The relatively large forest known as Fangwood consists of a mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees-mostly maples, firs, and spruces. In the forest’s deepest reaches, where the firs grow tall and close, the Fangwood takes on a shadowy, primeval feel that chokes the air and sends many skittish creatures into noise-induced panics.

As the fir groves give way to sparser mixes of spruces and relatively rare pines, the underbrush thickens even as the feeling of oppressive dread slackens. Most Nirmathi who live in the forest dwell in these moderate belts between the firs and maples.

As Nirmathas is utterly dependent upon the forest for its livelihood, its economy, its safety (as a retreat for its soldiers), and its very identity, a threat to the forest strikes at the land’s very soul. Yet in the depths of Fangwood, a strange blight has begun to spread, the trees blackening, rotting, and spreading seeds of death. The dead trees are the spirit-homes of twisted, sadistic fey, the accursed offspring of the corrupted dryad Arlantia. This dryad, rumored by some to be cursed by the demon lord Cyth-V’sug, is said to be fond of binding her victims in the moldering vines of the most diseased of the trees, turning those unfortunate victims into shambling heaps of rot. Whether the curse upon the trees produces Arlantia’s army of thorn-crowned dryads, or whether the trees are blighted by their touch, these symbiotes represent an insidious and deadly threat to the Fangwood.

However Arlantia’s forces pale into insignificance, if rumours can be believed. Stories abound amongst the more civilised areas of Nirmathas, that a Dark Queen once ruled the entirety of The Fangwood, and Arlantia was merely her apprentice. Proof of this Dark Queen’s existence however has long been forgotten or lost with time. Recently though, stories told by corrupted and diseased Fey tell of a return of this foul master of the wild to reek havoc upon those who would now settle within her domain.