Эретор: Верадиин

Верадиин

The forests of northern Erethor are called the Veradeen, which means “coldest wood” in the local elven dialect. At first glance the place seems an inhospitable world of snow and ice-stunted trees. It is certainly this, but there is more as well. There is a stark, wild beauty to the land that can only be appreciated by those who behold it.
The Veradeen consists of the forests and foothills that lie against the southern fingers of the Highhorn Mountains. The low country is rough, with hills, valleys, and deep gorges thrown up by the roots of the great mountains and dug by the erosion of icy glaciers and countless frigid streams. The hilltops are often barren rock or support only fairy forests of windgnarled trees. On their sides, tall evergreens grow thick, holding each other up against winter gales to catch what little sun is offered. Massive winter oaks fill the protected dales, their interwoven boughs protecting elven tree-villages from the worst of the elements.
The mountains themselves are ancient bones jutting from Aryth’s frozen skin. They are trackless, formidable towers of granite and obsidian, home to the Shadow legions of the Shunned Mother and other, more terrifying creatures. Elven legend says that the Highhorns reach to the very top of the world and that Izrador crouches there with his great horned head against the rock, listening to the secrets from the forest. Some say this is why the Erunsil always speak so softly.
High winter has grown even longer since the coming of the Shadow, and deep snow makes the land all but impassable. Spring turns every meadow, path, and dell into a swamp of icy snowmelt and feeds the bog of Eris Aman. Summer is as fleeting as a breeze, and even in this warmest season, unexpected blizzards endanger travelers. Rain is uncommon and comes only in the fall, where it quickly turns again to winter snow.

История

The history of the people of the northern forest is characterized by hardship and stoicism. The climate tempered the Erunsil elves and prepared them well for when Izrador’s orcs began migrating out of the east and into the Highhorn Mountains. The constant raids that followed would be the bane of the snow elves for centuries and would eventually be known simply as the Orc Uprisings.
By the time of the Dornish invasion, the fighting prowess of the snow elves of the Veradeen was legendary across Erethor, and Aradil recruited their most able leaders as officers in her new armies. When the Witch Queen marched against the Shadow hordes on the plains of Eris Aman in the Battle of Three Kingdoms, it was Erunsil generals who helped win the day.
When the peoples of Eredane began construction of the keeps of the Fortress Wall, the elves built theirs across the Veradeen. It was the Erunsil who were chosen to garrison these forts and the Erunsil who stood fast against the assaults of the second rising of Izrador at the end of the Second Age. Now, as the Shadow falls over Erethor, the Erunsil are the only defenders in the Veradeen, receiving scant support from the south.

Население

The people of the Veradeen are known as the Erunsil, which roughly translates to “elves of the northern snows.” Despite the vastness of the northern forest, there were never many Erunsil, and with the high casualty rate they have suffered, there are now even fewer still. There are likely no more than 130,000 Erunsil still living in the northern woods.

Поселения

The snow elves live in small villages centered around two or three massive shelterwood trees, surrounded by groves of winter oak and conifers that offer good protection against the elements. Their homes are high in the boughs of the shelterwoods, where druids have coaxed the trees to grow large hollows that the elves use as communal living quarters.
The boughs of the village trees are intertwined, forming walkways that allow the residents to pass from tree to tree unhindered by deep snow. Older settlements are surrounded by such snow bridges, where druids have encouraged branches to form long paths that lead far into the forest. These networks of aerial walkways can be extensive, sometimes even reaching other villages or to the keeps of the Fortress Wall. The snow bridges make travel possible in the winter and provide elves with hiding places and a means to move unseen by legion patrols. Though the patrols know the bridges exist, they have difficulty spotting them among the other branches, and orcs are typically not agile enough to access or walk them.

Язык

As do all elves, the Erunsil speak High Elven, the language of the High Court, but they do so with a strong accent other elves often have a hard time understanding. Most also speak Orcish, at least the western dialect, and commonly incorporate many Orcish words as slang in their own conversation. The majority of Erunsil use a complex sign language that lets them communicate silently when on patrol, and has become so pervasive that many Erunsil find themselves slipping into it even when far from the front lines. A few also speak Norther, having learned it from the human refugees who fled the forces of Izrador and now fight alongside the Erunsil in Erethor.

Правительство

The snow elves may have little patience for the ways of the High Court, but they are loyal subjects of the queen and rabid defenders of the elven people. In their own lands, the small villages are each governed by a three-person council of elders called the Snow, the Tree, and the Blood. The Snow is the most powerful spellcaster in the village and advises in matters of magic and lore. The Tree is the eldest person in the village and governs in matters of hearth, home, and trade. The Blood is the most experienced warrior and determines the disposition of the village’s defenses and troops.

Религия

The elves of the Veradeen are rather pragmatic in their ways. They know the legends of the Lost Gods, but they also know the gods have done little to help them in their hard land. Like their southern cousins, the Erunsil instead pay homage to the powerful spirits trapped on Aryth by the Sundering who exist in the wilds around them. These sprites and demons have the power to grant great boons or to offer terrible curses, and rites that curry their favor are far more practical than faith to long-silent gods.
Mixed with their daily activities, the Erunsil diligently make offerings and perform the small spirit rituals that have been passed down among their people for thousands of years. They believe these rites serve to protect them from some supernatural entities while securing the favor of others.
The most often patronized spirit in the Veradeen is Xione, the Mistress of the Frozen Wood. She is believed to be the essence of the cold north. Her breath is the icy wind, and her touch makes frost crystals. She is believed to hold some sway over every spirit in the north woods and is uniquely powerful. The Erunsil believe it is her favor that keeps their villages from freezing over in winter, and that it is Xione’s hand that turns normal trees into icewood.

Торговля и ремесло

In the centuries since the second war against the Shadow, the elves of the Veradeen do not support a major economy. Their people are known for being warriors and do not produce goods in sufficient quantities for trade. Most of what they make is for their own use, and much of what they need they are forced to import. The war with Izrador’s armies leaves these fighters little time to work even their cottage crafts, and they depend on the support of the queen and the southern elves for most of their foodstuffs, daily goods, and magic.

Spirit Weapon

Icewood bows are a rare and wonderful weapon that legend holds were a gift to the Erunsil from Xione, the Mistress of the Frozen Wood. Icewood is an extremely rare species of small hardwood that grows only in the northern Veradeen. Its bark is shaggy and gray, and though its meat feels and cuts like wood, it has a translucent appearance that makes it look more like milky ice or quartz. Tradition says that icewood can only be harvested in the dead of winter when the spirits that inhabit the trees are dormant. Tradition also says that icewood must be harvested so that the cut does not kill the parent tree, for when the tree dies, the bow will lose its power and shatter when drawn. Because the trees are so hard to find, icewood bows are exceptionally rare and coveted by every Erunsil archer.

Deadly Trade

If the Erunsil have a true industry, it is fighting the orc legions and garrisoning the elven keeps of the Fortress Wall. These hard professions protect Erethor and the southern elves, in exchange for which Aradil is more than willing to spend her kingdom’s resources to support the snow elves. This trade in warfare also produces hardened soldiers and military leaders, another rare commodity for which the elven queen is happy to pay. The Erunsil do make their own clothes, as none in the south could know as well how to fend off the cold, and they also make fine armor they occasionally export. What crafts the snow elves are best known for are their keen blades and their legendary icewood bows. The sword smiths of the Veradeen in their way are almost as talented as those of the dwarves and have learned the subtle balance, grip, and edge that are best for cleaving Izrador’s minions.

Пути и традиции

Few traditions of the Erunsil still survive that do not pertain to fighting against the Shadow.

Cold Warriors

The saying goes that if a snow elf has not yet made a kill, they are too young to lift a bow, and this is closer to the truth than it might seem. The Erunsil are a warrior people who, since the end of the Third Age, have done nothing but fight with the forces of Izrador. Every Erunsil learns to fight, and by the time a snow elf reaches their twentieth year, they are as fine an archer as any rank-and-file soldier in the southern armies. The Erunsil carry weapons even around their villages and are on constant watch for Izrador’s orcs or other minions. When not responding to legion assaults or making raids of their own, small bands of Erunsil warriors make long patrols through the woods, often for many days at time. They listen to the Whisper, using it to locate and surprise their quarry. They prefer to make careful ambushes with arrows and combat spells from the trees or to set deadly traps. When such tactics fail, Erunsil are just as content to close with the enemy and put their fine swords and fighting knives to work.

Keeps of the Fortress Wall

The elves of the Veradeen are also responsible for manning the Fortress Wall keeps of Erethor. There are nearly thirty such forts across the wood, and they represent the majority of the Wall keeps still standing against Izrador. Most are snow elf villages unto themselves, garrisoned by entire communities. They are imposing examples of the druid’s art, built of massive shelterwood trees forced to grow in a tight ring. Their trunks are flush around the base, with gaps higher up through which defenders can move, fire arrows, and cast spells. The trees’ branches form multiple levels within the ring wall of the trunks and form archer’s nests, walkways, snow bridges, and other vantage points outside the ring. The trees’ deep roots keep the orc legions from burrowing under the walls. Since these forts are all part of the Whispering Wood, they can even speak to their defenders.
The approaches to the forts are mazes of thickets sporting poison thorns, and only elves seem able to find their way through. The outer branches of the fortress trees link to miles of snow bridges. The defenders use these to exit the keep unseen and take attackers unaware or to reinforce defenders already under siege. These forts and their Erunsil defenders are doubtless the primary reason the Veradeen has so far held against the relentless onslaught of the Shadow hordes in Erethor.

Против Тени

Even more than the other elven peoples, the Erunsil seem steadfast in their belief that the Shadow in the North can and must be resisted. Their entire culture and all their traditions are born of fighting Izrador’s minions, so they continue to take the battle to the enemy whenever they can, defending Erethor to the death when they cannot. They are hard-hearted and steadfast warriors who keep the forts of the Wall garrisoned and their Shadow hunters on the scent. Despite their resolute defiance, the snow elves are suffering growing attrition in their ranks and resources, and many are secretly beginning to wonder if the Veradeen’s resistance to the Shadow might soon be broken.
The Shadow hordes continue to attack Erunsil villages and to destroy supply caravans from the south. They burn the forest during summer and poison every shelterwood tree and stream they come across. They slaughter animals the elves might hunt for food and raze their orchard groves. Izrador’s ogres and trolls are organized into irresistible siege forces that have recently taken several Wall forts. Raiding parties are becoming bolder, and elf scouts report that not only have military reinforcements been pouring out of the Highhorns, but also families and whole bands of noncombatants have settled into caves and warrens in the foothills.

Bedrial

Bedrial, known also as the Hermit Warrior, is a strange, almost mythic figure in the Veradeen. Though few have met her, everyone has heard tales. Bedrial is an expert forester and has been stalking the wilds of the northern forest for hundreds of years. She has a passionate hatred for orcs, despises ogres, and hunts both year round. She occasionally turns up in a settlement or a fort with a bag of ogre tusks and valuable intelligence on enemy activities. The stories of Bedrial are legion, claiming she is everything from a wandering tree spirit to Aradil’s grandmother. The truth is she is a master wildlander and has killed more than a thousand of the Shadow’s minions in her lifetime.

Human Allies

The snow elves have forged an arrangement with a band of human Dorns who ride under the banner of Roland the Raider of the Great House of Redgard and fight a nomadic but stalwart resistance against the puppet rulers of the Northlands. In exchange for information and the occasional strategic raid, the elves give the humans foodstuffs, arrows, and hearthstones, and occasionally send warriors to join them in battle. They also give riders sanctuary in the forest, where they can hide from pursuit or make surprise raids.

Urdonil

Urdonil is a legendary sword smith of the Veradeen. No one knows just how old they are, including themself, but they are said to have made the blade that Aradil carried onto the field in the second war against Izrador. Maimed in the Last Battle when an orc vargon took off their leg, Urdonil returned to the north, to the village of Dahurin, where they began training a new generation of sword makers. As Urdonil is too weak now to swing their own tools, their many apprentices do most of the heavy work, though the old elf still does all the final sharpening and casts every enchantment themself. A blade from Urdonil’s smithy is a valuable and deadly weapon that is typically passed down a family line as a treasured heirloom.

Места и особенности

These are some of the notable locations within and around the icy forests of the Veradeen.

Autilar

Autilar is an ancient Erunsil settlement and one of the only remaining keeps of the Fortress Wall in the vicinity. Though countless defenders have died here and it has been overrun more than once, the snow elves have always reclaimed it within a single season. For millennia, Autilar has stood as a symbol of the elves’ refusal to give up, a defiant circle of life in a sea of Shadow.

Bandilrin

This ancient village was once a well-known monastery and retreat for priests and intellectuals from as far away as Caradul. By the year 5000 FA, it had been fully corrupted by the machinations of Izrador and become a stronghold for his growing order of legates. From Bandilrin, the legates ranged south and east, laying the seeds of decay and betrayal. Though it was once an elven tree-village, the forest around the site has been burned and the ashes blasted away. A warren of dark tunnels, secret chambers, and dank halls have been dug into the underlying rock, forming a well-protected subterranean fortress. Orcs patrol the approaches, sneaking in and out through dozens of hidden entrances, and ogres stalk the perimeter. The Shadow’s war for northern Erethor is controlled from this dark place, and many foul plots and evil magics are born in cursed Bandilrin. The Erunsil have assaulted it many times but have suffered terrible losses with each attack.

Dahurin

Dahurin is the informal capital among the settlements and inhabitants of the Veradeen. It sits at the confluence of the Syldur and the Talura, the headwater streams of the great Itheris River in western Erethor. Once just a Fortress Wall keep, the fort has expanded, adding many inhabited shelterwood trees beyond the protective wall of the keep. More than 5,500 snow elves have homes in the town and the surrounding wood, making Dahurin the largest Erunsil settlement. The fort sits in the fork of the rivers, with walkways and snow bridges spanning the water to connect it with the other trees of the town. The Whispering Wood is thick around Dahurin, and the Whisper is loud, offering substantial advance notice if Izrador’s forces get too close. Nevertheless, elven warriors maintain constant and vigilant patrol in the surrounding forest.

Foul Bog of Eris Aman

At the southeastern reaches of the Veradeen on the very edge of Erethor lie the fabled battlefield plains of Eris Aman. In this legendary place, the Witch Queen and her allies defeated Izrador’s forces the first time they rose against Eredane. As the stories all tell, the battle was a fierce one with many terrible magics and cruel spirits unleashed on both sides. Though the allied forces were victorious, the fell powers employed during the battle left the plain a fearsome ruin that today is still a scarred wasteland of corrupted magics, demon spirits, and befouled creatures.
Where this cursed heath meets the edge of Erethor, the lowland forest has become a vile bog that holds only death or insanity for any beings foolish enough to enter. In summer, thick fogs hide the place even in the rare sunshine. Bottomless pits of black water suck down the unwary and hide hungry monsters lying in ambush. Errant evil magics, corrupt nature spirits, and the twisted shades of the battle dead haunt the bog. In winter, snow and treacherous ice hide the deep holes and frozen mud where evil lies just below the surface. The Foul Bog is a dangerous place, and there is never good enough reason to venture into its terrible wilds.

Skyrfell Pike

Skyrfell Pike is one of the primary refuges for the Dornish resistance fighters known as Roland’s Raiders. The forested butte provides good cover and excellent views of the surrounding lands, and it is an extremely defensible position.

Silverthorn

Whereas Autilar is a symbol of defiance in the face of adversity, Silverthorn stands as a sign of the elves’ sheer power and wisdom. Great druids aid the defenses here, but even more important is the tree keep’s position in the midst of sheer ravines that are bridged by ancient dwarven-crafted bridges. These exemplars of engineering can be extended and retracted via sturdy and reliable machinery, and they are a frustrating reminder of the good that could be wrought if the elves of Erethor and the Kaladrun dwarves could be reunited in the war against Izrador. The orc legions have attempted countless times to assault Silverthorn, but they have always suffered overwhelming casualties in doing so while not getting anywhere close to the keep itself.

Tylden

Tylden is as important as any tree keep on the Fortress Wall. This sheltered town is the dispersion point for caravans from the Caraheen that offer food, medicine, magic, weapons, and armor to the Erunsil. In return, the snow elves give their lives.
Tylden is populated mostly by the old, ill, and infirm of the Erunsil. Many who live here feel shame at being sent away from the front lines, and long for a chance to return to the fray. However, other Erunsil see the truth; in this grinding, ongoing war, each elven life is precious, and none can be spent needlessly. Those who are badly injured or sick go to Tylden to recover if they can, rather than meet a likely death in the bloodsoaked north. Those whose injuries or illnesses preclude a complete recovery, along with those Erunsil lucky enough to live to be truly “elderly,” remain in Tylden. Here they help distribute supplies, craft and repair weapons, and help direct the strategies of the long war. Most importantly, they meet the young Caransil and Miransil elves who escort the supply caravans to the north. These unblooded elves hold the scarred veterans in awe, and see their own service as a way to thank the Erunsil for their continuing sacrifice. The snow elves in Tylden, in turn, see the chance to instruct the green recruits in the ways of war as one final chance to strike a blow against the Shadow.