Evergreen Pastures

The **Evergreen Pastures** are a sprawling hilly landscape, with pleasantly mild climate all year around, where it seldom rains. The Pastures are the realm of the She-eep, or as foreigners call them Oviscentauresses. This all-female hybrid breed lives in a symbiosis with the alpine hermits who live in the Baalps. Once a year the She-eep move to the pastures of these solitary but friendly misfits, who shear their wool in exchange for tasty sheep's milk, which makes anyone who drinks it feel happy, regardless of circumstance. Often they process the Milk into cheese which they sell to the hobbits of the north-west. The rustic loners also make their clothes and stuff their beds from the high-quality wool. This procedure is vital for the She-eep. If they are not sheared in time, their fur will become too heavy - the more wool, the greater the burden. In addition, the dense fur is the perfect breeding ground for numerous parasites such as snail mites or pig snout ticks. How this graceful and docile but all-female species reproduces is yet unknown to science, however each spring newborn and playful half-lambs can be seen frolicking in the flowering meadows.

## The Lands of the She-eep

Between the garden lands of Thereby and the swamps of the Bog Witch there lies a sprawling patch of land, always full of lush green grass. The land is dotted with gentle slopes and hills, which are always green thanks to the frequent rains of the region. However, despite the potential of the land for agriculture, the region has been traditionally left alone by farmers, keeping the grassland to feed great numbers of cattle. Many herders move their charges through the Evergreen Pastures during certain periods of the year, which has caused the creation of many small towns, mostly near the borders of Thereby, Whereby and the Baalps. They have become centers for not only buying and selling of cattle, but also for the workings with wool. Many travelers and merchants buy the plentiful wool from the region and bring it to colder regions, where it is transformed into high quality clothing.

Many different groups occupy the Evergreen Pastures. Many of the peoples from the Hedge have come to find a home in the pastures, usually working as herders themselves, or as craftsmen in one of the many small towns spread out throughout the region. Many hobbits have made fortunes buying cattle from the herders in the Evergreen Pastures and selling them back in Hereby, as the hobbits are always hungry for quality meat. Many humans also make themselves at home in the region, but oddly enough, the number of humans who perpetually live in the Evergreen Pastures is smaller than one could expect, preferring to live southwards, near the Baalps. The few humans in the grasslands live a hermitic existence, keeping to themselves while moving throughout the land in search for freshest pastures. There are a couple colonies of snoloths, who first arrived to the region millennia ago, travelling the land and eating whatever they can find. Their numbers are very low, and spent so much time outside of their ancestral home that have lost their poisonous slime.

While the protection of the Swaying Meadows keeps the Evergreen Pastures free from the threats from the domains of the Bog Witch, the importance of the region has made many local towns prepare in case of an attack. Many of the towns have organized militias, skirmishers and hobbit pony riders, just in case they need to defend their homes. To keep themselves prepared, they began organizing a series of sporting events, reuniting once every five years, which has become very popular in the region, attracting plenty of spectators and travelers from the Hedge.

## Government

There is no central government in the pastures. Most of the towns and villages are self governing, with temporary, self-elected rulers. The few hobbit and gnome settlements maintain relations with Hereby and Thereby respectively, while the towns to the south are often in communion with the people from the Baalps.

## Religion

Amongst the humans, the New Azan Faith is the most dominant religion, although some have integrated some fey beliefs into their own, due to the presence of certain Fairie Lords, such as Voluptuia, in the region.

The gibberlings of the pastures worship Nichtmair, the weaving fey that hides in deep burrows, while gnomes and hobbits loosely follow the worship of other certain fairie lords, such as Nikkla and Stoutheart.

## The Oviscentauresses

One of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Evergreen Pastures are the beings known as the **She-eep**, or the **Oviscentauresses**, as many would call them. The Oviscentaurescess are a sentient species of beastfolk, with the upper bodies being similar in shape and complexion to humans’, and the lower half similar to bovines. Their size is around 1.50m of height at most, with an upper half very thin, slim, and delicate when compared to human physiology. Their entire body, minus their face, is covered in a thick coat of wool, something especially on their lower half, which protects them from the cold. They are very fast and agile creatures, able to sprint and jump faster than most humans, though they can be weighted down if they do not shear their wool with enough frequency.

The most striking quality of the Oviscentauresses is that they are seemingly a single-sex species. Every single she-eep individual is a female, and a male oviscentaur has not been discovered yet. This has made many wonder how do they reproduce. The Ovuscentauresses have always kept that side of their culture secret, and this has reached the point where speculation is abound. However, we do know that the she-eep do indeed reproduce, and they do so over the spring, where their calves can be seen frolicking and feeding off the greenest sprouts of the season.

The Oviscentauresses’ society takes the form of nomadic tribes, revolving around a singular “Great Matriarch”. These Great Matriarches decide the choices of the tribe, from where to move to who to trade with. It is their responsibility to also take care of the calves, being the leader of not only the tribe, but also playing the role of teacher and guardian for the new generation. The other she-eep will take care of their individual children, but it is the Matriarch the one who instills in the young the teachings needed to survive. The mothers also dedicate a lot of time crafting tools or concocting brews, for either personal use or trade. The mothers also trade with dairies with the neighboring populations.

The milk of the oviscentauresses has strong antidepressant properties. Oviscentauress’ milk and its dairy products has been described as “bursting with joy”, to the point some people have wondered if it contains some sort of psychoactive substance. For this reason, while the demand for dairies from oviscentauresses is high, is generally not recommended for non she-eep children or pregnant women to consume it.

The oviscentauresses spend a long time grooming themselves and each other. Their wool grows at a pretty fast pace, and they need to constantly keep it under control. If they do not, it can be very vulnerable to parasites, who find the she-eeps’ bodies a great place to find refuge and multiply. . Not shearing for a while can overburden the individual she-eep, as well as promote the growth of certain fungi. To combat this, the oviscentauresses try to shear as frequently as possible, though never so much that their bodies could be exposed to the elements, since they are rather sensible to cold. Thus, shearing has become a very complex social interaction not only between oviscentauresses, but also with their neighbors. Mothers and daughters will shear each other as a way to reinforce social bonds, as well as to teach the ways of shearing to the next generation. They will also travel to the Baalps once a year for a particularly important shearing. They will go to the hermits living in the Baalps, where the hermits living in the mountains will shed them. Following the orders of Voluptuia, self-proclaimed “Queen of the She-eep”, the wool obtained in this shedding will be used by the hermits to create complex wool tapestries, representing the myths and sacred tales of the Baalps and its inhabitants. This has made certain caves of the Baalps repositories of lore, some of which cannot be translated anymore, since the evolution of the she-eeps’ writing has meant that their knot-based writing is very difficult to pass to the next generation unchanged.

The religious customs of the Oviscentauresses are surprisingly complex. The She-eep worship the night stars as the spirits of the past, and the suns as their protective fathers, which, considering the lack of males in their species, is surprising to see male patterns in their faith. The she-eep remember the different constellations from memory, seeing them as the collective souls of previous she-eep. They describe them from generation to generation, never allowing themselves to pass them to written format, since it would be considered an insult for the ancients. The oviscentauresses also follow the different patterns of the sky to decide the many choices of their society, with the Great Matriarchs having to discern the wishes of the sky. The interpretation of these omens can be put to written text, but the she-eep do not have a conventional written language. Instead, they create a complex system of knots in wooly fabrics that symbolizes writing. Depending on the shape, size, form and number of the knot, they can express quite complicated concepts. This form of language is pretty much never taught to outsiderds, and the oviscentauresses themselves have to practice their entire lives to know how to use it.