The Myst

The Myst are the hostile faction of The Forgelands: illagers who hold the deep woods beyond the settled districts and move, when they move, under banks of fog that do not always match the weather. They are the only faction the Archives document at a distance, which the Archives consider a reasonable editorial policy.

Observed Behavior

The Myst do not raid like common pillager patrols. They advance territory slowly — banners appear on a treeline, then watchposts, then nothing for weeks. Their fog precedes them and lingers after them, and standing instruction across The Forgelands is that fog moving against the wind is to be reported, not investigated. Lorne MacGruder's early sighting of Myst banners on the northern treeline, logged a full day before patrol confirmation, established the reporting protocol still in use.

Territory

Current Myst presence is confirmed in the deep woods north of the homestead plains and suspected in the unexplored forest south of the Spruce Logging Camp's cut line. The sounds Roric MacGruder reported from the lower caves of Scalloped Gulch remain unattributed; the Archives note, without conclusion, that the Myst are not known to dig.

The Tablet Problem

The fourth mark on the Tablet of Factions is a spiral of mist. The Tablet predates recorded history, which means the Myst — or something that used their mark — was party to whatever arrangement the Tablet records. When shown the Tablet at a distance, the Myst halted their northern advance for nine days. The Archives record this fact and decline, for now, to interpret it.

Field Notes

No member of the Myst has ever spoken to anyone from The Forgelands. The fog, several reports insist, sometimes does. These reports are filed, not endorsed.