The Brink

A planar scar caused by careless wild mages (1)
Demons from the Abyss pour through the scar at unpredictable rates (1)
A constant war rages between the demons and the Militant Order of the Radiant Sword (1)

Demon war, eh? A secret battle for eternity!

Those that fight too long on the front lines develop a condition that locals call "staring into the abyss." (1) Even though all orders are hardened to the horrors of encroaching abyss, one part of their rigorous training (1), sometimes the abyss stares back into the warriors and campfire stories are told by veterans of warriors that have broken, some falling to the ground babble, some turning their swords on their allies, some turning their swords on themselves. (2) In the entire history of the Brink, only individual soldiers have ever broken, never a large group at the same time. (1) Those that have to put down a broken soldier never speak of it, a code of silence that is unwritten. (1)

The souls of Knights of the Radiant Sword who die in battle against the demons are bound to The Brink. Their souls fight on eternally against the demon hordes in this ravaged landscape. (1)

Some orders use an extreme form of hardening referred to as 'heartblight'. Persons so treated gain resistance to charms and mental effects at the cost of complete disconnect from any but the mildest emotions. (2c)

The 'heartblight' doesn't always go right (1) and sometimes ends in death (1). This is considered a calculated risk (1).

Some freepeoples live in and around the lands of the Brink (1). These barbarians are experts in survival and are often hire by the RS for tracking purposes (1).

The Circle of Wild Mages continues to operate at The Brink (1). Some among The Circle see The Brink's creation as a horrifying stain on their order's reputation and seek to redress the catastrophe the Circle has wrought (1). Others see it as an 'unforeseen result' that implies 'curious and intriguing possibilities' pending 'further research and refinement.' (1)

Area: The Grave Undying (1)

A wide plateau far over the edge of the Brink (1). The Ascendant Edge has been gathering there the bodies (1) and possibly souls (1) of great champions and fearsome demons who fall in battle. Scouts report distant bodies standing silent, dead white eyes staring up to the edge of the Brink (1).

The Brink is a tear in the fabric between the material plane and the Abyss (1). It is a direct pathway between the worlds (1). It is strengthened by the demonic sacrifices that have been ongoing for the past millennia on the Isla Mogila (1). Now that the demons are free of the ancient cycle, they will use the crack to breach the material plane. (1)

Recent theoretical arcane research, recovered by Radiant Sword operatives in a raid on a rogue Circle, shows the progress some wild mages have made researching ways to reverse the damage (1).

Their calculations and preliminary experiments (mostly trial & terror ...[that was a typo... but I think I'm going to leave it])...

- Primary tenet of Wild Magic research: "Trial & Terror" (1)

... suggest that with the correct placement of a Sphere of Annhilation into a Well, the Sphere's resonance could be propogated across the fabric of a rift (1). Theories of the practical outcomes and repeatability of such harmonization have yet to be empirically verified (1).

The wild mages are not as resistant to the temptations of the demonic forces as the RS. (1) This results in some of them being corrupted (1) and sabotaging the efforts of the others (1). At first, this corruption was hard to notice and serious setbacks were suffered (1) but now the sorcerers have rigged crystals to resonate when dark energies are near, giving the wild mages warning when one of their colleagues is infected by evil. (1)

The Undying Flagellant, a demon of the Brink

The circle originally chose the wastes of the Brink as the location for their most cutting edge experiments because it was so sparsely populated (1), home to little more than a small number of nomadic barbarian tribes and a fringe doomsday cult (1).

The enormous research facility that the Circle constructed there still stands (1).

The facility mostly stands, though parts of it are broken or missing and there are doors and corridors that lead to... other places (2). Attempts have been made recently to enter and document it by mercenary groups in the employ of WizCCET, ever on the lookout for new and lucrative marketing opportunities (2)(adventure hook!).

The courtyard of the facility was a menagerie of animals caught for and created by experimentation. Most of the cages now stand empty. The courtyard is a wildly overgrown maze.

Something strange has been happening . . . dreams and omens are being had across the Brink. Always the same vision. A broken soldier being cut down, a smile on her face, evil in her eyes. The blood splashes as the eyes look into the dreamer's. The blood splashes and they wake. Her name is but a whisper among those that have seen the vision but all remember High Canter Gwenyth, mother of Meredith.

The brink is populated by encounters with rift swine, risen reavers, and other such amalgams of the chaotic energies that drift through the Brink.

Should there be a specific level of the Infinite Abyss that the brink is tapping into or should it be multiple layers through multiple entry points or some sort of elevator effect where the brink is always fluxxing between different layers of the abyss?

I think we should pick like ~3 layers of the abyss that are being tapped by rifts in separate regions of the Brink. Then, those different regions could take on some of the aspects of the layer of the abyss that is bleeding through there, which would help to differentiate the landscape and create some different theming for quests/arcs that can take place in that region.

You know, I thought about this and I liked having like one or two specific layers and then open to interpretation of the playing dm