Nalwood Forests

The Nalwood Forests were an extensive woodland region of the world Tanith, renowned for the dark timber that gave the forests their name. They formed the principal geographical and cultural landscape of Tanith prior to the world’s destruction, shaping the way of life of its inhabitants and the martial traditions later carried into Imperial service.

The close-grained, dark nalwood timber harvested from these forests was prized for its strength and workability, and was traditionally used by the Tanith people to craft the hafts of their long warknives, an implement that became emblematic of Tanith identity. Life amid the dense forest cover fostered a culture skilled in woodcraft, tracking and stealth, aptitudes that distinguished the Tanith militia and, subsequently, the Tanith First-and-Only regiment raised for the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.

The Nalwood Forests were destroyed along with the rest of Tanith when the world was annihilated by a Chaos incursion at the time of the regiment’s Founding, leaving the Tanith First-and-Only as the sole surviving inheritors of its woodland culture. Thereafter, the forests survived only in memory and in relics such as nalwood knife hafts carried by veterans of the regiment.