Bleakwood

Bleakwood is the northern region of Thaerwood and home to pale elves. It is a desolate place full of dead Thaer Oaks and other gnarled and rotting vegetation. Very little lives there.

Necromancy

The reason that most of the vegetation in Bleakwood is dead can be traced to the style of necromancy practised by the pale elves who live there. This type of necromancy grows more powerful as it feeds on living things, including animals and plants. The pale elves have used this magic to advance their own society at the expense of their forest.
When the pale elves first broke off from their wood elf brethren, Bleakwood was a relatively small portion of Thaerwood. However, as the pale elves used up the forest life available to them to fuel their magic, they expanded further out, taking larger swaths of Thaerwood for themselves and exploiting more of the life there. Today, Bleakwood has grown to be about half of the territory of Thaerwood.
Bleakwood is said to have a dark grey aura over it at all times. Regardless of how sunny a day might be, the sky appaears as a dark grey, turning to a slightly darker grey at night. The moons are visible but the stars are said to be difficult to see through the thick dark clouds.

Settlements

Furidien

Only one settlement is known of in Bleakwood. The city of Furidien is located deep within Bleakwood in the area where the pale elves originally began practising their brand of necromancy. Not much is known about this city to the outside world, and what is known comes from information gleaned from pale elf defectors. Furidien is described as a hodgepodge of various types of structures, including long dead Thaer Oaks as well as wooden and stone buildings.