Once overrunning the entirety of the Twelve Kingdoms, the Dark Wood has been beaten back by man under the direction of the Fairies, and at last confined by King Gavron, who built the wall and Garrisons to tame the forest.

Four rivers feed into the Lornloch, also known as the Moon's Eye: the Gwyrglann to the north, the Rhun to the south west and the Suirebaire to the direct south The smaller Wandering River, the Camboglais, runs north-west, meeting the Gwyrglann at the Ice Floes. Viviane's Rose's Heart lake spills into the north east corner of the Dark Wood, but Malinka's Shrouded Lake lies just without the Dark Wood's boundary to the south east.

The Moon's Eye itself is said to be the place where the banished Moon wept herself into nothingness, until Brigglekin the Dwarf rescued her and threw her to the sky paths. The Gwyrglann, Rhun and Suirebaire are said to be formed from her tears.

Many strange creatures live within the Dark Wood - dog-faced, monkey-bodied cwynadd, cocatrices, manticores, phookas and Fachan men - as well as creatures of great beauty - unicorns, rocs, and the white geese. To venture into the Wood is to court peril, and only the most courageous or desperate men would broach the Garrison's wall to wander beneath those spiny, crooked boughs. Gavron did so to win his bride, the Fairy Rhianna, who fled from her own island to the Dark Wood after her jealous sister, Malinka cursed her. Rhianna's cottage still stands inviolate in the Wood.

(Left: Wanderer - Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Two families who once lived within what is now the Dark Wood should be mentioned. The first is the clan of Mathuin, which have since moved southward to the eastern rim of Findhair, beside the Sorrowing River, south west of the Shrouded Lake. The other is Fionnabhar, from which line came Siawn Shieldbearer and the line of Kings.