and cheery in Avalon, cold and Spartan (although still secure) in the Weald.

A Castle exists primarily in Avalon; although those in the Castle can look out over (or venture into) the wastes of the Weald, the Castle cannot be entered from the Weald. Most Castles maintain guards and rescue parties so that if a traveler in the Weald needs help, they will be able to rescue the traveler and then struggle back to Avalon, before returning to the Castle. A Lady of the Keep can occasionally hold her Castle without assistance, most commonly if she is a Sorceress. If she does so the Castle is referred to as a Tower.

Dolmens exist primarily within the Weald, and are formed whenever an ancient Celtic burial site is desecrated. Originally the homes of pagan Dream-shades, they were abandoned when their owners moved deeper into the Summer Country and are now held by robbers, bandits or even barrow wights.

Although a ruin or circle of stones may be found in Avalon, the only way into or out of a Dolmen is from the Weald - digging in the ruin will move the digger into the Weald. The crime of plundering the graves of the dead has twisted the Dolmens, and all who dwell within them are afflicted with a level of the Greed Discord. Most Dolmens are held by robbers, who raid throughout Broceliande. Others are held by The Terror, who are inch by inch increasing their control over the Weald. Those in Dolmen cannot see into Avalon, but from the central rooms of the Dolmen the voices of anyone exploring the ruin in Avalon can be heard.

Monasteries and Convents are meeting points within Broceliande. Monks and nuns can move freely between Avalon and the Weald while within their establishment, while their Abbot or Abbess may also take other with them. They try to be as visible as possible within the Weald so as to be found by lost travelers. Most have a school, hospice or library attached; some have all three. They MUST have a well cared for, regularly used chapel; if the chapel is neglected the building will mutate into a Castle or Dolmen, depending on the cause of the neglect. If neglected because the inhabitants have become to wrapped up in their tasks, whether teaching, healing or writing books, a Castle will be formed. Laxity, or if the establishment is overrun by bandits, will result in a Dolmen. Bandits will occasionally attack a monastery or convent in the hope of creating a Dolmen they can use as a base; on rare occasions the bandits survive the experience.