The Galsitanic Intrusion
Few events in the recent history of Warlderia have altered the world as dramatically, or begun as improbably, as the Galsitanic Intrusion. There was no invading army. There was no great ritual. There was no ambitious wizard attempting to reshape the world. There was a bard. His name was Galsitan Gresvurian.
Galsitan was a Half-Elf bard of extraordinary talent, considerable charm and somewhat less considerable modesty. Even those who disliked him admitted that he was a remarkable performer. Galsitan possessed the rare ability to make an audience forget everything except the music before them, and his adventures alongside the Heroes of Everwatch had already given him opportunities to perform before audiences considerably stranger than those normally encountered in taverns and courts. None, however, compared with the audience he attracted beneath the ruined settlement of Vrowbin.
A Song Heard in Another World
While exploring beneath Vrowbin, the Heroes of Everwatch encountered magic connected with the Fey realm of Anwyn. Galsitan performed. Precisely what he played has subsequently become the subject of considerable embellishment, but the important fact is beyond dispute. The Fey Queen heard him. From another realm, across whatever strange distance separates Warlderia from Anwyn, Galsitan's music attracted her attention. And the Queen came to listen. For a mortal bard this was perhaps the greatest audience imaginable. For the geography of Harmonias, it proved rather more consequential.
When the Fey Queen eventually returned to her own realm, the boundary between the two worlds did not settle back into its former shape. Parts of Harmonias disappeared. Parts of Anwyn remained behind. Where the domain of the necromancer Morteisa had previously blighted the land, much of that territory simply vanished. In its place appeared the Golden Woods of Anwyn, complete with ancient trees, Fey inhabitants, settlements and creatures which only moments earlier had existed in another world. Elsewhere the Silver Woods of Puevon appeared.
Not everything crossed cleanly. Fragments of the old land remained trapped amongst the new. The Mort Swamp, north of the Golden Woods, is one such remnant: a piece of Morteisa's domain which somehow escaped the greater exchange and remains saturated with the necromancy of the land that disappeared. Even the coastline changed. Places which had once stood deep inland suddenly found themselves overlooking newly created cliffs and bays. Bellegarde, an old fortress of the Fey realm, now stood upon a commanding promontory above the sea.
Maps of Harmonias became obsolete overnight.
The Golden Woods Arrive
For the inhabitants of the Golden Woods, the experience was equally extraordinary. One moment they lived beneath the strange skies of the Fey World. The next they were in Warlderia. The trees remained. Their homes remained. Merilrond remained. Glades, streams, paths and much of the familiar woodland had crossed with them. But beyond the edges of the forest lay an entirely different world. For Dîmeril Laeghartha and the people gathered around her, this was particularly remarkable. Dîmeril had entered the Fey World years earlier seeking refuge and had eventually built a life there. Now, without asking her opinion, the Fey Queen had effectively returned Dîmeril and her entire domain to the mortal world. Whether this was deliberate remains unknown. Dîmeril suspects that it may have been. An Imperfect Crossing
The Galsitanic Intrusion was not an orderly exchange of territories. When the Fey Queen departed, parts of Harmonias disappeared into Anwyn, while pieces of the Fey realm were left behind in Warlderia. The greatest of these were the Golden Woods of Anwyn and the Silver Woods of Puevon, but they were by no means the only ones. Fragments of Anwyn appeared scattered across Warlderia. Some were substantial stretches of woodland. Others were little more than isolated glades, hills, pools, ruined buildings or patches of countryside suddenly surrounded by land to which they had never previously belonged. A few were inhabited. Others arrived apparently empty.
Even today, not every fragment created by the Intrusion has necessarily been recognised for what it is. The exchange was equally imperfect within Harmonias itself. Streams acquired new destinations. Roads ended abruptly. Familiar landmarks disappeared, while pieces of entirely foreign landscape appeared in their place. In some places the joining was particularly violent. Land which had once continued for miles simply ended. Lakes lost their waters, hills were divided and new cliffs appeared where the transported landscape met the existing geography of Warlderia. The Mort Swamp is an especially disturbing example of the reverse process: a fragment of Morteisa's old domain which somehow remained behind when most of the surrounding territory disappeared. The resulting landscapes are therefore more than unusual geographical features. They are seams between worlds.
The Humanoids React
Unfortunately, the Golden Woods did not arrive in an empty land. Harmonias was still emerging from decades of humanoid domination and warfare. Orcs and other hostile forces remained powerful across parts of the province. Their response to the sudden appearance of a large population of Elves, Half-Elves and Fey upon their borders was predictable. They attacked. The first fighting was severe. The Fawn Woods suffered particularly badly, and King Windhorn and many of his Satyrs were killed resisting the invaders. Dîmeril, along with heroic adventurers, rallied the inhabitants of the Golden Woods and joined forces with the armies of Everwatch. What had begun as a bizarre magical accident was rapidly becoming another war.
Galsitan Plays Again
The situation eventually became desperate enough that Galsitan attempted something which most sensible people would have considered impossible. He performed again. And once again, the Fey Queen listened. The Queen returned. Faced with the Orc horde threatening the newly arrived Fey lands, she solved the problem with characteristic simplicity. She sent them away. Precisely where away was has never been satisfactorily established, though but it was later believed to be Erdian. Then she took Galsitan with her.
For those left behind, Galsitan was gone for approximately a minute. For Galsitan, a year and a day passed. He spent that time within the Sidhe Court. What happened there is principally known through Galsitan's own accounts, which presents historians with the unfortunate difficulty that Galsitan Gresvurian is both the most important primary source for these events and Galsitan Gresvurian. What is certain is that he returned profoundly affected by the experience. Warlderia seemed painfully mundane after the wonders of the Fey Court. His music, however, remained.
The End of the War
The arrival of the Golden Woods transformed the military situation in Harmonias. The remaining humanoid powers suddenly faced not merely Everwatch and its allies but an entirely new population of experienced Rangers, Fey creatures, warriors and woodland communities on territory which had previously been secure. Dîmeril and the Golden Woods allied themselves with Everwatch. The humanoid position collapsed. Agrabash fell. The remaining forces were driven towards Eastward Bay, where the final major resistance was eventually destroyed in a bloody assault. The Galsitanic Intrusion had not merely changed the landscape. It helped end the war.
The Legacy of the Intrusion
The consequences of the Galsitanic Intrusion extend far beyond Harmonias. The Golden Woods of Anwyn now stand upon the western coast. The Silver Woods of Puevon occupy land where no such forest previously existed. The Mort Swamp remains as a diseased fragment of the territory which disappeared. But elsewhere across Warlderia, smaller pieces of Anwyn remain scattered amongst the mortal landscape. Some are known. Others may still be waiting to be discovered. A traveller might pass through an ordinary forest and suddenly encounter trees unknown anywhere else in the region. An isolated pool might contain creatures which insist it was once part of a much greater lake. A ruined Fey tower may stand upon a hill where local maps insist no building existed before the Intrusion.
Not everything which crossed necessarily understands what happened to it. Nor does anyone know with certainty whether every fragment of Anwyn has yet been found. The Galsitanic Intrusion did not merely transport the Golden Woods. For one extraordinary moment, two worlds collided, and pieces of each were left behind in the other.
Why “the Galsitanic Intrusion”?
The name was originally intended somewhat humorously. Galsitan himself did not invade anywhere. Nevertheless, his music caused the Fey Queen to cross into Warlderia, portions of two worlds to exchange places, an Orc army to disappear, the political geography of Harmonias to change permanently and an entirely new population to appear within the province. Historians therefore decided that Galsitanic Intrusion was sufficiently accurate.
Galsitan reportedly considers the name entirely appropriate. Naturally.