"In the days of the Evil spawned of Lord Sartan's Brood, a Child of
Twilight shall come to the forest. There he will meet a Child of Gaia,
and be her mate and do her bidding. The Powers of Darkness and Nature
shall be strong within them. As the forests are burned and the Day of
Reckoning comes nigh, there shall be one born of their unholy union -
Istishia, the Arachnoi Queen. On that day, the guilty shall tremble." -
Cairn Stone of the Darkenwood.

"As so in the events post, the story begins with the declaration of war
upon the Order of Gaia, the Earthmother by Sartan, Lord of Evil. As
Sartan had exterminated within the sacred temple of Gaia, He had been
declared an enemy of the forest as per the laws of Oakstone. This so
angered Him, that He ordered His followers to destroy every inch of
forest in the known world.

The Children of Nature worked diligently to defend their forest home and
repair the damage done by the Children of Evil. Herbs became rare, and
soon the jungle was completely destroyed due largely to the efforts of
one Avitar. A worldwide herb rationing effort began, drawing the
attention of nearly every citizen of Sapience."

And this is where Our part of story begins... Xandor went to Orina, the
current Lady of Nature and offered Our active assistance in defending
the forest against the Spawn of Evil a la Lord Twilight's essence.
Unsure about the possible consequences of such an action, Orina
beseeched Gaia, whose stance was mostly apathetic. Here the historian of
events errs slightly, calling the ritual preformed "the rite of the
Darkenwood." In actuality, it was a Rite of the Darkening of the Achaean
Forests. The creation of the Darkenwood was simply a side effect of
this, and I will get to that- although I cannot deny that both Twilight
and Xandor were aware of this, and perhaps Xandor let this slip the
information to others- I cannot say, I am not Xandor's keeper. The
entire forests of Achaea were then imbued with Lord Twilight's essence,
and any action taken against them would be an action against Father
Himself. Gaia did not protest or grow angry with Twilight over this.
However, many of the forest dwellers were quite outraged. And this is
where the phrase "all part of the plan" comes to mind.

Orina refused the deal shortly after, probably after 'realizing what she
had done' and massive pressure from the other forest dwellers. A ritual
was soon discovered that would "disperse the darkness from the forest."
And, as far as anyone was aware at that time, it worked. Mighty beasts
of pure darkness roamed each of the forests, representing the excess
darkness. These were soon slain, and the darkness 'dispersed.' I would
say that all was well, but through all of this, Sartan had not backed
down his assault.

Were they really successful in ridding the forests of all of my Father's
dark essence? Of course not, how could a ritual that He did not support
do such a thing? The forests of Achaea exemplified this with strange
voices, shadows, lights, and creatures that invaded them. Even the
Earthmother herself was disturbed by this.

It was during this time that the Arachnoi started showing up everywhere,
as well as other curious things. This is the part that very few people
are aware of, or if they were, they did not realize its true meanings.
While all of this was happening, Teneb, Sharbrena, and Dusk had been
experimenting with interplanar travel and had discovered the Shadow
Realm, a rather significant breakthrough for Us. Why had most of
Twilight's possessions gone missing? They had been relocating them to
the Shadow Realm. This prompted the appearance of the Arachnoi, who
could no longer live in the Shadow Realm, and somehow got transferred
all over Sapience. They claimed that they were the spawn of Xandor and
Orina, although I am unsure of their true origins, and that their
mother, Istishia, would die if the Ritual of the Darkened Forests was
not completed. While it stayed uncompleted, Istishia was trapped in a
sort of limbo, and unless it was completed soon, she would die. This is
what she told me herself, when I was contacted through some sort of
vision, to get me to inform the world of her plight.

It was finally decided that Ritual should be completed, in order to save
the arachnoi from extinction, as there were threats of what would happen
should they chose to ignore Istishia, and let them all die, not to
mention the moral obligations. The Ritual was completed, and its true
purpose, the releasing of all of the excess Dark Essence that inhabited
the forests of Achaea, was successful. However, this was not the only
ritual taking place at the time. Far out in the middle of nowhere, near
the edge of the Northreach forest, which was previously inaccessible,
there was another ritual taking place. Understand that although the
Ritual in the Great Grove had rid the forests of their excess Dark
essence, that Dark essence had not 'gone' anywhere: it was not
dispersed. Was it coincidence that Teneb, Sharbrena, Dusk, and the newly
recovered Caligino were able to permanently open a gateway to the Shadow
Realm? I, for one, cannot say. Regardless, the mass of Dark energy that
was freed was drawn to this gateway. It was unable to enter it
completely, so instead, and I think this is what part of the ritual that
Teneb and Sharbrena were working on was, part of the Shadow Realm was
warped through the gateway, along with the trapped Istishia, and the
Dark essence rested there, _creating_ the Darkenwood. In Sapience, at
least. Gaia permitted it, I believe, as a home for the arachnoi. The
only reason that it exists is because of the excess Dark energies that
were released during the time of the ritual, saving the forest. Why did
the Dark Father decide this was the way it would be done, instead of
simply reabsorbing the essence? I, for one, know better than to try to
guess what Lord Twilight's true intentions are. It is true that had
Orina not started or finished the ritual the Darkenwood would not exist,
but that is the -only- part that Gaia played in the creation of the
Darkenwood.

The Darkenwood did not exist, here in Sapience anyway, until the ritual
was ended- it is not like the forest that surrounded the gateway was
erased, exterminated, or invaded. There are forest areas of the Shadow
Realm that Gaia had nothing to do with the creation or maintaining of.
It was here, I believe anyway, that the Arachnoi inhabited before they
were disturbed. The nature of the Darkenwood is the same as the nature
of the forest areas in the Shadow Realm. It is spawned from the same
flora and fauna that do not require sunlight, but thrive off of Lord
Twilight's energy. Gaia had very little to do with the Darkenwood's
creation with the small exception of her not refusing to allow its
existence.

-These- are the origins of the Darkenwood Forest. If you have any
questions or, inevitably, arguments, please to not waste your time and
money by posting them here, on the public board. Instead, speak with my
Father or I, it will make life a tad simpler.

Archdruid of Darkness, Shade Skar'Akai, of the Obsidian Council

Penned by my hand on the 1st of Ero, in the year 308 AF.