Эретор: Кэрахиин

Кэрахиин

The heartland of Erethor is the vast wood the elves call Caraheen, meaning “home wood” in the high tongue. It is a sylvan world dominated by trees both mundane and magical. It is an ancient and trackless place that the elves know well but in which other people often fear to tread. It is a wonderland of beautiful meadows, pleasant dales, shady copses, and babbling brooks. It is also a mysterious land of hidden groves and secret thickets, foggy vales, and murky swamps. It is at once both breathtaking and frightening, familiar and haunting. It is the Heart of Erethor, the Great Wood, the Tree Kingdom, and the Domain of the Witch Queen.
The land of the northern Caraheen is rough and rolling as it leads to the hill country of the Veradeen. There, the forest is dominated by towering spruce and thick groves of aspen and elfpine, and countless streams cut back and forth between the hills. Deer are plentiful year round, and elk and ebota are common when the winter snows drive them south. This is the hunting ground of the dire wolves and home to scores of elven tree-villages, outposts, hunting camps, and trade markets.
The heartland of the Caraheen is an ancient forest that stands almost unbroken, cut only by the wide gashes of the Itheris, Gamaril, and Felthera rivers. In the west, the hills and ridges of the heartland are dominated by oak, hickory, and shield ash. The forest thins as it reaches the sea, becoming isolated copses in coastal savanna. Enormous cedar, sequoia, and homewood trees dominate the eastern forest where the hills give way to plains and patchy woods along the border with Erenland. The central Caraheen is home to the fabled tree-city of Caradul and the High Court of the Witch Queen. For untold ages, it has been the heart of elven civilization and the pinnacle of culture in Eredane. It is the center of elven history, magic, and scientific learning.
Now, in the central Caraheen, the elves fight their most desperate battles against Izrador’s hordes, and it is in this great wood that the future of their ancient peoples will be decided.
In the southern Caraheen, the tall forests turn gradually into flatland swamps and marshes dominated by cypress, sycamore, and willow. These reach farther south, where they become the wet Aruun, and to the west, where they transition into coastal mangrove. These swamplands are pathless and dangerous places for the unfamiliar and unwary. Monstrous creatures, both natural and demonic, stalk the marshes, and legends claim that shades of the elder fey haunt the place. Few elves make their homes in these lands, and those who do are said to have been altered by the spirits who have lived there since before the days of the elthedar.
The Caraheen suffers cold winters, especially so since the rise of the Shadow in the North, but its springs are warm and bright with green leaves and new flowers. The summers are sunny and bountiful, though in recent years a pall of ash from the forest fires wrought by the invading armies of the Shadow often hangs in the air. Autumns are long, and their lingering warmth belies the coming winter. Many foresters fear the long drought that has kept the rains at bay for many years. Some are afraid it may be the evil ways of Izrador, as he works to help his hordes burn away the elven forest.

История

It is certain that elves lived in the Caraheen for thousands of years before the First Age. Most elven scholars agree that the Caraheen is the ancient homeland of the Caransil elves, and that it was from this vast wood that the other elven lineages were born. This long regional history is characterized by a prosperity and culture that has been untouched by the invasions and wars that have broken and remade so many of the lands of Eredane. Sheltered in the Caraheen, elves there were free to create a high culture unmatched by any other on the continent.
Most elven magic, art, science, philosophy, craft, and trade began in the Caraheen and migrated to the reaches of Erethor with the elves. From there, the elven ways traveled to distant lands and influenced the cultures of other peoples. It could therefore be said that not only is the Caraheen the home of elven ways, but it is also the home of much of Eredane’s culture.
Recent history has not been nearly so benign, and the protected realm of the Caraheen is now in grave danger. The orc hordes of Izrador force their way deeper into the forest every day, and even the vigilance and might of the Witch Queen do not seem enough to stem their advance. The great city of Caradul, the beating heart of the elven world, is threatened and has already begun to suffer the influx of desperate refugees from the east. The Caraheen is no longer the haven from the ravages of history it once was, and as its fate hangs in the balance, so does the fate of everything the elves hold dear.

Население

The Caraheen is the homeland of the Caransil, also known as the “elves of the wood” or simply the “wood fey” in the Norther tongue. Though it is their home, the elves share the Caraheen with many members of the other cultures. Throughout its long history, traders, merchants, students, soldiers, wizards, council members, and more have been drawn to the Caraheen and the capital from across Erethor. Now the war brings even more elves to the heartland as the fit flock to defend the realm. Across the Caraheen, there are more than three hundred thousand elves of the Caransil lineage and another forty thousand of the other elven cultures.
Izrador’s invasion of Erenland drove numerous humans and halflings from their ancestral lands. Many took refuge within Erethor and settled in large camps that eventually became true villages deep in the forest. A very few even found their way into elven settlements, where they have been grudgingly accepted. It has been a hundred years since Erenland fell to the Shadow legions, and very few of the original refugees still live. However, the refugees’ descendants have become a kind of stepchildren to the elves and make do as best they can. In all, perhaps forty-five thousand disenfranchised humans and halflings make their homes in the forests of the Caraheen.

Поселения

The elven settlements of the Caraheen are the oldest and most traditional in Erethor. The long and magical partnership between the forest and the elves allowed the elves to coax their shelters from the living wood of the trees themselves. Their magics have allowed them to change the course of springs and streams, grow orchard groves in wild woods, and create many other forms of natural infrastructure within their settlements. As a result, even the largest tree-city functions as a natural part of the forest, even though many such cities are thousands of years old.
Most elven settlements in central Erethor are in large groves of maudrial, or “homewood trees.” Homewoods are massive, with broad branches and thick, dark-green canopies. The boles of the trees spiral as they grow, and the ridges and grooves that form are magicked into rooms, passages, and chambers.
Spells bend and bind the branches of adjoining trees so that the wood of many trees actually grows together. The joined branches form large, beamlike supports within the canopy and walkways between the trees. Ever-smaller limbs and branchlets are bent and woven together magically like the reeds of a basket to form living platforms supported by the larger branches. The platforms create open decks and floors that support various structures with walls of similarly woven branches and roofs of living leaves.
Smaller trees may have only one or perhaps two such layers or decks, but larger trees may have as many as five or six. The decks are often continuous with the platforms of other trees and connect to the ones above and below by stairs and wide ladders that drop through open wells. Even the lowest platforms are usually at least 50 feet above the ground, though railings are uncommon throughout. Access to the ground is along enormous vines that have been grown in ramp-like spirals that wrap around the main tree trunks down to the forest floor. The elves have shaped steps in the largest of these vines, but use of the smaller vines simply depends on the surefooted nature of the those traversing them. Streams and natural springs were long ago diverted into the homewood groves, where their water is collected in cisterns formed in the roots of the trees. Enchanted creepers draw water up the tall trunks and dribble it springlike into public wells on the decks or large basins within individual dwellings. Hearthstones, an old elven magic, provide heat for warmth and cooking without consuming wood for fire. Fairy’s torch, created by elven druids eons ago, grows throughout the inhabited canopies and provides more than enough nighttime light. Bodily wastes are mixed with druidic powders and earth, then dumped in root middens to feed the orchard groves.
Such settlements take planning and patience to create, often requiring many years for the modification or addition of structures. For the long-lived elves, this is simply the way of things. However, the influx of refugees, soldiers, and other outlanders since the advent of the war means that many tree-cities have not been able to expand to keep pace with their growing populations. Many elven settlements have been forced to build human-style shelters on the ground and have begun to overtax their orchard groves, water supplies, and game resources. As a result, many of the larger settlements are suffering declines in the health of their surrounding forests as these resources become scarce or polluted. The forest villages in which the Erenland war refugees live are an even greater burden on the health and bounty of Erethor. These settlements are unplanned, and despite the requests and threats of the elves, their unwanted guests continue to strip the forest for resources. The humans continue to cut trees for firewood and construction materials, clear undergrowth for gardens and livestock pens, and pollute streams with waste and garbage. The lands for miles around these refugee towns have become sick and poisoned, and there is understandable and growing animosity between the cultures as a result.
Halfling domestic traditions are much less disruptive than human ones, and their refugee settlements have been less trouble for the elves and their forest. The halflings are fewer in number and have settled in smaller groups. They build living sod houses that appeal to elven sensibilities and have less impact on the forest. Their simple agrarian ways have little effect on the surrounding ecology, and their magic reduces both their need for resources such as firewood and their production of garbage and waste. As a consequence, their presence is more readily tolerated by the elves.
A further consequence of the expansion of elven towns and the establishment of the refugee settlements is that Erethor has become harder to defend against the minions of Izrador. Tree-villages are often difficult for orc patrols to find, and when patrols do find them, the elves have the tactical advantages of height, cover, and freedom of movement. The ground dwellings of the refugees and the expanding elf cities are much easier to find and greatly reduce these tactical advantages.The Witch Queen’s Court recognizes the problems that the presence of the refugee towns has created for the elves and their wood. It has dispatched advisors and sorcerers to help the refugees live more harmoniously with the forest, but they have met with only limited success. Still, there is little else that can be done, as even the Witch Queen does not have the will to drive the refugees back into their conquered lands. Ultimately, the refugees may prove a boon, as many are hungry for revenge and now eagerly fight alongside Erethor’s elven defenders.

Язык

The wood elves of the Caraheen speak High Elven, but the presence of so many other elfkin and refugees means that many wood elves also speak other languages. A few speak Sylvan, and many, especially soldiers, know Erenlander or a little Norther. Of course, they have also had to learn some Orcish, and even children in the capital know a little Orcish slang. In Caradul, there are merchants who know languages from more distant lands, such as Trader’s Tongue and Colonial. There are also scholars who know Old Dwarven and the Courtier speech of the Sarcosan academics. Finally, some agents of the Witch Queen study Shadow Tongue, the better to spy on the enemy.

Правительство

Every settlement of the Caraheen is governed by a council of aged and experienced elves chosen from the local population. Most of these elder councilors have distinguished themselves in service to the queen, the court, or the elven people. The elder councilors serve as the administrators and arbitrators for the settlement and its surrounding area. The position is an honored one, but it also comes with a great deal of responsibility. Further, it is often a thankless job, as elder council members are forced to deal with the constant and petty issues of daily life.
Each elder council selects from its number a single member to serve as a lord councilor in the Court of the Witch Queen’s Council of the Throne. There are currently fifty-three such councilors from the Caraheen, and another twenty-two from the lands of the other elves. There are also fourteen special councilors chosen by the queen herself. The Council of the Throne therefore represents many thousands of years of accumulated knowledge and experience and is a valuable resource. The duty of the Council of the Throne is to advise the queen and to provide her with the information and knowledge she needs to administer the lands of Erethor and protect the elven people. The council serves at the pleasure of the Witch Queen, however, and there is no doubt as to her absolute authority—in all matters, hers is the final word.

Религия

The gods may be gone, but the elves know other powerful magical entities share their world, trapped in the mortal realm by the Sundering. Spirits, demons, outsiders, the true fey—whatever one names them, all are real and inhabit both the light and dark places of the world. As a culture, the elves of Erethor are uniquely sensitive to the presence of these spirits, and over the millennia, have come to pay them a sort of religious homage. The elven world is rich with both named and anonymous spirits. Some are well-known and receive daily deference and offerings. Others are baleful creatures whose names are not spoken aloud and who are only called on for the most dreadful of services.

Nurellia

Nurellia is the spirit of the homewood trees and is a patron of sorts to the druids who shape the elven settlements. At the beginning of every new project, elves make offerings of homewood seeds, spring water, and rich soil to Nurellia to gain her favor for their work. Traditionally, a small bag of homewood seeds is hung over the entrances of elven dwellings in hopes of keeping the spirit’s favor.

Zulion

Zulion the Trickster is a mischievous imp trapped in Erethor by the Sundering. Though he is seldom actually summoned, his name is frequently invoked by angry elves as they shout curses at each other. The runs of bad luck that occasionally follow these curses seem more than mere coincidence, giving credence to belief in the Trickster—enough so that elven parents commonly use Zulion to frighten troublesome children into better behavior.

Corzafel

Corzafel is a shapeless, demonic entity of terrible power. It became one of Izrador’s minions when it finally gave up trying to find a way back to its native realm. The demon was once an insidious messenger for the legates and corrupted many elves to Izrador’s service. It fell prey to an arcane trap laid by Aradil and now resides sealed in an enchanted water gourd. The gourd lies among many other dangerous magical artifacts the Witch Queen keeps hidden in the bowels of the Elder Tree.

The Silent Ones

What little is known about the Silent Ones, the gods from before the Sundering, comes from the few ancient and poorly understood elthedar manuscripts maintained by elven scholars and from the enigmatic tales of immortal spirits and demons. So much knowledge has been lost since the Sundering that most of the gods are known only by obscure references to their High Elven names.

The Lords of Light

These beings are the myriad forces of the celestial realm who struggle to maintain the flow and structure of order in the universe. In the mortal realm, they manifest as the powers of good and righteousness.

The Lords of Chaos

These powers are the countless celestial agents of chaos and destruction that are seen as the gods of evil and corruption.

Galahane, the Father of Order

Galahane is thought to be one of the greatest of the Lost Gods, perhaps the ranking deity, as those things might be measured, among the lords of light.

Izrador, the Shadow in the North

Izrador is the most potent corruptive force in the universe. He is said to be the master of the lords of chaos, and it is his banished essence that now plagues the mortal world.

Shandring, the Balancing Hand

Shandring is the manifestation of the balancing forces of the universe. Not good, not evil, not of order or chaos, this power serves as both in the cosmic struggle, assuring that neither gains the greater share of power.

The Wael

These are the countless demigods who are born of the greater deities of heaven and participate as divine footsoldiers in their eternal struggles.

Heepa-heepa

“Heepa-heepa” is the elven name for the friendly spirits whom many believe watch over the lives of children. Many traditional elves perform a solemn ritual immediately following the birth of a child in which they make offerings of placental blood and ancient evocations in hopes of binding a heepa-heepa to the newborn. Though there is seldom evidence that such rituals accomplish anything, the belief and the practice remain common.

The Fallen and other Spirits of the World

In the lonely wilds are countless nature spirits with which druids and wildlanders must parley. The foresters know many of these spirits, so they can make offerings or carefully avoid them as necessary. When on unknown paths, however, elves are wise to be watchful for feral or dangerous spirits whose favor they have yet to curry or whose wrath it could be dangerous to incur.

The Abandoned

The monk scholars of the Order of Truth have kept the religious traditions of the elder fey and the Lost Gods alive since the Sundering, from the Time of Years through the ages of the scribe calendar and now into the Last Age. Changes and errors have doubtless become canon in their practices and beliefs over such an unimaginable span of time, but their order still possesses the purest records of the Lost Gods and the ways of their lost religion.
Aradil brought the Order of Truth to Caradul in the middle of the First Age as secret advisors on the ways of Izrador. Their knowledge and records have served the queen well in her wars with the Shadow, and even still the order advises her. Since the end of the Second Age, interest in the Lost Gods has spread among the elves, and a following has grown around the Abandoned. Aradil has done nothing to dissuade this; in fact, she believes the renewed faith will rebuild the order’s dwindling membership and may even be a spiritual ward of sorts against Izrador.
Almost eight hundred years ago, the order commissioned the growth of a small temple for the Lost Gods in a quiet grove just north of Caradul. The temple has since been enlarged, and the surrounding trees now contain a small community of religious scholars, apprentice monks, and faithful pilgrims from across Erethor.

Cult of the Witch

For more than two thousand years, the Cult of the Witch Queen has been an underground movement within many of the larger elven cities. The cult’s initiates believe that Aradil is actually one of the Lost Gods, returned to Aryth in mortal form to rid the world of the Shadow. The popularity of the movement has risen and fallen in the past, and once, when the murders of several vocal elven dissidents were claimed by the cult, the court went so far as to outlaw the organization. In the hundred years since the reign of the Shadow in Eredane, the cult has experienced a resurgence in membership. Though one might think that a band of zealots would make for valuable support, Aradil is concerned. She knows that in such fertile ground, corrupt weeds can quickly grow. She is wary of the insidious nature of Izrador’s agents and so keeps one of her secret avatars an active member in the cult.

Торговля и ремесло

The once far-reaching trade routes of the elven merchants are long abandoned. The war with Izrador has cut Erethor off from the lands of the other peoples of Eredane and has turned elven resources and craftspeople to wartime efforts. Now the only goods that leave or enter the forest do so in smugglers’ carts or aboard small river runners that brave Shadow patrols and enemy lines. In these baleful times, it is not for profits that such risks are taken but simply to gain weapons, information, and other commodities needed to fight the invaders.
Elven trade caravans travel only between the elven lands now, and their cargoes are mostly weapons, equipment, and goods necessary for the war effort. Foodstuffs, arrows, hearthstones, and cloth are taken to the north and exchanged for blades, raw ore, obsidian, armor, and dried meat. Goods from the Caraheen are also provided as support to the families of snow elf soldiers serving in the south. Leather goods, fruit, steel tools, and halfling cloth are exchanged with the Miransil elves for fish, small river boats, and artifacts collected from the City of the Sea. Metalwork, bows, and alchemical ingredients are taken to the Aruun Rainforest and traded with the Danisil for druid-brewed medicines, orc poisons, and books of lore and arcane research, as well as for tobacco, spices, and cloth from their halfling cousins.
In days long past, the caravan paths of Erethor were safe routes where only a hunter or two was needed to fend off the occasional wolf pack or other woodland predators that took interest in a party’s draft animals. Now the paths are dangerous ways, where chance encounters with Shadow scouts or roving ogres are common and mean bloody fighting. Now traders group their caravans together and travel well guarded, making use of little-known paths and hidden ways. It is particularly dangerous for travelers of any kind to spend the night outside the protected confines of a settlement. Izrador’s orcs and their minions are nocturnal creatures by nature who rejoice in ambushing night-darkened encampments.
In bygone days, caravans would make stops at traditional sites, called trade markets, along their routes. Such sites might only have been some tiny village, an open glen, or maybe a river ford, but they were chosen for their convenience to a number of small villages and hamlets. The caravan would stop for a day or two, and word would quickly spread of its presence, drawing customers from the area. Now caravans are only safe in well-protected villages, and as they carry goods needed for the war effort, they cannot risk the chance of being taken by orcs at the old market sites. As a result, outlying settlements seldom see caravans anymore, and their inhabitants often have to travel several days if they wish to trade with one.
Both elven and gnome trading vessels once plied the Felthera and Gamaril rivers, delivering goods and travelers to ports from Eisin to Caradul and from the Sea of Pelluria to Autilar. Now the lower stretches of these rivers are deadly battlegrounds, too dangerous for any but soldiers, scouts, and desperate smugglers. The armies of Izrador have set bands of trolls to watching the rivers and downstream fords, and passage through these places is now a lethal gamble. Only the Itheris River remains wholly under elven control, and though it is still a vital trade link to the western Veradeen, it is not an easy river to navigate. None but the smallest boats and most skilled pilots can manage its upper reaches.

Mastercrafts

Elven archers are renowned throughout Eredane, but in truth it is the elven fletchers’ art that makes their arrows fly so straight. Every elven archer knows this and only shoots their best with arrows made in the Caraheen. Even the High Elven word for arrow, io-cara, attests to this fletchers’ legacy. The fletchers of the elven heartland make such balanced shafts with such true fletches that their arrows are considered masterwork weapons. With the ongoing war, the raw materials for Caraheen arrows are in such short supply that even the feathers and tips from broken shafts are scrounged from battlefields and sent back to the heartland to be reused. The refugee halflings have proved a boon of sorts to the craft of elven leatherwork. Supplied with tools and raw materials, the halfling exiles have taken on elven apprentices and have been producing boots, saddles, and armor for the elven army for more than fifty years. Though still an uncommon item, “refugee leathers,” as the troops call halfling armor, are coveted and spoken of highly amongst the ranks.

Enchanting Wares

The elves shared their command of arcana with the other peoples of Eredane, so elven sorcerercraftspeople were not always the only source of enchanted devices and magical artifacts. Now, in a world where the use of magic is a capital crime, the wizards of Erethor are the only channelers free to practice their craft. The Caraheen is therefore essentially the last source of newly made enchanted items in all the realms of Eredane.
Elven wildlanders and druids have long practiced herbalism and plant magics that give them control over and benefits from the forest flora. Wildlanders still practice spells that can control wild plants and capture these magics in powders and fluids that the uninitiated can use. Such spells enchant plants to hide one’s tracks, entangle enemies, or even grow into poisonous thickets to protect a camp. The druids of the Caraheen once produced countless powders, elixirs, and potions from the green things of Erethor and traded them across Eredane. They healed wounds and sickness, they intoxicated and calmed, and they bequeathed magical abilities. Such potions are still brewed in the forest, but they are hoarded now and offered mostly to the soldiers and agents of the queen to aid in their fight against the forces of the Shadow.
The elves once traded all these things and more across the lands of Eredane. Now, under the Shadow, trade is restricted, and magic is forbidden. Beyond the Great Forest, Caraheen arrows are treasured and used sparingly. Hearthstones, once common in the plains, have long since burned out. Carefully hoarded elven potions are used only in times of dire need, and cloaks of elvenkind are passed on as family heirlooms. What little trade in such goods there is comes through gnome smugglers and the human outlaws who occasionally take refuge in the forest.

Пути и традиции

Though no lands are untouched by war, in the heart of the forest there is still some semblance of life before the Shadow.

Daily Magics

Mention the elves outside Erethor, and even in these dreadful times anyone listening will likely think of magic. Elves and arcane magic are historically, inextricably bound together. Elvenkind discovered arcane spellcasting and created most of the magical disciplines. They developed battle magics and were the most prolific source of enchanted objects before the rise of the Shadow. Sorcery is everywhere among the elves, and though much of their arcana is subtle, their daily lives are steeped in common spells and arcane traditions.

Schools of Magic

Though most elven channelers take on apprentices, only a few formal schools of arcane study are still operating in the Caraheen.
The School of the Willow in the city of Ensera is a traditional academy that emphasizes formal spells and careful research. Its students spend years studying the ways of the old masters and emulating their methods. The wizards trained here are the most able enchanters and produce most of the magical artifacts available in Erethor.
The Order of the Dance in the village of Senuil is well-known for its improvisational and emotive approach to spellcasting. The order produces the most formidable battle mages in Eredane. The remote hamlet known only as the Druid’s Swamp in the southern Caraheen is the home of a coven of druids who teach their apprentices to summon the nature spirits of the Great Forest. It is here that Whisper Adepts learn the way of the Whispering Wood and the awesome powers it commands.
The Queen’s Academy in Caradul was founded by Aradil herself in the middle of the First Age. Only those students with the most potential are accepted, and even after years of training they are turned away if they do not continue to meet demanding expectations. The Witch’s School, as it is often called, produces sorcerers of subtle but terrible power, masters of future sight, divination, and spirits.

The form and function of elven tree-cities is the most obvious magic in the daily lives of elves. More subtle but equally powerful sorceries, such as the Whispering Wood or the glamour that protects Caradul from discovery, pervade elven life. Lesser magics, such as hearthstones, enchanted clothes, spell-grown food, magical beasts, and conversations with mundane animals are less formidable but no less common. Magic is everywhere in Erethor, and were arcane powers to suddenly vanish from the world, elvenkind would shortly follow.
The elves of the Caraheen eat little meat, preferring cultivated vegetables and the forest’s fruits. Without magic, the elves would be unable to support the populations of their larger settlements, instead having to clear great tracts of forest and resort to human-style agriculture. The orchard groves of the elves are fantastic works of magic. Each grove appears as a natural part of the forest, but one densely packed with fruit trees, edible nuts and roots, climbing vegetables, and sprawling natural gardens. The groves offer a variety of crops throughout the year and serve as the primary source of food in the Caraheen. Orchard groves are found around most elven settlements, where apprentice druids work to keep them healthy and supernaturally productive.

Learning Magic

The Caraheen, and Caradul in particular, was once known across Eredane for its academies of magical learning. Apprentice channelers of all the free peoples came to Erethor to study with the most powerful and learned sorcerers in the world. These students would then return to their lands, carrying with them the arcana of the elves and spreading magic across Eredane. Though the elves certainly kept their greatest secrets for themselves, the arcane powers they shared have helped to shape economies and cultures throughout Eredane.
Now, most of the great magical schools are long gone, and only a few new students travel to Caradul each year to study sorcery. These are usually called to service by the queen and come to learn only battle magic. Refugees of other peoples occasionally seek magical training, but it is a hard and demanding path, and few have the discipline to learn more than the simplest spells.
The one arcane discipline that has the most new apprentices is that of the Whisper Adepts. The queen is obsessed with the growth and power of the Whispering Wood, and the endless fighting with Izrador’s orcs and their minions creates a constant supply of souls for the Adepts’ art. Aradil’s agents are watchful for those who show promise in the ways of the spirit wood. By her command, dozens of new apprentices are anointed every year, though many ultimately fail to complete the training.

Против Тени

Even after a century, the elves still fight against the Shadow. The Great Forest is the greatest battlefield of the Last Age and, so far, a site of constant defeats for Izrador.

Dire Pact

Long ago, the dire animals of Erethor rivaled the elves for mastery of the Great Forest, and the elves feared and fought them. At the end of the First Age, Aradil parleyed with these wondrous beasts and won a powerful alliance. This alliance was born under threat of war with the Shadow, but in the thousands of years since, it has grown into a deep and solemn kinship. The dire creatures are native to Erethor, created in the maelstrom that destroyed the elder fey. The Great Forest is their only home, and in their animal ways, they recognize the need to ally with the elves in protecting it. The elves in turn have grown to depend on the dire animals’ potent fighting prowess and their profound sensitivity to the natural whisper of the forest world. Though dire creatures are seldom seen, they remain in constant contact with their elven allies, and in times of need, they fight by their side. They also sometimes serve as scouts, patrol members, or even couriers and battle mounts.
The dire species of Eredane are almost cultures unto themselves. They have societies organized in hierarchies determined by age and physical prowess. They speak their own tongues and know enough simple High Elven to communicate basic information with the elves. Dire creatures are found only in and around Erethor and so cherish the Great Forest. They are motivated by a burning hatred of Izrador and his minions, and therefore steadfast allies of the elves.

Lord Councilors

The elven lands are by no means democratic. They are ruled by Aradil’s firm hand, and there is no question as to her authority. She is a wise woman, however, and sincerely considers the advice of the sage members of the Council of the Throne. The council has offered advice to the elven rulers since the elven peoples were first united, and the rulers who have ignored them often did so at their folly.
Councilors are typically well-respected, experienced individuals of considerable power and authority in their own home settlements. Most are learned, cooperative, far thinking, and loyal. Still, as with any such group, they can sometimes be ignorant, stubborn, shortsighted, and self-serving as well. Even in the council, there are alliances, cooperatives, cabals, and enmities. Aradil is mindful of these and careful to keep them in check. She is not above using them to her advantage as well.

Beonoul

Beonoul is the oldest member of the council and was one of Aradil’s lieutenants during the second war with Izrador. She is a bent and wrinkled elf from the northern lands and can hardly speak above a whisper. Her will is strong, however, and she is perhaps the staunchest supporter of the queen on the council. There are even whispers that Aradil uses magic to keep the cantankerous old woman alive because of this. In truth, Beonoul is a sage advisor who says little but tells profound truths when she does speak.

Durelion

Durelion is the lord councilor from Caradul and is the master instructor at the Queen’s Academy. He is a proud elf with long black hair, silver robes, and a vanity to match his considerable magical powers. Durelion is one of the most accomplished mages in Erethor and also one of the most arrogant. He is at the same time in awe and envious of Aradil’s sorcerous abilities and wishes nothing more than to be made one of her avatars. He is convinced that this would finally bring his own powers to transcendence.

Suruliam

Suruliam is a Danisil and a skilled druid. She is the lord councilor from Prasnial, but since the fall of that city to the orc legions she has resided either in Caradul or in Druid’s Swamp, where she trains future Whisper Adepts. Suruliam is one of Aradil’s key advisors regarding the Whisper, and as the queen has become so dependent on the Whispering Wood, Suruliam’s is a very important post.

Puiomoro

Puiomoro was the lord councilor from the river valley town of Eisin, the elven trading outpost along the banks of the Felthera on the plains of the southern Westlands. He was an influential merchant before the third rise of Izrador and is an expert on the ways of humans. Though the city he represents was razed almost a hundred years ago, Puiomoro remains a councilor at the queen’s request, as she finds his insight and observations regarding humanity invaluable.

Risen Dead

As if the burning forest were not a dire enough threat to accompany the invading Shadow hordes, a new menace has risen quite literally from the dead to do battle with the beleaguered elves. The Fell have long been a bane to all the peoples of Eredane, including the minions of Izrador, for in their single-minded and insatiable state, they do not care what peoples they attack as long as they are warmblooded and living. Now, however, it seems the foul legates of the Order of Shadow have used their divine magics to gain some measure of control over these heinous creatures.
In recent years, an increasing number of reports have surfaced of marauding packs of undead of all cultures—including orcs, humans, and even elves. At first, these undead bands were thought to simply be the inevitable result of neglected battlefield dead waking to unlife. However, recent encounters between elven soldiers and these undead packs have proven that something else is going on— that these creatures are being directed by some authority greater than their own hunger. Their actions are more organized and methodical than those of typical undead, and most are more deliberately armed than zombies are wont to be. Most telling is that elven scouts report seeing these undead troops marching with living orc soldiers, taking their orders, and in a few cases, even fighting beside them.
The Witch Queen now realizes that Izrador is adding undead soldiers to the ranks of his foul armies. These creatures are a horrible threat that instills dread in the most resolute warriors. Even some dire animals, fearless and steadfast elven allies, flee in fear at the approach of these unnatural beings. Aradil and her advisors recognize the danger this new threat represents but are increasingly hopeless in their efforts to counter it.

The Arbor of the Witch Queen

The Arbor is a beautiful place that exudes an air of antiquity and elven nature traditions. It is where Aradil once met with foreign diplomats and emissaries and where she holds her increasingly rare audiences and councils with her advisors. This is where the Councilors of the Throne hold public meetings and make formal political announcements. It is where honors are paid to heroes who fall in battle and where faithful subjects make requests to the court.
The Arbor is a long hall of an irregular, wending shape, with living walls and a vaulted roof that are open to the sky when weather allows. Verdant plants— vines, shrubs, flowers, and saplings—grow garden-like across the floor and up the walls, and an enchanted spring bubbles into a reflecting pool in the middle of the room. At the far end of the chamber is a large circle of throne-like chairs that are formed of branches growing up from the floor. A single chair at the top of the circle, larger and more ornate than the others, sits on a raised dais of living wood—the Throne of the High Queen of Erethor. It is said that if one loyal to Erethor were to sit upon the throne, the Whisper would reveal its greatest secrets to them. It is also said that if an enemy of the elves were to sit there, the Whisper would instantly and permanently shatter their sanity.

Unholy Fires

War has raged on the borders of Erethor for a hundred years, but only in the last three decades have Izrador’s armies learned how to fight in the woods and how to successfully battle the forest itself. One terrible tactic the elves are powerless to stop is the use of fire. Once just a natural part of the forest life cycle, fire has become a nasty tool Izrador’s forces are using to terrible effect.
In the early years of the fighting, the healthy trees and moist soils confounded the orc legions’ efforts to burn the forest. Sadly, the Caraheen has experienced an unnatural drought for many years, and the forest is beginning to suffer. Many shallow wetlands have dried away, vast swaths of woods are brown, and many groves are sick and dying. The elven court fears that the want for water is Izrador’s doing—that he has turned his divine powers to holding off the natural rains. In recent summers, the forest fires set by his soldiers have raged out of control. They burn huge tracts of forest, destroying ancient trees, killing wildlife, and razing elven settlements. The largest area of constantly burning forest is west of the Plains of Ash and Blood, which are themselves merely a graveyard of previously destroyed woodland. Elves and orcs alike have come to call this front the Burning Line. Dense and acrid smoke from the line settles over the wood for hundreds of miles, blocking sight and confounding smell. Even the tree spirits of the forest are powerless to resist, and their death shrieks sound a shrill and terrifying note in the Whisper.

The Whispering Wood

It is not only silent wildlanders and keen-eyed archers who guard the forest of Erethor from the Shadow’s forces. Great magics also flow through the trees, protecting the elven nation and the forest itself from invasion. One of the most powerful and vital forms in which this magic manifests is known as the Whispering Wood.
The Whispering Wood is an ancient construct that has been part of the Witch Queen’s realm since the end of the First Age, created through a ritual gone awry and an elven channeler’s heroic sacrifice. The Wood is a vast, interconnected network of trees and forest groves that have been possessed by the souls of the elven dead. Though thickest in the Caraheen, the Whispering Wood is not restricted to central Erethor, and there are many thousands of individual trees scattered throughout the Great Forest that host these spirits. Each is able to commune with the others nearby and pass information, visions, and warnings throughout the forest from one enchanted tree to the next. This flow of spirit voices is called the Whisper. It can usually only be heard by elves and only fully understood by trained Whisper Adepts.
In Erethor, anyone who is tuned to the hidden flow of nature magic can use those feelings to sense the unseen in their surroundings. They are able to determine the proximity of others, the direction game has fled, and the presence of danger or outlanders.
Sensing the Whisper is not just an active or even conscious ability, and the forest can whisper to her children at any time.
The Witch Queen and her Whisper Adepts have a far greater sense of the Whisper than most elves. It is said that the queen and her Adepts can possess individual trees, seeing what they see and hearing what they hear. Stories claim the most able Adepts can pass into a spirit tree and rest there, hidden from danger. The most powerful are said to then be able to pass unseen from one tree to the next as if on some secret path. Such powers mean that even the farthest corner of Erethor does not escape the queen’s attention, and that within the forest nothing is kept secret from her for long. The ability to hear the Whisper and react to its warnings gives the elves a preternatural advantage within Erethor. This attuned state is a key defense within the forest and one of the reasons Erethor has so far been able to hold off the advance of the Shadow.
The Whispering Wood originated at the end of the First Age, during the first war with Izrador. Umann-Ul, the father of elven druidic traditions, was killed in the Battle of Autilar while conducting a ritual to call on the spirits of the forest to help break the siege. Umann was killed, the powerful spell went awry, and the tree spirits failed to manifest. Later that same night, the elves besieged at Autilar heard Umann whispering to them out of the darkness, telling them of a gap in the enemy lines. The beleaguered elven defenders crept through the gap and escaped, only to return with reinforcements at dawn and slay the surprised Shadow forces.
In time, the story of Umann’s strange message reached the Witch Queen, who ordered her druid advisors to discover what had happened. The advisors soon learned that much of Umann-Ul’s soul remained, entwined within the very trees he had been calling on for aid. After long study and experimentation, the druids learned how to purposely meld the souls of the dead with the essence of potent tree spirits. Throughout the Second Age, many who lived for the forest and wished to continue protecting elven lands offered their spirits to the Wood in death.
Now, however, as Izrador holds Erenland and threatens to take Erethor, every elf has come to believe it is a sacred duty to become part of the Wood. The constant fighting on the borders creates no small supply of dead, and in the last hundred years, the number of spirits in the Whispering Wood has grown quickly. Some of the queen’s druid advisors believe that as it grows, the Wood is slowly becoming something else. They believe it has begun to manifest new powers and seems almost to have gained a coherent essence beyond the sum of its parts. Some are excited by the promise this new force holds. Others are quietly fearful of what it may become.
The Whispering Wood is maintained by the Adepts. It is their somber responsibility to link the souls of dead elves with the tree spirits. When an elf dies, a Whisper Adept places an enchanted seed in the deceased’s mouth. The seed quickly grows into a strong network of vines that securely enwraps the body as proof against its rising as one of the Fell. The Adept then travels deep into Erethor—the Wood has grown large over the past centuries, and it often takes many days’ travel to reach a region of forest that has not been imbued with the Whisper. The enwrapped body is buried within the roots of a large tree, along with several ensorcelled seeds. The Adept then conducts an elaborate, nightlong ritual that binds the soul of the fallen elf to the essence of the tree, adding a new spirit to the flow of the Whisper.
The powers of the Wood explain in part how the elven people have been able to hold off the advance of the Shadow into Erethor. The intelligence and warnings the Whisper delivers to the Witch Queen are vital and allow her to most effectively deploy her forces, control her agents, and defend the forest.

The Witch Queen

The ancient line of the elven monarchs is a vaunted lineage of rulers. Though many are now lost to time, the legacies of others have become myth and legend. Hatuliun the Healer, who lived a thousand years and a day. Orinian, who died in the Wizard Fire in the Year of Green Autumn. Fionial the Mother, who is said to have borne each line of the elves. The Scribe Archives contain hundreds of lineages, accounts, and biographies describing the lives of the elven monarchs, including stories about the unification of the ancient elfkin tribes under Shadiuil, the first elven high king. Not even the greatest of these legends compares to the reign of Aradil the Witch Queen. She is the most recent in this line of monarchs and without question the greatest ruler the elves, or any peoples of Aryth, have ever known.
The elves are the longest-lived peoples of Eredane, but Aradil’s magics have kept her alive for almost nine thousand years, and most elves believe she is immortal. She is the most powerful sorcerer the elves have ever born, and her control of the arcane is absolute. Her sublime wisdom has guided her kingdom through long wars with orc and human invaders, and twice she has led the forces that drove Izrador back into the north. She now wages a third war against the Shadow, and she inspires her forces to continue the fight although hope of final victory is all but lost. Aradil is an elemental force of nature and is loved by her people, who almost worship her as they might a god.
Aradil appears as an ageless elven woman. She is possessed of a cold and alien beauty, but she exudes an overwhelming charisma that transcends mere physical appearance and captures the heart of any who look upon her. She is tall for an elf and has long, flowing black hair that is graying at the temples. Her skin is pale and careworn, but her back is straight and her arms are still able to swing a sword. Aradil’s eyes, however, are the source of legend. They are completely black, without whites. The stories claim she never blinks, but none seem able to meet her gaze long enough to be sure. Aradil moves with a perfect economy of motion and slow grace that accentuates hersurreal presence. She wears simple gowns of forest green and always goes unshod. The tales say it is so she might better sense the spirit of the forest through the earth and living wood beneath her feet.
In her eight millennia as High Queen of Erethor, Aradil has become something more than elven. She has ascended to a spiritual place that she alone occupies. She rarely interacts with the surrounding world and seldom appears in public. She almost never even speaks directly with the Council of the Throne. In fact, Aradil rarely leaves the lower levels of the Elder Tree, preferring to sit in the darkness of her secret chambers, lost in a deep trance night and day. From this state, Aradil maintains constant communion with the Whispering Wood and controls the actions of her many avatars.
Aradil acts and interacts most commonly through her avatars. No one but the queen is exactly sure just how many she controls, but there are at least twenty in Caradul and likely another fifty spread throughout Erethor. The Queen’s Avatars are formidable servants, handpicked to serve in this honored capacity. Avatars dedicate their lives to Aradil, serving as her eyes, ears, hands, and voice in the court and the elven realm beyond. The Queen’s Avatars are not simply agents of the queen: they are Aradil herself. Through arcane arts, she is able to possess the bodies of her avatars and act through them. Aradil is able to inhabit as many avatars as she wishes simultaneously, allowing her to speak to the Council of the Throne, command her armies at the fronts, and research her magics in the Elder Tree’s laboratories all at the same time. The Queen’s Avatars give her a form of omnipotence that is perhaps Aradil’s single most sublime power.
The Queen’s Avatars dress is green livery, whether it is a scholar’s robes or the armor of a general. Each also wears a sapphire diadem at their throat to signify their office. As if this heraldry were not enough, over time, the eyes of Aradil’s avatars slowly darken to black, gaining the same chilling gaze as their mistress. The avatars include all ages and genders, and though most are elves, there are at least five halflings, several humans, and even a lone dwarf among their number. The longer an avatar serves the queen, the more they seem to lose their previous identity, submitting it completely to Aradil’s will. After several years, there is no discernible trace of the original personality, as it becomes one with that of the queen and her other avatars. On the rare occasion that such a highly ranked avatar is left unpossessed, they simply stand or sit where left as if in a deep trance. The fact that her subjects willingly submit to such a fate is further testament to the elves’ devotion to their queen.
There are a number of avatars the queen maintains in secret. She inhabits these only periodically. They do not wear her livery, and she uses them sparingly enough that their eyes do not turn the characteristic black. The queen uses these secret avatars to keep a clandestine watch across her realm. There is one in the Council of the Throne, several in the armies along the fronts, one in the Queen’s Academy, and at least one in each of the major cities of Erethor. Even in a realm where the least subject is willing to die for their queen, there cannot be too much caution or security. The agents of Izrador are everywhere, and in the end, no one is to be trusted. Aradil has learned this in the very hardest of ways.

The Archives of the Elven Court Scribes

The Scribe Archives have always been the oldest collection of recorded knowledge in Eredane, and with the burning of the Scholar’s Academy at Highwall, they are now the largest and most complete library as well. The archives contain thousands of books, scrolls, folios, and letters on every of academic discipline. The wizened librarians sort and catalog the information in their own cryptic ways, but facts and wisdom about natural science, history, philosophy, astronomy, politics, and more can be found in the collections.
Once, there were more than a hundred Honored Scribes of the Court in Caradul and often many times that number of students and visiting scholars. Each contributed new material and knowledge to the library, keeping it updated and vital. Now, in the long cast of the Shadow, there is little time for pure academics, and the shelves and racks of the archives grow dusty. Many scribes have put down their styluses to take up bows and swords, and the librarians quietly mourn the wane of learning. 

Места и особенности

These are some of the notable sites of the forests that stretch from the northernmost reaches of the continent to the southernmost tip.

Caradul

The oldest occupied city in Eredane, Caradul is the center of the elven world and a place of mystery and magic to those outside Erethor. Caradul, meaning “home of the people,” is a massive tree-city supported by a grove of almost a thousand homewood and giant cedar trees. It sits on the banks of the upper Felthera River and is home to more than forty thousand Caransil, along with an additional three thousand other elves. Only a very few outlanders live in the city, and these are unique individuals there at the special request of the queen.
The city is a traditional one with few ground structures. It was once well planned and beautiful, but the necessities of the long war against the Shadow have served to transform the place. The branch platforms support closely packed structures, and every space not occupied by older buildings now holds public halls, storage chambers, barracks, smithies, and craftspeople’s shops. The interconnecting walkways are narrow and wend between or along the tops of the various structures. River water is magicked into large cisterns formed out of hollow branches, and new orchard groves crowd the ground beneath and around the city. The only significant ground structures are the small river docks that moor hunting canoes, scout runners, troop transports, and the occasional smuggler’s boat.
As the home of the Witch Queen, Caradul is the seat of elven political and arcane power, and it is from this place that the resistance against the Shadow is commanded. As a consequence, city defenses are tantamount to tradition and ecology. The Whispering Wood is thick for hundreds of miles about Caradul. Garrisoned outposts and lookouts form a growing perimeter about the city, parties of archers and battle mages patrol the surrounding wood, and dire creatures stalk the nighttime forest hunting agents of the Shadow. There are few access points to the city decks, and these can readily be cut away if the city is attacked. No vital structures or equipment are left on the ground, and a series of enchanted cataracts far down stream keep unwanted boats from coming up the Felthera.
The single most powerful magical defense protecting the city is a compelling glamour created by Aradil herself. The spell ensorcels any creatures harboring ill will toward the elves, preventing them from finding Caradul. The magic is subtle but powerful. It causes enemies searching for the city to become lost or confused. It makes them forgetful and saps them of their will to push deeper into the forest. Often, before they even realize what has happened, the victims of the ward find themselves headed back the way they have come, and happy to be doing so.

The Elven Court

Caradul is home to the elven High Court. The court resides in a massive and ancient tree that legend says grew from the First Seed of Erethor and was watered by the tears of the Lost Gods. In truth, the tree is a strange one, of a species seen nowhere else in the forest. It was ancient when Aradil was crowned, and though it is mentioned countless times in the histories of the court scribes, the species of tree, or why it seems to be the only one, is never revealed. It is referred to by most as the Elder Tree, or simply the Court.
The Elder Tree is truly massive, with a bole more than 250 feet across and a canopy that towers above those around it. Its branches are only joined to those of the surrounding city by a single formal bridge. Where the large bole separates into the branches of the upper canopy, there is a single plaza: the Arbor of the Witch Queen. Open and airy in summer, protected by its high roof of leaves in the rain, and sealed tight against the winter cold by intertwining branches and vines that regrow with the seasons, the Arbor is the official center of the elven world.
There are no other structures or platforms on the branches of the Elder Tree. Instead, dozens of passages, halls, and chambers lie within the trunk and branches, formed by old druidic magics. The upper bole houses the Hall of the Council of the Throne, the Scribe Archives, and the studies of the Order of Truth. Below these is a warren of meeting rooms, libraries, workspaces, and living quarters for the inner circle of the elven court.
The deeper rooms are rumored to be off-limits to all but the queen and her avatars, and the passages are said to extend to dark chambers within the tree’s massive and ancient roots. This is where Aradil resides and increasingly spends most of her time. This is where it is said she researches her most powerful magics and spends weeks at a time entranced, listening to the Whisper.

Keep of the Cataracts

Izrador’s forces have not yet used the Felthera to transport a siege force to Caradul. What keeps them away are the Keep of the Cataracts and the powerful spirit that dwells in the rapids there. The fortress is a living tree keep, much like those of northern Erethor, formidable but not unbreachable. Also, it is tricky but not impossible to navigate the cataract. It is a long tumble of boulders and quick water, but elven river runners and welcome traders have long known how to make the passage.
The true defense at the Keep of the Cataracts is the water itself. An elder water elemental has dwelled there since the Dornish invasion, summoned by Hurial, a skilled druid of the River Sept, as a defense against the humans. The spirit still defends the cataract against enemies of the elves, obeying the will of the River Sept druids, who hold watch in the keep. That stretch of river is always eerily quiet, even with the rushing water. Animals shy from the area, and even in the heyday of river traffic, outlander captains never liked to tarry near the cataract. The stories of the rage and fury of the unleashed elemental are frightful and give even the druids who control the spirit pause when they are near the water.

Harancara

Knowing that every elf of Erethor would someday be called to battle, the Witch Queen long ago established a school for those who would lead and inspire them. Harancara is that place, a school that trains warriors and commanders for the never-ending war on the borders of Erethor. Harancara rests higher in the canopy of Erethor than any other settlement, and in its boughs the elves train in treetop fighting, ambushes, corralling, and even learn to fight amidst the smoke and fire that precede the Shadow’s main battle lines. Elves from the other regions of Erethor come here to train as well, adding their own expertise and taking new techniques back home with them. Strategically, Harancara guards over an area of thin forest that would likely be the staging ground for any siege of Caradul, making its fall imperative to the success of any such endeavor.

The Eivers of the Caraheen

The great rivers of the Caraheen — the Felthera and the Gamaril — were once highways for traders and travelers from as far away as the dwarven city of Calador and the Erenland capital of Alvedara. They carried elven barques and canoes, Dorn longboats, and gnome trade barges. They were vital links in commerce, communication, and culture, alive with activity and traffic. Many elven towns and villages grew along their banks, and their waters flowed through the forest like its lifeblood.
Now the rivers are hostile and dangerous battle zones. The Shadow hordes have constructed massive earthen battleworks where the Gamaril meets the Sea of Pelluria and where the Felthera leaves the protection of Erethor. From the battlements atop them, they command access to the rivers with powerful war machines and elemental magics. They use captured longboats to patrol far up the rivers and reinforce outposts along their banks. They line the shores with archers and ambush elven river runners. Izrador’s agents dump alchemical toxins in the streams that kill the fish the elves eat and poison the water they drink. Their legates conjure horrible aquatic beasts and release them into the waters. The death and destruction caused by these monsters have forced the abandonment of more than one elven river town. At the queen’s request, Danisil river hunters from the southern forests have come north and now stalk these fearsome creatures.
A five-hundred-mile stretch of eastern Erethor borders the western shore of the Sea of Pelluria. At the mouth of the Gamaril, a large delta feeds vast swamps that flood the surrounding forests every spring. In the past, the annual floods were a boon to the wood, creating a verdant and bountiful ecology in which the local elven villages reveled. Now the swamps also serve as a refuge for elven armies fighting along the forest boundaries. The paths of the swamps are well-known to the elves but seem to confound the Shadow’s forces. The elves tread lightly along hidden ways, and their narrow war canoes let them quickly cover great distances. The mud drags at the orcs’ heavy boots, and the waters are too shallow and the trees too dense for their longboats. The forests are bountiful, providing food and shelter to the elves and nothing but biting insects, quick muds, and marshland predators for the Shadow soldiers. The elves run their supply lines through the swamps to the central Caraheen and hole up in the marshes, making sallies against the enemy lines and patrols. It is even rumored that a clan of dire weasels hunts this region and has taken a great liking to orc meat.

Three Oaks

On the southern edge of the Darkening Wood in the Caraheen stands a trio of impossibly large oak trees. The trees’ branches seem to stretch for miles, the uppermost reaching toward the heavens. Three Oaks is the stronghold of the Caransil resistance in the south. Thousands of Izrador’s orcs, goblins, and giants have met their deaths there trying to destroy the trees and their defenders. The Night King Zardrix, Wrath of Shadow, a great dragon with a wingspan as wide as that of a homewood tree’s canopy, has attacked Three Oaks on at least two occasions, yet the fortress survives. Three Oaks is a constant reminder of the strength of the fey resistance and an insult to the chosen of Izrador. Destroying the tree keep would put the entire southern portion of the elven defenses in jeopardy.
The keep’s powers and defenses are many, including a power nexus that allows damage to the trees to be repaired quickly and a swath of animated plant life around it that is lethal to the elves’ foes but parts for the elves themselves.