VIOLETFAIR

Within the pastel pink-purple Everwood Forest stands the colossal Everwood Tree, its roots gnarled fingers digging into the earth, spreading like veins throughout the forest. Evening light breaks through the trees, casting shifting beams of light onto the forest floor where nightcap mushrooms pepper the ground amongst the flowers. Fireflies emerge from the tall grass—soft, pulsing lights dancing in the air by the lake. Beneath the boughs of the Everwood Tree, where the lake meets the island’s shores, sits the logging town of Violetfair. Thick roots cast shadows over homes and businesses that line the winding streets weaving around old trees. Transport boats cruise along the lake, bound for the distinct districts that line the shore’s dense treeline.

A twig snaps, and firelight catches gleaming eyes. There, lurking in the shadows of the forest, a monster watches—waiting for unsuspecting fools to stray deeper into its woods. These nightmarish creatures are Moroks, but the Violetfair locals have their own name for them: Voids. Their horrifying, bipedal bodies are formed from thick ropes of wood twisting around each other, making them almost indistinguishable from Violetfair’s trees. When fresh faces grace the town’s streets, townsfolk are quick to warn them of the dangers of the Everwood Forest—for the Voids are swift, merciless hunters that will tear the unwary apart.

Before Charles Bion declared himself First King of the Kingdom of Kurestal, he gathered the brightest men and women from the scattered human settlements across the land. Together, they studied the massive crystal Charles had discovered in the caverns deep within Mount Aldor. This crystal was, of course, the Crystal of Vitality—one of Prism’s Five Titan Crystals.

Among this small group of bright minds, two long-lost twin brothers crossed paths again. Orphaned at a young age, they had been adopted by different families—Relian by a loving one, and Erebis by one far less kind.

Yet instead of a joyful reunion, old resentments stirred within Erebis. As had happened in their youth, Relian seemed to outshine him at every turn. Cheerful, quick-witted, and perceptive beyond his years, Relian made significant contributions to the group’s research into the Crystal’s properties and secrets. As a reward for his many breakthroughs and discoveries , when the time came for Relian to pursue his own ambitions, Charles granted the young man’s request to take several satchels of the smaller crystals that grew from the Crystal of Vitality. Erebis could only watch in simmering envy as his brother had surpassed him yet again. 

Preferring the serenity of the wilderness over the bustle of towns and cities, Relian bid Erebis farewell and journeyed into the forested Highlands. There, he spent his days studying the crystals in solitude. His primary interest had always been botany, so his early experiments centered around coaxing the crystals to work their magic on plantlife. Perhaps it was because of this strong interest in nature and the wilderness that, when Relian’s magical potential awakened not long after, he found himself able to wield plant magic, one of the rarer magics across the Spine.

With his newfound gift, Relian’s work flourished. The forest around his dwelling grew thicker and more vibrant, birthing new flowers and hardy greenery that thrived in the highland soil. 

Word of Relian and his extraordinary powers spread among those wanderers who slept beneath the stars and shunned the trappings of urban life. Drawn by tales of the thriving wilderness Relian had nurtured, they came from afar to see it for themselves. Many were so enchanted by his achievements that they chose to stay and build their lives beside his.

In time, this small community grew from a hamlet to a village, and eventually to a modest town. They named it Violetfair, inspired by the violet hues that blazed across the surrounding trees each autumn.

Violetfair is located deep in the Highlands region, which is also home to Griffondell and the ancient city of Penrith. Many travellers who visit Violetfair describe the experience of walking through the Everwood Forest as akin to stepping into a fairytale. In the summer, the forest turns a brilliant pink, its canopy providing cool relief from the sweltering heat. When autumn arrives, a wave of pink and purple sweeps through the trees as they shed their leaves in preparation for colder months. As the temperature drops and the lake freezes, the forest turns into a winter wonderland, bare except for the Everwood Tree that looms over the town, its leaves a unique purple tinged with the icy blue of frost. When spring returns, a gradient of yellow, orange, and pink blankets the trees, and a thin fog often clings to the ground as the last remnants of the frost melt away. 

High atop the Everwood Tree, harvesters tread carefully along its thick branches as they pick Evercherries and place them into baskets on their backs. Evercheer Tea, brewed from dehydrated Evercherries and flowers from the Everwood Tree, is popular among the nobles of Caldemount for its calming effect and health benefits.

Violetfair is also famous for its Purplebark. When treated with the sap of the Everwood Tree, Purplebark wood becomes resistant to fire, water, and pests, as well as growing stronger over time—perfect for furniture and buildings. To prevent overlogging, the town cuts down only two hundred trees each year. Before a lumberjack makes the first swing of the day, they perform a ritual: a prayer of thanks to the spirit of the tree—and by extension, the Everwood Tree—for providing their town with a means of income and survival. Those who disrespect this custom are believed to bring bad luck upon themselves.

The Everwood Tree

When Relian grew more skilled in the advanced applications of plant magic, he conducted an experiment on an island in the middle of a lake in Violetfair. He carefully cut a handful of the crystals Charles Bion had given him, faceting and polishing each crystal to enhance its resonant energies, then spent weeks casting spells of growth over them to attune them to nature and plant life. Relian then planted a sapling Treeheart on the island and arranged the crystals in carefully chosen spots around it. He concluded by casting a powerful dweomer of nurturing over both the sapling and crystals.

Within months, the sapling grew tall and strong, its boughs stretching toward the heavens. The combined power of the crystals’ magical energies, the dweomer, and Relian’s formidable magic transformed the Treeheart into something far greater than it was ever meant to be. The Treeheart’s magic sank deep into the soil and water, infusing the surrounding woods with life and vitality, spurring new growth and causing existing flora across the Everwood Forest to flourish. The townspeople marvelled at the magical Treeheart and began calling it the Everwood Tree. Relian’s esteem soared, and his creation cemented his place as a local legend.

However, Relian didn’t receive the happily ever after such a tale might promise. One day, another traveller appeared on the outskirts of Violetfair. Like the first settlers of Violetfair, this traveller had come drawn by tales of Relian’s feats—but unlike them, he was no stranger to Relian.

Erebis was Relian’s mirror image: both brothers had been gifted with plant magic upon their magical awakening, but their powers were opposites. Erebis drew life from flora and the land to strengthen himself, turning everything he drained withered and lifeless. Relian was a guardian, a preserver, a nurturer—Erebis, a defiler who devoured and destroyed, leaving withered husks in his wake.

Having heard of Relian’s latest accomplishment, the Everwood Tree, Erebis had come to claim it as his own. A tree that spread life and vitality would be a limitless well of power for him, one from which Erebis could draw endlessly. 

A cataclysmic battle ensued between the brothers, lasting for days. As Erebis’ enervating magic attempted to drain the land of its energies, Relian’s magic interwove with ancient leylines, fighting to restore and preserve the land’s power. 

When Erebis finally fell at the edge of the forest, his blood and lifeforce soaked into the earth, poisoning the land and forest with his defiling magic and essence. From these blighted woods, nightmarish beings emerged: the Morok, or Voids as the locals called them, terrifying creatures of gnarled, petrified wood. The corruption of the forest’s depths by Erebis’ blood came to be known as The Blight.

Although grievously injured and near death from his battle with Erebis, Relian managed to destroy the first Moroks that emerged. Unfortunately, this valiant attempt to protect the people of Violetfair led to Relian succumbing to his wounds and magical burnout. His last act was to heal the deep wounds Erebis had inflicted upon the Everwood Tree. When at last he fell, Relian’s blood seeped into the ground, and his lifeforce went on to profoundly transform the Everwood Tree, imbuing it with his benevolent spirit and power, changing it forever—its boughs reached higher, its magic burned brighter, its roots grew deeper and more unyielding. 

The grieving townspeople laid Relian to rest beneath the Everwood Tree’s boughs, raising a tombstone to honour Violetfair’s founder and legend. 

The Everwood Tree continues to loom over the town of Violetfair, a source of nourishing life for the surrounding lands. To those who remember the tale of Relian, the tree stands as both monument and living testament to one of Kurestal’s greatest mages. 

The Triwagon Tournament

During The Blight, the townspeople of Violetfair were outmatched and outnumbered by the Moroks—malformed creatures born from Violetfair’s own trees, created by the blood and lifeforce of Erebis the Defiler. In a desperate bid to stop the Moroks’ onslaught, the townspeople repurposed wagons into armoured coaches and sent them deep into the woods, with their best archers and warriors taking cover within. This tactic offered their forces much-needed protection but the wagons were cumbersome in the forest’s thick underbrush. Still, that protection was enough to buy them time to discover the Moroks’ weakness—fire. Even with this advantage, the ensuing battles cost many lives.

The town’s founder, Relian, eventually joined the fray, and with his aid the people of Violetfair finally triumphed—but the price they paid was great. Of the ten wagons of archers and warriors they began with, only three remained. In the months that followed, more Moroks would spawn in the deepest, darkest parts of the forest, but on that day of victory, the townspeople’s fortitude—and Relian’s great sacrifice—ensured Violetfair would survive another day.

These three surviving armoured coaches, each designed and built by a different family, became the inspiration for a new defensive weapon. Thus began the first iterations. They redesigned the wagons into fortified chariots that could traverse the forest more easily, each family’s chariots bearing a unique hallmark: one family added spears, another reinforced their design with metal plating, and a third outfitted their chariot with bladed wheels. This second generation of chariots was crafted from the petrified remains of the Moroks themselves, which made the chariots more resistant to damage and had the added advantage of briefly confusing the Moroks, who sometimes mistook the chariots for one of their own.

Over the centuries, two more families joined the fight against the Moroks, contributing their own  innovative chariot designs. This tradition—sending the families’ armoured chariots out to scour the surrounding woods for Moroks—lives on and is carried out annually by the town’s finest scouts, warriors, and archers. The Moroks have been hunted to near extinction, but because even the Everwood Tree itself cannot purge the land of Eribus’ taint, small numbers of these terrifying creatures still emerge from the forest’s edges, a dark legacy indelibly etched into Violetfair’s history.

Violetfair’s biannual Triwagon Tournament is an homage to the town’s founder. It commemorates Relian’s sacrifice, celebrates Violetfair’s long heritage of heroic archers, and honours the three surviving wagons—and the men and women who gave their lives to protect the town. While the original three families are revered for creating the armoured coaches that gave the townspeople a fighting chance against the Moroks, all five families have their fans and ardent supporters, with each Tournament offering them the opportunity to showcase their ingenuity and prove whose chariot is best.