"Calard’s unease returned as they pushed into the forest of Châlons. The outskirts had been open and filled with light, the coppiced trees young and widely spread, allowing the knight easy progress. Late-blooming bluebells spread beneath the shadows of the trees, creating an otherworldly vision of remarkable beauty. Bones and the occasional grinning skull, the remains of some long-forgotten battle, peeked from beneath the softly lilting, purple-blue flowers.
Sparse woodland had slowly given way to denser, darker tracts, where the trees were older and more tightly clumped, and the knights’ progress slowed. The ground was thick with fallen, rotting leaves. The light that pierced the thick canopy of twisted branches diminished, and the shadows deepened, becoming more menacing.
After hours of travel, they were pushing into the dark, old forest, untouched by human hand. Thick oaks, gnarled like twisted old men, leant over the knights as they progressed, creaking and groaning. Moss and lichen clung to the trunks, and toadstools and fungus grew in abundance. Mighty trees of ash and beech grew thick and tall, and small creatures rustled through the leaf litter and danced through the branches overhead. Leaves and sticks fell upon the knights, and they eyed their surroundings warily. The paths worn through the trees by boars or deer were twisting and convoluting, and the branches of trees pressed in on all sides, making the knights duck and shield their eyes against twigs that clawed at their exposed faces.
This was not a place for a knight of Bretonnia, and Calard imagined that the ancient forest was resisting their presence, resentful of the intrusion into its dark heart..."
- —Calard of Garamont enters the Forest of Châlons.[2a]
A map showing the Forest of Châlons.
An altogether different forest from the other vast forests of Bretonnia, being located in the highlands west of the rocky crags of the Massif Orcal, the great, weather-beaten crags of rock that dominate the heartland of Bretonnia. The Forest of Châlons extends over rocky ravines, and crags and knolls of weathered rock reach above the stunted, gnarled trees.
Overview[]
Châlons is a region honeycombed with caves and cut by streams that meander through the forest to become waterfalls and pleasant pools of sweet water. Vast boulders perch precariously on the edges of cliffs, towering above deep chasms covered in a green blanket of fens and moss. Despite its pleasant appearance, the eastern parts of the forest are home to numerous evil creatures who have come down from the Massif Orcal, enclaves of Orcs, Beastmen and other foul creatures are said to inhabit these dark crags. No matter how many are wiped out by the Knights of Bretonnia, there are always more. To the south of the forest lies Castle Garamont, seat of the Castellan of Bastonne.[1a][2]
Legend also has it that the Forest of Châlons houses the very Sacred Lake where Gilles and his Companions first met the Lady. At the centre of this lake is the Isle de Lys, which is known to be one of the abodes of the Fay Enchantress.[3][4]
It is even said the the ancient Blood Knight, the Red Duke, continues to haunt the Forest of Châlons, lurking hidden in the shadows, awaiting his chance for revenge against the people of nearby Aquitaine...[3a]