Sylva

"From seed to tree, the world grows and learns to provide for what comes after."

Introduction

On a continent to the north, even beyond Arlandria's borders, lies the vast and some say endless expanse of Sylva's forest. Dubbed the Earthmother's Woods in the modern age by those mortals that have stood at its edge, the greatest amount of spirits concentrated in one location is said to be within this very region, all of them overseen and cared for by Sylva herself.

Background

While other spirits took to shaping the world's earth and seas and guided the animals and mortals that spread across its surface, Sylva began a garden at the edge of the world where she wished to cultivate what she saw as a utopia. The spirit had heard of Titania's realm within the Faewild, and she believed that the overabundance of mana there would spoil the trees at their roots, while Rhyst could create a true and beautiful cycle of life and death that the Faewild could never accomplish. With this idea in mind and already underway, Sylva gained the notice of the Dragons, and they observed at first from afar, and then within the Great Spirit's periphery. As curious as the Draconic Eidolons were, they opted not to interrupt the work of their child, and with the first summer, they watched her garden grow into something magnificent.

Overjoyed to see one of the spirits create something as marvelous as the first forests of Rhyst, they were shocked to see the leaves turn auburn, red, and brown. They began to die, a concept that up until the War of Sundering relatively foreign to the Dragons. At first they did not understand why Sylva allowed her garden to wilt and decay, but as the winds came and blew the leaves from the trees and the air turned cold and filled with snow, they watched a newer, alternative beauty within their world.

And finally, with the spring, they understood. They observed Sylva guide the next generation of trees to curl and grow, to rise from the very same earth that their ancestors had fallen and given their lives into. Though the Dragons had wished for a world of elemental balance, they came to realize what that might truly mean on a cosmic scale, and they came to mimic Sylva's design across the entirety of Rhyst.

All things end, for they must in order to begin again... and so trees grew and died, mortals were born and then perished, and the world developed until calamity would wipe the slate and force it all to begin again. This lasted for an amount of time no person could ever guess, until the modern age came and the Fae attacked.

Relkath and his lieutenants, Nirya and Rakshasa Eight, entered Sylva's domain only as three. They went undetected due to the region's unknown size and depth, and when the world discovered what had happened, it was too late. Spirits that called the forest home were captured and experimented upon, if not outright slain by the High Faerlan. Sylva herself, believed to be a vital piece in controlling this realm, was placed into a deep slumber where Relkath tortured and manipulated her. Through the interventions of Sarean explorers, the hellscape that Relkath had created for Sylva was broken into two halves, and through the Spirit's sudden seizure of an advantage, her unconsciousness formed a divided mindscape. Now, the Sylvan Dream and the Sylvan Nightmare exist, one ruled by Relkath and the other by the Earthmother herself. Within Rhyst, Sylva still slumbers, but the spirits that remain at her side whisper that she remains within the dream to ensure Oberon's Chosen is not allowed solace to utilize her power uninterrupted. She still fights today, despite the halt of the Convergence, and forces Reklath's attention to remain split into that woodland abyss.

Trivia

Sylva had strong ties to the forests around Arlandria prior to the Realm rising to power, and though they mingle, the Spirit has made her stance regarding Yggdrasil very clear and does not often align herself with the interests of the druidic nation

Until the attack by Relkath, Sylva was ordinarily left untargeted by planar invaders given her location within the dense woodlands of Rhyst

It is said that Vaiel was often seen in the deepest parts of Sylva's woodlands where the two Spirits met and on rare occasions sent new species of creature into the world

Sylva's forest is not truly endless as some would say, given Rhyst is a finite space, but no one knows just how far it extends