CrownedSun/Everwinter

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Everwinter Forest

The Forest of Eternal Winter is not a place sought after throughout Creation by Gods and Exalt, nor a place immortalized in the legends of all men. Few aside from savants and those who live near the cursed place know of it's existance. Nor is it a place most people, even those birthed in the North, would enjoy visiting -- the bonechilling cold lasts all year, banks of Frozen Fog creep along at random, and the snow is everpresent. It is a secluded wintery vale, nestled against the Great Glacier by the furthest north range of the Lanji Mountains. Known to those rugged people as 'the last shelf', it is isolated from the rest of Creation by a barbarian nation inhabited by the shapeshifting Lunar Anathema.

Nor is this seclusion a product of the Second Age. No cities or ruins were constructed in the forests bounds during the First Age, and no Exalt constructed a hidden getaway in the forbidding location. The Celestial Bureaucracy sought on numerous occasions to claim the forest, but each God assigned to the location inevitably severed contact with his superiors and went rogue. Some survived censure and the wrath of the Exalted, and remain in the Forest to this day, though they have little contact with others. During the Usurpation, no Solars fled to this forbidding Forest and no tombs were constructed here. A single Lunar, desiring solitude from his kind, came here after their exodus -- but he was never seen or heard from again, and barely known of even among his kind.

Among those closest to the location, the Lanji and their eternal enemies the Kuniktik, the forest is little more. A cursed or blessed place, forbidden to most. Some hermits and wise ones abandon their people, seeking out solitude and peace in the bounds of the forest. Some of them live, and a few even return to their people again whole of body and mind. The Lanji settlement closest to the Forest is Evartun, a small village even by the standards of the Lanji. It's hunters occasionally wander into the forest, and sometimes they even return. Loggers seeking woods never stray past the very outer parts of the forest, and even then sometimes meet fell deeds. Yet the Lanji are not willing to leave the way to the forest unguarded!

The Kuniktik could storm down into the forest, and through that pass. No war party or horde has ever attempted it, at least not to the knowledge of the Nation, but few are willing to leave the door so unguarded as to tempt them. So a few brave souls rest in Evartun, always ready. Mostly they are those with no where else to go, those in service to the Gods of the Lanji, or those fascinated by the Forest itself...

Locations within the Forest

Forest's Heart
No trails lead to the Heart of the Forest, and one cannot draw a map or describe the path that leads to the center of Eternal Winter. This quality fills the forest, in fact -- even those locations more behaved seldom remain where one thinks they should, and the forest has been known to cloud the mind of those that get lost within it. Yet if the forest is hard to navigate, it is not impossible. Yet the Forest's Heart does not truly exist until the seeker goes looking for it. Nor can any hope to find the location without giving themselves over to the Wood, allowing it a purchase into their soul. Yet for those that become a part of the Forest, it's Heart is seldom more than five hours away...

Few tales exist to describe this central glory, yet those that have found it and somehow escaped the Forests' embrace seek of the never-ending heart of a blizzard and the core of a diamond. The trees seem to melt away, until one finds oneself in the midst of a maze of ice and snow. In the center of the maze...

Only smiles and silence.

Glade of Summer
There exists a glade within the Forest where the sun pierces the canopy above, and the snow melts away to reveal lush green grass. Large trees of types not seen elsewhere in the North root here, offering fruits and sheltering branches. While never warm, the chill is not as strong here and the grass often sways gently in the wind. In the middle of the glade rests an ancient altar of granite, upon which has flown the blood of thousands.

Thirteen Gods have been assigned to the Forest of Eternal Winter, in the dim past nigh buried in the records of the Forbidden Manse of Ivy in these dark days of the Bureaucracy. All went rogue, and some number of them survived. Of those that did, most took up residence in this holiest of glades where they might seek their peace and rest. Mortals are not welcome here, and those that venture into this comforting place seldom find it as peaceful as they might wish. However, now and again, one ventures here and lives to leave the Forest. Some even give of their blood before the Altar, and seek the wisdom of the Gods that dwell here...though doing so is not without peril, for the Gods of the Forest hold no contract. Prayers and sacrifice are as dust before them, and the only hope for he who should anger them is to avoid their presence -- a feat impossible, in this place.

the Ascent
There exists a staircase, cut into the thick icy cliff face of the Glacier, that connects the icy floor of the Forest with the top of the Great Glacier above. The stairs are ancient, carved into the never-melting ice ages ago by unknown hands. Neither the Exalted nor the Realm cut the stairs into the ice, but no tale tells the story of the carver. In some places upon the icy stair, one can see footsteps melted upon the ice or gouges like from a great daiklaive -- but no tale of the battle that must have occurred remains, except perhaps in the most ancient of libraries.

The stairs are wide enough for ten men to walk abreast down them, and not so steep as to be a trial to climb -- one can sit down upon the stairs, and rest a spell when the effort of climbing exceeds ones endurance. Among the Lanji, they are little more than rumor. Those in Evartun know that a way exists to reach the top of the glacier from the forest, but few know of the Ascent itself. The Kuniktik has a number of large tribes not far from the location however, and some of these hold the stairs as holy. A warrior has been known to quest down them, into the forest, where he seeks a rare white snow lily which he attempts to take back to his tribesmen. The quest is not a common one, and many who attempt it never return...

the Nameless Ruin
It is true that no ruin of the First Age exists in the bounds of the forest, but that is not to say that the work of man or God has never touched the Forest of Eternal Winter. There exists within it's bounds a place of cut wood and turned stone, the scent of the air full of sap and burnt wood. The foliage is sparse and the ground cleared, the sky overhead visible. Snow is turned and clear in places, the ancient paths still present despite the passage of countless ages. Sometimes the sounds of battle drift in the air, but nothing remains except the aftermath. No stone stands upon another, no little sign remains of what caused the devastation. Trees, uprooted as if by great force or torn down for lumber, remain as though untouched by the winds of time.

Sometimes a hint of blood, or worse, can be spotted on the snow.

The Fox's Den
Located in a place that only those well-attuned to the forest are likely to find is the Fox's Den; those who wander aimlessly might also inadvertantly stumble upon it, though it's highly likely they would never realize it. Appearing no different from the rest of the forest, save for a small rock outcropping with an opening in it, the Den may yet be recognized by those who can feel the flow of Essence from the area. Like much of the forest, the Den reverberates with essence in such a way as to appear tranquil and serene despite the harsh elements, but unlike much of it, this place seems to resonate with something like a "homey" vibe. Occaisionally, a snow-white fox darts through the small space, disappearing into the rocks, perhaps for food, perhaps for rest; popular myth, when they discuss the place at all, indicate that the strange Fox God of the forest comes to nest at this place. The rocks - and the cavern below them - serve as natural conduits of Essence, a Demense of minor power that has yet to be tapped by anyone.

Inhabitants of Eternal Winter

the Gods of the Forest
Little is known of those Gods that survive, though a few names are whispered among those who know such things. Grifiel, the Silver Feather Lord, is among them as is the Ice-Eyed Prince. Some mention Xillaes among the Gods of the Wood, while others invoke Fresh-Fallen Azure Flake. Regardless of their names, they are harsh and merciless gods indeed. The rebel gods of other lands beg for worship, prayer and power. The Gods of the Eternal Winter do not care for such things, but only for the service to the Forest. Loggers are abided, so long as they should mind their ways and not trespass upon the grounds of the Forest. If a Hunter should veer into lands marked forbidden there are no prayers to save him and no pacts he might hold up for protection; the Forest will claim him, and his blood will repay his debt. Neither the Lanji nor the Kuniktik hold these gods in worship, for such earns them nothing. Both, however, fear the Gods of the Woods -- but only as far as the woods themselves. The gods care nothing for what lies beyond, so the respect and fear owed them stops at the borders of the Forest as well.

the Hermit of the Woods
Matacha Falar, the Hermit of the Everwinter Forest, was a Priestess of Raventalon in her youth. Well beloved by her people and favored of her God, she was one of the leaders of the Lanji. Of an age with Iol and Ludmi, it was once thought that she might wed the Jarl and serve as the leader overall of the Lanji Nation. In the days of his youth, Iol was a handsome and fetching warrior -- and Ludmi and Matacha were friends, of a closeness that few others can share. Yet, though they were friends in all other things, in their desire for Iol they were the fiercest of enemies.

Matacha and Iol shared a love; Ludmi and Iol shared a lust. Those lusts beget a child, and that love was cast aside for honor. Ludmi Carratok now resides in Northgale, the Wife of the Jarl and the Leader of the Nation. Matacha fled her land, into the chill winter. No god, no love, no hope could nourish her and so she fled to the most forsaken place she could find in which to die. In the cold grip of the Forest, shame and regret and fear and anger was drawn from her like a poison.

Matacha dwells there still. She has crafted for herself a hut, deep within the forest, made from old branches and earth drawn from the forest floor. The roof is lovingly made from the leaves and vines of the forest, and inside rests the few luxuries that remain of her old life as well as the tools and delights of her new life. Wild game and frozen streams fill her larder, and the secrets of the forest fill her mind.

Always, she knows, the Forest has had its Priestess...