Let's start with some landmarks.
1. The River Quiet - This is a big river. It's the Everwood's Mississippi, and it snakes through all of the known Great Forests, and most believe it goes further, though the one expedition that went down never came back up.
The River Quiet is a black-watered river that carries songs with it from beyond the Great Forests. These songs sometimes drive people to do things they wouldn't normally do. Such as help someone in need, tell the girl of their dreams they love them, or drown their dog in the waters. It's quite eclectic. Many people don't believe it has any powers, but those people are probably just being told what to say by the songs...
The river snakes along the backside of the Everwood and is more prominent in the Bryre wood, where the river and thorns mix to create a marshland ruled by Pain and Torment (yes, proper nouns). But even with just a small section, the Eyrewood is greatly affected by its presence. A wolf pack comprised of Huge artic wolves patrols its banks, drinking the water and dragging the corpses that all too occasionally float face down, down the river. There has been on sighting (or at least, one person who saw it a lived) of the wolf god marching along the banks. A large, artic wolf, with elk antlers and a human face.
The animists among us will tell you that the river is a weak spot, or, a spot in our world that is also in the spirit world. Swim too deep and you don't know which world you'll come up in. Follow it too far and you might fall into Twilight. Drink too much and your corporeal form may leave you. Stare into it and you may see your spirit walk away. But they will also tell you that the river and its spirit means no harm, it is simply doing its job. Which is to guide those who are lost to the afterlife. Souls travel down it because it is easy to see and water is one of the few things that spirits still feel.
2. The Valley Deep - This is a valley that comes in from the Bryrewood and tapers up to sea level. Going down into it is like stepping foot on another planet. A swampy, tropical, sink-pit of a planet. Not much is known about the Valley Deep, except that when a horse knows its going to die, it tries to go there, and if the mud were to ever dry and someone excavated the valley, the amount of horse fossils would date back before known history. And druids would see that it dates back before their history, which is rumored to be long before the Sundering.
3. The Steppes - The high elves of the region call the Steppes Wasuremashita (wah-soo-rey-mah-she-tah) or, the forgotten. It is a grave site, littered with shallow buried high elves and druids alike, haunted by the Albatross, a spirit of a great wingless, flying serpent that takes people to Twilight.
The Albatross has slept for many years, and even though spirits and undead are typically seen waking from the graves, they are not dangerous, just mournful. Animists believe that the buried know their death was of no fault, it was merely something that happened. You see, the steppes descend from the far side of Rosutoreiku (Lost Lake), and when it flooded long ago, the water rushed down the steppes and killed the largest Elven city in druidic history. There have been larger since, but its legend still keeps Elf communities cautious of growing too large.
4. The Lost Lake - A salt water lake. It has sharks and was once a part of the Gold Coast before water levels went down after the Sundering. There's rumor of a feral merrow tribe living at the bottom.
5. The Flower Fields - Tenshi no firudo to the Elves. This is land exclusively hunted by wood elves. No one knows why. It's beautiful. Why is it stalked so constantly? The wood elves wouldn't tell you, but they'd let you die to prove their point. DON'T GO INTO THE FLOWER FIELDS!
Okay...so you're going to go anyways...I see. Well, then you best be warned proper. The flowers live together. Two yellow flowers are brothers, all yellow flowers are brothers. All white flowers are brothers. The families know each others. They talk. They mate with bees. They elope with the wind. They are not nice people and they do not like being stepped on.
Do not be surprised or alarmed when they attack. Or when they turn the ground to quicksand. Or turn your horses against you. Or convince your hair that you are the enemy. Do not laugh when they sing, because when they all catch on, the sound will deafen the entirety of the Everwood.
Be careful. Stay out.
That covers the major landmarks. I think this post is getting large enough. Damn. I'll do the location next. Places like the Elven city of Takagi, the Lookouts Camp and Outpost, the vanished city, the rocks, the Flower Forest (flowers as tall as trees), the Mushroom Grove (which doesn't have any mushrooms), and maybe some others.
I hope you all enjoyed that. It was fun just writing down everything that came to mind. I'll look over this later and see what sticks and what doesn't.
Stay cool,
Your DM
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