The Hollow Grove
The Hollow Grove is the heart of Withered Elf spirituality and culture—a vast, eerie woodland sanctuary where the oldest and most sacred of Hollow Elders still stand. Hidden in the deepest reaches of the decaying Wilds, this ancient grove is not just a place, but a living testament to the intertwining of death, memory, and rebirth.
The Hollow Grove is where Withered Elves:
- Commune with their ancestors,
- Undergo rites of passage such as Sporebinding or Fungal Awakening,
- Seek guidance from elders or Hollow Seers—shamanic figures attuned to the voices in the spores.
It is also a place of mourning and transformation. When one of their own dies, their body is entombed in the Grove, offered to the trees in return for wisdom or rebirth.
Despite its spiritual nature, the Grove is fiercely protected. The very land resists intruders—paths shift, illusions confuse, and the Grove itself may lash out with toxic spores or animated fungal guardians. Only those with Withered Elf blood or the Grove’s favor may safely enter and leave its heart.
In all of the Wilds, the Hollow Grove is a place feared by outsiders, revered by its people, and utterly inseparable from the legacy of the Withered Elves.
Geography
The Hollow Grove is nestled within a sun-starved basin, where the canopy of the forest has thickened into an almost impenetrable shroud of rotwood and fungus. Light filters in as a faint, greenish glow—more from bioluminescent fungi and phosphorescent spores than from the sun itself. The air is heavy with the scent of mulch and mycelium, and strange whispers drift on the wind—sometimes echoes of the past, sometimes tricks of the Grove’s lingering spirits.
The land is soft and spongy beneath foot, riddled with fungal outgrowths, moss-choked roots, and the occasional gnarled bone totem or ritual effigy. Many paths lead in, but few lead out—unless one knows the way or is guided by the Grove’s caretakers.
At its center stand the hollowed remains of the Elder Trees—towering, cavernous trunks, long dead but still humming with residual magic. These trees serve as:
- Shrines to ancestor spirits,
- Council halls for Withered Elf leaders,
- Burial chambers where bodies are returned to the roots to nourish new life.
The interiors are carved with runes and spiraling murals that depict the cycle of decay and remembrance, often painted with memory sap and ash.
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