Status: Not available for player characters
A large, virtually unsettled area in northern Vosgaard, the Battle Fens has a storied history and an infamous reputation. Protected slightly from the worst of the northern weather by the high trees of Grovnekevic Forest and the peaks of the Klassberg, most of the Battle Fens remains free of snow for at least three months of the year. But that does not make the land any more attractive to the nearby Vos of Lutkhovsky, Velenoye, or Rovninodensk.
Legends of the Battle Fens tell of a great war between the Vos of Velenoye (once the preeminent Vos realm in the region) and the elves of Tuar Annwn. Unlike the peoples in the other lands of Cerilia, the humans and elves of the northern Vosgaard never learned to live in any semblance of peace. Long after the gheallie Sidhe was banned, they battled each other openly, pitting swords and magic against each other time and again.
The last great battle between elves and humans in Vosgaard ended in an area to be known forever as the Battle Fens. The elves were somehow aided in order to defeat the Vos forces and preserve their realm.
In the process, they laid waste to the Battle Fens. Once completely covered by the trees of the Grovnekevic Forest, nearly half the land's trees were burned and the land gutted by the ferocity of the battle.

Dark, foreboding and (some say) haunted by its past, the Battle Fens is seldom visited by elves or men. The region has become a haven for some of the most dangerous creatures of Vosgaard and monsters that may have origins elsewhere. Frozen swamps abut ice-covered moors and uneven steppes. The trees of the Battle Fens echo the land's pain: all seem twisted as if tortured by the very land that gives them life.

Only two known possible regents exist within the undeveloped "provinces" of the Battle Fens. One, Firosk Slecktra, certainly controls a significant network of source holdings and may actually rule one or two provinces in the Border'd Wood. The other possible regent is less certain. It is said a druid of Iraikhan may live in the Hidden Grove; if so, she could have a temple holding or rulership in the province. Without any known human population in the Fens, however, this seems unlikely.

Within the land known as the Battle Fens, four significant sites of interest exist:

• The Frozen Swamp
  
• The Border'd Wood
  
• The Ice Steppes
  
• The Hidden Grove
  

While the Battle Fens remain virtually uninhabited and unexplored, a very few people have visited it and learned a few of its secret. The most notable of these is Firosk Slecktra. One of the only scouts willing to venture into the Battle Fens on a regular basis, Morris One-Hand of Rovninodensk has been hired by adventurers from all over the world in attempts to penetrate the Battle Fens.

Adventures in the Battle Fens should be attempted only by mid to high-level adventurers and then only for good reason. Elven haunts (a type of banshee) roam the Border'd Wood and the Frozen Swamp and creatures such as the remorhaz and the ice borer make travel among the Ice Steppes nearly impossible. Add to these dangers the magic of Firosk Slecktra (an unpredictable wizard with a huge supply of magical knowledge and power) and you have a deadly combination.

The source of the magical aid that rescued the elves from the Vos derived from the Shadow World. Someone, perhaps Firosk Slecktra or perhaps a combination of elf wizards, broke down the barrier between Cerilia and the Shadow World in Tuar Annwn and the Battle Fens, bringing forth all sorts of terrible monsters and shadowy magical effects that the Vos could not possibly overcome. When the battle ended, these wizards could not fully close the "curtain" again and the Shadow World gained a foothold on Cerilia.
One such foothold exists amid the Ice Steppes. Experienced trackers do not get lost here because of any natural phenomenon; the Shadow World has reached into Cerilia to distort distances in the Ice Steppes, sometimes bending time and space. Only a character with an intimate understanding of both the Shadow World and Vosgaard's heartless wastes could hope to lead a party through this region.

Because of the otherworldly nature of the Battle Fens, arctic and subarctic creatures not normally seen on Cerilian surface among the Fens. These beasts may make good hunting for the other monstrous inhabitants (or even daring adventurers), but most often they are the hunters.

Rumors are true that weapons, armor, and powerful magics left over from the last elf-Vos battle are preserved within the Frozen Swamp. Guarded by undead and shadow creatures, these items also bear the stigma of that last battle. Many may be more powerful than anything previously found in Cerilia, but many bear curses nearly as powerful, strengthened by the nature of their bearer's deaths. Still, many adventurers have braved the Frozen Swamp and its dangers for these rewards, and legend has it that a few escaped alive with lifetime's profit.