Diaoul

Near the Drouchont and the Lumberlings is a cold and dark forrested land known as **Dia'Ul**, meaning "the forest of the devil". It is home to demons, shapeshifters and disembodied wandering souls that sustain themselves from the blood of animals and unweary travellers. Those vile creatures are kept away from the Drouchont thanks to their sacrifices, while the Lumberlings keep them out through force.

So few people have travelled within those lands that the Drouchont believe the end of the world lies within the forest.

## The Forest of the Devil

The **Woods of Diaoul**, east of the Land of the Drouchont, were one of the many forests within the region, with particularly elder trees growing taller than most groves in the area. However, from very early on, the first mages who arrived to the region felt that the area was imbued with magical energies. In particular, the veil between dimensions was thinner than outside, to a seemingly imperceptible level, but enough for the growing number of wizards of the Khenomeric Empire to notice. The khenomeric schools of magic realized many studies about how to use this anomaly, and the place became frequented by invocations and summonings of many kinds. These experiments would become darker in nature once the Magoclergy took over the empire.

The Magoclergy was obsessed with weaponizing magic, both to keep their grip over the empire, and to expand their personal power beyond the borders of the Khenomeric Empire. The experimentation about turning magical knowledge into tools of war led the Magoclergy to take over control of the forest. They discovered that many enchantments and curses were more powerful and lasted longer if they were casted in the area, and arrived at the conclusion that if the veiled were thinned even more, this effect would increase. The Magoclergy set to weakening the barriers between the material realm and the other dimensions, as well as to develop new forms of summoning spirits. However, these entities became of a darker nature as time went on due to the cursed rituals of the Magoclergy, and the energies spewed out from other realms was having an effect on the land. The forests became wicked, the trees twisting in unnatural ways, becoming unhealthy and losing their color. The animals became more aggressive, with more and more creatures turning into abominations. From time to time, dark spirits and demonic entities would appear and attack the people in the area, without the need of being summoned. This worried the Magoclergy, and they began setting up containing measures to isolate the region from the outside world, though the darker rituals practiced there meant that the spirits who now inhabited the land were of a dark nature, and they desired the flesh and blood of the mortals, and began pushing to escape to the neighboring lands.

The fall of the Magoclergy meant that the land became the responsibility of the Drouchont Dark Druids. During the fall of the Magoclergy and the birth of the Forest of Getting Lost, the dark druids set up many spells and purifying enchantments to reduce the influence of the dark energies from the forest to a minimum, at the cost of hundreds of lives sacrificed to it. The Forest of Diaoul, now called **Dia’ul** (which means “The Forest of the Devil”) is well known around the land for the dangers that lurk within, and it is by far the most dangerous threat the dark druids have to contain. The bulk of the sacrifices done by the druids is dedicated to strengthen the barriers the Magoclergy put up against the monsters within. Not only that, but the dark druids must launch raids to the depths of the Dia’ul to kill the bigger entities become they grow strong enough to pose a threat. This generally requires the help of many groups of drouchont, led by multiple dark druids, and casualties are plenty. The forest itself, after centuries of rampant magical pollution, seems to have a mind of its own, and reacts to any invasion both as a threat and as a potential victim.

Fortunately for the region, the Forest of Dia’ul is rather isolated. The geographic location of the woods have made containment much easier. To the north lies the realm of the Goddess of Harmony, a place with much more power than the horrors from Dia’ul. The Goddess does not tolerate the intrusion of the devils from the region into the sacred domain, and as such, those creatures that enter the realms of harmony will quickly wither and die. To the south, the Forest of Getting Lost functions as a great barrier, blocking the entities from Dia’ul from advancing. The warping effects of the forest seem to affect the creatures of magic as well as mortals, and the entities that enter the woods never return. And those who instead decide to go to the forest of the lumberlings find themselves face to face with the protectors of the realm. Lumberlings frequently fight the horrors vomited from Dia’ul, since they cannot allow their corrupting powers to interfere with the fountain of youth.

And towards the east, the Dren’Ui Peaks have proven a surprisingly effective barrier against the demons of the forest. The many baronies are always in a state of warfare, and thus they are quick to respond to any invasion from the west. The land is also quite fortified, and any population is highly guarded and defended by the local authorities. Amusingly, the humans of the Seven Castles believe that the creatures coming from the west are not magical horrors, but instead corrupted fey and their abominable warbeasts. This belief has kept the population from panicking about the horrors next door, and many nobles will practice their skills by hunting down the demons to hone and show off to their peers. Only a few, more magically inclined, know the true about Dia’ul, and will act in the shadows to weaken those creatures to which a sword stroke is not enough to deal with.