Ebonglade Forest

From WFU Wiki

Ebonglade Forest is a forest in northeast Atheryin. Dense forest atop sporadic hills and dales, very little light reaches the forest floor and the trees themselves are some of the tallest in Atheryin. Named for the blackish red trees and folk tales surrounded with the area, it contains the only reliable travel route to Lyrian Peninsula and is known for its highwaymen and bandit problems to traders and merchants across the continent.

Local legends tell of the "ebon terror", mythical spirits of the woods that eats bandits and travelers alike, different entities to the local stories of ghosts. It's common to tell people traveling within the woods to keep to the roads, "As running into thieves is better then ending up in an ebon coffin."

History

Recently, a small group of Mhenuur have colonized of the outskirts of the southern section of the forest. Originally meant to be a port for traveling and trading with the outside world, a faction of healers and lesser shaman have started attempts to cleanse the forest of its 'darkness' and ghosts with mixed results. Intial attempts to purge the land of spirits was quickly met with force from an unknown source, the mhenuur scouts said it was the trees themselves that attacked the healers and drove them away. It came to light that the forests are inhabited by a race of tree like beings and rumor spread through the Mhenuur homeland that the shaman had discovered evil spirits of the land, a hot topic and widely debated in their society. It wasn't long before Wurxith knowledge seekers ripped the rumors from mhenuur minds and relished the idea of these immortal spirits. It wasn't long before they sent an expedition to sea and into the forests themselves, initially meeting harsh resistance by Mhenuur forces in the area and attacks from these spirits. Capturing a single specimen after months of failed attempts, the Wurxith seekers attempted to siphon its soul, but found that the tree spirits contained many souls, many of which were the spirits of murdered travelers, bandits, and animals. Getting little knowledge from the tree spirit's former victims, they tried to coax the thing to speak and spoke it did. It told them of its people, the W'thu'neir , a race of semi-sentient trees that hunt down trepassers and animals to feed the forest so that more may rise as they did.

While the Wurxith expedition is still assaulted constantly by the W'thu'neir, it is ironically one of the safest, if not only, settlement within the forest and many travelers seek haven within the wurxith camp in exchange for information and protection.