The Lands of Warlderia

The Golden Woods of Anwyn

The Golden Woods of Anwyn are a large and deeply magical forest lying upon the western coast of the March of Harmonias. Dominated by the Gold Maples from which they take their name, the Woods are a place of warm golden canopies, clear streams, secluded meadows and old paths winding beneath trees which remember another world. For the Golden Woods did not originate in Warlderia. They were once part of the realm of the Fey, lying upon the landward borders of one of the great forests claimed by the Fey Queen. Elves, Half-Elves, humans, Fey and others had settled there over many generations: some seeking the magic of the forest, others deliberately placing themselves beyond the immediate attention of the Queen and her court. The result was an unusually mixed and stubbornly independent woodland society. Humans and Elves intermarried freely, Half-Elves became particularly numerous, and the influence of the Fey upon local bloodlines was commonplace. Even today a visitor may encounter someone whose strangely coloured eyes, unusual grace or instinctive affinity with the forest suggests some distant touch of Faerie. The Golden Woods retain much of that character. They are beautiful, magical and generally benevolent, but they have never been entirely tame.

The Coming to Warlderia

The Golden Woods came to Warlderia during the extraordinary events now known as the Galsitanic Intrusion, when the actions of the Fey Queen altered the geography of the March of Harmonias. When the intrusion ended and the Queen departed, the Golden Woods remained behind. The inhabitants suddenly found themselves in an unfamiliar world. Where once the forest had continued into the wider lands of Anwyn, its southern reaches now ended upon newly formed cliffs, bays and the waters of the Westwood Channel. The abandoned fortress of Bellegarde, formerly buried deep within the forest, abruptly found itself occupying a commanding coastal promontory. To the north lay the gloomy Mort Swamp, a surviving fragment of lands once dominated by the undead realm of Morteisa. More immediately dangerous were the humanoid armies and raiders already troubling Harmonias and neighbouring Everwatch.

The arrival of the Woods upset the uncertain balance of the region. Raids became invasion, and the newly displaced people of Anwyn were forced almost immediately to defend their new home. Dîmeril Laeghartha, Heryn of Merilrond, rallied the woodland communities and joined her forces with those of Everwatch. The fighting that followed ultimately helped break the power of the humanoid armies in the region and secured the Golden Woods' place within their strange new world. An accommodation was subsequently reached with the surrounding powers. The Golden Woods acknowledge the wider political realities of Harmonias and Everwatch, but in practice remain largely responsible for their own affairs. That suits the people of Anwyn perfectly well.

The Woods Today

The Golden Woods are not a single continuous settlement. Most inhabitants live in scattered cottages, small hamlets, woodland holdings and isolated communities linked by forest tracks and paths. The population remains exceptionally mixed. Half-Elves are particularly numerous, alongside Wood Elves, humans, Gnomes and people of more complicated ancestry. Fey blood, distant or otherwise, is sufficiently common that it attracts considerably less attention here than it might elsewhere in Warlderia.

The traditional language of the Woods is Anwyn Elven, a rustic and somewhat archaic dialect of Wood Elven. Sylvan is also widely understood, while Common has become increasingly useful since the arrival in Warlderia. Anwyn Elven remains distinctive enough that outsiders familiar with ordinary Wood Elven can usually understand it while immediately recognising the speaker's origins. No elaborate bureaucracy governs the forest. Individual communities largely manage their own affairs, while disputes and dangers affecting the Woods as a whole tend to find their way eventually to Dîmeril Laeghartha. She bears the Elven title Heryn, meaning Lady, although her authority rests at least as much upon affection, reputation and freely given loyalty as upon formal lordship. The people of the Golden Woods have little enthusiasm for unnecessary laws. They value hospitality, personal freedom and responsibility towards one's neighbours. One matter upon which they are considerably less tolerant is the magical domination of another person's will. Charm and similar compulsions are regarded with particular hostility, reflecting both the history of the Woods and the occasionally uncomfortable relationship of mortals with the Fey.

Merilrond

At the heart of the Golden Woods lies Merilrond the settlement, the largest community in Anwyn and the home of Dîmeril Laeghartha. Merilrond is not a densely packed town but a broad woodland settlement of more than four hundred inhabitants. Houses, workshops, gardens and communal buildings stand amongst open grass, mature trees and winding paths rather than crowded streets. At its centre lies the Green, while the settlement takes its name from its oldest and most important building: Merilrond, the Rose Hall.

Rose Hall is Dîmeril's home and the heart of her household. It is an old and substantial stone-and-timber complex whose walls and roofs have become famous for the roses growing across them. Within its courtyard stands the Cutting Tree, an oak grown from a cutting taken from the tree of the dryad Glovanna. Around Rose Hall has grown a remarkably self-sufficient community. Merilrond possesses workshops, a smithy, stables, bakery, weaving hall, healing house, guest accommodation and numerous craftspeople, while the surrounding clearings provide gardens, orchards, grazing and apiaries. The settlement appears remarkably open for the home of someone who has accumulated as many enemies as Dîmeril. Appearances can be deceptive.

Explore: Merilrond the settlement, and Merilrond and the Rose Hall

The Sisterhood of Anwyn

The spiritual and defensive life of the Golden Woods is closely associated with the Sisterhood of Anwyn, a female Sisterhood devoted to Ehlonna, goddess of the woodlands, animals, fertility and the natural world. The Sisterhood is not simply a religious order, and not every Sister is a priestess. Rangers, warriors, clerics, druids and others all serve within it.

Two broad traditions have developed within the Sisterhood: the Martial Sisters, whose principal calling lies in ranging, guardianship and the physical defence of the Woods, and the Spiritual Sisters, whose calling centres more strongly upon worship, healing, teaching, ritual and the spiritual welfare of the community. These are not separate orders. All are Sisters of Anwyn first.

The Sisterhood is spiritually led by High Priestess Lusara Elmare, while Dîmeril Laeghartha is its foremost martial figure and the Heryn to whom much of the wider community looks in times of danger. Lusara and Dîmeril represent rather different expressions of devotion to the same goddess: Lusara strongly embraces Ehlonna's associations with fertility, family and new life, while Dîmeril's path has been shaped by guardianship, the wilderness and her long association with unicorns. Their differences have never prevented a deep friendship between them. A separate tradition exists amongst those women who form bonds with unicorns. These White Wards, sometimes known as Unicorn Riders, observe customs which do not apply to the Sisterhood as a whole. The individual women who make up the Sisterhood, from its senior leaders to its younger members, are described separately among the Sisters of Anwyn.

Explore: The Sisterhood of Anwyn • The Sisters of Anwyn • Ehlonna and the Anwyn Sect

The People of the Woods

Although Merilrond is the largest settlement, it is far from the only community beneath the golden canopy.

Green Hollow

On the north-eastern edge of the Golden Woods stands Green Hollow, one of the forest's newest communities. The settlement was founded following the Liberation of Astonwick by refugees who wished to build lives away from the city in which many had suffered. Its inhabitants include humans, Half-Orcs and people of mixed goblinoid ancestry, but such distinctions carry little importance within Green Hollow. The community is led by Korga Stonehand, a formidable Half-Orc woman who has no interest in kingdoms or conquest. Her concern is simply that her people should remain free, raise their families in safety and build something of their own. Dîmeril and Korga maintain a relationship of considerable mutual respect. Green Hollow governs itself, while its inhabitants respect the forest and its sacred places and enjoy the wider protection of the Golden Woods. It is a young settlement and still growing: cottages, gardens, workshops and paddocks continue to spread gradually across the forest edge. 

The Fawn Woods

Beyond Green Hollow lie the Fawn Woods, ancient home of the Fawns, or Satyrs. Relations between the Fawns and their neighbours have not always been peaceful. Under their former king Windhorn, revelry and seduction increasingly crossed the boundary into predation, eventually bringing the Fawns into serious conflict with Dîmeril. The wars following the arrival in Warlderia changed their society dramatically. Wildhorn and many of his warriors were killed fighting the humanoid invaders, leaving the survivors greatly weakened. The Fawns remain creatures of music, wine, revelry and mischief, but the days when travellers disappeared into their glades are largely past. Relations with Merilrond have consequently improved, although nobody sensible expects Satyrs to become entirely respectable.

Creatures of Anwyn

The Golden Woods support creatures seldom encountered elsewhere in Warlderia. Most famous are the unicorns. Several small herds inhabit the quieter meadows and glades. They are intelligent, independent creatures and emphatically not livestock. The people of Anwyn neither hunt nor attempt to tame them, and even the Sisterhood treats them as fellow guardians of the forest rather than possessions. Unicorns appear particularly comfortable around the Sisters. Occasionally one will freely form a close bond with an individual woman, giving rise to the ancient tradition of the White Wards. Such a relationship must always originate with the unicorn; no Sister can simply decide that she wishes to become a Unicorn Rider. This freedom is central to the way the inhabitants understand the creatures. 

The Woods are also home to cooshee, the great green Elven hounds sometimes kept as companions by rangers and woodland families. Dîmeril herself keeps two at Merilrond, while Lethiel Aranel is rarely far from her cooshee Bracken. The latter's alleged impeccable training is open to debate. Lethari, sometimes called Elven Cats, are another familiar sight, as are unusually large woodland bees, some descended from the giant bees of old Anwyn. Dryads, pixies and other Fey continue to inhabit secluded parts of the forest, and encounters with creatures that belong more naturally to Faerie than Warlderia are far from unknown.

The Golden Woods are magical enough that the distinction between wildlife and neighbour is sometimes best left unexamined.

The Reserved and Kindly Places

The Golden Woods remain deeply touched by the Fey World, and not every part of the forest follows quite the same rules. Over generations, the inhabitants have come to recognise certain glades, hollows, valleys and ancient groves where the influence of Faerie is particularly strong. Some are associated with individual Fey creatures, while others possess a character and magic seemingly all their own. These are commonly divided into two broad traditions: the Reserved Places and the Kindly Places.

The Reserved Places are territories deliberately left undisturbed. Some contain dangerous Fey or ancient creatures which desire nothing more than to be left alone. Others are genuinely evil, but remain within established boundaries and pose no threat to the wider Woods. Dîmeril has never believed that every dangerous creature must be hunted merely because it is dangerous. The understanding is generally simple: If it keeps its boundary, we keep ours. Rangers know the limits of these places and warn travellers away. Among them are Blackroot Grove, home of the ancient and deeply unsociable Treant Blackroot; Thornshade, territory of Wadaranth Redwood; the tangled Crooked Acre; and stranger places such as the Red Dell, Sorrowmere and the House of Summer. They are reminders that the Golden Woods are protected, but they have never been tamed.

Other places are equally Fey, but considerably more welcoming. These are known as the Kindly Places. They may be strange, unpredictable and governed by customs unfamiliar to outsiders, but their inhabitants are essentially benevolent. A traveller entering one in good faith can generally expect hospitality rather than hostility. Foxglove Glade, home of the dryad Glovanna, is perhaps the best known. Oldroot Hollow is home to the grotesque but thoroughly benevolent Grandmother Root, while the Dancing Green hosts moonlit revels of sprites and pixies. Elsewhere, the mysterious Long Table provides food and rest to travellers without anyone being entirely certain who keeps filling it. Even the enormous Mossbacks, great shaggy Fey creatures resembling some improbable mixture of bear, tree and moss-covered boulder, are associated with these gentler parts of the forest. An injured traveller fortunate enough to encounter one may simply find themselves picked up and carried towards help. Kindly does not mean ordinary.

Fey courtesies still matter, promises should be made carefully, and nobody sensible assumes that the rules of the mortal world apply simply because the inhabitants are friendly. Nevertheless, amongst all the warnings given to children growing up beneath the golden maples is a reassuring one: If you are lost and find one of the Kindly Places, stay there. Someone will help you.

Faith and the Sacred Woods

Ehlonna is by far the most important deity within the Golden Woods, although worship is neither compulsory nor uniform. To the people of Anwyn she is the protector of woodland life in all its forms: wild animals and cultivated fields, hunters and farmers, birth and death, fertility and the changing seasons. The local tradition frequently depicts her in a specifically Half-Elven form, reflecting the people amongst whom her worship has flourished. The religious year follows the rhythms of the natural world. Seasonal festivals bring together communities otherwise scattered widely throughout the forest, and the larger celebrations can transform normally quiet woodland clearings into gatherings of music, food, worship and considerably less solemn activity. Sacred groves are treated with particular reverence. Some are formally tended by the Sisterhood; others require no priesthood at all. The inhabitants generally know which is which.

The Anwyn tradition is not the only expression of Ehlonna's faith in Warlderia. Far away in the shadowed forests of Westdeep, the secretive Veiled Hunt worships a sterner and more watchful aspect of the same goddess.

Beyond the Woods

The displacement of Anwyn created some peculiar neighbours.

The Mort Swamp

Immediately north lies the Mort Swamp, a small surviving fragment of the undead lands that once occupied part of the region. The swamp is misty, stagnant and unnaturally quiet. The Sisterhood watches its southern approaches, but there is little enthusiasm for entering it unnecessarily. Things remain beneath those waters, including the mysterious Drowned Warden, and Dîmeril has so far seen no virtue in disturbing horrors which appear content to remain where they are.

Explore: Mort Swamp

The Silver Woods of Puevon

Elsewhere lie the Silver Woods of Puevon, another strange legacy of the Fey Queen's intervention in Warlderia. Although their history is closely connected with the same events that brought the Golden Woods to this world, the Silver Woods are a separate realm with their own inhabitants, dangers and history.

Explore: The Silver Woods of Puevon

Bellegarde

On the southern coast stands Bellegarde, an old castle that once lay deep within Anwyn. Changes wrought by the Galsitanic Intrusion left the formerly irrelevant forest stronghold perched dramatically above the sea. The abandoned castle has since been claimed by Galsitan the Bard, although precisely what he intends to do with it remains uncertain.