Arhaseyn

"'Woe betide ye, wanderer / Who into black pines trek / For glory shan't embrace you / 'Gainst trees like reefs you'll wreck / 'Gainst wood black as night / 'Gainst beasts of vilest green / Wander into the black pines / And Ne'ermore be seen' - Fragment of poetry from the Phraxian poet Petraeus Peracleus Parmenides" Arhaseyn, also known variously as the Claviculum Nigrum by the ancient Suel, the Black Pines by the denizens of the Placid Realms, the Low Storm by the Teutobrens, or Glimwut by the dwarves of Vulkhund Ziflin Varr, is a mighty forest on the eastern fringe of Ocedon, directly across from the Hesperides and the Placid Channel. It is comprised of towering Calamochnus Pines, whose windswept ebon boughs have given shelter to wood and wild elves for millennia. Today, it is a realm of exotic game and stunning, if occasionally lethal, natural beauty.

The Seeds of History
Arhaseyn is a primordial forest, rumored, whose exact age is long lost to history. It is known that in the earliest chronicles of Vulkhund Ziflin Varr, the first dwarves to explore the nearby woods described them as mighty and ancient, already inhabited by elves that they indentified as the "noble lords of the savage wood"; while quick to refute that they were lords, the elves did find the dwarves flattering and courteous, and thus offered them limited rights to harvest timber and use the arable land around their hold, whittling away the small gap in the forest that would later house Barak Zharrgromthi. In truth, the elves viewed themselves as kindly stewards of the woods whose concession was for the greater good. They had lived for scores of generations in harmony with the ancient woods, though many even of their own have forgotten how they came to live among the black boughs. A great migration of elves had arrived in the forest, which they named "Shadow Woods" in their tongue, in ages long since past. They sought a new great forest to inhabit far from the ancient homeland of Taiosech to the west, and were not met with open arms. Savage beasts of all kind assailed them, and the predations of hostile plant life only added to their woes. Worse still, fey creatures harried them throughout, and as each weak passed, more and more elves died or deserted, choosing to explore elsewhere rather than follow their fellows to the grave.

For the few who endured the hardships of the black pines, the harsh beauty of the woods was the ultimate allure. Rich verdant carpets of grass, towering sable trunks, gorgeous feral creatures, a rioutous explosion of life at its most extreme run amok. The first to leave were those who believed the brutality of Arhaseyn meant that it could never be tamed like the wilds of Taiosech, and they left to settle small forest colonies to the north and south, or made the long trek back west. Of those who forged onward, a new division arose: those who believed that even if it could, Arhaseyn should not be tamed. This ideological split broke any attempt to seriously settle the wood, and ancient ballads records that perhaps even elf blood was spilled by their own kin over the disagreement. Finally, the remaining elves made pacts with the fey of the forest, pledging to be stewards and wardens over the land, cementing the order as it has existed for millennia since. From these brave souls arose the wood elf tribes and wild elf bands that have called the forest home ever since.

Into The Present
The elven way of life moves at a glacial pace measured against human perceptions of time. When the Suel entered the region that would become the Theme of Placitum, they called the forest Claviculum Nigrum, "the Black Tendrils" in Ancient Sueloise. Woodsmen attempting to take advantage of the rich timber supply were turned into pincushions for elven arrows or rent apart by beasts. It was only after some centuries that the Suel sent a more diplomatic representative, Komes Aleo Szilágyi of the Bandon of Thamarotokos, that peaceful coexistence was found. The collected elven chieftains agreed to allow very limited timber extraction from the fringes of the forest, and trade between man and elf unimpeded. Human history passed by largely beneath notice to the elves, who viewed even the finest specimens of humanity as aging away in the blink of an eye.

The Great War Against Tiamat was the last major world event to actually penetrate into the insular sphere of Arhaseyn. While the odd dragon was hardly unexpected in the woods, it was a genuine shock to the elves when they rose by the score. Green dragons of great and terrible age arose to assert dominion over the forest, in concert with their chromatic peers the world over in their dread bid for world domination. Foulest of the foul and primogenitor of them all was Zargothrax, whose name was a trio of dread syllables only whispered by the elves for ages past. Lost to time and memory, the elves had lost hunting parties and even entire bands to his appetites, but his mien was so terrifying and visage so grand that many believed him to he a vengeful spirit or wrathful fey rather than a dragon of flesh and blood. The many chieftains of the elves met at a conclave and unanimously agreed to fight the draconic threat, but found themselves in a prolonged guerilla stalemate, as parties would ambush dragons and vice versa, grinding each other down each day. Finally, a combined force of men and dwarves entered the fray, hardy veterans whose blades had tasted dragon blood already and thirsted for more. In a climactic final battle, Zargothrax was finally laid low by the heroic Matthias Drakehammer, and the dead laid to rest at the site of the draconic rout. Sadly, some of Zargothrax's damnable children escaped, and ever since the bloodline of Zargothrax has spawned all manner of vile half-breeds with a taste for elf flesh.

Ever since, little has changed for the elves. Their forest is known to host a number of hallowed druidic groves, which shelter the few non-elf inhabitants. The Circle of Laurels, the great druidic order over the Placid Realms, is rumored to be based out of one such grove. The Circle of Laurels is well known throughout the Nine Realms and includes members scattered across them, but the central grove where new druids are taught the secret tongue and partake in important rituals is said to lie in Arhaseyn. In addition, near-forgotten rumors whisper of another secretive order known only as The Lightbearers claiming a small glade as their private sanctuary. The Lightbearers are hardly known of at all, and the few who do mostly consider them either myth or an extinct druidic order that either predated or competed with the Circle of Laurels.

Religion
Arhaseyn is host to mostly elves, and as such the elven pantheon is most commonly venerated within its bounds. The local elves consider it to be an earthly paradise, the closest that the Material Plane can get to being something akin to the the Olympian Glades of Arborea. Even elves from beyond the black boughs are known to visit as a sort of pilgrimage, not necessarily to pay homage to any one god but to bask in the awe-inspiring grandeur of nature. The Celestial Gardener, Elebrin Liothiel, enjoys more widespread recognition than within other elven lands, as his jurisdiction over nature and encouragement of harmonious coexistence strikes a special chord in Arhaseyn.

Similarly, followers of Obad-Hai or Ehlonna find Arhaseyn to be a site worthy of veneration. Druidic circles tend to invoke one or both during certain regular rites, such as solstice and equinox ceremonies, and thus their names occasionally echo through the trees. While no temples or shrines to them are to be found, their faithful are known to occasionally sojourn into the sable pines.

Wood Elves: The Sylvach
Wood elves represent the more settled of the two elven cultures that coexist within Arhaseyn. They have learned to live in harmony with the natural world to a degree beyond even most other elves. Their villages are typically built at the base or even in the boughs of a collection of great trees, with the soil scooped out and formed into malleable earthworks to be made and remade as the season demands. Mounds of dirt pressed against a massive tree trunk may form an earthen wall behind which the sylvach, as the wood elves call themselves in their tongue, may rest. Exceptionally old trees may find themselves home to more permanent fortifications, as the carefully hollowed trunks may house all manner of elves. Higher up, sturdy branches may be wide enough to lay across, and elven tree tents hang in great number. If one finds a sylvach village, they are seeing only traces of the truly grand scale in which the elves have settled. This is intentional, not because they crave secrecy, but because they believe themselves guests of the trees, and try to be as unobtrusive as possible.

The sylvach prune the mighty pines and even fell the occasional one whose presence brings down the greater growth of the forest, and tend to large gardens spread beneath the canopy. In fact, many visitors could trespass through a sylvach garden without realizing, as the principles of coexistence that inform their culture means that, rather than introducing species or using neat, ordered plots, they instead foster native growths in ways that are simply the highest expression of the local flora. Put simply, sylvach agriculture is less about producing or modifying crops, and more about amplifying the native abundance to the maximum possible yield. Their malleable earthworks fit into the scheme; if the gardeners discover the pit where they had slept was now perfectly fertile for a valuable root, they would plant it and dig a new pit in more depleted soil for sleeping. Their earthen walls often are covered in all manner of creeping vines as well.

Sylvach life is one of joy in the simple things, though certainly not boring. Tending the gardens, shaping the earth, and hunting and foraging are all important parts of life. In addition, the sylvach keep histories more so than the wild elves, or grugach as the Elven tongue knows them. Much time is spent learning the histories and legends of the elven race in general, and of the sylvach in particular. As such, while sylvach are not nearly so bookish as the aloof grey elves, or arhach in Elven, they are still appreciative of language, especially poetry. In fact, most of the tales and proverbs of the sylvach are told in verse, and thus while few own a book, most have memorized at least a modest smattering of epics, odes, and other poetic forms. Many bards from the Placid Realms are eager to hear sylvach poetry, as the sylvach themselves are not prone to sharing written copies, and may go decades at a time without reciting a given poem a second time. It has an air of exotic and rare art to it, and a few bards have even found fame and fortune compiling such poems.

Wild Elves: The Grugach
Wild elves represent the other main elven culture in Arhaseyn. They are significantly less restrained than their cousins, seeking to revel in the glory of nature. Theirs is a life of constant wandering, following the ebb and flow of the most savage of game. While the sylvach may settle in tribes and maintain regular settlements, the grugach are far more nomadic. Traveling in large bands through the forest, they track and hunt vicious beasts, and even capture and train them to submit to their will. Each night, a grugach band makes camp, usually in a new spot, and each day the hunt begins anew. The old, young, and injured watch camp during the day, handling the practical necessities such as cooking, weaving, foraging, and crafting. While elven woodhounds are kept as domestic animals, all others are kept wild rather than bred; to preserve the sacred savagery of Arhaseyn, the grugach do not breed, but only break, the great beasts of the forest. Should a pair of any of their animals breed, they return them to a deep part of the woods far from camp, that the next generation may grow just as wild. In doing so, the grugach have seeded, in a sense, the forest, only with predatory megafauna rather than flora.

Grugach are friendly to sylvach and other elves, but are more standoffish towards outsiders than most. They tend to view other races as soft. When other races do visit, they tend to be rather dismissive of them, believing that if they die, they simply weren't fit to survive. Their exceptions are those who come specifically to hunt big game in the so-called "safaris". In these cases, they tend to be a bit more nuanced in their appraisals, lauding effort, chastising disrespect, and honoring fairly won trophies. They're rather curious about the Teutobrens of the mountains to the west, whose rare arrivals are given a bit more respect; to the grugach, a human is still a human, but a Teutobren is one of the good ones.

The Other Elves
High elves, the taiosach, form a rather tiny minority in Arhaseyn. They maintain a small handful of outposts, but are quite comfortable. They usually are intermediaries between the dwarves and the other elves for trade purposes, less because of racial tensions and more because their outposts tend to be conveniently placed between Vulkhund Ziflin Varr and a number of sylvach glades. Dwarven traders prefer to stop at taiosach outposts as it is hardly a detour from their other main overland trade venture, the humans of the Placid Realms by way of the County of Mamaros.

Grey elves, the arhach, are a rarity in Arhaseyn. Less than a dozen permanently call it home, all of them in taiosach outposts. Occasionally one visits from the far west as part of their studies, where their especially aloof nature is met with tested tolerance by the sylvach and barely restrained disdain by the grugach.

Aquatic elves, the thalassach, have a very minute presence far below the bluffs where Arhaseyn meets the Ocean of Annecto. Supposedly there was at one point a vibrant thalassach civilization beneath the waves, with cities of pearlescent grandeur, floating gardens anchored by coral tethers, and all manner of glorious monuments. However, the Great Collapse is said to have shattered their realm, sinking the overwhelming majority of it down fissures that emerged due to seismic activity. Centuries later, during the Great War Against Tiamat, the few who remained were further decimated by black dragons. Today, the remaining thalassach near Arhaseyn are a shadow of their former glory, residing in undersea caves. They still carry on the traditions of their ancestors, but much has been lost, and some say melancholy hovers over them all. Occasionally some venture into the deep fissures looking for artifacts of their long lost glory. Some swim to Vulkhund Ziflin Varr to trade with the dwarves, who seem to take an odd shine to them; some say the loss of their civilization strikes a chord with the dwarves, whose history is so often a tale of woe and loss of home.

The drow find no sanctuary in Arhaseyn. The followers of Lolth are attracted to the monstrous spiders occasionally found in the darker corners or Arhaseyn, and there are rumors of caves leading to the Underdark opening among the pines. However, the sylvach and grugach are violently opposed to them, for different reasons. To the sylvach, drow represent the same thing they represent to all other elves, a willful disobedience towards the highest of gods. The grugach are even more incensed, as they find the drow to be perverters of nature with their spider breeding. Still, the occasional drow can be found if one looks hard enough, usually doing business with a tribe of spider-worshipping forest goblins, eager to trade precious eggs for finely wrought instruments of death from the Underdark.

Star elves, or mithrach, are a rare but constant presence. Almost every tribe or band has at least one, and there are enough for them to breed true in limited numbers. However, they also are occasionally born of the union of regular elves. Once in a few generations, they are born in unusually high numbers, which is seen as auspicious. Mithrach are almost expected to deviate from the norm, and appreciated for such.

Politics
There is hardly a thing as politics in Arhaseyn. Sylvach tribes have chiefs, grugach bands have chiefs, taiosach outposts have sheriffs, and thalassach caves have chiefs. Elven life in Arhaseyn is very locally oriented, with no greater authority over the chiefs. Occasionally a conclave is held to reach accord between different tribes and bands, usually regarding a particularly dangerous stretch of woods or coming, pressing, threat. Beyond that, the elves have little need for high authority. The men of Mamaros maintain good terms with them, largely inherited from the work of Good Count Aleo millennia ago. So long as they are respectful, men and dwarves are free to visit, though usually such things are brief. Reciprocal visits are rare, as elves are wont to leave Arhaseyn.

Ecology
Arhaseyn is home to all manner of deadly natural phenomena. Dire animals and monstrous vermin are common as woodlouse and raven in more civilized lands. Magical beasts, megafauna, and even tyrant lizards are known to exist throughout the woods. The plants themselves are vicious in their own right. For every sagacious treant willing to parlay there is a wizened elder, for every noble unicorn willing to guide the lost there is a verdant prince waiting to beguile them. Fey run amok, and the past millenium has also seen the proliferation of dragonblooded mongrels, heirs to the fell legacy of Zargothrax. True dragons, good and evil, can be found as well, though in limited number.

That which can choose to call Arhaseyn home is tougher than most. The goblin tribes of the forest are known for their veneration of the great spiders and cultivation of hallucinogenic fungus, while the gnoll tribes are known for producing above average specimens. Occasional bands of orcs or ogres pass through, most picked apart in a matter of days. Certain species of troll thrive in Arhaseyn, while others are almost swallowed whole among the pines. Some stretches of the forest are hanging abbatoirs, as spiderwebs and assassin vines hold what little remains of their prey.

Central to all is the Calamochnus Pine, the great black tree species so unique to the region. Naturalists have determined that it thrives off a unique mixture of freshwater and saltwater, hence their extremely limited range. While not as religiously significant as the Saelas trees that grow in abundance in Taiosech, the Calamochnus Pines of Arhaseyn are majestic in their own right. Their canopies and root systems play host to one of the most unique ecosystems in the known world. It is unknown if the fey took notice for how magical the wood was, or if it is their presence which enchants it, but whatever the case, Calamochnus Pines darken as they age, eventually growing into the material known as darkwood. All manner of vines and mosses can grow on a Calamochnus Pine, and especially ancient specimens can appear as almost art, with generations of Sylvach gardeners cultivating networks of symbiotic plants all around the trunks.

Economy
The elves of Arhaseyn have little use among themselves for money, but it is essential due to trade. The dwarves of Vulkhund Ziflin Varr supply them with mithral for their finest arms and armor, and in exchange the elves supply wood, pelts, and rare and unique plants useful for medicinal and alchemical purposes. The men of Mamaros are keen to buy much the same, giving gold in exchange. Elven handicrafts, such as instruments, music boxes, tapestries, paintings, and other art objects are popular exports. Trade is primarily done in the taiosach outposts, which are convenient for traders compared to braving the depths of Arhaseyn. The elves do little with metal save for mithral and cold iron, and they are loathe to mine, seeing such an activity as distasteful and disruptive to such a landscape. Much like how they gather fallen tree limbs, they scour the inside of caves for large iron deposits easily freed from the earth rather than the complex mine operations of men or dwarves. Their forges are few, but their works last a lifetime, or sometimes generations. The elves of Arhaseyn trade strictly to maintain enough gold to fairly trade for what little they can not provide themselves.

Military
The elves of Arhaseyn do not maintain military forces. Still, many know how to fight. The sylvach call their finest warriors Needlers, for their arrows are typically crafted with pine motifs and resemble large pine needles or branches. The mightiest grugach are the Beastmasters, who break dire creatures to their will to stamp out despoilers. Typically a collection of sylvach tribes and grugach bands will hold a conclave before what they would call war. Typically this is the extermination of an orc incursion, a roving gnoll infestation, or a particularly stubborn village of goblins. At these times, each chief will pledge warriors, and all will circle the target, hiding in the foilage, before swooping in to eliminate the foe. Often, the results would be mistaken for the work of a pack of animals thanks to the Beastmasters, save for the foes left like pincushions for elven arrows.