The Lands of Warlderia

Merilrond — The Rose Hall

At the heart of the Merilrond settlement stands Merilrond, the Rose Hall, an ancient and much-loved dwelling of stone and timber around which the woodland settlement bearing its name has slowly grown. The Hall is an old place and makes little attempt to disguise its age. Its pale stone walls have been softened by years of weather, its tiled roofs are uneven in places, and generations of repair and alteration can be found by anyone who cares to look closely. Wings, galleries and courtyards have been adapted as the household has grown, giving Merilrond the comfortable, slightly irregular character of a home shaped by the needs of those who live within it rather than by any single grand design. Though substantial enough to offer protection in troubled times, Merilrond has none of the cold severity of a fortress. 

Roses are everywhere. They climb the walls without much regard for symmetry, curling around windows and creeping beneath the eaves. Ancient stems wander across sections of masonry while younger growth spills over walls, railings and garden edges. Red, pink, blush and ivory blooms mingle together, some carefully tended and others apparently determined to grow wherever they please. Around the gatehouse they gather particularly thickly, softening the old stone and filling the air with their scent during the warmer months. It was these roses that first gave the Hall its name, long before Merilrond came to mean the community surrounding it as well.

Above the arched entrance hangs the green banner of Ehlonna, bearing the white unicorn of the Lady of the Forest. It is not displayed with the pomp of a lord's heraldry, but as a quiet declaration of the faith under whose protection the household lives. When a breeze crosses the clearing, the long green cloth stirs above the gateway while the roses move gently against the stone beneath it. Beyond the Hall stand the great Gold Maples of Anwyn. They surround Merilrond without crowding it, for a generous clearing has been maintained between the buildings and the deeper woodland. Paths, gardens and small working plots occupy this open ground before eventually giving way to the trees. When sunlight catches their distinctive golden leaves, the forest seems almost luminous. Yet the most remarkable tree at Merilrond is not one of the Gold Maples.

The Cutting Tree

At the centre of Merilrond's inner courtyard grows a vigorous oak some forty feet in height. Its broad green crown rises above the surrounding roofs, immediately distinguishing it from the golden woodland beyond the walls. The tree is known simply as the Cutting Tree. Some twenty years ago it began as a living cutting taken from an ancient oak in nearby Foxglove Glade, approximately five hundred yards west of the Hall. That ancient tree is the Heart Tree of Glovanna, the young dryad of the glade and one of Dîmeril Laeghartha's most beloved friends in the Golden Woods. Glovanna willingly accepted the cutting as an extension of her own tree. Whatever combination of fey magic, extraordinary vitality and Glovanna's own nature lies behind it, the young oak flourished with remarkable speed. Its roots now lie deep beneath the courtyard and its branches spread above the heart of Merilrond, providing shade during the summer months and sending leaves tumbling across the old stones when autumn comes. The residents have adapted themselves to the tree rather than attempting to make the tree adapt to them. Simple benches stand beneath its branches, paths give generous space to its roots, and nothing likely to harm it is permitted nearby. Foxgloves grow beneath it. Nobody admits to planting them. Pink and purple flowers simply began appearing amongst the roots and have returned ever since, bringing a little piece of Foxglove Glade into the centre of the Rose Hall.

The Cutting Tree is not Glovanna's Heart Tree. Her existence remains mystically bound to the enormous ancient oak in her glade. Nevertheless, the parent tree and its living daughter share a connection strong enough to permit something remarkable. Glovanna can pass between them. She may step into her Heart Tree beneath the foxgloves of her secluded glade and, moments later, emerge from the oak standing within Merilrond. Consequently, the Cutting Tree has become Glovanna's own doorway into the Rose Hall. Those who live at Merilrond have long since become accustomed to this arrangement. A green hand may suddenly appear from seemingly solid bark, followed by a cascade of pink hair and then Glovanna herself. Sometimes she steps completely from the tree and goes in search of Dîmeril or somebody else who has attracted her interest. On other occasions she emerges only as far as her head and shoulders, watches whatever is happening in the courtyard for a while, and then quietly sinks back into the oak without explanation. The children of Merilrond consider this perfectly ordinary. Visitors generally do not.

Glovanna herself does not claim to live at Merilrond. If asked, she will quite correctly insist that her home is Foxglove Glade. The distinction becomes somewhat academic when she can cross the five hundred yards separating the two places without ever setting foot upon the path between them. For all its magic, however, the Cutting Tree is treated less as a sacred monument than as a beloved member of the household. People sit beneath it to talk. Children play around its roots. During hot weather its canopy shades the courtyard, and in quieter moments someone can nearly always be found reading, working or simply resting beneath its branches. Glovanna occasionally appears among them.

A Home in the Golden Woods

Merilrond was not raised to dominate the Golden Woods. It has simply lived within them for so long that stone, rose, oak and golden leaf have become parts of the same home.  The forest, meanwhile, is never entirely kept beyond the walls. Merilrond seems instead to have reached an understanding with the Golden Woods. Neither wilderness nor civilisation has quite surrendered to the other. Stone has made room for roots, roses have claimed the masonry, and the household has long since learned that a tree may occasionally open and produce a dryad. Perhaps that is why the Rose Hall feels as though it belongs here. It has simply lived within them for so long that stone, rose, oak and golden leaf have become parts of the same home.