The Aentari Wildes

There is only one tract of land within the territory that emcompasses the black dragon's domain that isn't twisted or untamed as the rest of the vast expanse; that being the narrow shore line to the far east of the region. Here, a mountain range guards against the festering sickness that engulfs the wilderness. Here, the stony basalt shoreline provides one of the only safe land route north through the area. These mountains that guard the east coast from the Wildes are not the only mountains within the sickened Wildes, but the others are short and stout, few even breaking above the canopy of the trees within. Beyond the mountains, the Wildes appears mostly as a Jungle, unlike the Green Wildes of Merridain far to the west. A thick canopy has developed, contributing to the lingering humidity and dense fog that persists at all hours of the day. The terrain is uneven everywhere one steps, with no real foot paths remaining and the ever shifting placements of roots in the root by almost living flora. Within the center, or what can be assumed to be the center of these Wildes, stands an ancient Blood Tree from a bygone age. Here, it is assumed the dragon has made its lair on account of the  deep concentration of corruption here, and the brood of kin dragons that stalk the still black waters of what has become nothing short of a bog in the Wildes.     The Heartland River feeds from many sources here in the Sickened Wildes and flows north into Dracaryn. The water is not worth driinking, so a dam was built many decades ago by a tribe of Kobolds native to the borderlands.

The fantastical beasts that had once called the Wildes their home shudder to think what has happened to their kin that dwell in Aentari's domain. The primordial nature of the Wildes, mixed with the brooding essence of an ancient wyrm has resulted in even more twisted creatures dwelling in that wilderland. The most common physical changes would be darker tones of fur, hide, and scales, distinctly different colored eyes than normal, as well as the development of spines, scales, and gills in some extreme cases. In terms of instintual changes, it has been noted that the beast of Aentari's Wildes are characteristically more aggressive, more feral, some creature known to be intelligent may not show symptoms of such intelect entirely anymore. The flora and plantlife is much the same, their vibrant colors becoming more muted and desaturated, more hostile or growing in strange patterns to their non sickened counterparts. Some plants have even grown in size and greatly altered their shape, causing many scholars to mistake one plant species for another, or creating a new category for an otherwise already classified form of plant life.  Everything, from the plants to the animals seem to persists with a perpetual hiss. It has been documented that both plants and animals in the Wildes held by the dragon seem to have developed certain resistances to poisons, having developed poisonous qualities and attibutes of their own. Some have even been documented to be able to spit acidic salava, the way a black dragon would. This has led many daring scholars to study these mutations and isolate a variety of distinct poisons and acids for alchemical use.

In the research of primordial powers through the Wildes, the Aentari occupied region has become something of a lost cause. The land and the creatures that thrive there are far too in-hospitable. Salvaging and foraging from the borders is far safer, but the truly alien specimens do not linger near the borders. What anyone can surmize is that, though the corruption of the dragon's presence has produced profoud changes in the Wildes, the bark, roots, flowers, and harvested animal components are too scarce of value without daring to venture deeper into the region.

The Aentari Wildes was once known as the Green Wildes. According to myth, this was the only territory ordained by the Three Houses for the Childe of the Wildes to reside on Ellecrid. For generations, the wilderness remained a point of ill repute among early settlers, guided by religious doctrine to be distrustful of the Wildes and those who dwealt within. In those early days, it was sandwiched between the great northern country dominated by Ional's children, the dragons, and an ancient kingdom of nomadic men and halfling folk and was a quarter the size it is in the modern day. During the Titan Wars, the green Wildes would suffer and take advantage of anything from lax patrols, to inscrupulous alliances to steadily regain territory across the pruned continent. By the end of the second Era, when Aldacairn established the colony of Merridain, the Green Wildes had regrown to reach from one coast of Omyth to the other, and reach down towards Dragoncrest Falls. This would, however, be the farthest the territory would ever reach again. When Merridain seceded from the empire, it claimed the breadth of the Green Wildes as its dominon, establishing ten cities and settlements across the region. It was known during this time of Merranese dominance of the region that dragons, especially feral dragons roamed the Wildes and were welcome to do so, as neither they, nor the Wildes were adverse to one another. When the Council of Wyrms bisbanded at the end of the Fourth Era, the conflict would shake memories of the Titan Wars free from the deep roots of the green Wildes. No one is quite sure why Aentari, of all his kin would bear the will to warp and shape the Wildes as he would, but nevertheless, he did and as the ffith Era began, Aentari's presence would shatter the hold Merridain had on the region, losing six of their ten cities in just over a hundred years, their ruins swallowed up in the Sickened Wildes.         The Wildes have been held in check, due in no small part to the effort of the Merrinese Wildes-Wardens, who cull and prune the borders, ensuring the Sickening does not persist into their lands, or those of their neighbors. Since his coming, Aentari has been reclusive, almost inactive in the goings on of his domain, leading many to speculate he does not fully realize just how potent his being has been on the land.