Oakdell
A sheltered capital keeping seedlings alive for forests that exist only in memory.
Oakdell lies at the edge of The Tangleholt, where a fold in the terrain keeps the wind off the nursery terraces. Houses share glass-roofed courtyards instead of private gardens. The nursery register lists each seedling beside the village that has promised to plant it when the interior warms again.
Regent Tavia Morn recently removed seventy-three vanished villages from the tax rolls but left them on the nursery register. A grove has started sprouting leaves shaped like those of a tree thought extinct since The First Borrowing. Rootspeakers disagree whether it is remembering the past or asking for a future.
Iven treats a tree’s recollection as a witness that can misunderstand what it sensed.
An immense cold interior whose rulers sell the idea of a green kingdom that no longer exists.
Tavia opened the Thorn Fortress to witnesses after hearing the child’s memory herself.
Odel knows every promised planting plot and the descendants of the households meant to receive it.
Sereva carves names in living bark using shallow cuts designed to heal visibly.
Leth designs shared glass courtyards that can be repaired without rare materials.