Sylvaraeth

A theocratic monarchy where politics and nature are intertwined, and where the divine is quite literally rooted in the earth.

The Verdant Realm (South)

Primordial: Ouraleth, The Verdant Maw – A vast serpent entwined beneath the world’s roots. Worshipped as both a life-giver and devourer. Her breath brings sudden overgrowth—and rot. She is sealed beneath the Hollow Grove, where trees grow in silence.
Capital: Thalor’Nai – A living city wrapped around the base of the Worldtree Caethoril. Homes are woven from branches and roots, lit by bioluminescent flora. The Heartseed Relic—Ouraleth’s seal—rests in a grove sanctum where no metal is allowed.
Culture: Deeply druidic and isolationist, valuing balance and symbiosis over conquest. Animals and plants are considered kin. Time is marked by growth cycles, not calendars.
Current Struggles: The forest grows faster than it can be tended. Villages vanish beneath ivy and thorns overnight. Fungus-folk and root-beasts wander beyond their bounds.
Strengths: Botany, alchemy, druidic magic, and ecological regulation. Its Worldtree roots cleanse leyline corruption continent-wide.
Exports: Medicinal plants, elixirs, soulwood (a semi-sentient building material), whisper-leaf (used in magical communication), artisan crafts.
Imports: Tools and metalwork (from Caelvaris), navigation tech and water condensers (from Vhar-Khazel), preservation crystals (from Nyssavren).

Key Diplomatic Role: Maintains the Verdant Accord, ensuring all nations use sustainable resources and forbidding the overharvest of leyline-adjacent materials.

Cities

Virelath Hollow – A city built within the hollowed base of a colossal tree, full of scholars and nature-bound artisans.
Glimmerfen – A bog-bordered city of alchemists and spirit-weavers. Strange lights dance across the water at dusk.
Oural’s Reach – A stone-and-wood pilgrimage site built on a branch of the Worldtree, suspended over a living canopy.
Brambleford – A border town that trades in rare herbs and tightly controls logging.
Lethwyn Cross – A settlement where history is recorded on bark-inscribed scrolls grown from memory trees.

Non-Player Characters

Ruling Elite of Sylvaraeth

These figures reside within the living capital of Thalor’Nai, a city grown into the hollow roots of the Worldtree. Each commands immense influence, and each interprets Ouraleth’s will in a different way.

High Matriarch Vaeril Elmyra – Voice of the Greenheart

Title: Divine Ruler and High Seeress of the Sylvari Council
Background: The chosen “speaker” for Ouraleth, believed to commune with the Primordial during seasonal trance rituals. Born blind, she is considered sacred—rumored to “see” only through Ouraleth’s dreams.
Personality: Serene, otherworldly, and enigmatic. She speaks in metaphors and prophecy.

Thalorin Myrren – Warden of the Lifebough Guard

Title: Commander of Sylvaraeth’s Sacred Defense
Background: A devoted paladin raised from childhood to defend Ouraleth’s seal. He views military action as a last resort and believes diplomacy and divine guidance should prevail.
Personality: Honorable, composed, and resolute. He treats war as a spiritual failure.

Irevin Saelwen – Speaker of the Rootborn Conclave

Title: Arbiter of Trade, Growth, and Wild Law
Background: Head of the Rootborn, a druidic guild that governs the country’s economic lifeblood—crystal cultivation, herbal goods, and sylvan resource stewardship.
Personality: Blunt, ambitious, and fiercely protective of Sylvaraeth’s autonomy. He is known to clash with the High Matriarch over matters of tradition vs practicality.

Notable NPCs of Sylvaraeth

Selian Dorrune – The Barkbinder

Title: Artisan of Living Wards and Relic Rejuvenation
Background: A recluse who grows protective enchantments directly into living wood. She has retreated deep into the root-caverns beneath the capital after a relic she was tasked to restore began to “whisper.”
Personality: Paranoid, sharp-tongued, but brilliant. Speaks to her trees as if they’re people.

Eiral Thornshroud – Dreamforager

Title: Keeper of the Bloomshade Glade
Background: A gentle but eerie individual who collects dream-pollen—mystical spores that induce visions of possible futures. She’s the reason many seekers travel to Sylvaraeth.
Personality: Calm, motherly, and cryptically wise. Rarely speaks in full sentences.

Orren Velross – Knight of the Hollow Crown

Title: Exile and Wandering Guardian
Background: A fallen knight who once served the Matriarch directly. Now wanders the wilds protecting sacred groves from poachers, cultists, and worse.
Personality: Melancholy, fiercely protective, and disdainful of politics. Keeps company with a semi-sentient stag companion.