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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebuchadnezzar" data-source="post: 345826" data-attributes="member: 1938">An entry from the Khanesian GazetteerThe Grieving Forest: Before the Divine Silence, this forest was called Myrewood. It was home to the elves who tended and protected the forest alongside their fey allies. Elven druids used their magic to enchant the trees so that they grew quicker, lest the woods would shrivel away and die like most of the other great Khanesian forests. Rangers prowled amidst the ancient trees, slaying monsters and guarding the borders to Mardukia. Elven civilization thrived in the deepest parts of the forest; craftsmen carved new homes in the bellies of hollow trees. Powerful wizards and bards of great  renown founded new arcane universities and expanded on old bardic collages. Clerics continued to appease the gods and provide spiritual support. Isolated from Mardukian conflicts the elves grew in magic, knowledge, and military might. Myrewood was also spared from any widespread destruction during the War of Fiends while Mardukian cities were razed and pillaged. But then came the Divine Silence. Panic spread across Myrewood as elven clerics no longer were able to read the will of the gods, nor receive spells. To understand how important religious matters were to the elven people is to understand why they reacted to the Divine Silence with such emotional intensity. Religion was an integral part of the elven civilization, even more so than in Mardukia. The Mardukians viewed the gods as distant and aloof, their whims and desires catered for by tyrannical priest-kings and their clergy. The elves considered the gods as loving family, as parental guardians. All elves felt the tingling warmth of divinity flowing through their bodies. Sometimes a deity would whisper words and messages to an elf, much like an elf would pray to the deity. The whispers could comfort an ancient elf on his death-bed, give advice to elves who strove between right and wrong, and hope to elves troubled with loneliness. Each deity gave advice in situations which corresponded with their portfolio. At every stage of an elf's life the divine whispers would guide him, much like family.     Without the gods to guide them, the elves were like children cast out into darkness. The whispers grew silent, the world became cold, gray, and lonely. Some elves burned much of their own forest in senseless anger, even slaying animals and fey- creatures. The realization of what they had done filled them with grief. Panic turned to desperation which again turned to despair. The despair knew no bounds, it was an endless abyss from which most elves never returned. Nearly all elves commited suicide, mothers and fathers first poisoning their children before taking their own lives together. Myrewood changed name when a Mardukian explorer gazed at the forest from a height during rainfall. The drops of water on the leaves resembled tears, prompting the explorer to rename Myrewood the Grieving Forest.The forest itself is vast. It stretches from Khawum in the west to Kiziath's Teeth in the east, always bordering Mardukia. Only due to the forest has the desert and arid wastes of Mardukia been contained, a containment which now seems uncertain. Nearly all the elven druids are gone, leaving the magic nourishing the trees weak and fading. The few elven druids left are teaching their craft to those willing to learn and are of a good heart. Some Mardukians fleeing from the chaos in Mardukia have settled down in such druid-circles, training themselves as rangers or druids. They are badly needed, for the woods crawl with monsters of all kinds. The ruins of elven cities are still filled with magic, as the elves were advanced in the arts of arcana. Many of the emerging Mardukian wizards sponsor expeditions into elven cities to recover magical items and spellbooks. Recently an adventuring company returned from Shelesi, the ancient elven capital. How they exactly returned is yet unknown, as they are in no state to travel. They cannot even stand, shaking and twitching with such intensity that they have to be tied-up to their beds. All constantly repeats with a quivering voice a single message: "I bear tides from the stillborn yet to die - mankind shrivel and elves cry". Strangely enough, identical messages have been uttered by explorers who have visited the capital of Mardukia, Bel-Marduk. No one knows what it means, but there is a feeling of dread across Khanesh, a feeling that something horrible is coming to pass ...</blockquote>

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