Ithira

Ithira, one of the largest Wood Elven cities in Calen, is known for its location right on the border of the northern parts of the Whispering Woods, where the veil between the material plane and the Feywilds is especially thin. Due to this, Ithira is exceptionally lush, and the area sees an abundance of a special kind of tree that can grow to be up to fifty times the size of even the largest “normal-sized” trees. The trees, called “The Evergreens”, do not retain their foliage year-round, despite the name, but they tend to keep their leaves, called “ure lasse” for longer than regular coniferous trees, and both the trees and the leaves are a central part of wood elven city life. Like other wood elven settlements, which are always created where these trees grown, the city of Ithira is built inside and around these trees. The abodes are created by a special kind of druidic technique that shapes, bends and hollows out the living wood. These trees are considered sacred to the Wood Elves of the cities and the clans alike and hurting these in any way is a crime punishable by death in Ithira, as the elves believe that bothering the trees will incur the wrath of the goddess Eyr and the creatures of the Feywilds.

The Ruins of Nyelnora

Interestingly, Ithira is also built on and around the ruins of a moon elven city, previously called Nyelnora, which, after the Lunar Cataclysm, got overrun with fey and overgrown with plants. The nomadic wood elves found the city a few years later, made a deal with the fey and reclaimed the city as a place of sanctuary and worship, and Ithira has continued to grow and thrive since. Although most of the Ithiran wood elves worship Eyr primarily, some have recovered the ruins of old temples of Selune and has adopted ancient moon elven customs in honor of the previous inhabitants of Nyelnora. Ithira is loosely governed, important decisions being mady by high ranking representatives of the four main factions of Ithira; the Scouts, the Greenguard, the Whisperers and the Woodsingers.

The Scouts

The Scouts of Ithira are elite warriors of incredible tenacity who train most of their lives to become strong enough to go on expeditions into the very heart of the feywilds and of which are trained to withstand and combat various fey creatures. Although Ithira is in a lasting pact of mutual non-aggression with the Courts of the Faerie, Unseelie fey and ravenous beasts of the feywilds who might wish to do harm to Ithira and its citizens do occasionally cross between the planes where the veil is thin, and as such the scouts are often called in to deal with especially dangerous situations. Apart from their duties of hunting and driving away hostile fey, the scouts are on a continuous mission to map the feywilds, assess damage of the veil and to attend meetings with the Fae lords and ladies when they are invited. The scouts, as mentioned, train their entire adult lives to withstand the overwhelming living aether of the feywilds. Most people, when experiencing prolonged exposure to the feywilds will start to feel the effect of something called “Greenbliss”, which is, despite its name, a horrible sickness of the mind and eventually body, which can lead to all manner of nasty symptoms. Victims of Greenbliss will gradually lose their mind, becoming confused, gleeful, unhinged, deranged and eventually completely apathic. If the effects are felt over long periods of time, victims will start to develop plant-like traits, not unlike the traits seen in those who are feytouched, only far more painful and eventually deadly, as one’s body is consumed from the inside out.

The Greenguard

The Greenguard of Ithira is an organization of proud guardians who’s individuals have sworn an oath to protect and develop the city, to see it grow into a thriving hub of trade and sanctuary. The duties of the Greenguard are many, and they are the most numerous of the four main factions of Ithira. Apart from the more obvious task of keeping watch and keeping intruders from entering the city, they also spend much of their time helping citizens and visiting clans with various tasks. The Greenguard also make sure that all citizens are fed, clothed and that they contribute to society in the city, and they oversee important meetings and trade relations between delegations and foreign visitors.

The Whisperers

The Whisperers, also simply called clerics, is the society of fey and Eyr-worshipping priests who live strict and humble lives consisting of prayer and devotion to the faith of their people. The whisperers dwell in temples throughout the city, and are mostly closed-off from the other citizens of Ithira. People come to them for guidance in all spiritual matters, and the Whisperers, who have a special affinity with fey, are the ones who originally created the treaty between the Faerie Courts and Ithira. Despite this affinity and reverence for the fey, the Whisperers consider fey to be divine by nature, and they are highly against any interference by mortals in Faerie matters. Whisperers generally believe that fey and man should stay separate, and that only those of which the fey have deemed worthy might speak and meet with the godly beings. As such they have no great love for the Feytouched, of which they consider to be abominations due to their mixed mortal and fey-like traits, and they are also in opposition to how the Scouts intrude upon the territory of the fey during their reconnaissance missions.

The Woodsingers

The last faction of Ithira is that of the Woodsingers. These expert artisans are the true backbone of Ithiran society. They are the ones who keep the ancient traditions of shaping and carving living wood into abodes, weapons, decorations and artifacts, and they spend generations mastering the art, techniques being passed down from master to pupil. Many of the Woodsingers are druids, and those who are not druids by class still know enough druidism to properly execute the complicated incantations needed to make the wood bend to their will. Although the nomadic clans of Calen often have a woodsinger or two as part of their communities, the woodsingers of the cities of Calen are part of a larger community of which share traditions and techniques between each other, and they are thus often possessed of higher skill and knowledge.