The Woodland

The Woodland is defined by the dense forests from which it takes its name. They obstruct travel and construction, and even after years of habitation, the Woodland denizens are largely confined to "clearings", mostly-treeless areas amid an absolute sea of timber. The denizens have cut paths between the clearings, facilitating travel and trade, but those are far from real roads.
Striding out into the forests between paths an clearings is a foolish, dangerous endeavor. The forests play home to bandits and outlaws, to bears and deer, to harsh condtons and dangerous terrain.
There are many species of Woodland denizen, and all of them are anthropomorphic animal-folk. The dominant species include vulpine (foxes), mousefolk (mice), harengon (rabbits), and aarokocra (birds). Clearings are populated mostly by one of the ground-dweeling species, with the aarokocra spread out in the canopies across the Woodland.

A Land in Turmoil

The Woodland is, first and foremost, a deep forest. With its relative location being somewhat close to the Lesser Pole of the Feywild as a whole, much of the Woodland reflects the Material Plane in its nature. But upon a closer look, the Woodland, in contrast to most Cynthian forests, is a seemingly endless sea of trees and foliage. It hides dark deeds, ancient ruins, and dangerous creatures. The land is not tame -- the trees themselves and those who live amonst them are not safe.
The closest a denizen will come to safety in the Woodland are the confines of the clearings, areas either natural or paw-made where the trees thinned out and the denizens of the Woodland built there lives. They set up homes and shops and forges, and they found safety in each other's company.
Of course, it took no time at all for others to try and take power over these clearings. The Eyrie Dynasties were the first, and oldest -- the aarokocra built their homes in the trees above the rest of the denizens, and soon enough believed themselves to be above those denizens in power and status, too. The Eyrie took control of clearing after clearing, until it was the reigning institution in all of the Woodland.
But the Eyrie's nobles and petty tyrants squabbled with each other over control and rulership. Until eventually, in the Grand Civil War (only "Grand" because it's the most recent), the Eyrie Dynasties tore themselves apart. They were left without enough support, armies, or resources to hold control over much of anything at all. And for a time, the Woodland denizens took charge of their own clearings.
Until the cats arrived.
Armies from a far away tabaxi empire swept into the now uncontrolled and undefended Woodland. Some denizens of the Woodland fought back, but the invaders were well-trained, well-equipped, and too much for any civilian militia to turn back. The valuable resources of the Woodland would feed the bellies of the tabaxi empire. Soon enough, the Marquise de Cat, dispatched by the empire's bureaucratic overlords, arrived to take control of the new colony, and the Woodland denizens found themselves under the paw of a new aristocracy.
As the cats were consolidating their rule and establishng new industrial buildings to tap the Woodland's resources, the newly reunited and resurgent Eyrie Dynasties returned to the Woodland, seizing power from the Marquise's forces to reestablish their hegemonic ascendancy. They rebuilt roosts in the treetops of the Woodland clearings, and opened up full war against the Marquise's soldiers.
In the midst of the blooming conflict, the denizens of the Woodland began sharing secrets and new words in the shadows. Vulpine began stockpiling weapons, and mousefolk began stealing communications between officers on all sides of the war. Meetings in root cellars called to a war for freedom, and the fires of rebellion began to smolder. The name of "the Woodland Alliance" was whispered across the clearings.

The Wooded Lands of the Woodland

The thick woods of the Woodland keep the denizens contained to the pathways and the clearings. To venture out beyond that safety is to risk running afoul of bandits, foul weather, rough terrain, and terrible predators. Fortunately, those paths between clearings are well-worn and patrolled by merchants and armed forces.
The clearings play home to many, many different kinds of denizens, from wolves to badgers to squirrels to opossums. But the primary inhabitants of the Woodland are the aarokocra, vulpine, mousefolk, and harengon. The aarokocra spread themselves out among all the clearings, but most clearings are dominated by a majority of one race of denizen.
Some clearings will be open and friendly to any kid of Woodland denizen, from those who dominate their clearing to those who are far away; other clearings will fear any strangers who come by.

Factions at War

Though the war of the Woodland started with just three factions, the land now plays home to many denizens and powerful militias, all vying for control of its resources. The factions involved in the war extend over the width and breadth of the Woodland and its surrounding land, and it is nigh impossible to visit a clearing not involved in the war in some form or fashion.
The Marquisate: Named for the Marquise de Cat who leads it, the Marquisate is either a faction of foreign invaders and colonizers, or a new force for order and industrilization -- it depends on whom you ask.
The Marquise de Cat comes from a foreign empire, and swept into the Woodland with her army when the Eyrie Dynasties were no longer in power. In general, the Marquise's goal is still to industrialize the Woodland and fully tap its resources. Perhaps this is about improving her own position in her home empire; perhaps it really is about improving the lot of denizens of the Woodland. Only time will tell.
The Eyrie Dynasties: The history of the Eyrie Dynasties stretches deep into the Woodland's past. They claim that they have always ruled the Woodland, and always shall. True, their reign was characterized by infighting, by regime change (often at the edge of a blade), by aarikocran dominance and oppression of the other Woodland denizens . . . but they also protected the clearings from bandits and the wild. They built and maintained the paths between the clearings. They enforced law and order, and they made the Woodland what it is today.
Everything came crashing down in a recent civil war one of the more vicious conflicts to ever face the Eyrie. The Dynasties nearly tore themselves to pieces back then. Now, a newly resurgent Eyrie is caught in a war with the Marquisate to retake the Woodland clearings -- their rightful domain. And with an enemy outside of itself for once, the Eyrie is ready to wage total war. After all, the denizens of the Woodland still need its protection.
The Woodland Alliance: In the midst of the new war for the Woodland, many denizens have reached their boiling point. After years of chaos in which they found themselves free of any reigning wing, paw, or claw, to suddenly have two major empires trying to force a yoke upon them yet again -- it is unacceptable. These denizens built the Woodland Alliance, a network of would-be rebels, and waited for their moment to hit the Eyrie and the Marquisate hard enough to take back their Woodland.
The Woodland Alliance isn't a straight representative of their denizens, of course -- they weren't elected or chosen by the denizens at large. They arose from the denizens most angry at the current war and the other powers, and they are willing to take extreme measures to defeat those empires. Sometimes, that means freeing clearings from oppressive regimes. Other times, that means creating martyrs and making terrible sacrifices.
The Vagabonds: Vagabonds have been a part of the Woodland for as long as it as existed. Exiles, outcasts, strangers, oddities, idealists, rebels, criminals, freethinkers. Those who don't fit into the clearings and the paths, who were hardy enough to survive in the spaces between that the other denizens avoid. Some dwelt in the forests themselves, completely eschewing the taboos against living in those most dangerous of places.
In times of peace, the vagabonds did what others would not, for a price of course. In times of war, the vagabonds found ample opportunity to fill their purses, from scavenging to sellsword work to straight-up thievery. In all cases, they would do what it took to survive, each one finding their own niche of safety and to the hells with the rest.
But now, in the midst of this great war that threatens the whole of the Woodland, even the normally solitary vagabonds are finding it more and more difficult to survive by their lonesome. They are banding together, protecting each other, and forming into groups potent enough that even the great powers of the Eyrie and Marquisate are taking notice.
The Lizard Cult: An insurgent group of lizardfolk who attempt to cater to those creatures who have been discarded by the other factions, the Lizard Cult seeks to overwhelm its foes through sheer force of will. The Cult relies on word of mouth and beak to spread its gospel, and new enclaves can spring up anywhere in the Woodland. But while the Cult preaches spiritual enlightenment, skeptics have discovered horrifying religious practices, such as sacrificing aarokocra to the dragon that they worship as deity.
Their god, the Great Dragon, offers salvation to a starved and desperate people. The Cult's pilgrims rush to the holy gardens established by the Cult as sacred places of worship to the Great Dragon.
The other factions, even unaware of the unsettling practices, are wary of the cult's growing following as their religion is slowly but surely undermining their ideaological rule. It is said that in clearings where the holy gardens are maintained, the Lizard Cult is the true power.
The Riverfolk Company: When news arrived that the Woodland was descending into an all-out war, the Riverfolk Company (natives of Branwenn Mear) quickly dispatched its officers to set up shop. Master profiteers, who care little about the future of the Woodland or its denizens, the otters became richer and richer they more they convinced the competing parties that their goods and services were necessary.
The Riverfolk have since been able to further entrench their commercial interests by building trade posts across the Woodland's clearings, able to tip the scales of war toward one faction or another, only to set up another trade post in that faction's fiercest rival, ready to sell their goods to whoever they deem would give them a bigger profit. As long as the war continues, the Riverfolk Company will find a way to profit.
The Corvid Conspiracy: A smalll group of kenku who dissented from the Eyrie Dynasties, the Corvid Conspiracy is known by most as a faction of domestic terrorists. Legend has it that the Eyrie Dynasty was moments from striking a fatal blow to the Marquisate, until a massive sabotage plot conducted by the Conspiracy destroyed their bases and supplies. Then the kenku defected from their previous masters and became their own faction in the war. No denizen of the Woodland truly knows why the kenku violently abandoned the Dynasties, but intelligently-formed hypothesis attribute it to still more Dynasty infighting.
Since then, they have held the Woodland hostage, manipulating the events of the war through espionage and terrorism. The agents of the Conspiracy hatch sinister plots to fund their criminal operations so that they can strongarm the powers of the Woodland into submission. Many spies that are sent to unravel the intricate shadow networks of the elusive kenku get lost chasing false leads until they end up in the clutches of the Conspiracy itself.
The Underground Duchy: An already-powerful group of moles that rules the ground underneath the Woodland, the elected lords of the Underground Duchy seek to expand their reach to satisfy their people, and do so by emerging topside and staking their claim.
The Underground Duchy's government is managed by a large system of bureaucratic ministers dedicated to futhering the interests of their state in various areas of governance. The Duchy has long regarded the surface dwellers with suspicion. The moles believed that they had enough wealth to satiate their ambitions indefinitely. But the stores are dwindling, and there are those of the Duchy who look to the Woodland on the surface for expansion. The first military expeditions to the surface were looked upon as foolhardy endeavors.
But as victories on the surface are won, and frontier outposts begin to prove profitable, more ministers are swayed to support the cause. These new ministers redirect the Duchy's vast resources towards the expeidition, believing that the Woodland colony might be just what the Duchy needs to resurrect their dying economy.
The Keepers in Iron: The Keepers in Iron are an order of itinerant paladins who have come to the Woodland to recover ancient relics. To find them, they must manage their Woodland contacts carefully, as only the local animals know how to find the relics they seek. Paragons of discipline, their badger warriors sport pristine armor of a quantity and quality rarely seen in the heart of the Woodland, making them a terror in battle. However, to keep their forces well-supplied and mobile, they must maintain a network of caravans and waystations.
While seemingly uninterested in the war of the Woodland, or seemingly pacifistic, the Keepers in Iron are fiercely dedicated to their retrieval of these ancient idols and will stop at nothing to find and keep them -- even if that means forcably removing a faction from their own land.
The Lord of the Hundreds: Claiming to be the true voice of the Woodland, the Lord of the Hundreds spreads distrust and division among its inhabitants, inciting torch-wielding mobs to destroy the enemies of their righteous dominion. His swarming army can overwhelm all but the toughest defense. By looting from the undeserving and adding them to his towering hoard, his power grows as he develops an increasingly fearsome monomania.
While the Woodland Alliance ultimately seeks freedom from regime, the Lord of the Hundreds and the ratlings that follow him view the Woodland Alliance as not strong enough and a false "voice of the people". He believes that in contrast, he has the denizens' best interest at heart, and will see the rest of the world burn to the ground to build freedom from its ashes.