Altwood Forest

Standing astride the plains along the coast of the northern City-States Region, the sleepy Altwood Forest hosts the spiritually significant Shrine of the Virtues but otherwise mostly serves to force trade wagons to take the long way around to the city of Altor.

Geography

A forest of tall, thin trees blowing in the coastal breezes, the Altwood Forest has a reputation as a sleepy wood thanks to the whispering sounds of the wind through the leaves. The ground is soft as it lays very close to the sea - in fact the trees of the forest give way to a large wetland at the coast. The soft, damp soil is covered in ferns and other moisture-loving foliage.
The forest used to be much larger - extending farther to the east and running to the shores of the Lasair River - but was cut back significantly as Kolar was built and as the river was converted into a canal. The present boundaries of the forest came to be as larger and stronger lumber harvested from the outer boundaries of the Shifting Jungle began to become available and as stone from The Sink became the more prominent building material in the major cities.

The Fae

The boundaries of the forest were not just set by economic concerns, however. As the forest became smaller and smaller, the population of Fae that resided across the forest gradually became more and more compressed. As the usually-solitary creatures began to find themselves crossing each others' paths. This led to a sudden onset of fae magic being thrown around the forest. As the fae are often not visible to Humans, the result of this invisible chaos was was that humans often found themselves entering magical sleeps and waking up hours - or days - later. This created the reputation of the forest as a literally sleepy place that was best avoided.
Another reason for unwelcome visitors being lost for days in the Altwood is that The Fae Realm within it does not strictly adhere to the limits of time and space. One Mage that studied the forest as best able without venturing very deeply into it summarized his findings as "it's bigger on the inside". This is a gross simplification of the reality (or rather the unreality) of the deepest parts of the forest, but it is sufficient that the few who know of it also know enough to stay away from it if they can at all help it.

If creating encounters, the best choices for the fae in this forest are pixies, sprites, dryads, and the like. Focus on invisibility powers and magic meant to allow for escape or mischief rather than direct combat.

Shrine of the Virtues

In a clearing near the edge of the forest lays the Shrine of the Virtues. Placed here to mark an anniversary of the founding of the Order within the City-States, the shrine consists of seven plinths surrounding a pond, each containing a poem written (in Lumina) describing the tenets of one of the seven virtues. A common pilgrimage site for those seeking spiritual guidance, the shrine is one of the few places that humans and others can enter the forest with little risk of faerie mischief.