Veldreth spans approximately 1,800 miles east to west, and 1,500 miles north to south. It lies within Eldreth's southern hemisphere and almost entirely within the planet's temperate zone, though Veldreth's southernmost tip just touches the antarctic circle. The continent is extremely fertile, covered in dense forest, lush grassland and verdant mountains. Veldreth's three northern forests retain their elven names, and are a mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees. The wide, southern taiga has no name, and is composed almost entirely of evergreens due to its colder winters. The remainder of the continent includes hills, swamps, and patches of tundra in its furthest southern reaches. Veldreth has no deserts.
Several races make their homes in Veldreth. Two human cultures dominate the continent. The first, which primarily controls the northern reaches of Veldreth, is composed of the human followers of the Mistlords.
The Mistlords are ancient sorcerers who came to Veldreth from Toril to aid the continent's magically weak humans in their war against Titania, her sylvan fey and the elves. After their Wizard King led his magical followers to victory, turning the tide of the war and driving the fey powers from the continent at the apparent cost of his own evil life, a group of his human wizards rebelled against their fallen overlord and stole the power of the fey, transforming themselves into half-fey hybrids. When the Wizard King rose as (or revealed himself to be) an undead, and departed with his surviving and undead loyalists, the newly transformed sorcerers remained behind.
The most powerful of these wizards styled themselves the Mistlords, and immediately began bickering. However, before the Mistlords turned against each other, they co-operated long enough to raise the Mistwall, a warding barrier which sealed Veldreth off from the rest of Eldreth for many centuries.
The Mistlords were capricious tyrants. They sought rule over all Veldreth's humans. They would have succeeded, if not for the hero Lief Wolfsson, a refugee from Landreth, who arrived on the shores of Veldreth just before the Mistlords raised up the Mistwall. Lief Wolfsson embarked on a dangerous runequest and won mighty secrets of rune magic. That a society of free humans exists on Veldreth is due to the heirs of Lief Wolfsson's journey; the runewarriors, runecasters and skalds that wield the secrets Lief Wolfsson won.
Lief Wolfsson himself only existed due to the intervention of the transcendent artifact known as the Dreamseed. In 1373, Jaren Agundar of the Knights of the Sword Coast (guided by the Norns) wielded the Dreamseed to alter the past and present of Veldreth, releasing the continent from centuries of total domination by the Mistlords.
The humans not ruled by the Mistlords call themselves the People of the Spirit, referring to the Great Spirit whom they worship. They also worship numerous lesser spirits; chief among these perceived lesser incarnations of the Great Spirit are Odin One-Eye, Thunder the Eagle God, and Raven. Though the People of the Spirit's religion is dominated by the Great Spirit's pantheon, the Asgard pantheon also commands great influence. Finally, a small number of Landreth's deities are worshipped in Veldreth. These gods must manifest in Veldreth as members of the Great Spirit's pantheon, as must the Asgard. Surprisingly, these deities ally without friction in Veldreth, and grant the People of the Spirit a rich mythic tradition.
The People of the Spirit wander the hills and highlands, always on the move. They have few cities, and even these would hardly deserve the name in most civilized realms. They are led by great chieftains, runewarriors, skalds, and runesmiths. Like their deities, they are believers in individualism, freedom and self-expression. While their origins are somewhat mysterious, it is known that three migrations of humans came to Veldreth. These humans mixed and became the People of the Spirit.
The first migration, which occurred beyond human records in the past, brought the original People of the Spirit to Veldreth. This was the largest migration, said to have been of a huge fleet of expatriates fleeing a great disaster which had consumed their homeland. The First Fleet, as it was known, brought humans to Veldreth for the first time. It was after the establishment of the First Fleet's original communities that humans from Landreth began to visit Veldreth. At first, communication occurred only between traders and explorers. But eventually, several small migrations of Landreth humans, mostly from Aelfir, landed on Veldreth's shores. These small groups were quickly absorbed into the People of the Spirit's society.
The third migration was distinguished from the second only by the folk which it brought to Veldreth's shores. Northmen of Landreth sailed to Veldreth and seized territory for themselves. Unlike the second migration, the third was not peaceful. Conflicts broke out between human factions. Further conflicts erupted between humans and the elves and fey. While the third migration was also eventually absorbed into the People of the Spirit's society, that society was noticeably changed by it. The seeds of anger between human and fey were sown, seeds that would lead to cataclysmic war and the summoning of the Wizard King and his henchmen.
The People of the Spirit primarily dominate the southern reaches of Veldreth, while the Mistfolk and their Mistlord rulers primarily dominate the north. The Mistfolk were once of the People, but have been transformed under the Mistlord yoke. Mistfolk are city and town dwellers. Their crafts are more advanced than that of the People, permitting the Mistfolk to produce finer weapons, tools and equipment. Mistfolk are capable of constructing elaborate buildings, merging human common-sense solidity with fey beauty and grace.
The Mistfolk do not worship the gods of the People of the Spirit, as the Mistlords forbid any religion on pain of death. However, among some few Mistfolk exist secret cults of Titania and her Sylvan Court, as well as of her evil sister the Queen of Air and Darkness and her Unseelie. Just as some among the Mistfolk yearn to touch the good in their fey heritage, others are drawn to a darkness greater than the Mistlords' prosaic evil.
While most Mistfolk are fully human, a sizable minority are not. The Mistlords, when they transformed themselves, bestowed lesser fey magics on their most faithful soldiers. Since the days of the Mistlords' rise, those soldiers have bred with the natives under the Mistlords' rule, creating a fey-touched race of once-humans. It is these fey-touched humans who were originally named the 'mistfolk', though that term has since expanded to include all those under Mistlord rule. The Mistlords themselves have discovered that their more extensive transformation had rendered them sterile. Unable to fulfill their creative impulses by birthing children, the Mistlords have instead channeled those impulses into unhealthy obsessions.
Throughout Veldreth, fey, giants, and humanoids compete with both the People of the Spirit and the Mistlords for power and land. Giants typically cluster in discrete regions, seizing vast territories as their own. Both the People of the Spirit and the Mistlords war against the giant races, but neither group throws their full power against that of the jotun, fearing defeat and subsequent weakness. The jotun races of Veldreth include the rare firbolg and verbeeg, whose small nomadic communities sometimes sell their services as warriors for food, clothing, and tools. Frost giants roam the southern tundra, though the area is not quite cold enough for them to prosper. The People of the Spirit who live in this region hunt these giants without mercy, and have nearly driven them to extinction. Voadkyn, if any survived the deaths of their elven allies, have not been seen in Veldreth for ages. Hill and mountain giants prosper in Veldreth's mountain ranges, often ruling larger communities of ogres and ettins. Fog and cloud giants are perhaps the most numerous of Veldreth's jotun races. Good and evil members of these groups contest against each other, but do not wage outright war. While thousands of fog giants dwell in Skodjotunheim and aggressively defend the huge, mist covered moor, cloud giants roam the whole of the continent in floating castles and command the high mountain peaks. Even the Mistlords hesitate to attack the giants' fortresses. The cloud giants are known to wield potent runes that banish illusions, and the half-fey sorcerers have little power over mists within the giants' own castles. Most powerful of all Veldreth's jotun, however, are the storm and reef giants. Though their numbers are few, these benign jotun try to counterbalance the prolific evil among the lesser giant races. Not surprisingly, they dwell primarily in the Crystal Reef in the north, and in the highest mountain peaks in the south. Skyefjell is considered a holy place to the storm giants of Veldreth, much as Vindenskyesse is in Landreth.
The fey races of Veldreth have been warped and twisted by the merging of human and fey magics. Some of the fey are mere shadows of their former selves, their powers weakened and their personalities dulled. Others have learned human ways, but have failed to learn human discipline and values. Scattered as they are throughout the continent, the weakest fey races have hardly noticed the transfer of Titania's power to the Mistlords. These fey care only for simple day-to-day tasks, and do not bother with the troubles of the powerful, so long as they themselves are left alone.
Notably, the fey races of Veldreth include an extraordinarily high proportion of shadow fey. Regions inhabited by the shadow fey are thought to be very close to the Plane of Shadow. Although dark in demeanor and possessing powers closely aligned to darkness, the shadow fey as a whole do not serve the Queen of Air and Darkness, or any of the other fey deities (though individuals have been known to do so). The enigmatic queen of Veldreth's shadow fey is the Queen of Star and Shadow, who rules over a hidden faerie court somewhere in the Plane of Shadow bordering Veldreth.
There are nearly forty Mistlord castles scattered throughout the continent of Veldreth. Most are inhabited by a single Mistlord. Some are inhabited by two Mistlords. Inevitably, when the Mistlords dwell in pairs, they are joined in matrimony. One of the two is always superior to their consort. Such couples are almost never faithful to each other, leading to multiple affairs and intrigues.
Mistlords rule realms of varying size. The most powerful claim vast territories with varying success. Mistlords are capricious and easily bored, often failing to carefully monitor their realms. Their concerns are awakened by contests over magical power. All Mistlord castles stand on magical sites, whether natural or created. They frequently tap these magical sources to work their fey dweomers, such as the mistweaves that surround their domains in fog mazes.
The castles of the Mistlords are often intensely magical places in their own right. All are heavily enchanted, and they are often constructed of magical materials. Some are entirely magical constructs, woven directly of solidified fey magics and bound to the life force of its Mistlord. Mistweaves, however, are by far the most important magical defense of any Mistlord. These weaves are said to alter the very nature of magic within the area they encompass. The weaves are often linked to guardian creatures and warding spells.
The Mistlords themselves are all thought to be the ancient sorcerers, likely of Netherese heritage or decent, who assisted the Wizard King in his cataclysmic war against Titania. Although they are known to be alien to Eldreth, the Mistlords' histories, to the extent they exist, claim that they have always ruled Veldreth. The sages of the People of the Spirit have begun to suspect that many of the Mistlords have actually grown to believe their own lies after centuries of faithful repetition.
The Mistlords appear as unnaturally tall, beautiful fey humanoids of regal bearing. While each Mistlord tailors their appearance to match their personality, they are almost always angular, sharp and painfully thin. Unlike elven beauty, whose exotic appeal to human sensibilities is well known, the Mistlords' beauty is not attractive. Instead, their beauty is cold and repellant.
The Mistlords are capricious, heartless, cruel, and often wicked. They are also cunning and enjoy plots and intrigue. They value status as much and often more than raw power, and have been known to go to great lengths simply to count coup against their fellows. They often gamble and play games, but none can abide losing and so they always cheat. Unfortunately, humans frequently find themselves the pawns and pieces in these games, and they suffer regardless of who wins or loses. Rarely do the hostilities engendered between Mistlords persist, however. An enemy can easily become a close ally the next day, and vice versa. The single exceptions to this rule were the two Mistlords who controlled the southern islands beneath the Kriggenflod. These hateful wizards, who were known as the Witch King and the Storm Lord, carried a vendetta that originated with the death of a female Mistlord whom they both sought to marry. She had been caught in the madness of their conflict, and was destroyed during a spell duel that went awry. Afterwards, both Mistlords fought each other endlessly in a conflict that eventually led to both their deaths (see below).
Aside from the above common qualities, Mistlords strive for uniqueness. They never share magics with each other, and each seeks some theme or motif to define his or her identity. Some are much more wicked than others. A few are simply greedy and selfish rather than actively evil and cruel.
Of all the Mistlords, only one can actually be said to show any kindness to the People of the Spirit. This outcast is also the only Mistlord to dwell on the shores of the highly magical Sea of Skalds, at the mouth of the River Odinsflod, which flows down from the crystal snows of Etelspyd - One Eye's Spear. There she rules a graceful and benign Mistlord city constructed of white stone, where People of the Spirit mingle with Mistfolk in peace. She calls herself the Seer, and is an extremely skilled diviner and enchantress - as skilled as any that Veldreth or Eldreth has ever seen - though without the raw power of the gesaedere. The Seer is said to have been one of the Wizard King's chief two lieutenants (the other being the Hag). It is rumored that it was her skills which allowed the Mistlords to steal the fey's magics after the Wizard King's death. However, after her transformation, the Seer turned away from the evil of the other Mistlords and of her former master. Since that time, her aid has been invaluable in keeping the People of the Spirit free of Mistlord domination. The People recognize that the Seer is not motivated by desire to do good, but rather by a desire for balance. As long as the Mistlords threaten Veldreth's balance, the Seer will oppose them. Likewise, the elders of the People recognize that should one day the People of the Spirit threaten the Seer's view of Veldreth's balance, the Seer will not hesitate to turn on her former allies.
As the northern-most sea bordering Veldreth is closest to the equator, it is the warmest throughout the year. It houses a huge variety of fish and undersea life, often very colorful and exotic. Mistlords are fond of filling their garden ponds with these tropical fish, though they often die after only a few months. Larger and more dangerous creatures also dwell within the sea, including voracious breeds of school fish, deadly sharks, and highly poisonous jellyfish. A number of mermen and locathah are said to dwell on undersea islands, but little is known of these reclusive races. They avoid all contact with humanity, and stay clear of any hint of Mistlord presence. A sea devil colony also once lived here, but after raiding the pleasure vessel of a traveling Mistlord, they were destroyed.
On the eastern half of the continent, southerly currents wash against undersea ridges, forcing nutrient rich waters to swell upward. These waters bath the huge coral deposit known as the Crystal Reef. The reef derives its name from a special breed of filter feeder that draws magical essence from the sunlight and the clear water. This creature somehow transmutes its crustacean shell into a rough, crystalline substance. The crystal traps the sunlight on clear days, blinding those who lack eye protection. The crystal is also rumored to channel magical energy, though none have yet found the places where legends say the energy collects. Forays into the reef are repulsed by a secretive race of reef giants who follow a strange, mystical cult. These giants keep their distance from fey and human alike, and though never causing unnecessary harm, they wield the magic of the reef to protect it. The Mistlords find their mist-based magics fail when close to the bright, burning light of the Crystal Reef, and so they never enter it themselves. Their minions are invariably slain, or return in failure.
In 1374 DR an Army of Darkness of monstrous blackspawn and warped sea devils from Landreth's undersea Blacklands attacked the northern shore of Veldreth. The Army of Darkness was led by the White Kraken, a miles-long beast which held one-third of a facet of the Queen of Air and Darkness' Black Gem, and was supported by the Unseelie Court of Veldreth's shadow fey, led by the Princess of Frost and Fear.
The White Trio - the White Elf, the White Ghost and the White Kraken, sought the Stone of Corbineigh, the sphere focus of Seeliespace IV. They failed to seize it, and the gesaedere Shannon of Landreth instead completed her quest to retrieve the Stone. Shannon then unbound the Stone, completing Titania's unfinished crafting of Seeliespace IV and permanently stabilizing the sphere's dimensional fabric. Meanwhile, the Knights of the Sword Coast destroyed the White Trio.
The aquatic Army of Darkness was defeated by an alliance of the Crystal Reef's giants, the locathah and merman tribes of the Coral Sea, a great force of whales from the deep ocean led by a Great Dreamer, the People of the Spirit, the great eagles, many cloud and storm giants, the Seelie Court of the shadow fey, the Pureblood and Transformed shadow dark elves, Mistlords - including the Seer, the Sorcerer, and most of the Mistlords of Veldreth's northern shore, all with support from Landreth's fey, the eladrin, the rilmani and the Knights of the Sword Coast.
So great was the undersea Army of Darkness that despite terrible losses, Veldreth's defenders were unable to exterminate all of the Army's twisted creatures. Though the White Kraken and its largest blackspawn were slain, many smaller warped creatures survived and scattered. These blackspawn, led by sea devil black prophets and relatively small blackspawn kraken, have established themselves in the Coral Sea. They continue to raid Veldreth's northern shores, and are a constant threat to the Crystal Reef and to the locathah and mermen. Pockets of blackspawn have been seen traveling south, and these packs of blackspawn may soon threaten Veldreth's other shores.
This precarious sea harbors the highest concentration of Mistlord castles on Veldreth. The castles are built in the swamps and dense forests that border the sea on all sides. It is a place of poisonous fogs and bone-chilling sounds, and in spite of the semi-tropical location it is almost always cold.
No fewer than seven, and perhaps up to ten, Mistlords dwell here. They fight over the magical essence of the sea, each struggling to channel it into their own magics. Both the mortal realm and the fey realm are dangerous here. Travelers, whether they serve a Mistlord or the Great Spirit, are likely to be caught up in the region's skirmishes or ambushes. These poor innocents are then thrust into the Mistlords' great game as pawns, and become subjects for the Mistlords' depraved entertainments.
The worst of the Mistlords whose keep stood on the Mist Sea's shores was known as the Demon. He consorted with fiends in his mad desire to gain the upper hand against his rivals. The Demon crossbred demons and wicked fey, seeking a breed of servants more suitable for his purposes. Feared and hated even by other Mistlords, the Demon finally became intolerable to his fellow Mistlords immediately prior to the attack of the undersea Army of Darkness. The Demon sought the same goal as the undersea Army, the Stone of Corbineigh, fabled artifact sphere-focus of Seeliespace IV. In his quest to seize the Stone, the Demon allied actively with the Spider Queen Lolth and the Demon Prince Graz'zt. In order to prevent an Abyssal invasion, the Mistlords of Veldreth's northern shore, led by the Sorcerer, made common cause against the Demon with the Knights of the Sword Coast. The Mistlords attacked and collapsed the Demon's mistwall defenses, allowing the Knights' forces entrance to destroy the Demon's fortress of animate mud and slay his servants, while the Knights themselves fought and killed the Demon - who, when faced with the Knights, completed a transformation (at the cost of the lives and souls of numerous followers) into a fiendish dragon of epic power, and was then disrupted by DawnBringer.
The Mistlords whose castles sit along the Sea of Mist's northern border were among the allies that fought the undersea Army of Darkness as it stormed Veldreth's coast. One of these northern Mistlords died when his fortress was overrun during the battle. His castle avenged his death, dissolving into a small lake of acid, which consumed his attackers, and remains still to mark his passing.
Those Mistlords whose castles lay on the southern shores of the Mist Sea did not ally against the undersea Army of Darkness, choosing the hide behind their mistwalls, and earning the enmity of their northern Mistlord kin.
As the sun sets in the west, the pale white moons of Eldreth grow stronger and shed their radiance down upon this sea before all the others. The Moon Sea is known as a mysterious place, a doorway to other places and distant lands. It is from the Moon Sea that Lief Wolfsson emerged just before the Mistwall was raised. It is to the direction of the Moon Sea that the last of the elves prayed before they passed forever from Veldreth.
Strange weather plagues this sea. Weather patterns vary dramatically along the hundreds of hidden inlets and lagoons along the western coast of Veldreth. This wizard-weather haunts the Moon Sea even more than other areas. Late every summer, at least one or two hurricanes rolls down from the northwest, carrying a deluge of warm water and drenching everything in sight. The storms usually make it halfway down the coast before they dissipate. For a day or two after these storms, the sky is always clear and bright, and it is said that those gazing at the stars could always see them clearly, even when the Mistwall stood. Thus, many People of the Spirit on runequests sailed into the heart of such storms, seeking mighty visions and magic. Occasionally, a Mistlord has striven to harness the power of such a storm for some great dweomer, and on very rare occasions, succeeded.
Strange mists roll across the shore at night. Some are said to sing haunting sounds and pass harmlessly by, others to slay men with poison vapors, and others to speak to men in the voices of the dead. Deep in the bay, the fogs never leave, and the land is forever covered in fog and mist. The earth is damp, and the vegetation dank and decrepit. This place is a swamp, a vast moor that swallows men alive. Few are able to negotiate this swamp. Even the Mistlords stay clear of it, for it is said to be haunted by the ghosts of those who have been slain by their foul magics. The only true natives, other than a handful of bullywugs who eke out a perilous existence, are a race of proud, pale skinned giants. These fog giants roam in clans and tribes, hunting, trading, and challenging each other to games of dice and wrestling. Oblivious to almost everything that occurs outside their own domain, they are sometimes kind to strangers and eager to hear tales of the outside world, and sometimes brutal and cruel. The disposition of these giants depends entirely on which clan is encountered. The giants call their home Skodjotunheim, or Home of the Fog Giants. Their only regular visitors are occasional cloud giant castles.
Further out toward the mouth of the sea are many islands in the fog. These are the home of sprawling pirate enclaves that raid trade vessels passing down the coast of the Moon Sea. In reality, there are not enough trade vessels passing for pirates to earn a decent living, and so most of the pirates supplement their raiding with fishing and handicrafts. The pirates are hunted by both the Mistlords and by the dragon-prowed ships of the People of the Spirit. The pirates survive by understanding the strange fogs and weather of the Sea of Sunken Ships, and often evade their pursuers, who founder on hidden, jagged rocks or lose themselves for weeks at a time. Little is therefore known about the pirates, but much is rumored. It is said that the pirate clans still carry the blood of the elven peoples in their veins, and speak to the sea faeries in this region. Few who manage to meet the pirates actually return from such a meeting, and so no one can be sure of the truth of these stories.
This small sea is named after a peculiar white fog that frequently flows across its waters, carried along by the prevailing winds. None have found the source of these fogs, though it is known they appear both in the fey realm and the mortal realm. Though otherwise normal, the fog solidifies upon the sails, railings, decks, ropes, and other open surfaces of ships passing through, forming a thin crystal coating. Though otherwise harmless, the crystal can be abrasive, and forces sailors to wear thick gloves. Water washes the crystal away, however, and the crystal never forms on living creatures or plants. Thus, during low tide, the rocky shores often glitter in crystalline splendor, until the next high tide washes it away. A few Mistlords have built castles here, striving to understand and make use of this crystal, but they appear to have met with minimal success. The crystal is far too fragile to be used in most magics. Still, the Mistlords have managed to craft sailing vessels of great beauty by layering the crystal on a web of spider silk, and then preserving each layer with magic. Though frail, the ships are marvelous to behold. But even the ships' beauty is as nothing next to that of the castles built by the Mistlords dwelling on the Sea of Crystal Fog. Marvelous crystalline spires rise five hundred feet into the air, yet are as slender as small stone towers. Were the Mistlords not so cruel and selfish, faerie and human alike would travel from miles away merely to gape at these awesome works of art.
Known as First Landfall in the common tongue, this holy site marks the place where Lief Wolfsson was washed ashore just as the Mistwall was raised. It is a bare stretch of rocky beach. A thick pine forest stretches to within a few hundred feet of the shore. The beach is otherwise no different from any other nearby beach, save for a large rocky promontory nearby that bears a massive Rune of Light. Carved by Lief Wolfsson himself to mark his journey, the rune burns brightly on dark and stormy nights, guiding lost ships into shore. It is also said to grant visions to those seeking their destiny, and is one of the many places that the runewarriors and other People of the Spirit seek out on their runequests.
Older stories sing that long before Lief Wolfsson's ancestors came to Eldreth, the first People of the Spirit sailed the Sea without Shore in search of a new homeland. A great Beacon of Light guided these expatriates across the Sea without Shore, also known as the Sea without End, the Great Dark Sea and the Sea without Bottom. The Beacon was a gift from the Great Spirit to his wandering faithful, and it brought the First Fleet of the People of the Spirit safely to their new home. Stories sing that upon their arrival on the shores of Veldreth, the People of the Spirit consecrated their new homeland by burying the Beacon of Light near the site of their first landing, as a gift to the land, that they might be welcomed by it. And the land was said to have responded. The First Field in which the Beacon was buried, when farmed by the people, yielded rich crops to feed the weary travelers. The People of the Spirit thus survived their first winter on Veldreth, and were able to then spread forth to claim their new homes.
Many believe Ferdlangenfal to be the site of the People of the Spirit's landing on Veldreth. Legend states that great heroes, if found worthy by the Great Spirit, can journey to Ferdlangenfal, and there summon forth the power of the Beacon of Light in order to accomplish a great task for the benefit of the People of the Spirit.
The Knights of the Sword Coast did exactly that during the crisis shortly before the attack of the undersea Army of Darkness. Faced with the awakening and release of an ancient abomination known as the Little Death, long buried and bound on the Witch King's Isle, the Knights summoned the power of the Beacon of Light at Ferdlangenfal. Aided by the power of the Beacon, the Knights destroyed the Little Death, an aspect of Death which had broken away during Titania's creation of Seeliespace IV, and which had refused to become part of the cycle of death and life. Instead, the Little Death sought only ending, only death, only dust, with no hope of rebirth. The Little Death had been imprisoned for ages in a cemetery of heroic People of the Spirit who had willingly sacrificed their own lives and donated their bodies in order to bind it. It was greatly weakened by its long captivity, and only freed through the machinations of lich Larloch, the Shadow King of the Warlock's Crypt, who had once been Veldreth's accursed Wizard King. The Little Death arose as an atropal abomination, and was thus vulnerable to the Beacon of Light's promise of new life. But true to its nature, the Little Death refused the Beacon's gift of rebirth, and chose final dissolution instead.
This treacherous body of water covers the entire southern shore of Veldreth. It is named after the thunderous cracking sound made by its breaking ice during the early spring melt. Each winter, the sea freezes over, and each spring the ice melts. For an entire month, the cracking noise resounds across the surface of the sea like thunder. Huge chunks of ice break free and pile up against each other, forming icebergs. So dense are these icebergs that they survive through the summer and into the next winter, where the freezing ice rebuilds them. During the winter, men can walk across the ice, but few do. It is an endless wasteland. Many People of the Spirit venture into the blinding whiteness on runequests, however. Some return with great visions. Others do not. And a few lose their wits and return as madmen. Although the Shattering Sea lacks the poisonous jellyfish of the Coral Sea, its dangers are not to be underestimated even in the winter. Huge sharks dwell in these waters to terrify the bold sailors who take ships out to hunt the massive whales. Whale blubber, meat, and bone is valuable enough to justify these risks, but each year the sea and its dangers make widows out of a handful of women who live in the villages along its shore.
A few Mistlords make their homes along this coast. Most built their castles in the bay to the west of the Kraken's Lair, where Veldreth's protective mists are stronger and they can still tap into the magic of the sea. These Mistlords are relatively weak, and lack the strength to claim more suitable holdings from other Mistlords or from the People of the Spirit. The exception to this is the Sorcerer, who built his castle on the easternmost tip of northern Veldreth, which has since been named the Sorcerer's Crook. This enigmatic figure had in the past few dealings with other Mistlords, and almost none at all with humans. He does not keep human slaves, nor does he maintain a host of unseelie fey to do his bidding. It is thought that he studies the interaction of light and shadow, and takes interest in living creatures only in so far as they can forward his research. He has always been thought boring and strange by other Mistlords, who generally left him alone.
It was in the crisis surrounding the attack of the undersea Army of Darkness, and the search by multiple factions for the Stone of Corbineigh, that the Sorcerer came into his own. His researches had always been directed toward greater mastery of fey magics. As such, he had grown closer to his own fey nature, and away from the taint of the evil human he had been. Unlike the other Mistlords, who sank into the dark sides of their fey selves, the Sorcerer had purified his fey self. It was natural then, when the fey of Landreth sought an ally on Veldreth, that they should find common cause with the Sorcerer.
In return for fey secrets, the Sorcerer aided the Landreth fey in opposing the forces of the Dark God. As a neutral Mistlord, the Sorcerer was also vital to forging the alliance between the northern Mistlords and their enemies: namely each other, the Seer, and all the other forces that had allied against the undersea Army of Darkness. Finally, it was the Sorcerer who crafted the magic that brought down the Demon's defenses, which led to the fiendish Mistlord's death.
Kraken are known to dwell in a deep fissure in the Sun Sea, hidden far away from the might of the fey. They surface rarely, and only occasionally attack ships. They care little for the conflict between men and fey, and prey on both as they see fit. They are thought to control several hundred giant squid that plague vessels nearby, and hunt sea faeries relentlessly. A few Mistlords attempts to erase this plague have all failed. For their part, the kraken have lived on Veldreth's shore since before the Mistwall rose, and have no intention of giving up their home now.
It is unknown how these native kraken will react to the remnants of the undersea Army of Darkness which beset Veldreth's shores.
A place of magic, this fresh-water sea is fed by several rivers. Its water is clear and sky blue for most of the year, and freezes over almost entirely during the two coldest months of winter. Near its center, its waters extend over three thousand feet deep. No living person has ever ventured deeper, though there are legends of ancient runewarriors who quested to the bottom and passed through portals to the homes of the sea gods and other places of power.
Because of its supernatural clarity, the Sea of Skalds resists Mistlord magic. Illusions are thin and watery on its shores, and the water is so cold and clear that no fog ever rises from its surface. Its water is said to test the truth of a man's words when he drinks it. The skalds claim that it inspires the words of great poems, and that on a clear, moonlit night a true skald can see into the past and learn of mighty deeds.
The People of the Spirit treat the sea with great respect. Though they fish its waters in both summer and winter (through holes they cut in the ice), they are properly respectful and offer thanks to the spirits of the animals they kill for food. However, no blood is to be shed on or near the sea, and so hunters may not use spears, arrows, or other blood-shedding weapons on the shores of the sea. Animals must be clubbed or strangled, and so most meat is imported.
Settlements around the sea have more than the usual number of aged people, and even the young are known to be strange. Rangensverd (Raven's Sword), the largest settlement, houses ten thousand people throughout the year. However, five to ten times that many gather on great occasions to celebrate major festivals or important events. These gatherings are called moots, and are accompanied by games, challenges, gambling, drinking, stories and tale-telling, trading, and all manner of non-violent diversions. Again, bloodshed is strictly forbidden. The moots are always very colorful and entertaining. During these times, the wide grassy plain becomes a sea of colorful tents and shelters. This is commonly known as the Sea of Colors, and is a metaphor among the People of the Spirit for a gathering of many tribes, or a convergence of disparate ideas and cultures.
Another site of potent magic, the magical energies of the Hag's Eye were tapped by no fewer than three Mistlords. Only two remain, as one was slain by the exiled baatezu arch-fiend Moloch, who seized said Mistlord's castle. Moloch too sought the Stone of Corbineigh, and was using his adopted fortress to build a powerful infernal machine for the purpose of capturing and controlling the Stone. However, Moloch was forced to flee Seeliespace IV by Rennbuu, the Slaad Lord of Colors, who reached Moloch hidden by the presence of the gesaedere Shannon. After Moloch's flight, his captured castle and his minions were destroyed by the Abyssal forces of the Demon, prior to the destruction of the Demon by the Knights of the Sword Coast.
The most powerful and feared of the two remaining Mistlords tapping the power of the Hag's Eye is the Hag herself.
The giant fresh-water sea is known as a place of mystery and dark power. The swamps here are the thickest on the continent, and the fogs have a dark and brooding demeanor. Although the Hag does not consort with fiends as the Demon did, she is crueler and more malicious than the other Mistlords. She is fond of contriving extravagant and painful punishments for those who displease her, and even her multitudes of unseelie servants fear her terribly.
The Hag's anger arises from her terrible disfigurement, which she suffered during the battle against Titania. She was one of the Wizard King's two greatest lieutenants, and one of the first to turn against him. However, she was caught in the Faerie Queen's final retributive curse, and her body and face remain bent and scarred to this day. No amount of magic can hide or cure her disfigurement. No matter her form, she always appears bent and scarred, and she finds relief only in warping other creatures into reflections of her hideous self. She is thought to have taken up residence near the old battlefield between Titania and her former master in order to watch for their return, and has spent untold hours plotting and planning her revenge against the both of them.
In her many years of control over the magic of the sea now known as the Hag's Eye, the waters have grown as dark and twisted as her. Even normal animals in the vicinity of the sea are often bent and twisted, and given to violence and cruelty. The spiders that dwell on the shores of the lakes and in its moss-covered trees are invariably large and grotesque, and always hungry. Ghosts, will-o-wisps, and dark fey, all of which enjoy luring mortals and animals to their deaths in the dark, murky waters, haunt the sea. Few humans find reason to enter the swamp, and even fewer leave. All who dwell in the Hag's Eye are ugly. Any who are beautiful are taken by the Hag and never heard from again.
Ironically, it was the Hag's Eye which hid the Stone of Corbineigh. The Stone rested in the hands of its human guardian Corbineigh, Titania's champion, hidden in a castle floating in faerie mists over the center of the Hag's Eye lake.
The Ice-Flow River, one of the longest single water-flows on the continent, remains frozen for over a third of the year. It channels all of the precipitation from the region of land between Gudfjell and the Sea of Skalds. During the early summer melting, the river runs so deep and swift at the mouth that few ships are able to navigate up it without magical aid. Even then, it frequently carries small chunks of ice and floating timbers that can pierce the hull of even the stoutest ships.
The Isenflod is said to embody the spirit of the free peoples of Veldreth. Sometimes peaceful and quiescent, it will occasionally flare into an unstoppable torrent. Some skalds believe that the spirit of the river itself flows through the blood of the people, for they claim that in the ancient past the spirit took a human husband and gave birth to five children. These children then intermingled with local humans, granting them extraordinary resilience and resistance to cold, as well as the predisposition to sudden and unstoppable fury. Those who are truly passionate and given to unpredictable violence are often said to have Isen's blood flowing in their veins.
Only one Mistlord has ever dared build a keep on the banks of the Isenflod. Legends claim he was known as the Yeti. He managed to raise a great castle of ice during the peak of winter by tapping the magical power of the river. But this so enraged the spirit of the Isen that it manifested as an incredibly powerful elemental on Midsummer. In the magical battle that followed, the spirit shattered both the castle and the frozen body of the Yeti, destroying him utterly. The remnants of the castle are still haunted by the spirit of the Yeti, which manifests on Midwinter's Eve and wails to the wind. Those who dare enter the vicinity of the castle at that time are likely to be seized by the ghost and their life energy and body heat utterly drained.
Though not as long as the Isenflod, this torrential river is known for its swift current and dangerous rapids. Much of the length of the river runs through a steep canyon, where scenic waterfalls cascade down the four hundred foot high cliffs in the in the summer and form sheets of bluish white ice during the long winters. No navigator or warrior has ever successfully piloted a canoe down the river without it being shattered by the jagged rocks. Nonetheless, some of the less dangerous segments of the river sometimes draw runewarriors who seek to prove their bravery or confront their fears on a runequest. The spirit of the river has never been challenged by a Mistlord, but several frost, cloud, and storm giants are known to dwell in the vicinity of the river. The giants are thought to revere the spirit of the river as they might the spirit of an ancient giantish ancestor.
From its source at an ancient elven magical pool, this mystical river flows several hundred miles north through the Hadrathir Forest to empty in the Coral Sea. A number of rival Mistlords tap into its magical power, but the ancient elven magic has not yet yielded up all of its mysteries to the half-fey usurpers. The river is home to sirens, mermen, giant toads, fey creatures, talking fish, etc... The river is thought to flow into and out of the Faerie realm, and the veil between the mortal world and the fey world is weak all along its length.
Known as the God's Mountain, or the Great Spirit's Mountain, this place is among the holiest sites known to the People of the Spirit. Its peak reaches above the clouds, and at the top the air is so thin that it becomes difficult to think and walk. The mountain is said to hold up the sky, and legends claim that warriors of pure heart can sometimes cross the rainbows that occasionally touch the mountain's lower peaks and enter the realms of the gods. Many runewarriors scale the cliffs of this mountain on runequests, and receive powerful dreams from the spirits of their ancestors. Unfortunately, some do not return. The peak is littered with old gravesites that remain intact in spite of the terrible storms that lash the mountain.
Though not as tall as Gudfjell, the mountain is held in nearly as high regard. It is steeper, craggier, and many times more dangerous. Only the bravest test themselves against the dagger like peak of this mountain. Many die, and are shattered on the sharp cliffs. Those few who make it to the top find a small cave that is sheltered from the southern winds. The cave is known as the Eye of the Gods. None who venture in find the same thing. Some heroes have reported finding a great weapon of power. Others find a dark cave where three women bend over a huge caldron or weave a great loom. None who enters the Eye ever leaves untouched, and few return to their old lives.
The Mountain of the Sky is thought to be the second great mountain that holds up the heavens from falling upon the surface of Eldreth below. No humans dwell here, for this is a stronghold of the cloud and storm giants that rule this peak. Giants never fight on these holy grounds, though they may engage each other in contests of strength, wits, and courage to prove their right to lead their peoples. The mountain is nearly as tall as Gudfjell - giants say taller. It is always covered by clouds, however, though some particularly sharp-sighted runewarriors claim to be able to see castles among the clouds.
Though not particularly tall, this mountain has three peaks of nearly equal size. All three peaks are home to a race of particularly intelligent great eagles that make their home nowhere else on the world of Eldreth. The great eagles are at least half again the size of normal giant eagles, and are intelligent enough to understand, and some claim to speak, human tongues. They are thought to be ancient friends of the elves, and powerful magics continue to ward their peaks. The Mistlords have not struck against the eagles, perhaps because the eagles are allies of a powerful enclave of storm giants, or perhaps because of other defenses. However the eagles are no great friends of mankind, and have rebuffed more than one attempt to seek their aid against the common Mistlord enemy.
One of the last great volcanoes on Eldreth, this northern peak routinely thunders and spews up large gouts of red lava that pours down its side. Poisonous gas clouds roil down its slopes, and tremors shake the land for miles around on a routine basis. Although not very hospitable to most races, a number of fire creatures - including lava mephits, fire giants, and a strange race of fire sylphs - live nearby. The volcanic region has little to offer the Mistlords in the way of magic, but from time to time, Mistlord or runewarrior hunting parties will arrive to hunt a particularly vicious creature. Chance encounters between enemy hunting parties are not unknown.
The accursed battle site where the Wizard King finally drove Titania from the continent, and where she in vengeance struck him down and stole his crown. The battlefield spreads for several miles, and is known to be haunted by powerful apparitions. Its blasted fields are covered with grey grass and flowers that bloom red even through the deepest of winter. Sword spirits, sword wraiths, haunts, and all manner of cruel creatures prowl this place, seeking living foes to fight. Magic here works strangely, if at all. At the center of the battlefield is a circle of ash where Titania's magic struck down the wizard, and where he is thought to have risen as an undead.
Sometimes called the Battle of the Heart, this fearsome engagement took place several decades after the fall of the Wizard King. Remnants of the Wizard King's army had claimed large swaths of land, and marched far and wide to press their claim on the beleaguered and depopulated lands of the south. When Lief Wolfsson returned from his far quest with the secret of runecraft, and the people began to learn of these magics and use them to regain their freedom, these few united Mistlords took it upon themselves to crush the People of the Spirit utterly. They met a small force of runewarriors and other People of the Spirit at this battlefield, just north of the Sea of Skalds. Legends that speak of the battle claim that spirits came down from the heavens, and tricked the Mistlords into turning their wrath upon each other while the People of the Spirit slaughtered the Mistlords' servants. This battle is remembered as the first great victory against the Mistlords, and the symbol of resistance against their tyranny.
Though neither as vengeful and brooding as the Hadrathir Forest, nor as wise and stately as the Irilien Forest, this ancient wood has a power of its own. It is wild, dark, and deep. Unlike the other forests, few relics of fallen elves are found here. Because of this, the elven race that dwelt here was thought to be more primitive and wild than the other two. They also were the most fearsome in the fighting against the invading humans. Yet, according to what histories remain, they did not join the elves of Hadrathir and the fey in their final battle against the Wizard King. Instead, they simply seemed to vanish, with hardly a trace.
The wood itself is hostile to invaders. Humans approaching its center encounter hostile wild creatures, poisonous briar, bad weather and all manner of natural disaster. And always, watching, invisible eyes. Some few People of the Spirit who ventured into the forest and returned, spread tales of ancient cave networks carved with strange runic symbols. One runequester told of an encounter with a rare, friendly treant who shared tales of the ancient elves of Nelantir. According to this man, the ancient elves of this wood had dark skin, and worshipped different gods than their elven cousins of the other forests. They were masters of rune and song. They worked rare metals mined from caves deep below the forest. Unlike the elves of Hadrathir, who died fighting the Mistlords, and the elves of Irilien, who slowly faded into retreat and then left Veldreth forever, the elves of Nelantir mysteriously vanished. Indeed, even before the coming of the Mistlords, they were a reclusive and rarely seen people.
The mystery of the elves of Nelantir was finally unraveled soon after the planting of the Dreamseed, when Dhavin and his band of runequesters ventured into the forest. Using the Hidden Door, a song key they had recovered from the circle of stones known as Raven's Gift, they opened a temporary path to Faerie. The faerie realm within Nelantir had been corrupted long ago, however, and cast into the Plane of Shadow by a mighty ritual of the Wizard King. The Wizard King had raised a Wall of Shadow around the elves of Nelantir, imprisoning them within their forest and preventing them from joining the final battle between himself and Titania. When the Dreamseed was released, it weakened the Wall, drawing the elves closer to Veldreth and allowing the song key to open its doorway.
The dark elves of Veldreth were finally released from their long imprisonment in the Plane of Shadow when the song key was sung by the whale army come to face the undersea Army of Darkness. The dark elves then assisted the defenders of Veldreth in defeating said Army.
After the undersea Army of Darkness' defeat, Nelantir was claimed by the Transformed. These dark elven clans are fewest in number of those returned from the Plane of Shadow, but their members are individually the mightiest of the returnees. The Transformed dark elven clans allowed Shadow to transform them during their long imprisonment, without losing themselves to the dark plane. They are a race of dark elven shades (as per the template), with all the power said status implies.
With the collapse of the Wall of Shadow and the return of the Transformed, Nelantir has become a forest of shadow, where the veil between the Material Plane and the Plane of Shadow is thin, and in places, ruptured. Deadly beasts native to Shadow stalk Nelantir's hidden recesses, increasing the wood's natural hostility and watchfulness, while at the forest's center, the Transformed work to rebuild and surpass their dark elven kingdom of old.
The largest of the three ancient elven forests, the Hadrathir Wood stretches unbroken for hundreds of miles. During the reign of the Mistlords, its natural beauty has been preserved largely intact, though the wood is now more malicious and cruel than it once was. Though the Mistlords have begun to tap into its ancient magics, they still do not dare to build their castles too close the center of the elven wood, for fear of the lingering elven magics and the spirits of the fallen. Indeed, the skalds sing that on special times of the year, the elven host rides again in a great hunt through the woods on ghostly steeds, and slays any human in their path - regardless of whether they serve the Mistlords or the Great Spirit. Thus, most steer clear of this wood, and few have tried to uncover the secrets at the wood's ancient heart. Those who know something of elven history tell legends of the last High King of the Elves, Eltiond, who led his people into the suicidal battle against the Wizard King. These sages claim that Eltiond still rules over his people, awaiting a time when he may claim vengeance on all those who stole the lives and lands of the elves. In ancient times, the high and grey elves of Hadrathir commanded the proudest and mightiest elven nation on Eldreth.
Although not widely known, a small group of runequesters entered the Hadrathir only a year after the Dreamseed was planted in Veldreth. Guided by the elven speaker Muriel and bearing the Token of Eltiond which had been given to them by Ruruk et Ghostslayer (son of Jorkim et Dream Killer, son of Makuth et Dwarf-friend, son of Worg et Wyrm Crusher, son of Heruth et Far Traveler, son of Gorhaug et Fog Eater, son of Annam et All Father) the band ventured to the center of the wood where they found the Pool of Solitude. There they confronted the spirit of the High King Eltiond, and the runeskald Dhavin successfully completed the ghost's challenge, breaking Eltiond's self-imposed curse. Since that time, the elven spirits have begun their slow departure from the wood, at last leaving for the peace of Arvandor. Since that time, the forest has no longer resisted peaceful incursions by People of the Spirit, though it continues to resist the magic of the Mistlords.
Hadrathir's past glory has been replaced by a new arising. The most numerous of the freed dark elven clans of old Nelantir are the Pureblood. These dark elven clans resisted the power of Shadow during their long imprisonment therein. Unlike the Transformed, they failed to achieve harmony with Shadow. Nor did they fall into Shadow and lose themselves. Instead, the Pureblood resisted the Plane of Shadow's insidious power, with partial success. The Pureblood are a race of dark elven shadow creatures (see Dragon #322). Having lost their ancestral forest to the Transformed and to the hated taint of the Plane of Shadow, the Pureblood clans have laid claim to Hadrathir, where they seek to build a nation to rival the fallen high and grey elven realm that once ruled there.
The Pureblood do not bring with them the shadow that the Transformed do. Nor was the Wall of Shadow ruptured in Hadrathir - as it was in Nelantir - thus sparing Hadrathir Nelantir's leakage between the Material and Shadow Planes. Still, Shadow has followed the Pureblood even to Hadrathir. The second-most numerous of the formerly imprisoned dark elven clans of old Nelantir are those who failed to resist Shadow as the Pureblood did, or achieve harmony with it as the Transformed did. These twisted creatures lost themselves to Shadow, and are no longer recognizable as dark elves. The Pureblood and the lost ones hate each other with an unreasoning passion, and their conflict continues wherever it can, even at times under the boughs of Hadrathir forest.
Though smaller than the Hadrathir Wood, the Irilien is more stately and peaceful. Unlike the vengeful Hadrathir, the Irilien Forest is more sad at the ancient loss of the elven people than angry. Those who are determined to find the center of the wood are tormented by fearsome dreams as they approach it, and if they do not turn back they are never seen again. Irilien's trees do not weave such a dense canopy that they block out all light, and but they do offer shelter from storms. Magical creatures are said to run through the woods, and are actually protected by the Mistlords who love their beauty (and hate to share it with each other and lesser folk). Even so, the Mistlords who rule here tend to be more forgiving than others of their kin - perhaps even merciful at times. The humans who serve these Mistlords are well treated, and sometimes tend the forest, but as with the other two elven woods they do not dare approach too close to its center. The elves who once lived here were never overtly hostile toward humans, but they did protect the forest from harm when there was need. It is thought that these elves were closer to the powers of nature than the other elves, and worshipped them alongside the Seldarine themselves. Unlike the elves of Hadrathir, who died fighting the Mistlords, few elves of Irilien died in warfare. Instead, they suffered the presence of the Mistlords, and paid a heavy tribute to them for many years. Some of these elves even befriended the Mistlords, and tried to teach them something of elven philosophy and beliefs. Over time, however, the elves of Irilien ceased to bear children, for they could not bring new lives into the sadness of Veldreth. More and more passed on to Arvandor or simply disappeared, but the elves of Irilien lingered for many centuries. Then, one morning, all of the remaining elves of Irilien suddenly vanished without a trace. No one knew what had happened to them, and most thought that they had simply decided to depart to Arvandor en masse. In truth, the elves of Irilien gathered together in the center of the forest and gave up their elven forms for the shapes of animals, trees and fey, blending into the forest itself. Many of the animals in the forest of Irilien are thus larger, stronger, and far more intelligent than normal. Moreover, many of the trees are either sleeping treants or are protected by dryads who hide in their branches. While the Mistlords do have an inkling that the animals and trees of Irilien are stranger than most, the truth of the matter remains hidden from them. If any Mistlords know the truth, they do not share it with other Mistlords who might take action against the forest and its inhabitants.
At the end of the mighty runequest led by Dhavin the Skald, he and his band ventured to the heart of the Forest Irilien, apparently without any difficulty. There, during the height of Midsummer, Dhavin performed and survived the Sundance, and called the Everfire into the mortal realm to wield is powers to solidify the reality of the Dreamseed. His actions drew opposition from many forces, including at least one Mistlord and even a Nightmare Lord (later revealed to be a disguise assumed by Larloch). These forces were defeated, largely through the heroism of Dhavin's allies, but also partly through the help of the rilmani and their allies.
These taiga forests stretch more or less from the western to the
eastern end of the continent. Some are dense clusters of young
trees, others are sparse stands of ancient giants that tower over
the neighboring lands. These trees are populated by all manner
of creatures, with which the People of the spirit must contend to
find food and secure shelter. Ice trolls, goblinoids,
fhoimorien, and worse prowl these woods, and runewarriors set off
on frequent quests to drive them out and slay them when they
begin to prey too heavily on nearby human settlements. The cold,
sharp power of these woods is alien to the magic of the
Mistlords, and thus these potent wizards rarely venture this far
south unless drawn by important goals.