FableFerns - endlessm/threadbare GitHub Wiki

"Read it where it grows." -- A Threadling saying

FableFerns tell a new fable every day. Each morning a young frond begins to unfurl, and as it does, a fable is told along it, one leaflet at a time, until the moral opens at the very tip just as the sun goes down.

At a Glance


Core Thread	Memory, with Imagination
Found	The Mythical Meadows, and the edges of The Forgotten Forests
Known for	Telling a new fable every day

Appearance

A young FableFern begins as a fiddlehead, curled up tight as a rolled scroll. Its fronds are stitched in crewel-work green, and a patient reader can follow the story in the tiny embroidered scenes along each leaflet: the beginning at the base, the trouble in the middle, and the moral at the tip. By morning the frond has curled up again, and a new fable begins.

The Fables They Tell

The fables of the FableFerns come from every culture in Threadbare, and from every culture of Earth, which is fitting for a plant of the Mythical Meadows, where every folktale walks. As with all cultural material, contributors should research carefully and retell respectfully (see Content Guidelines).

Never Picked

Threadlings never pick a FableFern. A fable picked before it reaches its moral never finds one, so the ferns are read where they grow. When a FableFern goes to seed, its spores drift away on the breeze, and the old saying goes that each spore is a little moral, which settles on whoever needs it most.

FableFerns and the Void

Near the Void, a FableFern's fronds stop unfurling halfway, and its fables are left without endings. Telling the rest of the story aloud, beside the fern, is often enough to coax it open again.

Gameplay Notes

Lore fragments. FableFerns are a natural home for LoreQuest hints and fragments of lore.
Missing endings. A fern that will not open is a small puzzle: find or tell the missing ending.

Connections

The Mythical Meadows - where every folktale walks
The Forgotten Forests - at whose edges FableFerns also grow
Once - FirstSpun, Keeper of Memory
LoreQuests - the stories of Memory
The World of Threadbare - the lore, landscape and denizens of Threadbare