The Brec'hwood
A border between Earth and Fey
"Tom, are you sure we're in the right place?"
"O' course, the man said we'd find 'er here."
"But what if we get lost, like in those stories?"
"Quiet, Sam! She's right there-- through the bush! See 'er?"
"I can't see her! Where?"
"I'm goin' to 'er."
"Tom, wait, where's the road gone? Tom? Tom!"
Geography
The Brec'hwood so named in Sylvan as the "Hill woods" extend throughout the vale of West Clough. Once a simple wood, no larger than a farmland, it has grown immensely in the past 600 years. It is only impeded by the growth of human lands to the east in the Middel Vale. Rolling hills define the Wood as it bounds between the Aken Peaks and border territory of West Durn Mountains. They ascend higher and higher, covered in aged, alien foliage, the further north one moves until reaching a narrow pass between the southern and northern wood.
The northern wood covers a terminal moraine formed millennia ago; the forming glacier has since melted and eroded into the Clôs Trench. The Trench is a part of the Brec'hwood, a natural formation prior to the wood's fey origin. At its greatest depth lies a glacial lake, fed by snow-melt and ice run-off from the surrounding mountains. However, despite this, the lake hardly increases in depth as there is most likely some form of drainage underneath. There are vast flat plateaus throughout the Trench that allow for significant grazing and farming, however, there are no signs of civilization this far northwest of Camlenn.
The woods are an endless growth of enormous timbers; branches splay out towards the sky; boughs interweave into knitted masses spanning miles; rays of light shine through leaves who's color changes as often as the day, painting the forest floor in a dazzling array of scarlets, ambers, and indigos; roots, as large as a stone bridge, span hundreds of feet, springing out of the ground and diving in between overgrowth of rainbow-colored berries; vines wrap and embrace, tangling and winding and tying in an ardent affection. Here, the hills are the homes and the trees are the mountains.
One would be forgiven for forgetting where they were. Many do. Between bending bark and branch, hidden in the hillocks, dread languors. Despite its beauty and fascination, many pitfalls await the unsuspecting and the ignorant. Be assured, the Brec'hwood is full of awes.
Fauna & Flora
The Plane of Faeries holds all manner of strange and fascinating wildlife; from reptiles the size of a hut to creatures intelligent enough to hide your wedding bands in another person's sack, one never expects what they find there. That is, of course, unless you're a native.
The Brec'hwood is a place of fantasy, surrounded by more myth than truth and less lies than legends. Wild unicorn run through golden groves, flanked by flowers that blooms only on a full moon and mushrooms that breath and dance, while rodents dither hither and thither between mossy knolls. Satyrs, pixies, and gnomes are common facets of the wood, these are more or less the main caricatures of the wood that one hears in drunken stupors at the local tavern. Less commonly found is the solitary minotaur, or laughing hedge, or venomous giant toad, or roving pack of werewolves. These are not the stories one would hear in their neighborhood inn. They are not the stories because there are none who have seen them, but they are there, within the deep wood.
Even the flora of the wood is distinct. Tall black-bark trees with rose-gold vines flowering blue petals are only few of the magnificence one may find. Some plants uproot themselves and walk across the forest floor to match the light streaming through the canopy. Some bushes writhe and shake, shimmying until a breeze hits them just so, then flower for a moment before exploding into chromatic flames and beginning anew. There are trees, intertwined the women, teasing forbidden shapes-- the dryads of the woods.
Surely, most interesting of all, are the wellsprings of life that sprout randomly from the ground, planted in deep recesses in the dirt, from which tethers to the Feywild are born. Each tiny well, filled with the tiniest drop of dew, bursts with teeming life from the Fey's home plane, but with no way back. They say, should you ever come across them, each "spring"-- no larger than a child -- holds within its depths a pure tear, a single droplet from the The Lady of the Lake. A single mouthful of which will bring one eternal life. Or is it eternal love? Or happiness?
Natural Resources
In the matter of goods and resources, the Brec'hwood is remarkable in that it is the only natural and reoccurring bridge to the Feywild. One may always find the "border" between the native "Terra Mundus" and the supernatural Plane of the Fey. A brave enough soul may traverse the border between realms and reliably find their way back (should they be of strong will and mind).
This proves both beneficial and a danger. The Feywild here is cut-off from its home plane and as such, a guarded secret by The Unseelie Host of Brec'hwood. From inside the Brec'hwood, many mysterious and magnificent oddities and magical materials may be found and harvested. Rare components and raw materials for powerful arcane enchantments litter the forest floor, some leap the boundaries between worlds and tease the unfamiliar with their unfathomable existence.
If anything may be said for the 'wood, it is that myths and legends is its natural resource.
Alternative Name(s)
Faeriewood; Forest of Flowers; the Oldwood
Type
Forest
Included Organizations
Related Ethnicities
Characters in Location
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