Charnelwood
The Charnelwood is a blighted, mist-choked forest in northwestern Othvarand, sprawling across the upland border between the duchies of Brannach and Avenring. Though once a hunting forest for the old hill forts, it is now avoided by commoners and nobles alike. The trees grow close and gnarled, the soil is black and sour, and the air smells faintly of charcoal—even on windless days.
Its name dates back to the Battle of Four Blades, when four Imorean warbands were said to have died within the woods over the course of a single night. So great was the slaughter that the dead were never buried. The forest has never been the same.
Local tales speak of bones rising from the roots, of withered soldiers in rusted mail, and of spirits who have forgotten how to lie still. Fires brought into the Charnelwood gutter and die. Professional navigators lose their way. Some roads fade beneath the underbrush, while others appear where no road should be. Duke Mernac of Brannach maintains sparse patrols along its edge, but his wardens are forbidden from entering the deeper paths.
Small shrines dot the margins—some sanctioned by the Church of Holy Law, others older and best not named aloud. Offerings are still left at their feet, usually without prayer.
Scholars from the Lyceum of the Pale Sanctum have petitioned more than once to study the Charnelwood’s “anomalous energies,” but the Archduke has thus far denied them access.
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