Alfheim (rhymes with ralph crime)

The trees here get taller as you go farther in, and usually the magic gets stronger and plants are stranger. Some brave souls living on the edge of the Forest have compared it to a vast ocean, with "shallows" and "depths" measured by the size of the living world. Frontier towns might be a mile from the first young ash trees, but overnight the Forest could expand and be growing among the houses. And if you're brave enough to wander in, with charms and iron and a strong will, you'll find redwood-high pines and oak trees that could hold that entire town in their branches. People say that the deepest Forest has clouds under the canopy, a mile in the air, and that smaller plants and food chains might live for years on a single massive tree.
The animals are just as odd as the plant life - again, more magical as one approaches the depths of the Forest. Huge insects, flocks of birds that can think as one. The shape of the strangest creatures also calls the ocean to mind. Land whales, filtering mites and seedlings out of the thick leaf debris. Land anglers, with lures that resemble a delicious fruit or a rotting carcass. Walking starfish, schools of tree eels. And the Elves hunt them all, and are hunted in their turn.

Alfheim gets a lot of rain, but there are also beautiful sunny days. Beneath the canopy, it's hard to tell when either one is happening, as the dense leaves absorb light and water.

Alfheim has a high concentration of magical plants and animals, so harvesting special types of wood, fruit, hides and bones is a way to make a good amount of money. It's not quick, or safe, or easy, but some wealthy merchants got their start as a porter on a Forest expedition, coming out scarred and alone but clutching a unicorn horn.

Thousands of years have gone unwritten in Alfheim, with only the memories of ancient Elves to tell of their strange enchantments, the rise and fall of their alliances or quarrels. Some half-elves from the frontier will bring songs out into the world about lost beauty, vicious joy, or the dark wonder of the Forest. But these songs are dangerous to listen to.
One great Elf lord (if we can use mortal titles for these chaotic folk) sometimes departs from the Forest to make a pilgrimage across Estier. She is the Oak Lady, high priestess of Obad-Hai, and may be one of the few older Elves who can relate to mortals. She keeps a shrine or living temple in the Forest, where lost travelers may find shelter if they are not marked by civilization. The Oak Lady visits holy sites and sacred groves all over the world, walking from town to town like a ghost clad in green and speaking only a few words to fellow worshippers of the nature god. To the trees, pools and stones, however, she sings.
The only other known site beyond the immediate frontier of Alfheim was once an attempt at creating a city in the Forest. Soldiers, farmers and builders from the Evil Empire carved a road as deep as they could go. They were led by a vampire count of Khorbizon who named the settlement after himself: MacDuff's Keep. It was said that Imperial geomancers brought mighty wards to keep out the trees, the beasts, the fey magic of Alfheim. But nobody has traveled back along that road. Perhaps the whole place was consumed when the Empire fell, and a bold treasure hunter could find valuable Imperial relics there.