There is a dull, purple hue in the first light of early morning in all the snow coating the evergreen trees.

Long ago, these lands were a northern extension of the Mysterious East. Much of the flora and fauna that existed in these lands was an extension of this. However, in the Civil Wars, those lands that were ripped and rendered broken, as the Ancient Elves broke the laws of Nature in their Ancient Wars. The land was utterly ripped and barren, and a new coldness seeped in from areas even further North, settling in everlong. The land formed again into thickly packed, secret guarding hills.

In the dead of winter in these lands, the clouds come down to the earth, in sweeps of snow mixed with freezing clouds. The meet sometimes in sweeps of snowy gusts, taking the shape of winds of Twitter shapes of freezing cold.

Over a long time, as the desolation became more of a memory, life began to grow back, but the soil was harder, and made of the corrupted ashes of deep ancestral life that had long held sway in the region before. The life that grew out of it was changed upon its reemergence, and grew back in either hard or faded forms. And life had to contend with the long winters that now settled into the region. Only the hardiest or most intangible of lifeforms were able to cope with the new climate to last

Here became the lands of the North, or all of those forests that lay outside the girdles of the Elves.

There are a series of caves throughout the region. The snow that blows into these caves during the winter stays there all year round, due to the coldness of the Earth within.

Yet most often, the season to come to these forests was winter. The burning embers of autumn were more brilliant in this region than any other while the season lasted, but the cold of winter predominated.

Hardscrabble people live in this country, in small towns and farms. Many of the Mountain Terran (Humans) have large extended families in this land. Many keep dogs for hunting and for war. The men among these people have beards, and wield battle axes.

Some of these Terran have congregated into small towns, whose architecture is based on forgotten principles based on an ancient magic inherent to the region. Somehow, inside of all of the many variegated patterns of bell towers, roofs, chimneys, and odd brickwork, that these towns seemed to be Terran enframements of the strange, ancient energy in the region. This permeated everywhere in the form of static presence that stretched over the pathless unpopulated mountains, manifesting as the immense isolation that ran through the people and all life that lived there. And in all the land as well as through the small mountains their slumbered ancient forms in deep sleep, underground in the cold land

Many small streams also flowed through these lands, down on the mountains, from unknown sources. Old sources say it comes from the same source that is inspired by the strong moonlight when it lights up the smoke streaming out of chimneys on a bitterly cold winter night.

Most of the trees were spiny and bare, except for the jagged edges of evergreens that grew in patches of the forest. Others were the skeletal structures of birch and pines, red oak and sugar maple, which makes a delicious sweet syrup. Strange sap infused pools of everclear water, almost always cool-cold, form as perfect circles in hollows of the Wood, which are as reflective as mirrors. In the dead of winter, the green in the evergreen turned into darker shades, and the trees seemed to huddle together in patches amid their bare summer friends.

Rivers run down from the heights of higher mountains to the North. They are rough hewn, running over sharp rocks in swift gushes and short waterfalls. The River Broad is the main river that all others flow into in this region.

Caterpillars that live in these forests almost never turn to butterflies. The shadows of the forest hide many old burial mounds of old Terran cultures, covered in moss. There are hidden signs of a very old culture and land, perhaps the ruins of very old cultures and old spirits from an Ancient Days that inhabited the forest when it was unmarred. that are haunting. This aspect fills the sense, silent forests with a deep, underlying sense of fear.

In the dead of winter, it was considered lucky to have a flock of thick set wild turkeys cross your path.

Fire paths, with rusted old buckets laying along the rocky trails, line all of the mountain paths. Fire towers give very long views, as beacons here that are lit in case of sometimes.

The North South Road runs through this region for a part of it, as for a long time it was previously merely a series of roads that

connect the fire paths that were made to alert officials between different Kingdoms

About fires during the few summer months.

For only a few hours at the time of the full moon, a yellow moon will shine bright over the dark forests.

Because of the long distances between towns, and the characteristic shortness of the days, almost any non local triplet on the road will be conducted in considerable darkness. Villages and settlements are generally very small throughout this region, but their history runs for long marks of time. The cemeteries are quite large, and have long family histories. They exist next to villages or by isolated stretches of road in what used to be a village.

The forests are often moist due to the cold mists that proliferate throughout. So many of the rocks on the roughly been trails are long and slippery. The moss that covers the rocks and fallen logs is also moist to the touch.

All things that live in this forest are touched by the briskness of the cold in the air. The forests are cold, dark, and the trees close in around any who go into in at night. Yet, this night also allows the stars to shine almost as bright as they did in day of old, as the frigid aspect of their glow remains as undiminished as it did in days of old.

Ghosts of strange aspect appear sometimes in the misty rainfall. And all throughout the forests an echo of lost verses of the creation songs of the Ancient Elves subtly resounds, especially in the shadows of trees.

Clouds of cold fog flow through the mountain valleys.