Local Myths & Tales

The Eldris Forest is thick with stories, and the Sylvan Elves regard their local myths not as entertaining fictions but as encoded wisdom about the forest's nature, its history, and the moral challenges that have shaped the people. These tales are transmitted by Lore-Bards like Calador Starbow, by Elders in the morning teaching-gatherings, and by parents to children during the long evenings of winter.

The most widely known tale is The First Planting, which recounts the emergence of the first Sylvan Elves from the dream-weave and their initial act as a conscious people: the planting of the Great Oak, understood as a gesture of gratitude to the forest that had breathed them into being. The tale emphasizes that the Great Oak was planted not to create a resource or a landmark, but purely as a gift — and that from this founding act of generosity, the principle of Sylvan stewardship flows. Every companion tree planted at a child's birth is understood as a re-enactment of this original gesture.

The Song That Must Not Be Sung is a darker tale, known primarily among Lore-Bards and the Lorekeeper's Circle. It tells of a song that predates the Sylvan Elves — composed, in the legend's framing, by a consciousness that inhabited the forest before the people emerged — and whose singing would awaken something ancient and indeterminate in the deepest roots of the Eldris Forest. Calador Starbow is believed by those who know his secret to have discovered what may be this actual song in his research of the oldest oral traditions, a discovery that has made him simultaneously exhilarated and deeply afraid.

The Exile of Broken Root tells of a Greenspeaker who pursued ambition beyond ethical limits — growing weapons from living wood without consent, shaping the forest to serve personal power rather than community need — and was ultimately consumed by Root-Sickness until they merged with the tree they had most violated. This tale is taught to every apprentice Greenspeaker as both warning and theological statement about the nature of Sylvan Magic.