Sylvaris¶

Region¶

Havenwood

Description¶

The “Invisible City” of the Sylvaels, built entirely in the high canopy of Havenwood’s ancient trees. Bridges of woven vine connect the massive trunks. Platforms of living wood — grown, not built — hold homes, meeting halls, and gardens that have been tended for longer than the Empire has existed. A traveler could walk directly beneath Sylvaris and never know it is there. The Sylvaels designed it that way.

Sylvaris is the most reclusive settlement in Tavrenne. The Sylvaels sealed their borders after the Violation of the Grove and have not opened them since. Outsiders are not invited. Outsiders who find their way in are escorted out — gently the first time, less gently after that. The few traders who deal with Sylvaris do so at ground-level posts on the forest’s edge, never seeing the city itself.

The architecture is alive. Walls grow new branches in spring. Roots shift to accommodate changing needs. The oldest structures at the city’s heart have fused with their host trees so completely that it is impossible to tell where the building ends and the trunk begins. Sylvael elders whose skin has hardened to bark sit among these ancient halls and remember things the rest of the world has forgotten.

But the canopy is thinning. The trees that have sheltered Sylvaris for ages are showing signs of blight — leaves curling, sap running dark, branches dying from the inside. The Covenant’s weakening is reaching even here, into the deepest and most protected forest on the continent. The Sylvaels face a choice they have avoided for three ages: keep the gates sealed and watch their home sicken, or step out into a world that has not earned their trust.

Key Features¶

The Living Halls: The oldest structures at the city’s heart, fused so completely with their host trees that building and trunk are indistinguishable.
The Vine Bridges: Woven walkways connecting the massive trunks across the high canopy, invisible from the forest floor.
The Ground Posts: Trading stations at the forest’s edge where the few merchants who deal with Sylvaris exchange goods without ever seeing the city.

Role¶

A secret refuge and the spiritual heart of the Sylvael people. Hidden, ancient, and increasingly threatened by a world falling apart around it.