THE GEOGRAPHY OF UHL

Merrow Woods

The Merrow Woods is the largest forest in all of Uhl, a vast expanse of ancient woodland stretching hundreds of miles across the continent's interior. Bordered by the Vernesse Steppes to the west, the Blasted Land and Shadow Downs to the south, the eslar kingdom of Panthora to the east, and the Ugull Mountains to the north, the forest dominates the landscape between these disparate regions like a green sea unto itself. Its towering canopy, formed primarily of massive blackwood oaks, rises in some places to heights exceeding two hundred feet, creating an elevated world of interlocking branches and dense foliage that blocks much of the sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Beneath that canopy, the woodland teems with life both mundane and dangerous. Numerous streams, rivers, and natural springs thread through the undergrowth, sustaining an ecosystem as rich as it is perilous, for the deeper reaches of the Merrow Woods harbor creatures that have kept even the most seasoned hunters and explorers at bay for centuries, wendigos among them.

The forest's sheer scale and the dangers lurking within its depths have made it a natural barrier between the civilizations surrounding it. Few roads penetrate its interior, and those that do are seldom traveled without considerable armed escort. The krill, a reclusive bipedal feline race organized into six fiercely independent tribes, have claimed the Merrow Woods as their homeland for millennia, building their civilization among the highest reaches of the canopy where other races cannot easily follow. Their presence, combined with the forest's predatory wildlife and trackless interior, ensures that the Merrow Woods remains one of the most inaccessible and least understood regions of Uhl, a place where the ancient world endures largely untouched by the advancing age.