This is probably the entry that most people here'll be most interested in, lawl. I've actually been thinking - would people here be most interested in a 'hard' setting, for pen-and-paper play, or a 'soft' setting with mostly just fluff and story entries to build off of? Write me or comment if you like. Otherwise, just sit back, pop your favorite ambient medieval techno soundscape into your digital transponder, and let's do this thing.

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The great host of the Skyless Woods
Being an account of Magister Obad Wurnel, Diplomat and Ambassador to the Skyless Woods

Since time immemorial, humans have existed off the sacrifice of others. Social stratification has divided group into subgroup, culture into subculture. There is a great idea amongst many of the freeholders; this idea is that humanity's Dawn Age was a ruined by the arrival of the Fair folk - and their integration into human society created the beginning of Noontide, even predating the Tragedy.

This idea - and it is very seductive in it's own way - then holds that the end of Noontide has already come, and it's heralds were the animals of the Skyless Woods. The sudden ability for animals as small as the insects that dwell amongst the reeds to speak and be understood was both jarring and mortifying, especially to the peasantry. A pig bleating for clemency at the slaughter, a horse speaking haltingly as it is trained for war, the sudden sensation of a hundred pairs of eyes as one walks through the fields... Humanity and it's place in the world was under a sudden attack and realization of just how innumerable the other sentients we share the world with were.

Perhaps the Archduchy of Eza could have survived, some say, if they had known what was coming.

I wish to put that idea to rest once and for all.

How does one defend from the consumption of all their crops, and the unavailability of beasts to hunt, if they should even be able to stomach the meat anymore? While dealing with starvation and news that the Riverlands have fallen to the Fey, what could be done but armor the fiefs and set fire to the forests? There was nothing that could be done differently; the humans of the Archduchy fought valiantly; but it was their time and place to fall, from their refuges and scholars we might avoid a similar fate.

Of the diverse animals that compose the host, and what might be considered their Great Houses

The first and most important thing to know, is that there is no loyalty amongst the animals of the Skyless Woods. Fears of a unified force of aggression marching out of the timberlands carrying flags of human leather and abducting our children to eat is ridiculous fearmongering. Of all the powers in the world today, the Skyless Woods have shown the least interest in expanding - indeed, it is my opinion they will leave alone if left well enough alone themselves. Far more concerned are they with the familiarities of life as a beast. The hunting of food for the bears and wolves, the search for sustenance for deer and rabbit and tick - it is only the explorer who disturbs this existence that might stir hostility and so invite danger.

However, the moment aggression - personal or on behalf of a foreign power - is detected, it appears that representatives from the various sentients of the woods meet in one of several rapidly constructed meeting places. It is there that the construction of the Great Host is constructed from it's various constituents, and the insatiable force of destruction unveils it's ceaseless appetite.

It appears that at some point, the animals began to recognize the value - or perceived value - of the old Archducal political structures, and assumed some trapping of them. As such, there are several great houses among the Woodlands. They have little practical power or purpose in daily life, but represent various fractions during the conclaves and meetings. Although divided amongst the Woodlands by region, there is enough to indicate they are more becoming represented by political view; those who seek the status quo, those who seek to lay down arms and create an improvement in quality of life, an expansionist faction, and various smaller subfactions that seek the primacy of their clan over the countless others.

You will notice my mentioning of an expansionist faction in the same writing I have alluded to such fears being unfounded. The disunity of this polity of beasts is once again apparent, as none of these factions possess strength, unity, or cohesiveness in their political or doctrinal screed. Nor is there any guarantee that any of the houses will stay aligned to the ideals they seem to champion now; it is therefore the wisest course of action to understand what COULD arise of their existence now, and analyze them to the best of our abilities.

The House of the Exterior Lowlands and Borderwatch

Perhaps most familiar to those of us who have visited the Skyless Woods, this is the assembly populated by those outliers and brave human - or even fey - settlers and hermits who exist in the Woodlands. The least touched by the hideous darkness of the canopy above, it is also perhaps the most touched on by the political thought of those same settlers. As such, it is best to consider the house to be - at the moment - the most open to diplomacy between our ambassadors and those of the beasts, such as they are.

There is also an undercurrent of aggression here, for it is the job of the animals in the Borderwatch to report all movement and any sign of troop deployment. The recent foiling of a Fey warparty was sign enough that the countless creatures keeping watch are doing their jobs all too well - as the sight of the carrion birds that grew well-fed on the fallen.

Of this House, there are many animals that seek to explore other lands - as such, if you encounter an animal that claims to be a member of the House, they are liable open to your ideas and suggestions. Remember, however, that assumptions of a simplicity or savagery on your own part will be quickly met with suspicion, aggression, and danger. Do not let your stereotypes and superstitions make you a fool.

The House of the River Delta, Interior, and Shaded Woodlands

The largest House by population, as it compromises the most and most densely populated lands of the Woods, it is also the most fractured; and it is here that we see the many nobles of beasts attempting to exert some kind of influence or control on what is - as of now - too vast and fractured to be controlled or influenced. Tellingly, this is also the House that sees the most runaway creativity in the public eye - when you read stories of vast warmachines of hungry and emaciated beasts, you are being fed lies based on rumors from the Shaded Woodlands.

It is my experience that this House trends towards isolation more then any other, and composed of as large a percentage of the population as it is, is in no sign of rapidly changing. Trade through the delta from the Riverlanders is possible, but highly regulated; similar to the exports that the Fey allow us, it appears our contemporaries in the Woodlands have as much trouble with their peculiarities as we do.

Stating my own biases - I also believe this House is potentially the most open to pressure from our ambassadors. If possible, we may be able to make the beasts see the value of a strategic and defensive alliance against the Fey. It is not impossible they would agree, even to a temporary treaty - from wherein much territory could be reclaimed, though the cost might be high even if we were to let the beasts take the brunt of any military casualties. It is nevertheless a strategy I wish to recommend quite highly.

The House of the All-Encompassing Canopy

Nightmarish. The birds, bats, insects and other aerial creatures that can exist at such a height and on such scraps are unsuited for diplomacy as they are for anything else - and we, as landbound creatures ourselves, were not meant to exist at such a height. If you must visit the extant of the treeline, you should do so with caution; for a fall will not only lead to your demise, but depending on area, take a day before you plummet to the ground.

Withstanding the thinness of the air and the sparse population, however, the House is not overtly hostile, and rather sparsely populated. Given the nomadic nature of many of it's inhabitants - even compared to other Houses - it is not an unpleasant place to be in the Woods, especially should you be acclimated or adaptive to the extremity of the height. There is no unity of political opinion amongst the House, but there does seem to be a great military union amongst it; due to the great height of the forest proper, line of sight allows for the spotting of any military movement long before it has reached the interior proper.

As such - there might be some value to playing the Canopy against the Borderwatch, though how I could not say. What is certain is that any such experiments would have to be conducted with caution - for dwelling amongst a place as inhospitable as the treeline take it's toll - and as the saying goes... Pride goeth before the long fall.

The House of the Expanse and Darkened Groves

Foreign, even to my experiences. I am aware some human refuges have settled here, though they are possibly lunatics; for even many animals avoid this, the borders of the known forest. I say known forest, because there is a line where the roots are so twisted and the foliage so dense that even the smallest of creature struggles to forward. The forest itself seems to be alive and strangling; the air around one seems tight and constraining; and the presence of countless eyes is replaced with the horrifying realization that you have been alone for hours... if hours have even passed at all.

Those who can manage a life in such a place are hardy indeed, but again - probably mad, whether beast or human.

However - it has come to my knowledge that not all inhabitants of the place can even be called beasts by the classical definition. Some have grown strange, and weird in such an environment - and some are not native to the forest at all. If ever the forest should be pushed this far, and the Woodlands decides to truly fight back... I do not wish to be alive for such a day, for then we are well and truly lost.

In closing - an Addendum

I have served as an ambassador to the Woods for perhaps two years, which, I believe, is the longest any single human not fully ensconced in the place has managed to stay there. Through patience and understanding, I have made many contacts and forged many alliances. It would not only be naivete to throw that away, it would be naivete in the name realpolitik; an affront to both notions.

We have nothing to gain from the current climate of fear within the Bastion. If we do not try to make some sort of defensive arrangement, it is only a matter of time before the Fey are upon us, and not all the Reborn in the world will protect us from that. If you have valued these words and truly appreciated them, I say to you that it is upon you to visit the Woods for yourself, being cautious and prudent in your expedition; for the more common interaction between us becomes, the more possible and alliance of all the natural creatures of this world against the Fey becomes, and through diplomacy and action, the Age of Noontide buys a few more precious moments as the Age of Dusk is pushed back.

Cordially, with great hope,

Magister Obad Wurnel