Ashentree Fey

The Fey who ascribe to the Ashentree Pact are some of the most secretive of their kind, or perhaps merely the least eager to make contact with mortals. They coalesce around the ideal of restoring the Deepwoods to their prior extent, stretching through Escann and up to the White Reach as they did prior to Castanor's conquest of the region. While it remains difficult to ascertain if they constitute a specific organization, or are merely associated by ideology, the fey who ascribe to the Ashentree Pact are scattered throughout the seelie and unseelie courts of the Deepwoods alike, and seem to consider the Blackened Prince as their leader. They possess a marked disdain for humans that has allegedly been the source of many of the tragic accidents known to befall explorers and merchants in the Deepwoods.

## Etymology

The Ashentree Fey take their name from the World Tree, said to be a massive ash tree formerly located in Oldhaven that served to more closely link Halann with the Feyrealm. The tree was lit aflame during a Castanorian campaign in the region, giving a second meaning to the "Ashen" tree.

## History

### Origins

In Cannor's primordial history, the region now known as Escann was dominated by an unbroken forest that included the Cursewood and Greatwoods, known as the Oldwoods. The whole region was dominated by fey creatures and their minions, including Centaurs, Satyrs, Nymphs, Hags, and that have largely been driven to obscurity or extinction in the modern day. The region was centered around a massive ash known as the World Tree, which is thought to have served as a political and religious center for the fey. Following the Castanite Exodus, the humans who settled the north and came to inhabit Cannor began grand campaigns of conquest and deforestation, dedicated to wiping out the inhabitants of the region, justifying their conquest through the claim that these creatures were the spawn of Agrados.

During a major campaign known as the Second Great Cleansing, a battle took place at the site of the tree in Oldhaven, during which the tree was set ablaze and reduced to ash, allegedly by the hand of Castan II Beastbane. The burning most likely occurred in Teysuren of 580 BA, according to Castanorian sources. This, along with a mass impalement of Fey on the shores of Silent Lake in Ellyn Grove was likely the impetus of the Ashentree Pact's formation. It remains difficult to ascertain if this spurred from a popular movement or the actions of an unknown leader as no reliable information on the Fey's perspective during this period has surfaced amongst Cannor's scholars. However, it is most likely that the first fey to adopt the label of Ashentree joined together in their pact to restore the span of the Verdant Expanse shortly after these events.

### Goblins, Wood Elves and the Ashentree Pact

The Ashentree pact appear to have had little, if any influence on the goblins that traditionally inhabited the Deepwoods before the arrival of the elves. Even the elves seem to have had few interactions, with only rumors of the much-maligned Ghúl clan's dealings with them standing along other accusations of association with the unseelie fey, demons, cults, and all manner of malicious entites real and imagined. The most that can be dredged up through extensive research is some murmurings that inhabitants of the Deepwoods have been offered bounties on the humans of Escann.

### Orcs and the Ashentree Pact

The Ashentree fey had much more significant contact with orcs than their predecessors in the region, according to the oral histories that survived these poorly documented conflicts. It was said, when one of the numerous competing clans of orcs who had flowed into the Deepwoods during the Greentide appeared to be achieving dominance over the others, the Ashentree fey came forward with an offer. A royal marriage, the clan's chieftan forming a union with one of their own in exchange for their vassalage, and, as they later discovered, their very souls. This group of orcs is identified by the name of Tugund-Darakhan, the clan of a thousand trees. It is said that the power of the fey turned these orcs a sickly, unnaturally bright shade of green, that their minds and words grew as strange and inscruitable as those of the fey. The ferocious strength of these "Emerald Orcs" supposedly necessitated one of the few instances of cooperation between the elves and orcs of the Deepwoods to crush this mysterious threat that seemed to wish nothing but death upon all the mortals of Halann.

### Continued Influence

The Ashentree pact, while difficult as ever to trace, is often blamed for the incursions of monsters, bandits, murders and mutilations, or most any other trouble at the borders of the Deepwoods. Little evidence can actually be produced to support these claims. Perhaps the most significant material contribution they appear to have produced is the regional variant of the common curse "Ashen skies!" uttered instead as "Ashen boughs!", most commonly heard among Wood Elves, but present in the tongues of most inhabitants of the Deepwoods.

## Beliefs

The Ashentree Fey is a group united by common desire to avenge humans for burning World Tree, held by their beliefs to be the last remnant of Halanna, ancient Goddess of Earth. Adherents of the Ashentree Pact believe that fey should reclaim their lost lands and plant a new World Tree to save both the Prime Material plane and the Feyrealm from the Severance, complete separation of both worlds and loss of all magic in Halann. However, the veracity of this claim as it relates to fading magic appears rather dubious.