Hazel Ozzo Free | Mother Begonia's mom farms goats for a living, and is a great baker. She sells goats for meat sometimes, but most of her trade income is from dense goat cheese pies, which are popular with travelers because they are filling and tasty for an extraordinarily long time. She's worked very hard for Begonia's whole life, but has an absurd silly side, and always encourages Begonia to try new things and explore. Hazel doesn't like to talk to Begonia about her love life or finding another husband, but she's young enough to have more children if she wanted. According to Begonia's grandmother, Hazel met Begonia's father on a grand and dangerous adventure.
Wisteria Ozzo | Grandmother Hazel's silly side comes from her mother Wisteria. Fond of making up stories, games, tricks, surprises, and testing her husband's patience, she made Begonia's childhood fun. Around strangers, Wisteria plays up the fact that she's a sweet old woman - which is a true fact, but hides her fondness for chaos. As a weaver, she spins tales while she spins thread.
Gauro Ozzo | Grandfather Gauro is an old soldier who plays crankier than he really is. He fought in Empirial campaigns against the eastern orc Tribes in his youth with his brother. He likes hunting, and became an expert at woodworking after leaving the military. He's known for making elaborate knife hilts.
Barberry Boxwood | Best friend Barberry is a thirteen year old half-elven boy with blonde hair and a bad haircut. Sweet, but not clever. He was raised very much a country farming boy, but he doesn't like working on the family orchard. His mother Pia is a little proper and tidy for the farm life, but has managed to raise her son alone, with a little seasonal hired help with the farm work.
Balthazar Free | Father From tales Begonia has heard Balthazar Free was an explorer and historian. Wisteria called him smart, arrogant, handsome and always bored. Ten years ago, he left with his traveling partners and didn't return. Two years later, Hazel told Begonia that Balthazar died by getting dragged into the War of Shields against his will.
Harvey | Goat The best goat. Harbors a secret dark past.
Places Begonia knows
Toadlily | A farming community in eastern Whetstone Near the border with New Moon are large ranges of farmlands collectively called Toadlily, Begonia's current home. Toadlily has a sparse social and business association, called the Toadlily Township Traders, which are really just the fifteen families that live in the widespread area. Toadlily isn't even really a village: gatherings are held at different families' farms, the mayor and sheriff are unpaid ceremonial positions without a building, and there are no stores, restaurants, or businesses to speak of, just whatever business each farm welcomes at its gates. The Toadlily Traders sometimes caravan together to the outside world to sell their goods, and often cooperate with each other to raise their families and make life comfortable. The northern part of Toadlily is in the Dragonhorn forest.
Selene | Birthplace A farming village in New Moon. The town includes a friend of Begonia's family who builds homes, and a farming store that is simultaneously a Temple to Jerrith, the many-limbed god of work and metal.
Whetstone Bridge | Travelers' Hub Once per season, Begonia's family usually travels to the Whetstone Bridge to sell their wares during the festivals marking the start of each season. This trip back and forth takes about a week, including about three days of sales on the bridge, and four total days of travel. Begonia usually just has fun at the festival while there, which is a small faire with entertainers, food and games. Begonia is familiar that the proprietor of the Plum Root, the famous Inn of Whetstone Bridge, is run in part using magical music. Behind the Inn is campground welcome for visitors not staying in the Inn proper, so long as campers are customers at the tavern on occasion. Across the road about a hundred meters from the Inn is a popular gathering point called the Wedding Tree.
Dragonhorn Forest | North of Toadlily Begonia knows that the Forest is dangerous, but safer if you wade the streams because the poisonous gold lizards within are blind but have a good sense of smell and taste in the air, and the spiders in the canopy above don't tend to stay over running water. There was also once a druid circle in the forest druids used to cleanse disease, that you have some idea where it might be.
Green Canopy | inside Maidenhair jungle Begonia has never visited, but has heard of the town known as Green Canopy as the most beautiful in Whetstone. The area is verdant, humid and lush, surrounded completely by an enchanted jungle called Maidenhair. Begonia has heard of wealthy people either having a home there, or visiting the jungle on vacation.
Things & Factions Begonia knows
Orcs | basically the worst Orcs are big, horrible seven-foot green monsters that raid villages and leave them plundered and burning. Some fifty years ago, the Empire crushed the threat of orcs to almost nothing. Begonia has never seen an orc, but has seen a half orc when visiting Whetstone Bridge. He was scary but he didn't do anything bad.
Elves | sketchy and snobby A race of pointy-eared skinny people who don't smile much and live a long time. Begonia's father supposedly dealt with elves a lot in his relic-hunting days. Her best friend Barberry had an elf dad, but Barberry never met him. There are a lot of elven traders, but Begonia's never heard of an elven farmer.
Halflings and Gnomes | kind of the same thing Races of short humans, pretty much. She's learned that the short humans in Toadlily are all halflings, and the grumpy loud ones that seem to do nothing but argue in towns are gnomes. The funny loud ones that sing and dance during meals are halflings. And gnomes tend to have bigger heads and ears.
Dwarves | an extinct race When adults talk about Dwarves, they tend to talk more softly. It was some kind of tragedy where monsters took over the Dwarven homelands inside a mountain hundreds of years ago. It's been explained to you that Dwarves from all over the world returned to their home to help but they were killed too. Something like that. Also, Dwarves couldn't have kids with any other race so there are no half-Dwarves. It wouldn't make total sense to Begonia how they could all be dead.
The Ashes | aka the Grey Trees The Ashes are a mysterious tribe of nomadic people with a reputation that is the stuff of scary stories told around a campfire. They are sometimes seen from a distance in the woodline of a forest, watching civilized folk with their yellow eyes, waiting for their chance to steal livestock, kidnap children, or worse. They are human-sized, usually naked or wearing hide or fur, with light-grey skin. Six years ago, Begonia's family lived in Selene in New Moon, but left there after The Ashes stole a child from the community. The Ashes are known for being nocturnal and silent.
Wood Sprites | those funny little guys They look like one-inch tall people made of tree bark. You can catch them in a deep vase if you bury it and cover the top in a certain way with foliage and put some cheese and berries on top so they fall in. Begonia knows where and how to place the traps at the foot of specific trees. They aren't useful for much- they can't fly or anything, but they get really mad, so it's funny.
Druids | freaky nature magicians Druids are magic people who live in enchanted places like the Dragonhorn forest, who draw their magic from the forest itself. Generally speaking, they're flat crazy, scary, and can't be reasoned with in a normal way, but not hard to get along with if you're an honest farmer. She's seen them control animals and make the weather change. They tend to dress in unfinished hide, bone and skulls, and unprocessed plant life. Most druids are tieflings, which means they have horns on their head and are supposedly related to demons or nature monsters. Begonia has accompanied her grandfather Gauro to meetings with the Druids of the Dragonhorn as a neighborly visit to keep them happy, which only seemed to take a few token gestures, a small gift of cheese, and singing a song with them. The last few years since Begonia has started visiting them with Gauro, the Druids of the meeting seemed particularly pleased with young Begonia's singing along and their family cropland has always seen a healthy harvest. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.