Shalmara Village

Shalmara Village is a Night Elven village of considerable size hidden in the depths of the Night Elven Territory of Ferales. A corrupt place, it serves as the ideal image of the world  The Mother seeks to bring about. While bent with Fel Magic, the nature shows through in its distorted ways as a hybrid of the demonic and the natural, a testament to what the Greatmother wants.

## Founding

Shalmara Village was founded out of the ruins of the old Shal'sara settlement which once stood in its place. A ruined place savaged by the horde where scant few survivors remained to pick over the remains and forge a sustenance living hunting and gathering the constantly encroaching jungles. All of that would change when the Satyr Xay'mara was dispatched to the village.
Taking the form of a young Night Elven man, the demon worked his way into the hearts of the suspicious villagers through good deed, cunning, and a series of well placed illusions at opportune times. For his work ethic, he was able to seduce a member of the village; his revered wife Syrandal. From that union, the first child was born.

It is said that it had to be kept hidden the world and from the other villagers until Xay'mara was able to cloak it in illusion and work his sorcery upon the other remaining villagers. The new baby appearing to the others as a harmless child even as it aged at an accelerated rate, and Syrandal was soon with child again and again.

It was not even noticed as time flickered by for these offspring, so close to elven kind they were, but not quite. But by the time their artificial aging had been completed and their education finished, the soporific magics of Xay'mara had worked their ways into the villagers. This new generation of children, a dozen of them, each went out to the others in the village and took to the remaining men and women. And by their work, a new generation was born again but scant years later, that much more elven, and that much more subtle.
It was then that Xay'mara completed his work, and took one of these descendants for himself, a young satyr with the soul of a demon, straddling the border between demonhost and true demon. And from that last union, a child was born; Aezthine. Aezthine was born a night elf with an Immortal Demon Soul, and as she grew up under the influence of dark magics, she was returned to the Great Temple of Eternal Night and brought before the Greatmother and The High Priesthood. She was invested with the Gifts and the Marks of Faith, and under eye of the Greatmother, grew into a great and swollen Broodmother. She would return to Shal'sara village, the work completed, the people subverted, and decreed it be named Shalmara in honor of her Sire, Xay'mara.

## Current Day

The Village as it stands has grown considerably as the population has grown by leaps and bounds to several hundred "mortal" inhabitants. Of the number of demons, there can be nobody who truly knows save for the Greatmother Herself. The inhabitants take great care to keep themselves and their works hidden behind powerful wards to ensure that they do not bring down the wrath of unbelieving and misunderstanding Kaldorei.
The village itself is a masterwork of passion; stone statues in the old styles line the streets, and fel energies entwine twisted boughs of trees to encircle stone buildings carved of mined rock. It is strangely beautiful in a sense, and intensely wrong in so many others.

The Practices of the  Cult of the Great Mother wax strong here. Growth and life are the bywords, and having children is a great virtue. Mindlessly growing the population by the will of a distant  Goddess with no heed unto reason or need, only that one must. The Broodmother of the village, Blessed Aezthine, is constantly attended to by her legion of handmaidens, and appropriately maintained so to keep increasing the population. And it is by the power of the conclave of  Sorcerers that further magical education and development is inculcated into the loving population.

It is not uncommon for outsiders to find the village, this strange town of trade and bizarre mercantilism, alien practices, and occult disciplines keeps any wanderers far away from the village centers where they might be uncovered by chance. But now and then, travelers are able to wander in, but many never truly leave.