Calushid Forest
Shire: Semethshire Status: Wild forest hundred Administration: Nominally under Semethshire; effectively Kath territory, patrolled by the Army of the Chelmarch
The entire rugged and hilly Calushid Forest is west of the rocky Calusha River, well within the territory of the Aka-Huka and Aka-Pazi Kath, who jealously protect it. The high meadows of Mount Bodari are home to an extended shepherding clan that tends flocks eastward into Endrunel Hundred, where they trade with mercantylers and trappers from Heru on the southern bank of the Kald. Numbering no more than 200, they are mistrusted by both Kaldor and the Kath.
Calushid is the southernmost of the three wild forest hundreds that make up the western half of Semethshire. It lies west of the Kald River in the rugged Kathela Hills, where the terrain rises steeply from the river valley to heights exceeding 2,400 feet. The great peak of Kodari (2,430 ft) stands near its western boundary. Dense woodland of oak, beech, and alder blankets the hillsides, broken only by high meadows and exposed rock on the upper slopes.
The hundred was settled during the time of the ancient kingdom of Kephira, but the Kath devastated the region in the second century and it was never reclaimed. Today it is deep wilderness, claimed by the crown but ungoverned in practice. Occasional patrols from the Chelmarch pass through, and woodsmen from the settled hundreds east of the Kald sometimes venture into the forest fringe for timber and game, but none linger.