Shadow Woods

In the north, there's a vast forest known as the Shadow Woods, or Varjometsä as the elves say. Men fear it and they're right to for the forest is dark and full of terrors.

Any forest on the planet is sure to be home to terrifying, otherworldly beings like will-o-wisps, shadow beings and banshees, not to mention fairies. The Shadow Woods are the largest and most frightful of forests and those who enter without a plan rarely come back.

The only people to live in the woods are wood elves who live in small communities overseen by druids and clerics of the Nature Spirits. Only with the wards blessed by the Spirits can the elves live unmolested in the Shadow Woods. Hunters and gatherers scour the riches of the forest in the day and magical wards keep them safe through the night.

The wood elves keep foresr gnomes as slaves. These gnomes are generally happy to stay in slavery in part due to being selectively bres for the task and in part because the only escape is into the Woods where far greater horrors lurk.

The Woods are a mystery to all but the elves and in truth the elves do not know much more despit living hundreds of years in the very woods. In some places one might find ruins of what appears to be human civilizations, poorly documented at best. One would be a fool to enter such a ruin uninvited for the occupant may not be happy to recieve guests...

The Shadow Woods are framed by the ocean in the west, some elves living as fishers on the coast, and the World Mountains in the east. Elves rarely go there and if they do it's usually to stor trouble with the dwarves of the mountains. The dwarves detest the elves but dare not venture into the Woods and setting fire to the forest is not an option the dwarves dare consider. The elves occasionally attack a dwarven outpost on the perimeter of the Woods, usually killing a handful of dwarves and setting a few fires before slipping back into the shadows.

To the north, the Woods are covered in snow and further still, tundra sets in as the Woods end. North of the tundra live the Northern High Elves in their opulent cities of splendor. Wood elves usually don't get along with the high elves but they're still kin. The wood elves wood rather deal with high elves than men or, spirits preserve, dwarves.

In the south the Shadow Woods mysteriously end, as if an invisible border stops the trees from growing outside. There the trees stand, like a great wall, in the northernmost part of the plains owned by Serran landlords. Serran farmers refuse to approach the Woods and only farm the land generously far from the woodedge. Lest some dark tendril lashes out in the night to snatch you away...