Area - Grimwood
Located on a peninsula between two rivals, the nations of Sturmgard and Ardechia, both of which like to claim it belongs to them, lies the Grimwood. It is a dark and corrupted no-mans land, controlled not by any nation, but by a remnant of an age long past.
Enshrouded in the twisted shadows of its own corruption, the Grimwood stands as a dark mirror to the once resplendent Feywood it once was. This cursed forest blankets a peninsula where the regal spires of Drakmire Keep pierce the sky, a monolithic reminder of the noble Elven lineage that once presided here. The trees, blackened and gnarled, their branches like the claws of wretched spirits, reach out as if to ensnare unwary travelers. Their bark, hard and sharp as shards of glass, reflects the vile transformation wrought by dark magic.
Where there once was vibrant life and a mystic beauty, now lies a desolation of spirit. The air hangs heavy with the stench of decay, and an eerie silence pervades, broken only by the whistling of winds that sound like the whispers of the damned. By day, a gloomy twilight reigns, the sun's rays choked by the canopy of prickly branches above and the omnipresent fog. At night, the Grimwood comes alive with a malevolent energy, as dark as it is lethal. The few paths that wind through the forest are littered with the remnants of the Witch Queen's victims, their final agonies etched into the twisted roots that strangle the ground.
The once noble princess, now the dreaded Witch Queen, resides in her secluded fortress, Drakmire Keep. Her dark rituals, her very presence, seeps into the soil, poisoning the land with her ceaseless hunger for power, spured on by the darkness that torments her soul. It is said that her corrupted servants, once loyal subjects transformed into monstrous shadows of their former selves, roam the Grimwood and the surrounding lands under the cloak of darkness. They hunt for sustenance to feed their queen's insatiable vampiric thirst for their blood and their spirit, be it livestock, wildlife, or the unfortunate souls who stray too near.
To step into the Grimwood is to enter a realm forsaken by light and hope, where the remnants of a grand past lie in ruins, consumed by dark magic where once the arcane made them majestic, and the prime example of proof for the Church of the Mason to argue how magic is abominable and inevitably corrupts. The Witch Queen's curse ensures that her fortress and the forest remain impenetrable, a haven for darkness and despair, forever isolated from the world that moves on beyond its cursed bounds.
Type
Forest, Temperate (Seasonal)
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
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