Sylva

**Sylva**, officially the **Enchanted Magistrate of Sylva** (Elvish: ***Le Magistrat Enchanté de Sylve***), is a country in northwestern Elderland that is ruled by the elves and is the ancestral home of most fey creatures on Tor. Boasting one of the longest and richest histories of any nation on the continent, the culture and renown of Sylva stretches across the world and its citizens are well-regarded in most lands.

## History

### Arvandor fey tribes

In the Mythic Age, the land now known as Sylva was inhabited by fey creatures who lived in various tribes in a land generally known as Arvandor, a place deeply connected to the Parallel Plane via numerous fey gates. The Arvandori fey worshiped the gods of the Celdarine and their religion had a priestly class of druids with divine magic derived from a deep connection to nature. Their religion held that the Celdarine were not themselves fey but powerful primordial deities who emerged from the chaotic elemental realm where the multiverse was born and used their power to establish a land where the chaos was calmed somewhat but not fully, where nature could grow beautifully and there was whimsy and delight. A shadow realm of the delightful one was also created to balance the energy and prevent the realms from falling to the original chaos from whence they came.

Druidic practice was deeply focused on this theme of balance, embracing the chaos of nature, but also rejoicing in its brilliant organization, and thanking the Celdarine gods for that. The Shadowfell was not considered an evil place, but a representation of this balance principle. On the other hand, the Abyss was considered the worst place in the world, and fey were told not to delve into the Underdark where portals to the Abyss were hidden. The Abyss was like a fey hell where only the most chaotic and unbalanced beings were doomed to go.

### Feud of Fate

An existential conflict arose during the Mythic Age between the primordials and the dragons of the Astral Sea, who began to colonize Tor. The primordials considered the dragons to be the embodiment of evil, worshiping a confusing entropic religion, and spreading chaotic blasphemy through the land. The Celdarine instructed the fey to destroy dragons and draconic influence wherever it was found, and soon a wide-spanning extraplanar war broke out over hundreds of years.

Tribal elves frequently participated in the Wild Hunt, which usually targeted dragons.

The dragons' Astral Empire was based in the Astral Sea, which was impossible to portal to from the Organal Plane. But a contingent of brave elves created ships that could sail through the Primordial Plane and into the Astral Sea to take the fight to the dragons.

### Volcan conquest

After the Partition, the elves were blocked from reaching their afterlife in the courts of the Feywild and they fell into a deep melancholy, realizing they would be reincarnated again and again through the Material Plane forever, having lost their Celdarine primordial gods and having their giant-allied Links of Power used against them by the dragons. Their years of brooding were taking advantage of by the Volcan Empire, who conquered them, but the elves put up the hardest fight of any conquered people yet. Elven rebellions were frequent and brutal in Volcan Arvandor, which the Volcans called Silvum.

### Formation of the kingdom

After the fall of the Volcan Empire, the former province of Silvum was thrown into a chaotic, ungovernable state. Beset by Bartarian dwarves, Neblish gnomes, Hoblish halflings, and Orking raids, the elves retreated to a more tribal, less Volcan lifestyle. But the Sylph tribe, who retained Triadic faith, rose above the rest and eventually King Cédric the Great united the elves to drive out the invaders, creating an organized elven kingdom called Sylva. The Kingdom of Sylva operated under a feudal society, with land rights passed down by hereditary bloodline and a large peasantry in vassalage to noble lords of estates. Land was cleared all over Sylva for farming and the once unbroken forest that marked the country was fragmented for the most part.

### Exile of the drow

As the Age of Dusk wore on, a sect of elves who reached old age after having been born during or just after the Partition grew very melancholy and sunk into the philosophical idea of the Annulation. Philosophers called nullists argued that in glimpses of the nothingness of the Abyss, there was a peace that elves altogether were resisting. This was a new world, not the one from before the Partition, and elves were a part of the great entropic nothingness of the multiverse. Many nullists became faithless and were tried by the Triadic Church for hexcraft. Others retained their Triadic faith but added in a strange worship of Abyss demon lords who were watching over their ancestors. Their worship of demons began to corrupt them and their skin grew a pale gray like the glimpses of the Abyss they believed they saw.

Mobs of elves ran the members of the sect out of the country, often killing many of them, and eventually they settled deep underground in the Fang mountains east of Sylva. This sect became known as the drow.

### Magisterial era

After Cédric's death, rule of the kingdom fell to his only daughter, Séraphine, who in the wake of the drow exile, fervently expanded the power of the Triadic Church. She converted much of the kingdom to Triadism and oversaw the building of great cathedrals, while at the same time conducting hex trials and condemning, murdering, and exiling druids who continued to practice the old ways. Sylvan nobility played a prominent role in the Ligatures to the Holy Land, and Sylvan knights comprised much of the Order of the Gauntlet's original gauntleteers.

Tensions increasingly rose between Sylva and Leonia during this period, leading to the War of Two Thrones. While Sylva managed to fight off the Leonians from conquering their country, the war left the land devastated, and the war was abruptly ended by the onset of the Affliction.

### Ceruleonic era

Arising from the chaos of the Elven Revolution was a ruler named Ceruleon, a sea elf from the Verdant Islands.

### Artificial era

Relations between Leonia and Sylva grew to the point where the two countries considered each other close to allies where once they were enemies.

After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the new Zwergan union in the Sylvo-Zwergan War, the Arboreal Enclave instituted reforms to strengthen the military and encourage elves to get out of their lackadaisical approach to life.

The Elder War began and the elves were fighting dwarves once again, but the pace of militarization and artificialization had grown so rapid that this war proved much deadlier than the last.

## Government

### Arboreal Enclave

Sylva is a gerontocratic magocracy ruled by a council of elders called the Arboreal Enclave. Elders are called Enclaviers and the chief elder is called the Prime Magister. Enclaviers are elected every decade by Sylvan magic users over the age of 80 who are registered with the Bureau of Magic, and candidates must have attained the age of 500 to run. The Prime Magister is elected by the enclave at the start of each 10-year session.

The Arboreal Enclave meets in the Vineheart Chamber, the hollowed out base of the Arbor Tower in Lutèce, whose palatial base facades are wreathed in ivy and vines. This chamber is connected to Sylva's high court in the Palais Racine, the rootwork tunnels and chambers of the Arbor Tower. The Arbor Tower is known to druids by its Sylvan name, Arsamora. It is said to be the oldest tree in the world and its transformation by the government angers all druids. The Arbor Tower was carved out after the Elven Revolution.

## Geography

Sylva is bounded on the west by the Little Sea and the north by the Stormy Sea. The country is separated from the Halflands by the narrow Shortstock Channel. In the south of Sylva, the Fangs separate the country from Blitzenland, Inferny, and Toroña.

### Arvandy

The northern agricultural area above the Sacred Forest to the north coast. The city of Sirene is located on Crescent Bay at the mouth of the Emerald River. The city of Toujours is located in the south of the province on the Little Sea, between the Sacred Forest and the sea.

### Sacreboise

The large area that encompasses the Sacred Forest and Lutèce. There are forested hills at the center, and the Emerald River flows from them, colored green.

### Lavandry

The fertile wine-growing region in central Sylva. Located her is the garden city of Florale, home to the Palais Jardin, the renowned home of the elven royalty before the revolution.

### Blanchardy

The area west of Lavandry and up to the Blitzenland border. The University Mystique is located here.

### Rhozerne

The contested area around the Rhoze River beside Zwergandy.

### Côte Petite

The southwestern and central coast of Sylva on the Little Sea, home to Azule, the second largest city in Sylva.

### Fangardy

The small area of the western Fangs hugging the Blitzenland and Inferny borders. The capital is the small village of Chasseau.

## Culture

### Trance

The Drawing of the Veil (Elvish: *le dessin du voile*) occurs when an elf reaches the age of 80 and stops having primal memories of past lives. This also corresponds to the end of an elf's schooling years, when they go out in the world. Adult elves learn to manage their lifetime memories during trance and use them to train and better themselves. In elder age, elves begin to stop having lifetime memories in trance and eventually experience a pure blankness, a process called the Annulation. Some postulate that this elder trance is actually a glimpse of the Abyss, the fey version of hell. It is the reason many elder elves tend to be nihilists and become deeply melancholy in old age. Enclaviers in the Arboreal Enclave must have reached the age of 500 and experienced their annulation to be elected. This is said to be because their minds are clearer than younger elves.

The reality of trance has led to a rich history of philosophical thought among elves, such as the classic problem of the dream of the butterfly representing old elven lives and whether one is dreaming their lives or they are dreaming ours.

### Melancholy

While many Sylvan elves remain religious, they know that the Occlusion prevents their souls from reaching Elysium and instead they are subject to the suffering of eternal reincarnation.

### Gastronomy

Sylvan cuisine is renowned as some of the best in the world. The staples of elven cookery are bread, wine, and cheese, called the holy trinity of gastronomy.

Lavender wine is the most widely consumed wine variety, with Lavande Noir reds having a distinct perfume scent of lavender.

Talontar cheese is an acquired taste but considered fine cuisine as well. It is made by druids of Talona who live near the Sacred Forest and age the cheese in secret caves.

Waybread is bread specially baked by elven bakers to keep for long periods of time during travel. It originated as food for pilgrims traveling to eclipses. Waybread is typically baked into a crescent shape, which also has specific liturgical significance as part of the bodily edification of Stellas.

Azulean cuisine focuses on seafood and light fare.

Arvan cuisine of the north focuses on heavier fare, stews, and creamy sauces. Most Sylvan dairy production occurs in Arvandy.

Sacreboise cuisine is focused on natural foods, mushrooms, druidic traditions.

## Religion

Sylvan mainly follow the Triadic Church, and especially hold Selune as an important deity. This is because of the elven trance occurring at nighttime and the importance of reverie to the elves. Cyclianism is prominent in Sylva, and Cyclican sibyls are special in that they do go to sleep and interpret their dreams as signs from Selune. Sibyls are often consulted by elves to interpret their reverie dreams.