Deni T'ila

*"I should like to sample the breathtakingly beautiful trees to find out how it is they expand their sylvan home as though it breathes one day. It is my deepest regret that I cannot ever do so and return alive to tell the tale. My whole life dedicated to botany and dendrology, but the very zenith of my field has been denied me by violent isolationism. And thus I, a scientist, am forced to resort to mere prayer, Ziuna, oh blessed Dreamweaver and mighty Woodmother. Please let this old scientist fulfill his work before... before he can no longer remember who he is or anything he learned about your beautiful creations." -* Mallon the Frail, Prithan Professor of Botany and Dendrology

## **Description**

Deni T'ila, sometimes known as the Shadow-Wood, is the vast forest kingdom of the Wood Elves, who call themselves the T'ilia, in Xholoria. Geographically, its size is typically underestimated by cartographers attempting to map the Xholorian continent, and it is hypothesized that the magical woods are constantly shifting, expanding, and pulling its borders as though it is breathing - thus explaining why its borders are so difficult to determine. Its magics are extremely potent and its mysteries without number - but neither are, or ever can be, enjoyed by anyone but the native Wood Elves.

See, Deni T'ila is a realm as isolationist as they come and is extremely hostile to outsiders and 'traitors', which are defined as Wood Elves who leave the forest. In fact, Wood Elves are among the rarest sights in all Kranos, even in Synghgarth and Niva, as they face dire consequences if they leave the embrace of the forest. Once a child of the Shadow-wood leaves the forest's borders, they break their connection with it forever. It is as though their hearts are torn apart, for they share a bond with the forest that is verbally inexplicable. Basically all succumb to a deep state of depression once they no longer hear and feel the forest, its spirits and all of its joys in their hearts and minds, and many go mad as they cannot bear the pain of having lost so much. Those who survive and somehow carry on with their lives describe the pain as constant and as a feeling of having lost a family of a million and having violently sawn off half of their being. Of course, this is not the case with the exceptionally rare Wood Elf born outside of Deni T'ila, as they were never truly a child of the forest to begin with. Regardless, Wood Elves who have left and try to return are usually chased off by their kin, brutally killed or fed alive to the Shadow-Wood's wildlife. Deni T'ila is unforgiving in that way, towards 'traitor' Wood Elves and 'outsiders' alike. Of course, it does have the military might of the T'ilia, the forest's fabled Treemen and a horrifying horde of giant spiders, direwolves, giant eagles, enormous centipedes, giant wasps and more to ensure that its harsh treatment of such people will go unanswered by others out of sheer terror.

## **Races**

The residents of the Shadow-Wood are exclusively Wood Elves, Eladrin, Treemen, and a variety of other creatures of the forest. It is also home to the fabled Forest Dragons, which are supposedly the daughters of Ziuna herself.

## **Culture**

As previously stated, the Kingdom of the Shadow-Wood is extremely isolationist and kills anyone that dares enter. But internally, the T'ilia are in touch with nature in a way that perhaps only Night Elves could hope to comprehend. The forest is as much part of its residents as they are part of it, and removing oneself from it is like removing half of your being and identity. But most importantly, removing yourself from the forest also, for reasons unknown, seems to make you lose your will to live.

T'ilian society is in many ways like everywhere else. Members of the Eternal Hunt are the T'ilian equivalent of nobility, and only they may confer with the immortal leaders of the forest: Sylvus and Arborea, the Twins of the Evergreen who are supposed to be aspects of Ziuna herself. T'ilian culture is at the core of its nature quite artistic, and the Shadow-Wood's woodland ambience is often intertwined with mesmerizing ballads sung in Elvish or Sylvan.

The people here trust each other and know the ways of the Wild as though they were their own. T'ilians enjoy a symbiotic relationship with creatures of the wild, and are often quite successful owners or companions of even the most unruly animals.

## **History**

Deni T'ila has no recorded history to speak of - none that is available to outsiders, that is. T'ilians themselves know that the Shadow-Wood used to overlap with the Feywild in ages past, and that the forest never lost its fey nature. For reasons unknown, the Eladrin of Deni T'ila decided to rend the overlap thousands of years ago, making the forest solely exist on the material plane. They took in the Xholorian elven population, who would consequently become Wood Elves after thousands of years of evolution. Deni T'ila has remained what it was since under the leadership of the seemingly immortal Twins of the Evergreen.