Great Forest (Oblivion)

The Great Forest is the dense woodland that encircles the Imperial City to its west, north, and south. The Forest serves as a buffer between Colovia and the Empire's capital city.
The Great Forest is thick with white-barked aspens, redwoods, and various other evergreen and broad-leaf trees. Ground cover is ferns, bushes, and uneven thatches of dark green grass. Though the weather in the forest is generally mild, the thick matte of trees makes visibility poor.
The larger boulders in the Forest are moss-covered and banded by black horizontal lines, suggesting layering and that the rocks are of sedimentary origin. The Forest consists of gently rolling hills that steepen in the east as the region gives way to the Heartlands and the Imperial City. North the land rises steeply to the Orange Road. The leaves here turn to fall colors. In the southeast, the Forest extends nearly to Bravil.
While there are no significant bodies of water, nearly every road in Cyrodiil crosses the forest: the Red Ring, Orange, Gold, Silver, Black, and Green.
==Flora and fauna==
The Forest supports a great deal of varied plant life. Fungus includes Cinnabar Polypore Red Cap, Cinnabar Polypore Yellow Cap, Clouded Funnel Cap, Fly Amanita, Green Stain Cup, Steel-Blue Entoloma, and Summer Bolete. Other plants that grow in the forest are flax, Lady's Mantle, Monkshood, Motherwort, Somnalius Plant, St. Jahn's Wort, Tiger Lily, and lots of Viper's Bugloss. Bergamot grows in the higher elevations. A few Lavender plants can be found near the border with the Heartlands.
Animals in the Great Forest include bears, deer, mountain lions, rats, spriggans, trolls and wolves.
==Locations==
The Colovian city of Chorrol is located in the northwest portion of the Forest, near the base of the Highlands. Author Alessia Ottus praises Chorrol's Countess Arriana Valga as a "very proper woman" but also says that the town guards are "lax in their duties, and fail to arrest and lock up the various beggars and thieves and gamblers and cheats who idle in the streets." Indeed, Ottus' Guide to Chorrol is the only of her Guides to have its own "Shameful Features" section.Guide to Chorrol
Because the Forest is near the Imperial City and sits along several major trade routes, it is a fairly crowded region. The settlements of Aleswell, Brindle Home, Harm's Folly, Odiil Farm, and Weatherleah can be found in the Forest. The sizeable village of Bleaker's Way sits at the base of the hills that rise sharply to the Orange Road.
Two taverns, the Inn of Ill Omen and Faregyl Inn, are clustered on the south side of the Forest.
Also look for the warm and inviting Gottlesfont Priory, due east of Brindle Home. There is a bed at the priory that is always available for a traveler, though the Hero might have to wake up the middle-aged nun sleeping in the bed in order to use it. She won't mind. All ingredients at the priory are free, and most have restorative properties. Likewise, a bevy of healing plants, notably Fly Amanita and Lady's Mantle, grow around the priory. Finally, a chapel at the priory can heal disease.
Another priory - Weynon Priory - is just outside of Chorrol. It is the first location the Hero travels to in the main quest. Weynon is a large priory, with a main building, chapel, lodge, graveyard, and stables.
Hackdirt, an isolated and xenophobic village near the border with the Colovian Highlands, has an inn and a limited General Goods store.
===Points of interest===
There are a total of four Daedric Shrines in the Great Forest. Molag Bal, the father of vampires, has a shrine just north of Gottlesfont Priory. Mephala's Shrine is also in the Great Forest, although it appears below the first "a" in "Heartlands" on official Imperial Maps. Clavicus Vile's Shrine is near the Red Ring Road, and the Shrine of Hircine is located in the Forest east of Charcoal Cave.
Shadeleaf Copse is one of the region's few ponds; one of the region's few Nirnroots grow there. Harcane Grove, home of the Unicorn, is in the south of the Forest, due east of the Inn of Ill Omen. A lucrative secret entrance to Ceyatatar can be found northwest of Greenmead Cave and southwest of the main entrance to Ceyatatar.
===Ayleid Ruins===
*Anga
*Ceyatatar
*Elenglynn
*Lindai
*Moranda
*Narfinsel
*Nenyond Twyll
*Piukanda
*Sardavar Leed
*Wendir
*Wenyandawik
*Vindasel
===Camps===
*Sweetwater Camp
===Caves===
*Breakneck Cave
*Charcoal Cave
*Felgageldt Cave
*Fingerbowl Cave
*Frostfire Glade
*Glademist Cave
*Grayrock Cave
*Greenmead Cave
*Haynote Cave
*Horn Cave
*Mingo Cave
*Moss Rock Cavern
*Outlaw Endre's Cave
*Pothole Caverns
*Red Ruby Cave
*Robber's Glen Cave
*Serpent Hollow Cave
*Shadow's Rest Cavern
*Unmarked Cave
*Yellow Tick Cave
===Fort Ruins===
*Fort Ash
*Fort Carmala
*Fort Coldcorn
*Fort Empire
*Fort Roebeck
*Fort Virtue
*Fort Wooden Hand
===Mines===
*Exhausted Mine
===Settlements===
*Aleswell
*Bleaker's Way
*Brindle Home
*Gottlesfont Priory
*Hackdirt
*Harm's Folly
*Odiil Farm
*Weatherleah
*Weynon Priory
==Gallery==
TESIV Location Great Forest 1.png
TESIV Location Great Forest 2.png
TESIV Location Great Forest 3.png
TESIV Location Great Forest 4.png
TESIV Location Great Forest 5.png
==References==
de:Großer Forst
es:El Gran Bosque
fr:Grande Forêt (Oblivion)
ru:Великий лес
Category:Oblivion: Locations
Category:Oblivion: Regions