Whisperwood

The Whisperwood of Cheliax.

For another meaning of "Whisperwood", please see Whisperwood (Varisia).

The Whisperwood is arguably Cheliax's largest forest, and can be found in that nation's eastern heartland. Despite centuries of settlement surrounding it, the vast and ancient forest remains mostly untouched, with a reputation for being infested with monsters and other evil beings. Desperate outlaws occasionally seek refuge under its canopy, only to encounter gruesome fates. Local legends speak of a mysterious menace that holds sway over the Whisperwood, and it is widely known that devils prowl its depths.

Regions

The oldest parts of the Whisperwood predate the Taldan Empire and its reign over the lands of Cheliax that began in 3007 AR. The Whisperwood is unofficially separated into several regions:

• Hellspawn Dale: This well-developed part of the wood is named for its cambion population. During the Glorious Reclamation of 4715–4716 AR, goodly fey and celestials helped to patrol this region.
• Iron Snarl: The Snarl is one of the Whisperwood's wilder reaches, a tangle of brambles and creepers full of stout creatures.
• The Murmurs: The Whisperwood Way that passes through the southern edge of the Murmurs is the wood's best-maintained route, but away from it are several active bands of dangerous wild creatures and gangs of bandits, such as the brigands of the infamous elven sorcerer-bandit called the Feign Prince.
• Perdition Reach: A portal to Hell is believed to spawn devils into this dense and difficult-to-traverse region of oaks and bogs, with only the Iseld River and Remesiana Road providing passage through and Alda's Flank around its eastern side.
• Scarhurst: The fungus-infested Scar Thicket grants Scarhurst its name, and the infamous Pillar of Palamia is located on its northern edge.

Scar Thicket

The wood has a dark, tangled heart—a place where precious little sunlight filters through primeval growth. Known as the Scar Thicket, this undergrowth-choked region is home to huge colonies of monstrous bats, vicious insects, and deformed animals. Youths in the area grow up learning to deal with evil outsiders, and the inhabitants are quite skilled at leading hunts for them.

At the center of the Scar Thicket, huge mushrooms and other deformed fungi dominate the landscape, providing a home for a rare tribe of surface-adapted vegepygmies. Twisted tunnels lie beneath them, reaching down into Nar-Voth and connecting it to the Midnight Jungle, and the Thicket is one of the few sites on Golarion where peoples of the Darklands live on the surface. A group of cave giants also maintain a settlement, named Blackbough, within the Thicket.

Inhabitants and locations

The Whisperwood is said to be haunted, but many of its perils are tangible in nature. Large creatures such as manticores and giant bats, devils, and evil fey are among its threats. Bandits and criminals hide between its trees, and even mundane deer and owls of the wood seem more menacing than those that live elsewhere. Such brooding dangers only intensify as one travels closer to the Scar Thicket.

Bandits and criminals

Whisperwood's reputation leads to many bandits and criminals operating from it or hiding within it, even despite the nearby presence of a Hellknight citadel. Famed bandits known to have operated in the Whisperwood include the so-called Feign Prince and his former base in the titan aspens of the Court of Spears; Kalisboro, slain by the archer Alisa the Bandit Buster; and Diravae the Gold Drinker, who blew up the bandit-hunting base of Fort Estazano in 4620 AR.

Cults

In addition to the dangers of the Scar Thicket, the northern Whisperwood also hosts a cult of Shub-Niggurath that has venerated and tried to free a long-trapped shoggoth known as the Gibbering Blot since 4713 AR. Each of their frequent rituals drew aberrations into the northern wood, including froghemoths, neothelids, and vemeraks.

Fey

Cruel and evil fey creatures also inhabit the Whisperwood, including destructively pyromaniac hellfire ignises corrupted by exposure to infernal powers. Many Chelaxian settlements post bounties as high as 400 gold pieces on the head of a hellfire ignis.

Hellish reputation

The Inferno Gate, an unclosed portal to Malebolge, is located in the dungeons of the abandoned Fort Arego within Whisperwood. Paladins of Iomedae have vanished, and several paralictors of the Order of the Gate have lost their entire commands, while attempting to close the gate (and no one knows why the diabolical Chelaxian government would want to close a portal to Hell within its borders).

The Order of the Pike actively patrols the woods' western edge to hunt creatures that emerge from them. Master of Blades Tolsis Tuvadorn in Senara also posts rewards to enlist bounty hunters and adventurers to help control intrusions from the portal.

The Whisperwood is also believed to be the habitat of thruneosaurus rexes, the result of experiments to infuse tyrannosaurus eggs with devil ichor. As of 4724 AR the fate of the experiment had been lost, and the beasts had most recently been observed in the wood.

Observatory

Since striking a deal with House Thrune of Cheliax, the elder horned dragon astronomer Athervox maintains an observatory in the woods, near Senara. She agreed to instruct a small group of apprentices chosen by House Thrune, but they betrayed and robbed her of many volumes of her notes. Still furious, the normally scholarly dragon now plots her vengeance.

Order of the Pike

The Hellknight Order of the Pike's headquarters of Citadel Ordeial are located on the eastern border of the Iron Snarl, and its Hellknights hunt threats that emerge from the wood's depths to threaten civilization.

Rivers and roads

The Whisperwood is divided by the Iseld River from west to east, with the [[Whisper River (Cheliax)|Whisper River also passing through it near Longacre and the Malvesa River joining it northward of Senara.

The Remesiana Road traverses the forest along the Iseld's southern banks from Remesiana to Senara, passing through Perdition Reach. The well-maintained Whisperwood Way road passes through the Murmurs and Scar Thicket of Whisperwood north of the Iseld, connecting points westward to the Scar Thicket and Senara before continuing east along the Iseld's northern banks through the Iron Snarl toward Misarias. The Longacre Road connects the two roads, and Remesiana and Longacre, southwest of the outer wood.

The Sirmium Throughway cuts through the forest from north to south, following the western banks of the Malvesa River from Taggun Hold to Senara through Hellspawn Dale, and continuing through the center of Perdition Reach toward Laekastel, with connections to both the Remesiana Road, Whisperwood Way.

An alternative route, a badly maintained road known as Alda's Flank, connects the Sirmium Throughway south of Whisperwood to the Remesiana Road east of it without entering the forest, by skirting the forest's southeastern edges. It also continues through the center of the forest's Iron Snarl to connect again to the northern Sirmium Throughway on the other side.

Settlements

See also: Longacre, Remesiana, and Senara

Few permanent settlements exist in and around the Whisperwood, with Longacre, Remesiana, and Senara most prominent among them. Logging operations are limited to the outer edges of the Whisperwood out of fear for its reputation and dangers.

Longacre is populated by tramuatized veterans of the Chelaxian army further punished for being openly critical of House Thrune, and it has a reputation as a place where people can easily hide from their problems, and its populace often includes a number of known criminals or troublemakers.

The Bay of Solva port of Remesiana shuttles upriver trade, such as timber from the Whisperwood and goods from Isger by way of Misarias, to other ports of the Chelaxian coast. The city has also been the home of several of Cheliax's older and wealthier noble families, though its same connections to pre-diabolist Cheliax have led to decades of decline under House Thrune.

The small city of Senara is a farming and river-trading community at the junction of the Iseld and Malvesa rivers, with Castle di Lauro overlooking and defending it from a hilltop near the junction. It is a rare Chelaxian city to not only have a majority demographic of hellspawn, but to also welcome and respect them.

References

Paizo published a map of the Whisperwood in Hell's Vengeance Pathfinder Adventure Path issue The Inferno Gate, which is named for the portal to Hell in Perdition Reach. Paizo also published articles on the Pillar of Palamia and Scar Thicket in Cheliax, The Infernal Empire.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.