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The Wood - Of Leaf And Shadow

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The Wood - Of Leaf And Shadow Empty The Wood - Of Leaf And Shadow

Post by GrayWatch Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:37 pm

The Wood: The vast expanse of forest stretching along Ara'niels northwest, well known for it's rampant growth. No inroads have ever successfully been made through the wood, save with full-on military grade equipment, conducting the operation more as an invasion than a construction. Even then, such passages are inevitably lost as the would be conquerors realize that the rampant growth is only faster within the wood itself, requiring man-power sufficient to invade 3 other nations merely to keep a single road traversable, let alone actually safe to travel.
The Wood is contained, by the Black Mountains to the south and the northern seas. To the west the savage clans of hillsmen are united thrice a year, during spring summer and fall, when for 2 week flames roar along the entire border of the wood, pushing back the tangled mash of thorns, vines and saplings that encroach upon their lands. To the east the more educated people have found more elegant solutions. Alternating between ruined, salted strips of land and artifically cultivated barriers of pine, the ground has been rendered inhospitable to most forms of plant life.

History points to well known cities and settlements that existed prior to the great war which were overtaken by the Wood. If such ruins could be found they would likely represent the most complete and undisturbed representations of life before the War in all of Ara'niel (not to mention a treasure trove of unrivaled proportions, in lost technologies, fine art, and objets d'art even if ruined or defunct).
In truth those ruins still exist, lost in the twisting tangle of roots overlaying roots as the trees wrestle for space to drive their roots into soil, but any would be treasure hunters will be surprised to meet hollow eyed, barbaric tribesmen, all veneer or understanding of civilization long since gone, still fighting a War they don't yet know is over.

Of course that's assuming a stranger can even get to those cities. The hyper competitive struggle of all natural life within the wood has rendered it's people, it's creatures and it's plant life strange and hostile, and examples of those few that have wandered out are the basis of such legends as the dragon, the ogre, the basilisk and the wendingo.

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Imagine for a moment a wood.
Ancient and primeval, the trees, trunks the thickness of a cottage, stretch up and up and up, their boughs lost in the darkness of an eternal gloom below the canopy. Lichen grows on the trunks , and the soil has long since been lost far beneath the cavernous tangle of exposed, mossy roots. Green pulses, writhes, crawls and heaves in every direction, a silent, malevolent symphony of life, freed from all such petty limitations as size or age. The gloom is pierced, occasionally, by screams, inhuman and alien, which drive frigid iron spikes of terror into the guts of the bravest of men. Mists rise, lower and flow, perhaps sourced hidden pools in the labrynthine tangle of roots that stretch many stories high from the ground, or perhaps seeping from the road-width roots themselves. Bones, picked clean, are slowly digested by stange, ameboid slime moulds. In the far far gloom, something, indistinct shifts, and in dawning horror you realize it's scale. Twenty feet from tip to tail, and it scales a tree in utter silence, lost in the murk above.

Imagine all this, and you would have perhaps, a tenth part of the tamest, most peaceful sections of the Wood, an eternal testament to mans foolishness, and a working of heathen magics from before the Age of War.
Oh yes child. Before. The wood is ancient, but 'twas not always the towering edifice of malevolent life it is today. Books speak of the shining cities of Valkyr, Boromede, Sindiri and Amath on the plains and wooded hills north those Black Mountains. I know not how it happened, but at the onset of the war, perhaps the sorceror-kings of old worked their dark arts, or the gods cast a curse on the earth to punish man for his hubris. In either case all that is know is what happened. Those wooded hills grew.
And grew. And grew.
An onsurging tide of green, no one city could hope to stop. A single, demanding urge that man give up their hate, throw down their swords and work beside one another to save them all. They failed. They failed.

Amath, Sindiri, Bormede, all lost in the green. Shining jewels of cities, fresh in the war, reduced to what? Tumbled stone beneath questing vines I say. Some few mad souls who dared the Wood and returned speak of hidden cities in the Wood, and savage, brutal tribesmen hunkered fearfully in ancient fortresses, fighting a war they don't understand, but refuse to believe is over, so strong is their hate.

Heh. Even now the Wood still grows. Did you know in the far west, an eternal flame borders the Wood? That's right. The hillsmen of the west torch the earth, spring summer and fall, because The Wood still grows. Savage people they are, they never thought to take the methods we have. Now heed my words boy. If you ever leave, if you ever wander, looking for a place to settle...east boy. Go east. Cross the badlands, the wild lands, the places twisted by the war till the land itself makes you sick to your stomach. But go east. Nothing awaits you to the west but the Wood. Savagery, mocked up as beauty, death and madness fed upon a thousand years of spite and regret.




Last edited by GrayWatch on Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:07 pm; edited 2 times in total
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The Wood - Of Leaf And Shadow Empty Re: The Wood - Of Leaf And Shadow

Post by Admin Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:30 am

Interesting.
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Post by MidgetNinja Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:54 pm

By Interesting he means, not substantial enough currently to warrant an actual response.

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Post by Admin Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:02 am

Very, very nice. However, you seem to say that Valkyr still exists somewhere in the depths of The Wood.
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Post by GrayWatch Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:08 pm

In the sense that the city exists(albeit, wear and tear from centuries of a trees growing up under flagstones etc. etc.)? Certainly!

In the sense that it's not filled with cut-throat tribesmen who would regard tea, coffee or any other hot beverage as a weapon? Less so.



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Post by MidgetNinja Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:46 am

I like it BI, though it is kind've a more...alive version of the wastes. Sort've screws people who want to expand over a bit I mean... to the east you got the Wastes, and to the west you got the Wood.


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Post by Admin Sun May 20, 2012 2:02 am

There can be areas on the other side of the Wood, like the Aldish States. There may even be areas on the coast where the land is so broken up that the Wood can't easily expand there but might be suitable for settlements or trading stations.

Anyone have anything before I push this through?
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Post by CromTheConqueror Sun May 20, 2012 4:55 am

The idea of a wild and perilous woods was exactly what I wanted this to be. And clearly we have wild tribesmen and coast dwellers to balance stuff out. I say approve it.
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