The Shadow Grove

The Shadow Grove were Sylvaneth who fled from Shyish during the Age of Chaos. They were largely Kurnothi, the other Sylvaneth unable to withstand the rush of Chaos. Eventually, only a hardened core of warriors was left, Treelords and Kurnoth Hunters, who slew enough of the forces of Chaos that they could escape. With the realms burning, however, the question was where they could escape to. The need for slaughter began to infiltrate the grove and they began to walk the path of the outcasts. Soon their roots only took nourishment from bloodshed, and they would cut down former allies as readily as readily as the forces of Chaos. Eventually, their warpath took them to the Lost Archipelago.

The Shadow Grove continued its slaughter. Indigenous tribes, beasts, spirits, the Grove killed any that it could. The slaughter was continuous, and the trees left in their paths were corrupted as well. Every time the Shadow Grove killed something, the creature's soul became the new basis for a tree. These were twisted, thorny, shadowed trees. Their foliage drank up sun, their roots stole whatever water they could. They existed to punish the world around them, and as they grew the souls within them were suffering. This was the cruelty left in the wake of the Shadow Grove. However, with no new generations being raised, as the Sylvaneth focused on slaughter over spawning, the grove eventually dwindled in size. What had been a mighty host became a force, became a warband.

Eventually, the last of the trees were slain in a massive slaughter, as hydras took to the land and killed the trees who had killed so many of their prey.The legacy of the Shadow Grove is the Schattenwald. These trees show the extent of their slaughter, from when they first exited the realmgate. While new trees have sprouted, the forest's boundaries are still traced in the bloodshed of the Sylvaneth, and the cries of their victims can be heard when one puts one's ear against the trunks of these trees. However, the slaughter is not done, for the Shadow Grove have recently been brought back as a host of Mournguls. Once more thirsting for slaughter, they seek to destroy the living on their arboreal crusade.