Gwyllt

A planet of vast forests, towering mountains, hostile oceans and array of hostile fauna and indigenous peoples Gwyllt is a grim and inhospitable world. And yet it is a hub of industry owing to the abundance of mineral deposits and the prized wood of the Coeden Haearn. The Commonwealth has expended considerable resources in establishing fortified colonies to reap the bounty of Gwyllt with numerous battalions stationed to protect the colonists.

Natives Peoples

As has come to expected across Otherworld Gwyllt has a native population of humans, an assortment of tribes who spend their lives warring with one another for resources, hunting the various creatures of their forest territory and living in harmony with their hostile enviroment. They are a very spiritual people with bewildering array of guardian spirits and animal deities. As the first Commonwealth settlers discovered, these Forest Dwellers despite being at a stone age level of development were very adept at conducting guerrilla warfare against them, resulting in several colonies being wiped out overnight. Their attacks sometimes involve the local wildlife in some manner, the Dwellers either using tamed animals or more wild ones driven into a frenzy and directed at the enemy. This has forced the Commonwealth to dispatch battalions of well armed soldiers to protect the colonies, fortify them against attack and drive the natives away from those areas marked for exploitation.

Also in the forests can be found a variety of Giant that reaches heights of ten to fifteen feet tall. They are covered in hair, incredibly stealthy and seemingly friendly unless provoked or their territory is threatened when they become highly dangerous threats who know their arboreal enviroment far better than even the Forest Dwellers.

There are also clans of particularly large and belligerent Giants in the mountainous regions who have remained in spite of aerial bombardments from Commonwealth Airships a constant menace. These Giants are massive, covered in thick fur and seem more primal than their forest relatives. The Forest Dwellers have begun to form alliances with the Forest Giants against their common foe, though the Mountain Clans seem to wild for diplomatic efforts.

There have also been sightings of the Tuatha, the elusive Elven people who have begun to pose a serious threat to Commonwealth presence against Otherworld.

Fauna

The native fauna of Gwyllt ranges from tiny insects and birds, bear, wolf and boar analogues. A variety of arachnid that can reach human size and larger. There are the Green Wyrms, a species of Dragon without wings and long serpentine bodies held as sacred by the Forest Dwellers, and the immense ocean dwelling Leviathans that pose a massive threat to any attempts to explore the oceans and reap its rich bounty. Expansion across Gwyllt has been slow and costly and only a small percentage has been mapped accurately. Only in the region around the portal gate could Gwyllt be considered "civilised." Amongst the Commonwealth military it is considered a punishment to be sent to Gwyllt and it has earned the unwelcome sobriquet of Death World owing to the high mortality of soldiers stationed there. "If the local wildlife don't get you, those bloody Forest Dwellers and them big hairy bastards will" is a common phrase.

Magic

Magic is a potent force on Gwyllt, albeit in a more primal form. Like the world itself it is wild and savage, red in tooth and claw. The Forest Dweller Druids tap into this energy and have been observed seemingly directing the powerful storms, sometimes toward Commonwealth logging camps and mining towns. There is also evidence that some Forest Dwellers call upon this magic to transform into bipedal canines and call upon the aid of elemental spirits to animate Golems made of wood and stone.

Climate

Gwyllt has a unpredictable climate dominated by the frequent mega storms that sweep across the world. These storms can devastate entire regions with flooding, hurricane force winds and destructive lightning strikes. Yet remarkably the areas in which the Forest Dwellers control the storms rarely hit such destructive power. In size it is slightly larger than Earth with a slightly higher surface gravity. Commonwealth scientists speculate the high presence of magic being one of the reasons for the unpredictable weather and hostile enviroment.

Type

Planet