The Lychwood

The Lychwood is the southern half of the great Wood on the eastern border of Archaea. Without the pacifying force of the Elves to guide its growth, the Lychwood has become a wild and dangerous place, full of fae aberrations and the undead. Despite the dangers, some few peoples live under its eaves, from wretchedly gloomy human villages to *truly* Fey Courts, made up of forest spirits and elven exiles alike.

## Geography

The Lychwood doesn't have sub-regions, but rather slowly grades from dense primordial forest in the north to a swampy mire-wood in the south. As such, it is easiest to talk about the region in terms of the two ecosystems, while keeping in mind that they are not concrete zones so much as a gradient.

### Northern Forest

The Northern end of the Wood is the most wild, containing the forest's oldest and most dense growth zones. There are trees in this end of the Lychwood which were first seeded on the day Munda was formed. As such, this region is

the most rife with fae spirits ranging from benign nymphs and dryads to ancient entities of merciless caprice. The few elves who live south of the River Salva also tend to haunt this region, often as a member of one of the several Fey Courts. The true heart of the wood lies somewhere in the furthest north eastern reaches of the wood, where it nears the Needlestack Mountains. Myths among the woodfolk suggest a colossal stone archway hides somewhere in the mountains--that it was through the arch that all life came to Archaea, and through it that all life will leave.

### Southern Swamp

As the Lychwood nears the Adwenian Ocean, it slowly becomes a forested marshland. These regions are comparatively younger (though still ancient by mortal standards) and less dense with Fae magicks, though quite dangerous nonetheless. Here one will find such things as the wandering dead, bog spirits, wisps, or unnameable scaled beasts drifting through the murk. The Old Kingdom once spread across this region, and its remnants rise in crumbling ruins from the murk. At the Kingdom's height, all of this land was dry and clear forest--it is whispered that the bogs were a pestilence visited upon an ancient king for his hubris. Some few descendants of the Kingdom still dwell beneath the eaves, whether they are in caves, shaded glens, or on stilts above the marsh. There are no large settlements, nor hardly anything worth calling a true town. The hazards of living prevent humanity from truly taking root here again.

## History

### Ancient History

When the elves first began to tame the Eldwood Deeps, they started by systematically hunting and taming the more

violent and dangerous of the fae spirits, or otherwise driving them south. This process took centuries, eventually leading the elves to the shore of the River Salva, the only natural border spanning the entirety of the great Eastern Wood. Here they gathered their wisest adepts together to work a great ritual, weaving the river itself with warding and protection spells to prevent evil spirits or the undead from wandering back into the Eldwood. These creatures, now crowded into the Lychwood, were left to their own devices. They festered there, filling the gaps in root and bough, making their dens, laying their snares, and waiting.

Millennia later, just before the fall of the Lizard Empire, the first humans migrated into the Lychwood, from the East. They fled some great upheaval in their homeland over the Needlestack mountains, seeking sanctuary in Archaea. What they found was the Lychwood, teeming with horrors. At first it was a slaughter. Nearly a third of the refugees died within the first year. Those that tried to escape the Wood found themselves enslaved at the hands of the Empire, but the Lizards did not dare venture under the eaves in search of the rest.

It was in this time of blood and darkness that the chieftain of these humans forged a pact with one of the elder powers

of the Lychwood, binding his blood and the blood of his line to the Wood itself. In exchange, he and his people were offered protection from the monsters of the forest. In token of this pact, the chieftain was named King of the Southern Lychwood, and immediately hanged from a sacred grove and sacrificially eviscerated. Thus the blood was bound.

The chieftain's son was the first to actually rule under the title, the first of a very long dynasty. The Kingdom's fortunes quickly grew, spreading it's influence throughout a large swath of the Lychwood. And as each successive King met his demise his remains were given back to the Sacred Grove, entombed in ivory caskets engraven with their deeds and hung from the mighty boughs of the Ritual Tree. On the trunk of this tree, an inscription can still be read today:

> "Here the First King of Men hanged for nine days and nine nights, binding his people to this great wood by blood and by spirit, until time itself runs through."
>
>

There is no record of what ended the Kingdom of Lychwood or when the airy greatwood rotted into festering bogs. It would have occurred sometime after the Cataclysm which ended the Lizard Empire, when humans began to migrate out of the Wood and into the other lands of Archaea. The few who remain live squalid lives in lonely hermitages...but the pact still holds. The dark creatures of the Lychwood do not bother those with the blood of the Old Kingdom.

### The Modern Era

In the years since the line of Kings failed, the Lychwood has slowly reverted back to its wilder state. The few humans who still remain have been pushed further and further south by the influence of the Fey Courts, and the attendant wildness they carry with them. Several centuries ago, A mage calling himself Skald Von Lychwood took up residence in one of the ruined castles of the Old Kingdom. There he set about tapping into the magics of the Wood, heightening his power and cultivating thralls from the surrounding villages. In time, he installed himself within a ruined castle of the Old Kingdom, and began to raise hordes of the dead to stalk the southern Lychwood. Before he could begin to exercise his power in earnest, however, Skald was brought down by a combined army of humans and wood spirits, who united to distract his hordes long enough for a smaller group to infiltrate and do battle with the lich himself.

Despite the eradication of the Lich, the situation has only managed to get worse. Rumors abound of daemonic spider hordes flooding the Wood and killing indiscriminately. They Fey Courts gather in the north to address this new threat, even as the newly unified humans of the southern marshes are encouraged to evacuate. They have no place in the struggles to come.

## Civilizations

* **The Fey Courts of Lychwood** - Though they share the same name as the Courts of Eldwood, the peoples of     the Northern Lychwood have nearly nothing else in common with their counterparts. Instead of a chivalric court composed of noble elven families, the Lychwood Courts function more like warrior tribes or witch covens and include representation from a wide variety of the forest denizens, including dryads, sylphs, ents, wisps, elven exiles, faeries, and more beings than there are names for them. The Courts vary widely in structure; some are intricate hierarchies bound by codes of law while others are vague associations of peers which hold council only at need. One Court has risen to some level of notoriety in recent years: The Stag Knights, led by the mysterious Green Knight, a chivalric order sworn to combat the evil spirits of the Lychwood in the hopes that it may one day be a realm to equal the Eldwood Deeps.
* **The Bog Folk** - Mostly remnants of the Old Kingdom, the bog folk lead quiet, bleak lives trying to scrape a living out of the hostile forest. Some new blood has come from outside with the settling of Kataleon and the creation of shipping lanes to the Far East. Some of the frontier folk from the Steppe and the Hill Kingdoms beyond have set up warehouses along the southern coast in the hopes of turning some profit off of provisioning the ships that pass by. Those without the Old Blood rarely venture too far into the Wood, however. They respect and fear the dark things that prowl within.

## Notable NPCs

* **Morghein Lychwood** - The younger son of Skald, fathered on one of his bogfolk thralls. A dhampir and natural born sorcerer, Morghein spent a miserable childhood in his father's stronghold before running away to a mercenary's life hunting bog monsters. He was caught up in the rebellion against Skald, and shot the killing blow which dispatched his father. He has since become associated with an adventuring party destined to combat Ignotean in the events following the New Desolation.
* **Wykim Lychwood** - The elder son of Skald, also fathered upon a thrall. Wykim took after his father in all things, eventually begging the boon of being sired to full vampirehood upon coming of age. Wykim was always the more martial of the Lychwood brood, taking up the sword at a young age and training in the unholy arts of an antipaladin. He was sent abroad by his father shortly before the lich was overthrown, eventually resurfacing among the armies of Ignotean as a trusted lieutenant. Wykim, along with his personal guard of blood knights, were assigned to lead the first harrying force sent down the Khazrai Pass, where he directed the battle of Galen's Harrow.     From there, Wykim caught wind that his brother had joined a band of adventurers and quickly caught their trail, hounding the party north through the Whitespines where he eventually caught up with them and gave battle. He and his knights were defeated by the adventurers with timely aid from their Lizardfolk allies Kalak and Gurthang. He is presumed dead.