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The Golden Forests are an extension of Aldurism Religious Lore and Freefolk Heritage Lore. While the more populous forests like the Selvaria, Enlaria, Massaria, and Neylaria are widely known across the world as bastions of Freefolk society, the Golden Forests are often forgotten in this line-up, due to their different nature from the other Freefolk homelands. The Golden Forests are distinct in their dissent from the common cause, Freefolk who live inside the Allorn Empire, and are pro-Allorn Empire, even if they are but a small minority of the total Freefolk population.
Origins
The Golden Forests once covered most of what comprises the Golden Fields in the modern-day Allorn Empire, north of the great Allorn city of Laïsonn, and directly on the western shore of the inner sea of Soronsalei and the Allorn capital. The Golden Forests don't have a clear distinct border unlike the other Freefolk Forests, because it by nature functions differently. The Golden Forests shrunk over the millennia following the creation of the Allorn Empire due to the encroachment of the Allorn citizenry, and the relatively small presence that the Freefolk had there. Very early on, this population of Freefolk split from the other Selvarian Wald inhabitants, due to their inability to aid the population living in the Golden Forests from encroachment. Instead of resisting this encroachment, the Golden Forests embraced Allorn urbanism.
Structure
The Golden Forests as mentioned do not have a clear boundary, caused by the fact that the forests gradually thin out into urban sprawl and settlements. While the Selvarian Walds have a clear boundary that is immediately faced with a wall of trees, the Golden Forests gradually integrate with urban settings, causing trees to swirl around houses or have houses partially built into them. The architecture of the Golden Fields is distinctly different from the rest of the Allorn Empire, which mostly features white marble with blue-tinted roofs. The Golden Fields instead feature plaster-washed houses, with roofs that imitate the leaves of the Golden Trees in shape, and color in being made of bronze or electrum.
The Freefolk inhabitants of the Golden Forests mingle with the Allorn citizenry, and generally speaking live in harmony with one another. Whereas everywhere else in the Allorn Empire, there is a constant struggle between the urban and the natural, the Golden Forests have seemingly created a fine balance of tolerance for both and mutual integration. However, at the end of the day, the Freefolk who roam here are no longer truly free by the concepts of the Freefolk in the Selvarian Walds. They pay taxes, pay homage to Allorn Princes, and follow Allorn law and decree. The Allorn locals just happen to have more tolerance for their customs giving them more free reign to nurture nature around them.
History
The history of the Golden Forests is not nearly as kind to the Allorn neighbors as the modern-day structure means to imply, however. Before Ben-Halur joined forces with the other Luminarchs of the Aldurist faith, the Golden Forests were constantly under attack from Allorn armies and urbanites alike in the constantly expanding sprawl of housing that was needed to satisfy the population of Irdaal, the state which the Golden Fields were once part of. The Golden Forests were constantly losing ground, many of its tall gold-leafed birch trees being felled for burning wood, the leaves petrified with Magic to form displays of jewelry and art due to the natural golden sheen on them. While most Freefolk forests are damp and dark places, the Golden Forests was a land of light and brilliance, and that made the Allorn covet them ever more.
Ben-Halur was the last gasp of the Golden Forest's independence. His exact relation to Ardos is not well understood, but it is known that at some point Ardos convinced him to join the other Luminarchs to assault Elderlaw while promising to grant the Golden Forests freedom as a reserve at their present borders. Without a second thought, Ben-Halur accepted to save his people. It should be noted that in the Golden Forests, Ben-Halur was essentially a nobody prior to this event, even if he was an Archmage. He had no connections to the Freefolk leadership of the Golden Forests, and his superior Magic skill was by all means a freak-anomaly of birth. His Magic was rarely used, and so most Selvath weren't even aware that he was a Mage until Ardos came to see him personally, capable of sensing him from hundreds of miles away due to his power.
When the Luminarchs ascended, their immortal form necessarily abandoned mortal goals and attachments. As Ardos ascended to Godhood, his cousins initiated a massive civil war over who would become the new ruler of the powerful Princedom of Irdaal, resulting in its fracturing from which it still has not recovered to this day. As Irdaal's structure disintegrated, so did Ardos's laws and decrees. It is a point of irony for Ben-Halur, that his act of preservation, was the inevitable doom of the Golden Forests as they once had been. His disappearance, and Ardos's laws being dismissed, caused the final dismissal of the independence of the Golden Forests.
It was only by the fear of Ben-Halur, that the Allorn citizens of the Golden Fields respected Selvath customs and traditions, and only encroached on them as much as they thought they could get away with. Ben-Halur was not entirely dispossessed of the means to act as protector and guarantor of the Golden Forests, even if many Selvath at the time resented him for not standing with them the conventional way in war. Many scholars in the modern era postulate that this was never a fair request to make of Ben-Halur due to his inherent anti-conflict nature. Ben-Halur was always more enticed to watch flowers grow than to test his violent skill in the Wyld Hunt. For every tale that exists of Ben-Halur aiding someone pushed into a corner, or saving the Aldurism faithful, this never goes paired with violence or maiming in the traditional sense. Ben-Halur overpowers and disables with nothing more than a well-placed strangle-hold or loss of consciousness, a distinction that was eventually accepted by the Freefolk of the Golden Forests when they too realized that Ben-Halur's ironic hastening of their loss of independence, was also the only thing actually preserving them. When the Golden Forests became accessible to the wider Allorn public, the novelty quickly wore off, and the trees stopped being felled. Combined with fear of Ben-Halur's intervention, Selvath customs were preserved in the local area for perpetuity, even if it came at the cost of paying taxes.