Darkwood

• A haunted forest in Addermarch, Greater Sembara

The Darkwood is an ancient, brooding forest along the southern border of Addermarch, a place where old paths bend unexpectedly and twilight lingers beneath the boughs. The people of Addermarch speak of it in hushed tones, claiming it has been haunted by dangerous fey since even before humans settled this area in ancient days. While scholars cannot easily confirm or deny these claims, surviving Drankorian records clearly indicate even that mighty empire feared the Darkwood and fortified defenses on its fringes. Hunters and charcoal burners keep to the lighter, open woods on its fringes, and those who enter it, for good or ill, rarely return.

Few have mapped the exact borders of the Darkwood, but it is generally considered to begin south and west of the Valenfray Hills, extending into the Plaguelands for some unknown distance. To the west, the dismal swamps of Shadowmere separate the Darkwood from the mountainous terrain of the southern parts of Westcliff.