Description[]
A tome detailing the history of Webwood.
Contents[]
The Webwood was, rather embarrassingly, chanced upon by a group of Almain settlers who wished to find safe haven from the magical forests of Dalentarth by plunging south. Cheered on by the sunlight and relative calm of Yolvan, they continued south until they found trees that were as ancient and tall as those which dominate Odarath. But unlike those lands, where sunlight is still seen on the forest floor, this southern wood was a place of dark and gloom, its trees covered in the silk of large and savage spiders. It was from this feature that the forest drew its name: Webwood.
What drove them to stay at first, I cannot say for certain. Perhaps it was exhaustion from their journey, perhaps it was an enterprising individual who saw the profit that stood to be made. In nay even, not long after discovery did the original settlers throw down their farming tools and invented a new means to earn their bread: silkfarming. Drawn by greed or insanity, these men and women would ascend the trees of Webwood to harvest the spider-silk from its branches, and then process it into the textile known today as Canneroc gossamer.
There have since been several attempts to try and modernize this rather barbaric means of survival -- including one notorious attempt at establishing a spider-farm -- but to this day, the art of silkfarming is largely unchanged. It is only miraculous that the silkfarmers have survived as long as they did, for the Webwood can be a dangerous place for those that are not always alert. The silkfarmers will say that there's a silence in the wood, unlike any they've heard elsewhere. And when it is silent, that is when a man best be afraid, for there are more than spiders that lurk in the shadows and webs of the forest. There is also the Widow.
From what I understand, the Widow is a folktale as old as the forest itself. Allegedly a story passed on by the fae (which I cannot understand, for the presence of fae in this wood has always been minimal), the song of the Widow is usually sung to the tune of this: a homicidal and beautiful fae woman goes around seducing every man she sees, only to kill them on their wedding nights. Perhaps it was meant to be a lesson to those that were not careful of the wood, or perhaps it was simply to give a bit of charm to a gloomy stretch of wilderness. But it is clearly untrue.
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