The northern forest of Xabraedia, standing as a buffer between the city of Hik and the island's northern coast. Unlike the purple-tinged Veluminante to the south, Morglewood is a relatively normal forest—dense, dark, and unmutated. Its existence is a mystery and possibly a miracle.
Nature
Morglewood is a temperate forest of ordinary composition: oak-analogues, evergreens, ferns, and underbrush that would seem unremarkable anywhere else in Alaria. The trees grow tall and close, creating a permanent twilight beneath the canopy. Wildlife behaves normally. Plants follow expected patterns. The soil is ordinary soil.
This normalcy is deeply strange given Morglewood's proximity to Starfall and the Veluminante. The purple forest ends at a sharp boundary running east-west across Xabraedia's interior, and Morglewood begins immediately north of that line. There's no gradual transition, no partially affected zone—just the Veluminante's spiraling, glowing trees, then a clear demarcation, then ordinary forest.
The Velathi maintain that Morglwood is proof not everything about Xabraedia is changed. Outsiders suspect the forest's normality is deliberate—that something was done, long ago, to keep Starfall's influence from spreading north.
The Barrier Theory
According to local legend, Morglewood was planted deliberately by the first Velathi settlers—or by someone even older—to contain Starfall's spread. The roots were woven with protective bindings, the soil treated with neutralizing agents, the trees selected specifically for their resistance to extraplanar contamination. The forest itself is a living wall against the purple tide.
Evidence for this theory includes:
- The unnaturally sharp boundary between Morglewood and the Veluminante
- Unusual patterns in the oldest trees' growth rings, suggesting synchronized planting
- Buried structures at the forest's southern edge that might be foundation stones for old wards
- The forest's stubborn resistance to the Veluminante's expansion despite centuries of proximity
The Velathi neither confirm nor deny the barrier theory. They simply ensure Morglewood is maintained—harvesting selectively, replanting where trees fall, and quietly removing anything that shows signs of purple influence.
What the theory leaves out is the urgency. Morglewood is not a monument to an old victory. It is a dam, and it is being pushed against, constantly, by the thing the Velathi call Issoroth—the something reassembling itself out of the Veluminante to the south. The sharp boundary is sharp because it is the front line, held by labor that never stops. The crews who replant and cull are not tending a forest. They are bailing. Every season they walk the southern edge and burn back what has turned, and every season there is a little more of it to burn, and the line they hold is not quite the line they held before.
Resources
Hik depends on Morglewood for ordinary timber, game, and foraged goods—the practical materials that the Veluminante cannot provide. The forest supports hunting lodges, lumber camps, and harvesting operations run by Velathi family members or trusted associates. Outsiders can obtain permits to enter Morglewood, unlike the Veluminante, though they're expected to report any unusual observations.
The contrast between the two forests makes Morglewood valuable in ways beyond resources. Visitors to Hik sometimes arrange forest walks specifically to remind themselves that normal exists. Scholars studying Starfall's influence use Morglewood as a control sample. And the Velathi themselves retreat to the northern forest when the purple light becomes too intense, using it as a place to remember what unaffected reality feels like.
The Northern Coast
Beyond Morglewood, Xabraedia's northern coast faces the Bay of Merchants—ordinary water, ordinary shores, theoretically accessible to anyone. In practice, the Velathi control access through Hik's harbor and discourage independent landings. They claim it's for visitors' protection; the forest can be confusing, and the route to Hik requires guidance. The real reason is less clear.
The northern coast shows no signs of Starfall's influence. This is not because the barrier won. It is because Issoroth is not pushing north; the dam at Morglewood holds precisely because the thing it dams chose, long ago, to grow west and south toward the open water instead, where nothing stands in the way. The Velathi watch the coast anyway. They are not watching for an arrival from the sea. They are watching the treeline behind them, to see how much closer it is than last year, and they don't explain that to anyone who asks.