Shinomen Mori (TCG)

Shinomen Mori was a large forest located south to the Unicorn lands, patrolled by the Shinomen Wayfinders. A dreaded place, there were stories about what happened to people who risked the forest's power, and few of them ended well. To the South (Part 1), by Marie Brennan It was dwelled by the Naga race. To the South (Part 2), by Marie Brennan
== Appearance ==
Shinomen Forest was a sea of trees spanning multiple ecosystems. This forest had never given humanity a foothold within its borders. Within the forest depths, the tiered towers of a forgotten civilization sit in eerie silence, their massive size dwarfed by the surrounding trees. All was dark, even at midday, the air was still, trapped between trunks and filled with the musty odor of decay. Ancient trees grew beyond the limits of their species. Nezumi were one of the races that dwelled within Shinomen. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 213 It was said the forest overlapped with the Spirit Realm of Senkyō. Celestial Realms, p. 10
== Geography ==
In the eastern reaches of Shinomen Forest, the ground was made of porous black rock, the spillover from the Spine of the World Mountains' volcanic birth. Hemlocks drove their roots into this hard crust and their dead needles collected in pits, stewing into a decayed slime. Floating orbs of blue fire, onibi, drifted across the landscape in numbers during twilight. To the west the ground softened, making a bed for broad-leafed trees, where maples acted as ill omens, sharing these low elevations with isolated glades and lily-filled marshes. Farther north, the ground rolled into hills, sending streams into cascades as they crossed the landscape. Evergreens dominated the view. The south containrf a wondrous collection of fruit trees: groves of apple, plum, and cherry. Massively wide camphor trees sat like castles, their low, tangling branches wide enough to support houses. On Shinomen's eastern border there existed a black blot within endless green. The Shadowlands Marshes were a festering wound, a pool of black mud filled with fan-based cypress and spider-legged mangroves. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, pp. 213-214
== Timber ==
The Crab felled timber from the Shinomen only under Imperial permission, when they needed large beams to conduct repairs on the Carpenter Wall. A Kuni shugenja appeased the spirits of the trees before they were cut. 
== History ==
The Shinomen was once far larger, spread across what was now desert and badlands to the west and south. It was connected to the vast jungles and swamps in what would become the Ivory Kingdoms. It was until a comet fell from the sky, blighting the southern lands and spreading a corruptive force that shifted the climate and split the vast Naga civilization in two. Isolated from the jungles, the Shinomen Naga found themselves assaulted by the Foul. Writ of the Wilds, p. 26
Category:Shinomen Mori (TCG)