The Veins of the Forest

Fanfiction
Title:	The Veins of the Forest
Author(s):	Ellen Fremedon
Date(s):	2006
Length:	~3,500 words
Genre(s):	backstory, gen
Fandom(s):	Earthsea
Relationship(s):
External Links:	@Yuletide; @AO3; @Skyehawke
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The Veins of the Forest is an Earthsea fanfiction by Ellen Fremedon, written for Yuletide 2006. It tells the backstory of Azver, the Kargish Patterner, the only Karg to come to the Roke School. The author summary is a quotation from The Farthest Shore:

"This man, Azver, when he was young, he heard some tale of the Immanent Grove, and it came to him that the center of all the earth's powers must be there."

Firerose recorded a podfic of the story in 2012 for Amplificathon; it is 23½ minutes long.

Reviews

• Espresso Addict writes: [Azver's] story is intriguing -- why did he choose to come to Roke? How did this 'sword-begirt, red-plumed young savage' from a culture that rejects all magic become one of the wisest mages of the Archipelago? / Fanfiction that answers these questions is woefully sparse, which makes 'The Veins of the Forest' all the more wonderful. Ellen Fremedon runs with the Norse model for Kargish culture to give us a backstory for Azver that is beautifully detailed and absolutely perfect. The story also works in some thoughts about the Immanent Grove, whose roots Azver says are 'mingled with the roots of all the forests that were or might yet be'. The result feels like a lost short story from Tales from Earthsea.
• Victoria P writes: This reads like it totally could have come right out of canon. The details are beautiful and well-chosen, the prose is light and lyrical, and the whole story is evocative of love, loss and potential.