Forgotten Wood

No one knows how old the Forgotten Wood is, where it came from, or how it came into being. The cryptic nature of the Forgotten Wood is not an odd one when one puts it into context with the odd happenings at the Wood. It is important to note, again, that no one actually knows anything about the Wood. All consequent information is intellectually arrived at but is no more than speculation, except for in instances specified.

Reasons behind this mystical fugue are wide-ranging, and each more ludicrous than the last. One rumor is that the Wood was once a secret lair for Zhengyi the witch-king, who enchanted the Wood so that none could ever find it and so those that did could never speak of it. Another rumor is the iron rod of Peter the Dark can be found somewhere inside of the Forgotten Wood, and that its unique abilities are what churn the mysterious engine of amnesia saturating the Wood. It was lost around 600 years ago and is an item of tremendous power but, much in the way that little is known of the Forgotten Wood, little is known about the iron rod. This cryptic correlation fuels the rumor in part.

A third rumor, and what is regarded as the most likely, is that the Forgotten Wood is the home of the Fairies. 350 years ago the King of Fairies, disgusted by the human's disregarded for nature and all of Her gifts, took his kinfolk into hiding. Contemporary anthropological opinion is that they moved from the vast and plentiful Blue Hills and swept through the area of Moonwood. Because of the current of their movement, the Forgotten Wood seems like a prime target.

Experiments performed in a time before Odin's altruistic reign have managed to establish a few facts. Prolonged exposure (~3 hours) to the magic in the Wood results in acute amnesia that progressively increases in length and magnitude. In the beginning stages it is bothersome to hold on to little details for long. Then minutes of time start escaping one's grasp and before long the spell-induced amnesia envelopes the rest of the mind. Over the course of a few days, or weeks, a man can end up nothing but a drooling, mindless husk withering away from hunger, unable to glimpse cognizance long enough to remember the food in hand.