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Arden

Index

The Forest of Arden

"Then there was a forest. And what a forest!

I had never seen trees such as this - mighty and majestic, of a deep, rich green, slightly tinged with gold. They towered, they soared. They were enormous pines, oaks, maples and many others which I could not distinguish. Through them crept a breeze of fantastic and lovely fragrance..."

"The sunlight was sometimes filtered through leaves, angling like tight golden strings on some Hindu musical instrument. The breeze was moist and spoke of living things."

(Nine Princes in Amber)

"Oh, for the groves of Arden sweet,
Long did I stay in her trees' embrace,
Quick did her charms to my heart entreat,
Humbled was I by her strength and grace.
Soft were the songs of her limbs and brooks,
Enthralling, the flowers' saccharine fumes,
Intriguing, each shadow within her nooks,
She haunts me so, like the fire consumes.
And oh, for the mornings, spent in her boughs,
To see the sky painted in colors of life,
As the sun pierces out in a path through the clouds,
The forest is silent, bereft of all strife.
The day passes on, the evening soon falls,
And with it a dusk that brings gods to their knees,
For a sky with its color filled symphony calls,
When it ends, for an encore, all beings beg, please.
And finally the night, in the heavens above,
Whose stars sparkle with such infinite fire,
They kindle a need for lust and for love,
And drive one to burning and endless desire.
For my thoughts ever shall drift out to she,
The forest of life, of love, and of breath,
And long will I dream for her passionately,
Lo, even in the clutches of death."

The mighty forest of Arden guards the land approach to Amber and acts as a buffer between Amber and the shadows beyond.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ARDEN

Several miles within Forest Arden is the town of Arden, a community founded by the first of the forest defenders and from whom the ranks are still filled, though it is no longer all they do. Among the most notable of their achievements is their wines, once among the finest to be had in Amber.

Other villages and open farmlands dot the seemingly endless forest, among them are the notable settlements of Standing Stones-named for the circle of standing stones where they study the movement of the heavens, is the shire of mystics that live in Arden proper, set on a cliff overlooking the river Calais; and the village of Eisan, named for the first family that settled the area. The village is famous for its woodcrafts, producing exquisite works from the woods of Arden and of various Shadows.

Nottingham is a name long associated with deepest, oldest misty glades of Arden prime and several shadows of the great forest. It has attained the status of legend. Believed to be the oldest settled community in Arden-there before the Rangers came, they want very little or nothing to do with the world outside of the forest. It is rumored they still practice the beliefs of a time and place lost to memory-the reverence of the Lord and the Lady, but no one knows for certain, as those that have gone seeking Nottingham never find it but often find themselves hopelessly lost instead and rumors are whispered that it is either Julian himself or the ancient forest that protects the area from outside influences.