my theory is that the clover dancers doomed verdania when they killed the palestag to attain 'divine right.'
i say this because of gilly's dialogue after you kill karmelita: she laments karmelita's demise because it was her faded strength that allowed hunter's march - and by extension far fields - to hold out against the haunting.
if we think about the verdant areas of pharloom, each can be traced to a god or being of immense power: shellwood to nyleth; wisp thicket to the father of the flame; moss grotto to eva.
we see this in hallownest too, with the white lady to queen's gardens, and unn to greenpath. in fact, as unn fades, queen's gardens start to encroach on her territory.
and i think that in this same vein, the palestag was the power behind verdania
and this makes sense - the caverns are underground and have no access to sunlight. so, instead, they turn to the power of divinity to keep them alive. and once that divinity is killed, it all fades. and with no god to sustain it, verdania could have ended in nothing else but oblivion
