The Silver Woods of Puevon
The Silver Woods of Puevon are an ancient and deeply magical forest lying around the walled settlement of Puevon. They take their name from the abundance of Silver Maple trees that dominate much of the woodland, their pale leaves giving the forest an almost luminous appearance beneath the moon. The Woods are not native to Warlderia. They were once part of the Sidhe realm of the Fey Queen and her Court and were brought bodily into the Lands of Warlderia by the Queen's magic. When Her Fey Majesty eventually returned to her own realm, the Silver Woods remained behind. Why she abandoned, or gifted, such a substantial piece of her domain has never been satisfactorily explained. Some claim that the Woods were deliberately left as a gift to the bard Galsitan. Others maintain that the ancient cold-iron wards surrounding Puevon somehow anchored the surrounding countryside to Warlderia and prevented the Queen from taking it back. There are even those who suggest that the Queen simply wanted the Silver Woods to remain. Only the Fey Queen knows the truth. She has never seen fit to explain herself.
The Silver Forest
The Silver Woods are extraordinarily beautiful. Silver maples predominate, but ancient oaks, willows, thorns and other trees grow amongst them. In places the forest floor is carpeted with flowers unknown elsewhere in Warlderia, while mushrooms of extraordinary size and colour grow beneath the oldest trees. At night the Woods become stranger still. Moonlight catches upon thousands of pale leaves until whole valleys seem covered in silver. Small lights move amongst distant trees. Music can sometimes be heard where no musician can be found, and paths familiar during daylight may lead somewhere entirely different after sunset. Visitors are strongly advised not to follow the lights. They are equally advised not to follow the music. Most do not require this advice twice.
The Silver Woods are not merely a transplanted collection of trees. They remain partly fey. The Queen's magic left a permanent mark upon the land. Distances are occasionally unreliable, seasons behave strangely and time does not always pass at precisely the same rate within the deeper forest as it does outside. Most discrepancies are minor. A traveller may believe that they have spent three hours walking only to discover that five have passed beyond the trees. More dramatic incidents are rare, but stories persist of hunters disappearing for a night and returning several days later, or entering the Woods in autumn and emerging to discover snow upon the fields surrounding Puevon. Magic involving illusion, enchantment and nature seems particularly potent within the forest. Cold iron, conversely, is deeply unpleasant to many of its inhabitants.
When the Fey Queen returned to her own realm, most of the greater Sidhe who had accompanied her departed with their sovereign. Not all did. Some chose to remain in the Silver Woods, while other fey were apparently left behind deliberately. The forest is consequently home to a wide variety of fey and sylvan creatures. Nymphs, dryads, sprites and other relatively benign beings may be encountered there, particularly around springs and ancient groves. They are not, however, the creatures for which the Silver Woods have acquired their reputation. The deeper forest contains banshees, hags, redcaps, quicklings and other dangerous fey, together with magical beasts and predators that once inhabited the Queen's realm. Some are unquestionably evil. Others are merely fey. The distinction can be surprisingly important to someone attempting to negotiate with them.
The Darker Courts
The fey of the Silver Woods possess no single ruler. Several of the more powerful inhabitants claim authority over particular glades, valleys, pools or stretches of woodland. These little territories overlap, change hands and occasionally exist only because everyone involved agrees that they do. Old Sidhe nobles who remained behind after the Queen's departure are amongst the most powerful inhabitants. Some still consider themselves servants of the Fey Queen, despite having had no contact with her Court.. Others appear to regard Warlderia as an opportunity to establish courts of their own. Lesser fey frequently attach themselves to these figures for protection. Consequently, a traveller may pass unknowingly from one fey domain into another merely by crossing a stream. The inhabitants usually know precisely where the boundary lies. Humans usually do not.
The Silver Woods operate according to customs far older than the Human settlements surrounding them. Hospitality, promises, gifts and names possess particular significance amongst the fey. A traveller who accepts food may inadvertently accept hospitality and therefore become temporarily subject to the rules of their host. A promise casually made may be remembered decades later. A gift may establish an obligation even when none was intended. The wisest inhabitants of Puevon therefore teach their children several simple rules: Never give a fey your full name merely because they ask. Never promise something you cannot deliver. Never eat at a stranger's table until you understand why you have been invited. And never thank a hag for a gift. Nobody now remembers precisely why the final rule exists. This is generally considered an excellent reason to continue observing it.
Several ancient paths cross the Silver Woods which predate their arrival in Warlderia. These are known collectively as the Queen's Roads. Some are little more than narrow trails between the silver maples. Others are broad avenues bordered by standing stones, ruined arches or trees whose branches meet perfectly overhead. The roads do not always lead where geography suggests they should. Most merely connect distant parts of the Silver Woods with unnatural speed. A journey that should require a day may take less than an hour if the correct road is followed. A few are believed still to touch the Fey World. Such paths are unreliable and sometimes appear only beneath particular moons, during certain seasons or to particular travellers. The inhabitants of Puevon avoid them. Adventurers inevitably do not. It is said that those who are fey-touched may travel the Queen's Roads with a modicum of success, for the paths seem to recognise something of their own nature within such travellers. Even then, there is no guarantee that a road will lead where expected. For mere mortals, attempting to travel the Queen's Roads is considered exceedingly unwise.
Scattered throughout the Woods are reminders that this was once part of a much greater realm. There are abandoned pavilions formed from living trees, ruined fountains whose water still possesses minor magical properties, circles of standing stones and clearings where flowers bloom regardless of season. Occasionally travellers discover structures of astonishing beauty standing apparently untouched amongst the trees. They are almost always empty. Almost. The greatest of these places are treated with considerable respect by the fey. Even redcaps and quicklings have been known to avoid certain glades associated with the Queen. Some inhabitants insist that these places still belong to Her Majesty. When asked whether the Fey Queen intends to return and claim them, the answer is invariably the same: “She never surrendered them.”
Puevon and the Woods
The relationship between Puevon and the Silver Woods is ancient and deeply hostile. The original Puevon was a Human settlement whose inhabitants regarded the surrounding fey with fear and hatred. Conflict between town and forest continued for generations. Eventually the townsfolk surrounded their settlement with formidable walls incorporating cold iron and powerful magical wards. No fey could cross them. When the Fey Queen transported the surrounding land to Warlderia, those same wards apparently prevented her magic from properly affecting the people within Puevon. The consequences were terrible. While the surrounding countryside passed through the Queen's magic, the inhabitants trapped behind the cold-iron wards aged a year and a day. Their decayed bodies were later discovered by the people of Vrowbin, whose own settlement had been transported and who found themselves occupying Puevon instead. Whether this was an unintended consequence of the wards or a deliberate act of the Fey Queen remains unknown. The fey of the Silver Woods give contradictory answers. Some smile when asked.
Modern Puevon is a small fortified settlement and harbour whose population consists predominantly of Humans, together with a growing number of Half-Orcs and others. The cold iron woven into its walls remains. The wards remain active. And the fey still cannot enter. For the inhabitants this is not merely an inherited superstition. Redcaps and hags still inhabit the deeper Woods, and there are things beneath the silver maples against which a strong wall and a strip of cold iron provide considerable reassurance. The settlement maintains a small temple to Xerbo, reflecting its dependence upon trade, fishing and the sea. The mysterious scholar Stal Pheral maintains his magical mansion and exotic gardens there, while Edelmir Grausam is amongst its prominent traders. Maelara Grausam, a Ducal Knight of Everwatch, has been named Lady of Puevon and the Silver Woods, although her duties frequently take her elsewhere. The title is impressive. How much authority the Lady of Puevon actually possesses over the inhabitants of the Silver Woods is another question entirely. Most of the fey have never heard of the Duchess of Everwatch. Those who have generally regard the idea that a Human ruler can grant ownership of their forest to another Human as exceptionally funny.
Relations between modern Puevon and the Woods are less openly hostile than those between the original settlement and the fey, but considerable suspicion remains on both sides. The people of Puevon gather timber and food primarily from the surrounding mundane lands rather than venturing deeply into the forest. Hunters who enter the Silver Woods generally travel in groups and carry some form of cold iron. Fey occasionally approach the walls. They cannot cross. Some come merely from curiosity. Others trade from outside the gates, exchanging rare herbs, magical plants and unusual objects for things difficult to obtain within the forest. A few simply stand amongst the trees and watch. The guards dislike those most of all.
