Korcari Wilds

Myth, Legend and Truth
It is said that in the midst of the Black Age, when werewolves stalked the lands of Ferelden in numbers that kept every farmholder indoors and a hound on every doorstep, a powerful arl of the Alamarri peoples stood and declared that he would put an end ''to the threat. His arling stood on the border of the dark forest on the southern border of the Ferelden Valley, and he claimed that the werewolves used the forest to launch their midnight assaults on humanity.''

''For 20 years, this arl led an army of warriors and hounds deep into the forest. In his hunt for the werewolves, he slew not only every wolf he came upon, but also every member of the Chasind wilder folk. Any one of them, he said, could harbor a demon inside and thus be a werewolf in disguise. For 20 years, the forest rang with screams, and the rivers ran red.''

''The tales say that an old Chasind woman found her sons all dead at the arl's blades. She pulled one of those very blades from one son's heart and plunged it into her own chest, cursing the arl's name as she did so. Where her blood touched the ground, a mist began to rise. It spread and spread until it was everywhere in the forest. The arl's army became lost, and it is said that they died there. Others say they wander still. The ruins of his arling stand to this day, filled with the ghosts of women waiting eternally for their husbands to return.''

The forest of the legend is, of course, the Korcari Wilds. There are as many legends about the great southern forest as there are shadows, or so the saying goes. The Chasind wilder folk have made their home there since mankind first came to these lands, and the wildlands spread as far into the south as anyone has ventured.

To most, Ferelden simply ends with the Korcari Wilds: There is nothing beyond. The Wilds is a land of great trees, wet marshes and dangerous monsters. It is a cold southern expanse of forest and swamp, the extent of which is not truly known.

To the South
Beyond the mists are vast tracts of snow, white-capped mountains, and entire fields of ice. It is a land too cold for mankind to survive, yet the Chasind eke out an existence even there, and they tell of horrors beyond the Wilds that the lowland folk could not begin to comprehend. They whisper of Wraiths and wailing - of death and curses. The Chasind speak of this wasteland of snow and ice with reverence, for it is filled only with desolate tundra and supposedly nomadic barbarians. However, only the mages of Ar Or-Bhais travel there regularly, and they speak not of what they encounter for only their shrines matter to them.

At -410 Ancient a group of Kossith landed in the southern Korcari Wilds, likely from The Frozen Seas on the east and established a colony. This group is believed to have been eliminated during the First Blight but beforehand, some of its females were turned into broodmothers by the darkspawn and gave rise to the first appearance of Ogres in Thedas.

The chasind and the Wilds
The Chasind barbarians are nothing if not clever. They use markers and signs in the arrangements of stones and rubble along the paths of the Wilds. In this way, they mark trails, note places of interest, and even give warnings in a way outsiders cannot understand. Interestingly, these markers look indistinguishable from a regular pile of stones.

There are also altars of stone and ancient ruins scattered throughout the swamps, which the Wilders use as shrines. It is not known if they built them or simply only use them, but there are many mysteries hidden above and beneath the misty swamps that even the shaman and elders of the Chasind tribes do not know of.

In the centre of the Wilds the Chasind villagers live in strange-looking huts built on stilts or even built into the great treetops. These villages are as much a part of the wilds as the animals are and to outsiders might not even appear to be human habitation, hidden as they are. The villages are difficult to find for anyone not Chasind and the Wilders use their trail signs to direct other Wilders to their homes.

On the outskirts of the Wilds are the semi-nomadic tribes who have settlements that move or are abandoned during the harsher weather, when they retreat deeper into the swamps or follow where the most food will be in winter. Beware of Stalkers during the winter months, for the northern tribes often raid the nearby bannorns, stripping freeholds of their resources and taking them home to their villages.