Dark Origins of Dirgevale

Dark Origins of Dirgevale is a book recovered from Dirgevale Crypt.

## Description

Bound in skin in place of conventional leather, the parchment upon which the Dark Origins of Dirgevale is written are weathered and torn at the fringes, through the ink of dark purple-red is unfaded by the passage of time. The turning of each page seems to bring with it a mist-laden breeze that quickly dissipates, visible only to the reader.

## Research

### Completed by Hassk

Those few that have spent any time in Covengrove, and those fewer still that have done so willingly have been quick to comment on the oppressive but ultimately immutable form of the forest and those few structures found within it. While it is true that the trees upon the fringes - predominately that of larch, pine, spruce, oak, birch, aspen and lime - can be lumbered, milled and used for all manner of purposes, when descending deeper any tree claimed inexpectably returns to its full scope within the coming of the next full moon. Those repeatedly claimed are inclined to return in a manner more sinister still, animated and awakened, capable of prowling the woods themselves in pursuit of the woodsman that had frequently notched axe against their trunks and roots. This occurrence does not only transpire with organic matter, but rather all contained within. Arguably most curiously is that of Dirgevale Crypt itself, locked in a perpetual state of disrepair, rusted iron gates hanging upon misaligned hinges, cobble bricks broken and cracked with thickets of brambles, the slate-stone spire off-centre and slumped. Previously attempts to repair the crypt and return it to a former state of glory are forever in vain, with bricks crumbling and breaking once more in the full moon's light, gravestones covered anew in moss and lichen, chiselled stone weathered prematurely into a pockmarked and featureless desecration.

The nature of Dirgevale Crypt, and seemingly by extension the entirety of Covengrove, seems to stand at odds to its surroundings, a stark variation in the grassland plains, gentle hills and picturesque gorges, as if not truly of the surroundings, out of place. While the influence of Covengrove does spread at least somewhat beyond its borders, the lands immediately surrounded it pitted with twisted roots and uneven soil, it is largely self-contained, mainly by nature of its fogs that obfuscate its boundaries and make navigation through a looming challenge. It was, however, a stone giant mining party bound for Tuv Galoril that first noticed the curiosity that provided further credence to prevailing theories. A few hundred feet beneath the surface of the forest above, the soil and stone changes drastically in composition, an abutment serving as a definitive margin unlike noted elsewhere. While the minerals beneath and surrounding the region were in line with those elsewhere in Ahlus, those beyond the boundary, ascending towards the forest floor of Covengrove were aligned differently - later confirmed to be resounding with a different arcane resonance by the Guild of the Lilac Vine. The truth therefore seems to be as such - Covengrove, and all contained within it, seems to have once existed elsewhere and by means unknown or uncertain, has fragmented and found itself transposed upon the Ahlusian landscape.

Many suggestions have been posited to the varying aspects of this theory. Most commonly accepted amongst them seems to be the timeline, for evidence of Covengrove's presence has existed from at least the time of the Second Gift, defining much of the borders of the Realms of Lachlen, Sunstone and Codorne in the earliest days. As such, the obvious choice of timing seems to be during the tumultous period between Aita's First and Second Gifts, when the Principal Sixteen honed their newfound talents and waged war with The Malign, Demon Lords, Archdevils, Primordials and other entities of immeasurable power. Once more, the further details of the origin of the region are disputed, but those with greatest strength come from scholars of some experience with the Plane of Shadow, or rather the domains deep within the gloom-laden corners, where Dark Powers bind and chain evils beyond redemption in lands that serve as sinister reflections of their own memories, desires, mistakes and deeds. It is therefore suggested that Covengrove is simply a fragment of one such dread-filled domains, scattered into the Prime Material Plane by the absconsion of its intended occupant, a sinister entity personifying all that the Dirgevale it was contained within was to be.