Khandava

The Redwood Provinces

Circle:	Demonic
Guilds:	Wraithweald
Townes:	Aori, Gadan, Kaln, Kibaya, Mylani

The modern history of the Redwood Provinces began when Lyria and a band of refugees fled a Stavenn-occupied Kinsarmar to the natural shelter of the forest. Bound together by the menace of Imperial oppression and the mutable light of Moradeim, the refugees found themselves transfigured into the first lycaeans who grew close to the uncanny magickal presence within their wood. The combined populations of the newly-risen lycaeans and the native sylayans lived largely in harmony for centuries within the Khandava, producing citizens who wielded a great affinity for mediation and political endeavors. The protection of Nature was an important duty, along with a close vigil over those who would take advantage of its bounty.

Over half a millennium passed before Khandava found its true path. The Prophet of the time, Lionas Sol'Anlumaire, was approached by a dryad of the mist-shrouded Al'Drym Woods. She encouraged him to meet with Roudimus, the flame-seared treant, promising that the old sage would see the council to greatness. After much counsel and consideration, the Prophet and his most trusted cohorts met with the treant in secret. Roudimus bestowed upon those gathered the ability to twist the very ground of the forest, allowing it to become fertile with demonic energies. The seeds that would grow to be the mighty Leechtree were sown in those clandestine moments.

Months passed in speculation and confusion before the saplings finally erupted from the soil, surging forth and twisting into mighty roots that would birth a leechwood which stretched far above the Khandava canopy. It was then that the final seeds were planted within the guildhalls of the Arboreals and Earthsingers. These seeds blossomed into writhing labyrinths of roots which consumed all before them, destroying the guilds and those who resided within, bringing with them the close of an era. The new growth imbued the demonic leechwood with the strength it required to fully convert the council. The magick of the forest was drained from the land itself by the ravenous roots, filled instead with something ancient and unknown, beginning a new age of Khandavan sovereignty. On the 9th day of Halitus, in the summer of 651 AD, a new Khandava was born from blood and desecrated loam.

It is upon that day that the first Defiler's thirst for desecration sprang forth, for it was the roots of the leechwood that pierced the barriers between this world and the Pit, prying open the cages of fiends trapped there. A Defiler's ability to torment their foes is born of these same entities, coupled with the burning ire granted by their connection with Sukhder, the Moon of Terror. The Deadwood now stands in testament to those who wrought it, eagerly practicing arts once shunned to preserve and protect their beloved Leechtree.