Faraway to the west, in the mountains past the Vale of Augury, laid the remnants of an ancient power, a fountain of eldritch energy located deep in the high woods. It is said that the things that grow here, grow strangely. To the powers of nature, this is a sacred position, made to stay concealed and mysterious. Many are the traps and perils of this land–all-consuming grasses and fauna and venomous flowers–but none are so fierce as the powerful Treant Protectors. These timeless, colossal beings, charged with keeping the peace in this precarious land, make certain that none within intrude without reason and none without steal their secrets. For time myriad, they leaned to their holy ground, continuous, only vaguely aware of the shifting world beyond. Yet inevitably, the wider world grew attentive of this natural land, and with each transitory winter, the outsiders grew more audacious. They arrived with tools to cut and with flames to burn.