Cythral, the Wildwood, is a High Realm of
Athel Loren, ruled by Lady Draya the Nighthawk. Not all the spirits of Athel
Loren dwell in harmony with the Elves. Even now, thousands of years after the
first great council, there are those beings who actively seek the Elves'
destruction. Some revel in malevolence purely for its own sake, others would
war against the Elves with all the cunning and might at their command, were
they free to do so.
It was to guard against this threat that
the first Wood Elves planted a fence of waystones in the southeast of Athel
Loren, creating the Wildwood — a prison for the most malevolent of forest
spirits. Thus can the Dryads and Treemen found elsewhere in Athel Loren, cruel
as they are, be considered the most benign of their kind. Yet the waystone
fence alone is not sufficient to indefinitely cage the creatures of the
Wildwood. There are Treemen and other elemental colossi within, and their power
is more than equal to the task of toppling a few menhirs. Losing one or two
such stones has little effect on the cage’s efficiency, but if several adjacent
waystones were felled, the breach would be enough to allow an escape.
It is the endless task of the Elves of the
Wildwood to ensure that the waystones are maintained and thus the prison kept
whole. They do not live in the Cythral itself, and indeed only enter it at
times of great need, but instead maintain their halls on the outside of the
waystone fence. No realm in all of Athel Loren is so unwelcoming of outsiders,
and with good reason. Not all the creatures of the Wildwood are monstrous of
form. Some are seductresses steeped in fey glamour, easily capable of luring
mortals into their shadowy embrace. Few of such victims emerge from the
Wildwood unharmed. Most of those that do are mortal creatures no more, their
own souls having been devoured and replaced by those of shadow-naiads or
deepwood fetchlings. The Rangers of the Wildwood must be ever on guard for such
imposters, and so many outsiders are beheaded and burned for their trespassing.
Better that the innocent perish than a changeling escape and insinuate itself
into the courts of Athel Loren.
Cythral is a minor Wood Elf faction in
Total War: Warhammer.
Type: Minor
Category: Wood Elves
Campaigns: The Season of Revelation
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