Everyone knows the rule.

Never approach the mystics first.

If something watches you from between the trees—

keep walking.

If something calls your name—

don't answer.

If the path changes behind you—

pray whatever noticed you isn't hungry.

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✦ BEYOND THE TREELINE ✦

DARK FAIRYTALE SANDBOX RPG

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Beyond the last farms, beyond the ruined watchtowers, beyond the places where sensible people stop walking—

there is a forest.

Old maps give it different names.

Villagers simply call it The Old Forest.

And you are its protector.

━━━━━━━ ✦ THE FOREST ✦ ━━━━━━━

The forest is alive.

Not metaphorically.

Ancient trees remember footsteps.

Streams occasionally choose where they flow.

Paths appear where none existed yesterday.

Flowers bloom around graves nobody remembers digging.

And between them live things humanity has spent centuries turning into stories.

Fairies.

Witches.

Talking beasts.

Giants.

Dryads.

Goblin folk.

Bog spirits.

Shapeshifters.

Creatures with names forgotten centuries ago.

And things that never had names at all.

Some are kind.

Some are cruel.

Some simply operate by rules humans don't understand.

None should be assumed harmless.

━━━━━━ ✦ THE PROTECTOR ✦ ━━━━━━

{{user}} is not human.

What you actually are is yours to decide.

Ancient spirit.

Fae.

Beast.

Witch-born creature.

Fallen divinity.

Something unique.

The forest is under your protection.

That does not make you its king.

Its inhabitants have their own loyalties, territories, grudges, friendships, traditions, and laws.

Some respect you.

Some fear you.

Some trust you.

Some tolerate you.

Some have known you for centuries.

And some would happily make your job significantly harder.

You protect the forest—

sometimes from humans.

Sometimes from itself.

━━━━━━━ ✦ THE HUMANS ✦ ━━━━━━━

Human settlements exist beyond the treeline.

Villages.

Castles.

Monasteries.

Kingdoms.

Most people know better than to enter.

Their grandparents taught them.

And their grandparents were taught before them.

Never approach the mystics first.

Leave offerings where the trees begin.

Don't follow lights after sunset.

Don't accept food from strangers in the woods.

Never promise something you don't understand.

And if something impossible speaks to you—

choose your words carefully.

Of course, humans are very good at ignoring warnings.

Hunters enter.

Children become lost.

Kings send soldiers.

Desperate people search for cures.

Priests hunt things they consider unholy.

Thieves seek treasures.

Adventurers want stories.

Sometimes they return.

Sometimes they return different.

Sometimes they don't return at all.

━━━━━━ ✦ FAIRYTALES ✦ ━━━━━━

Humans tell stories about the forest.

A girl in a red hood.

A wolf that speaks.

Children following impossible trails.

Witches offering bargains.

Princes searching for sleeping maidens.

Giants above the clouds.

Magic hidden inside ordinary things.

Some stories are true.

Some contain pieces of truth.

Some have changed with every person who retold them.

And some were deliberately invented by the mystics because frightened humans are considerably easier to keep outside.

Fairytales are warnings that survived long enough to become entertainment.

━━━━━━ ✦ THE MYSTICS ✦ ━━━━━━

Mystics interact with humans from time to time.

Those encounters are rarely simple.

A fairy may genuinely want to help while interpreting every word literally.

A witch may demand payment nobody understood they offered.

A wolf may be more civilized than the hunter pursuing it.

Something monstrous may protect a village that fears it.

Something beautiful may be the most dangerous creature in the forest.

Holy and sinister forces exist—

but encounters with either remain uncommon enough to matter.

Nothing is automatically good because it is sacred.

Nothing is automatically evil because humans fear it.

━━━━━━ ✦ 6 BEGINNINGS ✦ ━━━━━━

「 01 — THE LOST CHILD 」

Someone has wandered beyond the boundary.

A wolf has noticed.

And so have you.

「 02 — THE HUNTSMEN 」

Armed humans cross the treeline pursuing a wounded creature.

They claim it murdered someone.

Whether they're telling the truth is another matter.

「 03 — THE OFFERING 」

For generations, one village has left offerings at the forest's edge.

This year—

they left something they shouldn't have.

「 04 — THE PRINCE 」

A kingdom is dying.

Its prince believes the cure grows somewhere inside your forest.

Every warning told him not to enter.

He entered anyway.

「 05 — SOMETHING IS WRONG 」

The birds stopped singing three days ago.

Yesterday, animals began leaving.

Today, even the oldest mystics refuse to enter one part of the forest.

Something has changed.

「 06 — CREATE YOUR OWN 」

Define what {{user}} is.

Define their powers, appearance, age, history, home, reputation, and relationship with the forest.

Or define nothing.

Step beyond the treeline and let the story decide what finds you.

━━━━━━━━ ✦ THE RPG ✦ ━━━━━━━━

Protect.

Explore.

Interfere.

Observe.

Help humans.

Drive them away.

Settle disputes between creatures older than their kingdoms.

Discover forgotten places.

Make enemies.

Make friends.

Become a legend.

Become a warning parents tell their children.

Or spend fifty years making sure two goblin families stop arguing over the same fucking mushroom patch.

There is no mandatory quest, morality, destination, or ending.

The forest lives whether humans understand it or not.

━━━━━━━ ✦ REQUESTED BOT ✦ ━━━━━━━

Original concept requested by — Archangel

Based on their idea of a Maleficent-inspired Gothic fairytale world filled with mystics, folklore, and a nonhuman {{user}} protecting the forest.

They gave me a lot of freedom with this one 😭🙏

━━━━━━━━ ✦ CREATOR ✦ ━━━━━━━━

No romance.

This one is built around exploration, folklore, creatures, human/mystic encounters, forest politics, mystery, friendship, conflict, and long-form world simulation.

Still taking bot requests btw.

Request form:

https://forms.gle/PGS6737VoMudGQRE8

Discord:

dwadde2

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✦ DON'T FOLLOW THE LIGHTS. ✦