Fabel

Elkcrest is an old farming town in the Appalachian region of western Tennessee, in Union County.

Elkcrest was named for the steady elk population in the nearby forest. In fact, before the founding of the town, the forest now known as the Wickwoods was actually called Elk Rest. The area drew attention due to hunters following herds to these elk-populated woods. There were a lot of makeshift campsites nearby because of this, but ultimately people settled in the area surrounding the woods due to its prime farmland. The whole general area began to be lumped as Elk Rest, but in the 20 or so years following the town’s official founding in 1843, the remaining elk population was slowly killed off, rendering the name obsolete. The Wickwoods received its new name 1868. The town, which had until then been called Elk Rest Village, changed its name to Elkcrest instead.

From its founding to around the 1960s, Elkcrest had a very large agricultural community with a focus on corn. It was never a notably large town, but it had a strong community and steady economy, and its location along the Southern Railway led it to being a decently popular tourist spot. At the start of November 1966, however, a large tornado hit the region and caused extreme damage to the town and surrounding farmlands. It was a devastating blow, followed immediately by an early-season snowstorm that led into one of the worst winters of Elkcrest history. Some farmers saw this fall as a bad omen and left with their families that winter. Most, however, were dedicated to their land (and also tied down due to the snow), and tried to outlast the disasters. Ultimately, the economy was injured too much for the town to regain the stature it once had. Those who decided to stay ended up losing too much money to even afford leaving. Surrounding towns were hit similarly, so even the cheapest train tickets would leave citizens in similarly poor conditions. From that fall, the town declined more and more. Fields were left abandoned or in disarray. Town upkeep slowed. Population declined.

The Wickwoods were originally called Elk Rest, before the town was founded and took the name. It was a strange spot that seemed to attract elk, and as such became a frequent destination of hunting trips. The new name was given in 1868. After 2 years of no elk sightings, in spring of 1868, Adam Wickwood and his son Walter Wickwood entered the woods and spotted the last known elk in Union County. It was a lone albino elk, which Adam promptly killed and flayed. It is said that this elk, and thus its meat, had been diseased without the family realizing it. Three days after the family brought it home, Adam, his wife Nellie, and Walter were all found dead in their home.

Following this incident, the Wickwoods became home to a large uptick of tragedies. Between lumber farms catching aflame, people going missing, an increase of the spot being used for suicides, and many odd sightings of weird lights, monster eyes, and a ghostly albino elk, the woods eventually were labeled as an off-limits zone by the people of Elkcrest and a fence was put up to reinforce this.

The Wickwoods (unbeknownst to anyone in-world) can be thought of as having two “states” or “planes.” There is the real forest, which is what most people will see and interact with when entering past the treeline. However, there is also a magical realm that acts as a sort of reflection of the real woods, which is normally inaccessible to real people. A “tear” between these two planes is what causes people to get lost in the magical realm of the Wickwoods or what causes disasters to leak into the real woods. This tear has a call to it that seems to occasionally beckon people into the woods. Something about the elk population that also got drawn to this beckon - or, at least, the one albino elk - also led to the bleeding of the two realities to be minimized. When the population was fully killed off, that’s when interactions between the two planes happened increasingly frequently.

Some specifics on magical realm: Time passes way quicker in the magical realm. Being in the magical realm distorts a person - visually drains a person of their color and changes their shape until they become one of the many monsters who reside within. This is considered being Lost. There is a looping effect within the Wickwoods. Those who have been in the woods long enough to become Lost can never leave the woods - if they pass what would normally be a treeline, it loops back to the treeline on the other side of the forest. There is a short amount of time after entering the woods that a person can return to their point of origin and exit. The Town of Eyre within the magical realm of the Wickwoods is thought to be the old lumber company, Reyes Lumber, that burned down in the real woods.