As the Unseelie assume power the abundance of life within the hedge beats a hasty retreat. The luscious canopy of thorns withers into short shrubs and tall grasses. Lakes and rivers turn to peaty bogs or frozen sheets as a bitter wind beckons the arrival of snow. Water drains from the landscape, firming the ground into permafrost that reveals a vast subterranean landscape below. Hedge bounty and provisions are few and far between, found in isolated groves deep into the expanse or in grottos far below the surface. Hedge beasts can be found but fatality is most likely to come from starvation and the elements.
Winter Begins in the hedge during the witching hours of All Hallows Eve (31st October). The temperature suddenly drops as the rains of summer turn fist to sleet then hail then a blizzard of snow. Vision becomes near zero and the very earth below an observers feet begins to shift...All this is based on speculation as none have lived to give a personal account of how the hedge topography changes.
Environmental Hazards
The cold is a constant threat for anyone traversing the hedge in winter. Howling winds and regular snowstorms severely increase the wind-chill one experiences, forcing changelings to see shelter off the paths. Sources of nourishment are few and far between meaning that someone planning on entering the hedge must pack provisions in case they have to hunker down for the night. Though the ground is generally permafrost there are large stretches of peat bogs which can prove fatal if one falls in. Finally due to the seemingly less dense nature of the hedge in winter, it has often been speculated that hedge beasts and other creatures find it easier to track and hunt their prey.
In the subterranean 'underworld' hazards come in the form of cave-in's and underwater lakes. This can be especially dangerous as viable hedge gates out of the catacombs are hard to come by, leaving changelings stranded to an unknown fate on more than one occasion.
Local Flora and Fauna
Blindbirds
Small avian hedge beasts resembling a black feathered Merlin with heavily sunken eyes. The Blindbirds are said to be an omen of death, appearing only when a changeling is at their most vulnerable. It is said they can offer aid in return for a pound of flesh...
Briar Wolves
Bestial humanoid wolves with long forearms. Briar wolves always hunt in packs, appearing from nowhere across the expanse of the hedge they circle their pray looking for signs of weakness...
Etaynes
Standing almost forty feet in height, with four muscular gangrel arms, the Etaynes are giants pulled straight from Anglo-Saxon myth. Wandering the vast tundra always in search of their next meal the Etaynes more than live up to their 'devourer' moniker. With the power to tear apart a poorly hidden hollow or, speculatively, able to tear down the city walls: when one emerges from the deep hedge it is a matter of priority that it is taken down quickly.
Rumours:
- I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the Etaynes are becoming more frequent. For some reason they seem to be attracted to the walls: is anyone even looking into them, where they come from or like? If you ask me if nothing's done about it then there might come a time when you cant even venture out into the hedge without one of them coming after you.
- Sometimes when you're out in the Hedge you see giant standing stones: well that's an Etayne slumbering...yeah many of them have the ability to turn to stone and sleep for a long time...so you ever spot a nice inviting cave to shelter in you just might be doing the giants work for him...
Bioluminescent and petit Wyverns that live in the catacombs that seem to be made from smoke and shadow: Gloom Drakes are an inherent contradiction between the monster in the dark and the fear of the unknown. They are obsessed with riddles, a hallmark of the quick-witted delicacies amongst the minds that it feasts upon.
Standing solitary by the intersection of two Trods or growing above the ruins of a long departed hollow, the willowy and drooping branches of a Suicide Tree are both a warm comfort and an ill omen. Suicide trees take the appearance of a large yew tree with its thick branches tapering off into long gnarled tendrils. Apart from small blister like buds the tree looks dead and gives off the musty smell of decay. Despite this, a Suicide Tree is the best natural shelter one can find when a storm or nightfall hits the hedge.
Rumours:
- If you cut open a suicide tree blood will pour out, useful to know cause I heard that when some of the hedge experts get wounded they ingest it, though I hear transfusions better, and their wounds nit back together. It even slows down poisons and diseases to a near standstill...Well if its that good why hasn't anyone tried to harvest it I wonder.
- Suicide trees only grow in a place where death occurred, now before you say no shit its the fucking hedge, I mean significant tragedy like a motley being killed trying to prevent one of them from taking a friend back to faerie...those trees give me the creeps, there always feels like there is some dark oppressive weight hanging over them; a sense of dread that is all the more acute if you're Unseelie like me...
Wodwos
The descendants of Cain and his ilk, Grendel, Krampus, Wildmen: there are many names that have been attributed to the Wodwos. Standing over six feet tall, with ram horns and cloven hooves for feet, their hair covered bodies cut the silhouette of the devil. Though they wear fur and leather hides like a man they are covered in shaggy hair which protects them from the worst of the elements. Their faces bulge with a vicious muzzle that opens to reveal an array of sharp fangs. Wodwos are particularly interesting not just because of their sentience, having some sort of nomadic hob society, but for the fact each shows noticeable variations in both appearance and abilities.
Rumours:
- 'The Church of Lost Salvation' says that only those chosen by god can escape faerie...so what about all those sick buggers that somehow manage to get out...well the way I heard it the Wodwos are actually changelings who have spent too much time in the hedge: either they somehow escaped their keepers without divine intervention or they are those who turned their back on god...
- Though the Wodwos are little more than barbarian hobs they aren't completely stupid: if you can earn their respect then you can negotiate with them and in the time of want that can mean the difference between life and death for a hedge traveller. but don't go getting all naïve, they are a bunch of heathen lowlifes and are just as happy to sell you out to loyalists as help you out...
There was once a story of an old sea captain whose ship was wrecked in a storm off the Norfolk coast. Despite the wailing cries of him and his crew the fishermen of the local village would not launch their boats, for their greed to acquire salvage was greater than the compassion for their fellow man. It is said that with his dying breath the captain cursed a vengeance upon those unwilling to act...its a lovely story but to changelings who take heed to the legend of the Yow-Yows one should not be so rash in the making of pledges. Nobody exactly knows what the Yow-Yow's are: beyond the local folkore they are the ravings of the mad and despirate. Those fully given over to the emotions of the Unseelie courts...
Rumours:
- You remember Di, the winter courtier fresh out the hedge last year...Yeah the one whose mantle flared up all of a sudden...well I went down to the catacombs a couple of months back to search for hedge fruit and I saw her...well I say her but it was her bloated rotting drowned corpse...stared right at me and tried to drown me in and underground lake...look I'm NOT making this up, anyone who tells you death is a way out they're bullshitting...
- Yow-Yow's are kind of half banshee, half siren...they're ephemeral beings from beyond the grave that try to drown you...but even if you 'escape' you just defer the suffering...They're an omen of death and if you don't pay the price someone close to you gets drawn into the bargin...how do I know this? Ms Crowley confided it to someone at a function...well she's always saying don't go down into the catacombs...
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