Brynmoor: Everything in Dragonwilds' Starting Region, and What to Do First
Brynmoor's iron deposits were mined out before you arrived — and it is the only region where that is true. The starting region of Ashenfall is a power level 1 to 2 area with three distinct subregions, ten quests, an abyssal demon that has no business being there, and a green dragon called General Velgar sitting on top of it. It is also the region every group builds in and then never really reads. Here is what is actually in it.
On sourcing. The details below come from the community RuneScape: Dragonwilds wiki, and can change with any patch.
The Three Subregions
Brynmoor sits south of Ghornfell and divides into three:
| Subregion | What it is |
|---|---|
| Temple Woods | The clifftop, dominated by the Temple of Saradomin. A haunted windmill stands north-west of it |
| Bramblemead Valley | The old heart of human Ashenfall — the ruins of Bramblemead, the Keep of Blue Flames, and the sites of the Runecrafting Guild and the Adventurer's Guild to the east |
| Whispering Swamp | The northern border, separating Brynmoor from Ghornfell |
The Temple of Saradomin is the safest ground in the early game, and for a documented reason: it "remains preserved due to a faint aura of priestly magic that repels the more monstrous creatures of the wilds."
But you cannot build in it. The temple at Temple Woods is one of only three places in Dragonwilds that do not support stable foundations — alongside vaults and instanced areas — and ghost mode does not work there either. It is a shelter, not a base site.
The Whispering Swamp is the region's resource pocket. It is "rich with resources for crafting, including rare herbs and ore deposits found within its caves" — which matters, because Brynmoor's surface iron is gone. It is also patrolled by goblins and watched by the garou, and littered with the sunken remains of the Human-Garou War, which neither side could fight properly in the mud.
What You Can Gather
| Category | Available in Brynmoor |
|---|---|
| Nodes | Stone boulder, clay node |
| Trees | Ash tree, oak tree |
| Plants | Redberry bush, Marrentil, Harralander, Cabbage, Potato, Flax, Bittercap mushroom |
| Fish | Raw shrimp, raw sardine, raw trout |
| Other | Swamp tar |
Two entries on that list should change what you build first.
Oak trees are here. Oak is the highest-tier anchor material in the game, and an oak anchor supports a structure eight blocks high and five wide against ash's five and three. You can build the frame of your permanent base out of the best available material from the starting region — most groups build it out of ash because ash is what they cut first.
Flax is here, and flax makes coarse thread at a Spinning Wheel, which makes a fishing net, which prompts the Fishing questline from the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village.
What is not here is iron. The region "originally had iron deposits, but these were completely depleted" — the lore reason being that Saradominist blacksmiths brought iron-working to Ashenfall in the Third Age and the region was worked out. Practically: your first iron comes from elsewhere.
Creatures and Quests
The aggressive roster is what you would expect from a starting region, with one exception:
| Aggressive | Notes |
|---|---|
| Giant rat, and the Rat king | The Ratcatcher chain |
| Putrid rat, and the Plague king | |
| Goblins — bruiser, warrior, archer, runt | The largest group |
| Garou druid | The garou watching the swamp |
| Kebbit | Also the source of Agility shortcuts |
| Abyssal demon | Out of place at power level 2 |
Non-aggressive: deer, magpie, cow, chicken.
The abyssal demon is the one to know about. It is the source of the Abyssal Spine, which is one of the ingredients of the Abyssal Whip — a weapon whose special action causes Bleed buildup and sends out a shockwave that knocks enemies down. Finding one in the starting region is a genuine surprise.
And the garou druid is the tell for the faction system. Garou Druids fold to Ranged, Berserkers to Magic and Hunters to Melee — three units of one faction, each answered by a different skill. The starting region introduces the one you counter with a bow.
Ten quests are based here:
| Quest | |
|---|---|
| First Steps | The opening |
| Getting Started | |
| Ratcatcher | |
| Rune Mysteries | The Runecrafting entry point |
| Warding Off Danger | |
| Growing Pains | |
| Restless Ghosts | |
| Goblin Diplomacy | Rewards the Goblin war banner cape |
| Highlighting the Problem | Teaches the Staff of Light recipe |
| Dragon Slayer | Velgar — the region boss, and the Dragonblight Shield |
Highlighting the Problem is the sleeper. Its reward, the Staff of Light, has "a higher base rune damage than other comparable staves" — a power level 4 magic weapon available from a starting-region quest.
Why Brynmoor Looks Like This
Brynmoor is a ruin because someone ruined it, and the game tells you who through item descriptions rather than cutscenes.
The short version: Guthix brought the first settlers here and founded Bramblemead in the First Age. As Ashenfall's anima worked on them, some settlers became Amalgamated — and the village began killing them. The Wild Knights responded by entering the village after dark to rescue the persecuted, summoning crow, raven and magpie spirits as distractions.
In the Third Age, Saradominist settlers arrived and built a camp on the clifftop above the valley — the Temple Woods. The villagers, feeling abandoned by Guthix, converted, and loyalty to the priesthood came to determine noble rank in the region.
Then, at the close of the age, the Dragon Rebellion. General Velgar, serving the dragon queen Kuldra, orchestrated the destruction of the Keep of Blue Flames, Bramblemead Village and the Saradominist presence on Ashenfall.
So the boss of the starting region is the reason the starting region is rubble — and Dragon Slayer is the quest that closes a loop opened three ages earlier.
One practical consequence of that history: the Journal records this material as lore scraps and item descriptions, not as quest text. Brynmoor has around thirty named residents who appear only in journals. If your group likes the setting, the reading is in the item tooltips.
Two pieces of the region's trivia are worth passing on for their own sake. In the First Age, time in the valley was measured in krill hours — the interval a krill shoal took to travel the length of Bramblemead Valley, round Temple Woods and back. And domestic cats became rare in Bramblemead as crossbow production grew, owing to a superstition that it was unlucky to keep a cat and a crossbow under the same roof.
Practical tips
- Brynmoor is power level 1–2, south of Ghornfell, in three subregions.
- You cannot build in the temple at Temple Woods — no stable foundations, no ghost mode.
- Oak grows here — use it for anchors and ash for everything else.
- Flax is here, and it starts the Fishing questline via a net and the Wise Old Man.
- Brynmoor's iron is depleted — your first iron comes from elsewhere.
- The Whispering Swamp's caves hold ore and rare herbs.
- There is an abyssal demon here — the source of the Abyssal Spine.
- Highlighting the Problem rewards the Staff of Light, the strongest staff of its tier.
- Velgar is why the region is ruined, and Dragon Slayer is the answer.
Running your own RuneScape: Dragonwilds server
Bramblemead Valley is where almost every group builds its first base, and that base is worth keeping — which needs a world that exists whether or not the person who founded it is online. A gamever Dragonwilds server keeps Ashenfall available around the clock for up to six players, updates automatically so client and server versions never drift, and takes one-click backups before disruptive changes.
Conclusion
Brynmoor is Dragonwilds' power level 1 to 2 starting region, made of Temple Woods on the cliffs, Bramblemead Valley with its ruins and guild sites, and the Whispering Swamp on the northern border. It yields stone, clay, ash and oak, seven plant types including Flax, three fish and swamp tar — but no iron, which was mined out before the game begins. Two of those resources matter more than they look: oak is the best anchor material in the game, so the frame of your permanent base can be built properly from the starting region, and Flax starts the Fishing questline. The creature list is goblins, rats, kebbits and garou druids plus an abyssal demon that has no business at this power level and drops the ingredient for the Abyssal Whip. Ten quests are based here, from First Steps to Dragon Slayer — and the reason there is anything to rebuild is the region's own boss: General Velgar destroyed Bramblemead, the Keep of Blue Flames and the Saradominist presence on Ashenfall while serving the dragon queen Kuldra.
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