The Durn Yew

There is a tree.

It moves through the Woldwood, disappearing and reappearing, never in the same place twice. Beneath its roots is a world. Beyond its gate lie others.

The Marchlands  ·  The Woldwood  ·  The Durn Yew

The world

The Marchlands

Tales from the Woldwood is a free archive of forty dark fantasy stories set in the Marchlands, a world of ancient magic, strange bargains and forgotten histories. In the Marchlands, there is a tree. The Durn Yew moves through the Woldwood, disappearing and reappearing, never in the same place twice. It is part relic, part living institution, part god that never asked to be worshipped. For centuries, it has held a series of strange realms tethered to the mortal world.

Edvane lives in the Woldwood. His home moves with the Yew, though not always to the same place. He keeps the archive. A record of the people and events of the Marchlands. The Tales from the Woldwood are drawn from that archive.

Deep beneath the roots of the Yew sits the Yewdeep. A vast community of root and amber. Within the Yewdeep, a door called the Groaning Gate sometimes opens into those tethered realms and sometimes remains closed to them. The first novel follows four people drawn to the Woldwood, down through the Yewdeep and into the Shivering Vale A kingdom of permanent winter slowly coming apart, though never quite collapsing fully.

Edvane at the Durn Yew
The Marchlands
The world. Dark fantasy of epic scope, ancient magic and forgotten histories.
The Woldwood
A dark forest within the Marchlands. The Yew moves through it. Edvane's house moves with the Yew.
The Durn Yew
The tree. Mythical, living, ancient. Disappears and reappears, never in the same place twice.
The Yewdeep
The community beneath the Yew's roots. Vast, strange, largely unknown to the world above.
The Groaning Gate
A door within the Yewdeep. Opens into tethered realms held to the mortal world by the Yew's power.
The Shivering Vale
The first tethered realm. A kingdom of permanent winter, slowly detaching from the world.

Tales from the Woldwood

The Archive

Forty tales from Edvane's archive of the Marchlands, published on Substack and YouTube. All forty are live.

The tales are numbered but not sequential. Each stands alone. You may enter the archive at any point and read in any order. The numbering is archival, not prescriptive.

CHOOSE YOUR PATH BELOW

Explore the archive

Lights of the Yewdeep

Each light marks a path through the tales of the Marchlands. Choose one.

The Yewdeep beneath the Durn Yew
Wryke
Wryke The Calterian Steward of the Yewdeep
Edric
Edric A man who never stopped running from the war
Alys
Alys She went to the forest when there was no other hiding place
Tib & Ardis
Tib & Ardis A boy who asks too many questions. A man who takes what he was not born with.
Garron
Garron The common thief destined for a greater purpose
Matthis
Matthis A scholar in search of the secrets of The Marchlands
Drenn
Drenn From ordinary farmer to sword and shield
Cylaen
Cylaen The court's verdict and the truth are not the same thing.
Verdicrence
Verdicrence The magical school of care, restraint and protection
Hidren
Hidren Hydromancy and power over water and liquids
Pirrus
Pirrus The magical school of fire and command of heat and flame
Falsrott
Falsrott Borrowed gifts, stolen senses, stitched-together power.
Demonic
Demonic What comes through when the door is left open.
Power of the Yew
Power of the Yew The ancient force beneath the roots.
The Yewdeep
The Yewdeep Beneath The Durn Yew. Vast, strange and largely unknown.
The Crooked Mare
The Crooked Mare A tavern near the Woldwood
The Tethered Realms
The Tethered Realms Places drawn to the Yewdeep by mysterious tides
Wands
Wands Shells, bones, and the names bound within.
Objects and Relics
Objects and Relics Things that outlast their owners.
The Marchlands
The Marchlands The world itself. Ancient magic and forgotten histories.
Browse all thirty-nine tales

The Red Harvest Accord
The Red Harvest Accord
A tale from the Marchlands. At Purwatten Field, where the Red Harvest War has burned itself to ash, a woman holds her power in check while a general forces the gifted to put limits into writing.
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Ale and Ashes
Ale and Ashes
A tale from the Marchlands coast. Two soldiers come out of war with no victory left to claim. One stays to build something. The other walks home before justice becomes only another name for violence.
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The Frostfire Account
The Frostfire Account
A tale from Greyholt beyond the Misted Fens. A man is summoned to distil Frostfire Winterbrandy — a spirit made not for pleasure but for containment, keeping broken memories from spilling out where the world can see them.
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The Tale of Faelen's Watch
The Tale of Faelen's Watch
A tale from the Marchlands. At Faelen's Tower, no wall is breached and no alarm is sounded. By the seventh dawn the tower has been given away by the very men set to guard it.
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The Lie That Worked
The Lie That Worked
A tale from Merriden in the northern Marchlands. An old woman saves her village by giving the Warden of the Forest a name it is willing to believe, and an innocent pays the price.
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Rend Hul!
Rend Hul!
A tale from the eastern fens of the Marchlands. When Juph the Wild comes to drain the fen and drive a road through the lives of those who belong there, the people rooted in it stop asking politely.
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The Yellowstone Ring
The Yellowstone Ring
From the Marchlands to the Woldwood. A plain gold ring passes from bride to soldier, widow, merchant and thief, carrying no judgement — only the imprint of each hand that claims it.
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Zaria's Choice
Zaria's Choice
A tale from the Ironreach coast of the Marchlands. When the sea returns a bone wand Zaria once begged it to take, she understands that an old debt has come due. A watching girl learns the cost of borrowed peace.
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The Sister Who Went
The Sister Who Went
A tale from Calder Castle, at the edge of the Woldwood. As Lady Calder dies, she tells of the sister who once listened to the forest and went where duty could not follow.
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Wryke
Wryke
From the Calteris Expanse to the Yewdeep. When his realm collapses, Wryke is carried through a broken threshold into the root-world beneath the Durn Yew, where he must learn that care is not control.
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Bramlick the Brownie
Bramlick the Brownie
A tale from the Yewdeep beneath the Marchlands. Bramlick slipped through the Gate to escape a small-folk war and found his place in a forgotten chamber, useful and unseen. Freedom is not always leaving.
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The Ballad of Brenk Hill
The Ballad of Brenk Hill
A tale from Brenk Hill in the Marchlands. Drenn spends his last ordinary day tending animals, soil, neighbours and family. By morning, fire and steel are moving toward the hill.
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The Fall of Wyndeborne Heights
The Fall of Wyndeborne Heights
A tale from the tethered realms of the Marchlands. As the containment lattices of Wyndeborne Heights begin to fail, the High Magister enacts the final sealing — and those who held knowledge back become part of the cost of its release.
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Lights of the Yewdeep
Lights of the Yewdeep
A tale from the Yewdeep. Tyd Shel tends the sap-lights of the root-world, shaping living creatures into steady orbs for a system that calls usefulness protection. He recognises the gentler horror of order without freedom.
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The Lady and the Laggard
The Lady and the Laggard
A tale from the road to the Woldwood. Lady Jolis Frye and Matthis of Greyholt reach the treeline together. One brother chooses the open road; the other steps into the Woldwood, not from courage, but from appetite and the belief that he can still turn back.
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Elrinaris
Elrinaris
A tale from Pryth in the Marchlands. Cyrene listens to an old wand shell and speaks the name Elrinaris, only to be burned by a truth her master Trofius has mistaken for failure.
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The Mint at Fressalt Hoo
The Mint at Fressalt Hoo
A tale from Fressalt Hoo in the Marchlands. Edwald Ferchar arrives with raw wealth and urgency, has it struck into lawful Marchlands coin, and uses that promise to purchase ships whose purpose no one asks him to explain.
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The Farewell Chamber
The Farewell Chamber
A tale from the Yewdeep beneath the Marchlands. Retta tends a chamber grown for farewells, where loving promises have begun to summon and hold the dead who never returned. When the room can bear no more, he closes it from within, releasing what it has kept and learning that even mercy has a limit.
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One
One
A tale from the Yewdeep beneath the Marchlands. One, a Rootkin made for shared work and nameless obedience, becomes dangerous the moment it recognises itself as singular. Permitted but exiled to the margins, it begins to gather old names and pass the first hint of separateness to another.
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A Word Best Left Unsaid
A Word Best Left Unsaid
A tale from the Crooked Mare, close to the Woldwood. Tibbit Hashweal is fourteen, new to the work, and believes questions are harmless. One night, one word spoken aloud at the wrong table, and he learns what silence actually costs.
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The Court of Serafall
The Court of Serafall
A tale from the Court of Serafall. Cylaen Silvershadow stands before the Arbiter and is found misaligned and exiled. She walks out carrying only a braided cord and the knowledge that the court's verdict and the truth are not the same thing.
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The Dryad's Folly
The Dryad's Folly
A tale from the Yewdeep beneath the Marchlands. Wertilish carries a staff that solves problems faster than wisdom allows. Each time she uses it something is taken from her. When two rootkin are lost to its logic, she understands that a tool without conscience will always find a reason to be picked up again.
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The Fourth Cell
The Fourth Cell
A tale from the gaol beneath the Crooked Mare. In the fourth cell, a hooded figure breathes in perfect time with the young man accused beside it. By morning one walks out wearing a familiar face. The other leaves nothing behind but folded cloth on the bench.
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From Eelpond to Faelen's Watch
From Eelpond to Faelen's Watch
A tale from the road between Eelpond and Faelen's Watch. Liora leaves her hamlet to find her half-sister Iseva. A man named Callen befriends her on the way and then arranges to sell her to an Abjurist who wants her blood. She escapes before they return, and carves one word into a tree.
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The Falsrott
The Falsrott
A tale from the Marchlands. Ardis Flynt has no natural gifts, so he takes what others are born with and commissions the rest. He steals the Eye of Ghesh, has realm-sense stitched into his coat, and acquires what he needs one piece at a time. When the demon Draegel wants him for service, it takes his partner Liora as its security.
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An Eye for Detail
An Eye for Detail
A tale from the Black Bogs of Mock. Hidren Master Nimus Crill hunts the bog-creature Ghesh alone and takes its eye. He pays with his daylight sight. In its place comes the dark, and what the dark will open. He catalogues the effect with methodical care, concludes the Eye is not especially useful, and locks it in a cabinet. The men who come after him will disagree.
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Draegel's Settled Account
Draegel's Settled Account
A tale from the city of Lenth. The demon Draegel arrives in mortal shape looking for a companion who can travel and not be missed. Alderman Hollister, who knows how to look away at the right moment, facilitates introductions. When Hollister's daughter walks into the room carrying documents, Draegel stops looking. Hollister is found in his locked office days later.
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An Infernal Heat
An Infernal Heat
A tale from Ironreach. Blacksmith Hector Clay discovers that his steel retains heat after quenching, and finds the coin follows. The forge begins to refuse cooling. His apprentice Fig begins to fail. A presence named Trinuth emerges from the fire and explains what Hector has been building: the warmth was its hunger, the blades are its doors, and Hector brings the hammer down again.
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What the City Permits
What the City Permits
A tale from the city of Lenth. City Reeve Osric Dyer is sent to a house where dock-factor Lysander Bly has been screaming all night. He finds a man possessed through a proxy ritual, commissioned by rival merchants who wanted silence rather than murder. The licensed binder Kress destroys the host to take the demon with it. Dyer writes a report requesting executions. The bench returns a fine. He rides north.
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A Volume Set Aside
A Volume Set Aside
A tale from the restricted stacks of Greyholt Abbey. Matthis finds a thin volume that is not in the ledger. Its pages carry characters that sit like gestures, belonging to a language where naming and doing were not separate acts. He shelves it and promises himself he will return when he has earned the right. He never does. He remembers it one day when returning is no longer possible.
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It's Kinder If You Don't Struggle
It's Kinder If You Don't Struggle
A tale from the roads of the Marchlands. Three travellers share a fire with Pethwick, an old road-trader who has a story about standing stones that glow at their bases. The details shift each time he tells it. His dread never changes. A voice from below speaks names, and moving is the only safety. Pethwick eventually stops moving.
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The Rinn
The Rinn
A tale from the city of Nythara. Station Releaser Narentis opens sealed knowledge at the Athenaeum until the work becomes an addiction that destroys his marriage. When releases are suspended, the Rinn break down and violence follows. Those who escape flee through the Marker into the Shivering Vale, where the Shepherds of Aurivath process them. Narentis's craving is put to use in endless recording. His name and his wife are lost.
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The Axe, The Hut and the Woodsman
The Axe, The Hut and the Woodsman
A tale from the edge of Wyndeborne Heights. Woodsman Tarrold lives a life of honest labour. A junior magister named Larine arrives to check a marker stone and senses something wrong that she cannot name. She warns him to come up to higher ground if told to. A cold arrives without weather or warning and takes everything before he can.
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An Elder Law
An Elder Law
A tale from the fae lands of Serafall. Feritt Nash, a man from Lenth who has spent his family name one choice at a time, stumbles through a cave portal into the threshold of Serafall. Guards Daraen and Musto demand a voucher he cannot provide. Judge Preena finds him an ash that pretends it is soil, and the portal closes. He walks back into the rain knowing the slope is still beneath him.
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Ulth's Exchange
Ulth's Exchange
A tale from Ulth's Exchange, hidden beneath the town of Pryth. Shak Mallory, an Elk Ridge apprentice, is sent alone to buy his first wand-shell. Ulth guides him past two sellers offering what fear wants rather than what work demands. Hedda shows him a plain shell with a knot that does not flatter. Shak takes it and leaves with nothing more, which is exactly enough.
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An Ogre Denied
An Ogre Denied
A tale from the Shivering Vale. An ogre enters with his war band to raid the keep they find there. The Shepherds of Aurivath descend and tear his companions apart. He flees. The gate home will not return. The Vale offers only repetition. He keeps walking with an axe that means nothing in a place that will not yield. He was not defeated. He was rendered irrelevant.
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The Krivvian
The Krivvian
A tale from Krivv, a realm dismissed as empty. Drenn Falkor steps through the Groaning Gate seeking solitude. The Krivvian — small, scaled, hooked — test him from the shadows. He does not draw his sword, and the testing settles. Then they will not release him. He walks back into the Yewdeep with dozens clinging to his skin. The question Wryke and Matthis ask has no comfortable answer.
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The Hall of Bearing
The Hall of Bearing
A tale from the Yewdeep. Wryke walks the Hall of Bearing, tending the amber that holds the past Yewbound Hosts. Fenner yielded easily. King Jevon never stopped pulling against his stillness. Cera Lowfield kept asking questions nobody could answer. At the far end stands a space where Bhodr was expected to return and never did. Wryke presses his fingers to the wall.
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Nineteen Lies
Nineteen Lies
A tale from the old road. Two foresters buy twenty flasks of Frostfire Winterbrandy from a trader who lets them taste one real flask first. Pike at the Crooked Mare opens them. One is Frostfire. Five are ordinary winterbrandy. Fourteen are nettle tea. Most mistakes are made because we stop checking once something tastes right.
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✦

Forty tales were promised. Thirty-nine appear in this archive. The fortieth — The Amber Lens — is published elsewhere and will not be announced here. It does exist. Substack subscribers will discover where to find it.

The Shivering Vale — The Durn Yew Book One

The Durn Yew  ·  Book One

The Shivering Vale

Jonathan B. Edvane  ·  Coming soon  ·  Print & ebook

In the Marchlands, the Durn Yew is dying. The host fused to its root-system is failing, and without a successor the tethered realms will collapse or invade. The Yew responds the only way it knows how: it chooses people. People who have already survived the impossible and carry the damage to prove it.

Four of them are drawn to the Woldwood by a carved sigil appearing in snow, frost and steel. A veteran making himself small. A healer who knows too much. A thief with a mark on his wrist he has spent years refusing to think about. And a tavern boy who is not what he appears, serving three irreconcilable masters and unable to betray any of them without destroying the rest.

'Dark fantasy with epic architecture. A first story about what chosen people owe the things that choose them.'

Print & ebook  ·  Sold directly from this site  ·  Publication date to be announced

The archive is complete

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All forty tales are live. Subscribers receive what others do not find in the open archive.

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Forty tales were promised. Thirty-nine are in the archive.
The fortieth can be discovered.