Veilwood

Western province of Orathos — land of mystery, intrigue, and conspiracies, now
suffering a curse (first appeared 1332): disappearances, birds behaving strangely,
woods that creak and shift at night, and nightwalkers that prey on anyone who
opens their door after dark. Most settlements enforce curfews.

• Capital: Nighthaven · Population: ~1.7M · ~8,000 sq mi
• Dense forests, steep cliffs, rocky beaches, shaded moorland
• Governance: the Voivode (Vesper Vermillion, ruler since the founding) and a
  court of immortal counts — vampires, liches, fae, ents, daemons
• Protected by the Venatori, elite monster hunters
• The hellpact (year 666) allows safe travel between Hell and the Veilwood;
  thousands of hellborn (tieflings) settled here — the curse began 666 years after

The Cursebringer: someone cursed the Veilwood — the Vampire Counts? the Fae
Queen and her courts? Hell's Chantry? Breaking the curse is the Venatori's (and the
Coalition's) goal — and the research goal of the Mage's Society.

Home of Ashlyn (born Copseweald), Llashanna (the axolotlan stonecrab caves),
and Fenric (born The Snatcher Hamlet; spent 40 years here after the evacuation).
Silithane and the Aetolian grand champion both trained here.

Transcripts often render it "Valewood" or "Balewood" — canonically Veilwood.

Session 6

• Map study revealed a network of golden paths converging on a mountain prayer-site
  temple ("the big golden cave that goes up") near the border — flagged as a party
  destination; something already dwells there.
• The party's future settlement will sit just outside the Veilwood's main gates
  on the Rivalon side, near Borderdale.
• Backstory color: Silithane is a Nighthaven city elf (trade by the
  Hellgates); Ashlyn's family controls Copseweald; Lash
  smithed at Gorton and tea-partied with the humming mushroom people; life
  features nightly werewolf seasons, bonfires, and tree-worship every third week's
  end. Silithane doubts the fae cursed the wood and intends to find who did.

Session 8

• The ruling Vermillion family put a face on the map: Vana Vermillion, the Voivode's
  youngest daughter, secretly crossed to Orathos on the party's ship. (If the
  Veilwood's leader names a child, commoners with that name go change theirs.)
• Veilwood culture note via Ashlyn's makeover: its nobility runs on fashion
  statements — makeup, nails and clothes carry deliberate subtext, and failing to
  compliment a new look within minutes is hazardous. (No flower-bouquet language,
  though — the Veilwood doesn't grow many flowers.)

Session 19

• The sewer changeling's lair held a much-thumbed screed
  distrusting Voivode Vesper Vermillion — questioning what an undying ruler will
  ever do about her subjects' problems. The shapeshifter has seemingly fled the
  Veilwood for the safety of the Gwyndinas Palisade, carrying bad feelings
  toward the Voivode — a reminder that not everyone trusts the immortal court.

Session 20

• Interrogated, the captured changeling said it came from
  the Veilwood and wants to get back to help with the curse — reframing it from
  threat to (apparent) ally.
• This decided the party's heading: the cursed Veilwood becomes the next destination,
  on the logic that no other adventuring group is willing to go there.