The Sword's Woods

The Sword is a legendary place of unknown nature, probably an isolated hill or an ancient ruin, where the mythical Sword's betrayal took place.
While nobody has ever reached the Sword itself, at least not coming back to recount it, many ventured into the surrounding woods and returned so that information is relatively abundant.
Most people believe the place to be cursed. In particular, the fog would make anyone unable to distinguish friends from foes. Several scientific explanations exist, but most Rojgraszian folk stick with the betrayal's legend.
Even though the place is so dangerous, many adventurers have attempted explorations over the years, usually to reach the Sword and gather all the treasures they think are buried there.

Ecosystem

Adventurers report no large or small animal living in the woods, only plants, insects and giant mushrooms.
About the animals, everyone seems to believe they cannot possibly live in such an inhabitable region since the fog would affect them too. Insects, instead, do not have a refined enough intellect to be influenced.
The reported mushrooms are as large as a hand and cover large portions of the woods. Their preferred growing place seem to be tree trunks.
It is unclear whether spirits and demons can freely roam here. Many alńe think they cannot, so much dangerous the place is.

Localized Phenomena

The woods are infamous for the allegedly magic influences on people's minds. Experiments proved even domesticated animals heavily suffer these effects.
First, the hallucinations come, making explorers see their friends as demons. According to the alńe, there is no way to avoid this, except for some special potions made of rare ingredients. The drug only strengthens one's mind resistance to the hallucinations without immunising from them.
Then, the person becomes unnaturally aggressive, especially when trying to fight the hallucinations. For instance, even against their best intentions, they will always end up fighting for killing the enemy, even though they only wanted to render them harmless.
Once people began to understand how these effects work, they tried to enter the woods with several precautions to avoid hurting allies. They tried to link themselves with ropes, to always know who the friends are, or to hold each other's hands, or to decide beforehand they will not attack anyone. Nothing worked. Invariantly, somehow, explorers always ended up attacking each other.
The only advice people give to explore the place is to go there alone.

Possible Explanations

Several explanations have been proposed for these anomalous effects.
Researchers from other countries suggested it could be the effect of the mushrooms' spores. While it seems reasonable to them, locals disagree. They say you can find the same plants elsewhere too, where the effect is not present. Any attempt at extracting and replanting the mushrooms has failed.
For many Rojgraszian folks, the hallucinations are a curse, direct consequence of the Sword's Betrayal, which, in turn, is a consequence of the Dark Swan curse. As the conspirators killed the heir to the throne, betraying their trust, now no one can trust their friends in the surrounding woods.
A few others relate the effects to the fog since they observed it is not as heavily present in other areas. However, Zatjal alńe firmly oppose this explanation, and their authority was enough to make this idea fade.
Finally, some people think it has something to do with Iskat. They believe they hid their dagger in the Sword and then left for some unknown reason, casting the curse to protect it until their return.

Alternative Name(s)

Uletyk, ty Tosza (The Foggy Sword)

Type

Woods

Location under

Dark Lands