The Soul of the Feywood

Torvic! C'mere! Didja ever see a creature as odd as this'n? Look at it! Furry like an otter, beak like a duck! What were th' gods thinkin' when they made this thing?!
— Feywood pioneer trappers discussing a recent catch
Since Berdea first created the plants and animals that roam Cartyrion, the Feywood has been a haven for creatures of all shapes, sizes, and demeanors, as well as a place where a huge variety of plant life can thrive. Since the The Great Strife, this has become even more true.

The diversity of the Feywood has become a manifestation of its very soul. It is the ultimate showcase of the great works of Berdea of the Alevar. This has also made it a target.

Fauna & Flora

When Berdea finished his work of creating the flora of Cartyrion, the Feywood was a vast, rich, deep forest. It was filled with many varieties of trees, both decidious and coniferous, Beneath the canopy, all varieties of deep-shade shrubs and flowering plants thrive, as do mushrooms and other fungi. In the many glade where the trees permit sunlight to beam through, grasses, more shrubs, and flowers are plentiful.

The wildlife of Cartyrion was not fogotten either. While the Feywood was already home to a wide variety of grazers and predators, large and small, the Elves and Fey brought in any creatures they could manage to handle that would otherwise be affected by the Wasting.

The Fey are the guardians of all this. There are over a dozen different varities of fey creatures living in the Feywood each type with a different focus for their guardianship. The dryads tended the trees; the naiads tended the streams and life within them; the limoniads cared for the flowers in the glens, Fey animal spirits watched over their charges as well.

At the same time the Fey and Elves were working to preserve all of Berdea's creations within the Feywood, the forces of the Dark Gods were at work as well. The Great Strife saw the introduction of a number of creatures whose intent was not to make the Feywood more beautiful, rather it was to disrupt the life that was present there. Many of these creatures were abominations derived from Berdea's own work. The many forms of Giant Spiders are an example, but there are many others.

History

Prior to the Great Strife, the Feywood was already brimming with diverse flora and fauna, but once the struggles began - and especially after the Wasting began - the Elves and Fey of the forest realized that something needed to be done to protect Berdea's creations over all of Cartyrion. They began an effort to gather plants and animals in regions most affected by the Wasting to protect and preserve them against the evils of the Strife.

Their intention was to one day be able to reintroduce these to their original homes, but there are many areas on Cartyrion where the Wasting's effects are still felt, and are resisting all attempts to be eliminated. Thus there are still vast areas of the world that once held plant and wildlife, but now are nothing but barren waste. But the plants and wildlife live on... in the Feywood... waiting for the opportunity to "go home".
Type
Forest

Geography

The Feywood is vast, spanning nearly seventeen hundred miles at its widest point between the mountains of the Western Range and those of the Teeth of the Sea to the East. Before the Great Strife, it extended almost twenty-five hundred miles from the coast of the Farsea in the North to the narrow isthmus that marked where the two mountain ranges joined. The Wasting reduced its side, eating away at its borders somewhat in the West, but extensively in the North and South. Nevertheless, over a thousand miles of forest from north to south remains.

It is at the very heart of this region, farthest from the perils of the Wasting, that the Elves and Fey established what they referred to as the "Soul of the Feywood". This area, south of what is now Feywood Lake, encompasses approximately twenty-five thousand square miles of forest where they attempted to preserve the plants and animals threatened by the Wasting. The area did not avoid all of the perils of the Great Strife, though - through the machinations of the dark Repiliar gods, a section of this preserve was altered and darkened - these are now the Lizard Fens.
Twenty-two cycles of the sun to the past, we gathered Father Berdea's creatures here to protect them. Since that time, you have all performed admirably. Our charges flourish under our care. But now, the Other Folk are returning to the Feywood, and while most are good, well-intentioned Folk that use the Forest to live - as we all do - there will be some that come to exploit. We must be on our guard.
— Amalthea the Dryad addressing the Fey Council


Cover image: Avenue Trees by Darkworkx (on Pixabay)

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