Forest

The Forest (not to be confused with regular forests) surrounds all islands and covers most of the world. When viewed from a distance, the canopy of the Forest has a unified height, although the ground around continental shelves slopes precipitously downwards, implying that trees in the center of the Forest are miles high—as deep Forest has never been explored, it has never been confirmed. The Forest meets the continental shelf at ground level, such that a person standing at the edge of the island must look down to see it. In most cases, the ground slopes steeply downward for a vertical distances of ten or twenty feet and then declines at a less precipitous angle.

## Trees

The Forest is made of trees whose trunks, in the shallow sections at least, rarely grow wider than a city block. To maintain a uniform height, trees grow hundreds of feet tall so in the deepest habitable parts of the Forest, their leaves are no longer visible except in the dappled shadows they cast on the Forest floor. Except near the edges, the trees in the Forest do not have branches below the canopy. Although leaf color changes by the season, the trees never drop all their leaves.

Tree species varies by depth. Between Umay and Assa is a pine forest. A little further south are willows. In the shallower sections between Mauzji and Seprum, the species most closely resemble oaks, elms, and willows. Between Mauzji and Ju, the trees resemble cherry, dogwood, maple, alder, and birch. To the south of Seprum, there are patches of baobab, mangrove, and even what appears to be tall reeds.

The plants that grow beneath the trees have no terrestrial equivalents and often have sharp, vibrant colors. Though there is no wind in the Forest, the plants bend and blow nonetheless.

### Mythology

According to Seprum and Henesian legend, each tree in the Forest contains a spirit, called a nymph or dryad. Seprums believe all dryads are women, whereas Henesians believed they could take any gender. Before attempting to harvest any part of a Forest tree, Seprums make an offering to the nymph to prevent her anger and revenge.

Kuan believe demons, spirits, and wraiths sap power from the trees and the Forest. When they feel insulted by humans, they travel to islands, possessing the bodies of children and causing havoc. Shamans exorcise victims and trap the demons in vessels so they can be released to the Forest again. It is also the role of the shaman to ensure a balanced society, as imbalance can attract unwanted attention.

Makkadi elai describe trees as sentient beings born neither good nor bad—like humans, they must choose their path in the world. On the other hand, Ju view the Forest and the trees in it as malevolent manifestations pressed into this world, home to many evil spirits that are to be avoided.

The Dhi, and some Makkadi scholars, see the trees as merely biological, larger than terrestrial trees but otherwise natural.

### Uses

All cultures harvest salt from the roots of the trees near the edge of the Forest. Seprums, Kuan, and Dhi also harvest kindling and firewood from the Forest as needed. In Makkada, explorers collect certain plants from the Forest floor as dyes or medicines.

All rivers flow eventually into the Forest or inland seas. The tree roots absorb water like their terrestrial counterparts and their leaves release freshwater back into the atmosphere as a gas. It gathers in clouds over the Forest and rains over the islands. Thus, besides within the trees themselves, the biggest water sinks are inland seas, which vary in saltiness. The only two inland seas in the Empire are on Seprum and the western Mauzji island.

## Life

### Theoretical Underpinnings

The creatures of the Forest are not well-known or understood. The Henesian philosopher Tamoclese postulated that while life on the islands exists in the purely physical realm and life in the spiral exists in a metaphysical realm, life in the Forest exists in a liminal space between the two, part physical, part metaphysical. Therefore, some species in the Forest are recognizable as animals or animal-like and others are too alien for humans to comprehend.

Makkadi scholar Jamal edj-Qurash suggested that the Forest is home to the spiral and therefore all the creatures in it, trees included, are powered by magic. On the other hand, his contemporary Aila Makkar edj-Mahan reverses the causality, postulating that the spiral is powered by the trees and animals in the Forest, not the other way around. The spiral, therefore, relies on the health of the Forest.

Because so few animal species in the Forest are known and travel in even the shallow Forest is dangerous, it is difficult to test any hypothesis.

### Predators

The **gorgonopsid** is a four-legged predator with a barrel-like body and thick jaw that hunts near the edges of the Forest. The largest confirmed sighting was eight feet long. They occasionally prey on humans but rarely leave the Forest.

The **coatl** is a possibly-mythical creature that hunts north of Makkada. According to legend, it is between sixteen and twenty feet tall, with a small body and long, narrow neck. It walks on two legs, using bat-like wings for support. It uses its long beak to skewer its prey. Most accounts suggest it is an ambush predator.

The **dimetrodon** is a four-legged, lizard-like animal with four short, stubby legs to the side of its body and a long sail or crest on its back that changes color for unknown reasons. It had a stout jaw filled with sharp teeth and hunts in deeper sections of the forest.

The **rusrha** is a flightless bird that stands about six feet tall. Its feathery body makes it difficult to attack—the only surefire way to kill it is to concentrate on its long, narrow neck. Its beak, which is about a foot long and half a foot thick, can crush bone.

**Ghouls** are a humanoid species unable to use the spiral unless they have access to human blood of flesh, which they consume. They experience pain in direct sunlight and shy away from silver and iron.

#### Paradox of the Predator

Although travelers report hearing footsteps, birdsong, chittering, baying, and other sounds from unidentifiable sources as they travel the Forest, the only known prey animals are insects and arachnids, and even these are large enough that they may be predators. Forest spiders can grow to the size of a cat, and the dragonflies have the wingspan of an eagle. Even some of the plants are predatory, such as a clam species that feeds on humans, arthropods, and perhaps other animals in the Forest as well.

Over time, travelers have reported:

* Elk the size of houses (Niefe, 254 PS), deer of a similar size (Liyand, 241 PS), and gazelle with "legs so long, we mistook them for trees in their own right" (Saenia, 211 PS)
* Great whales and sharks that fly between the upper limbs of the trees (Ajax, c. 1000 PS, and Ai Lin, c. 1500 PS), sting rays that could float (Young, c. 1200 PS), crabs and lobsters that clambered up and down tree trunks (Jiang, c. 900 PS), and a swarm of jellyfish that killed almost an entire party of merchants (Rashid, c. 1200)
* Frogs large enough to eat a human (numerous sources including Aquilla, Tomi, and Énas), a swarm of cat-sized frogs with twelve foot long tongues (Liya, 221 PS), and snakes that could jump between tree trunks (Jin, 340 PS)
* Small, two-legged lizards that hunted down a gorgonopsid as a pack (Fari, 560 PS)
* Ape-like creatures that swung from vine to vine beneath the canopy and stole a child (Anawa, c. 300 PS)
* Elephants covered in a thick layer of fur (Min, c 600 PS)

### Liminals

Liminal is an umbrella term for Boreal animals that do not resemble terrestrial life. They are difficult to document and it is unclear whether boundaries between species even applies.

#### Ghosts

The spirit with by far the most evidence supporting its existence is the ghost. Ghosts are the souls or minds of humans who have died. They bear a resemblance to the human they were, generally shortly before their death, though some have the ability to age slide and appear as they did earlier in life. Ghosts are bleached of color and translucent on the islands—they appear more human-like in the Forest.

In general, ghosts cannot appear outside the Forest and struggle to do so on its edges. Some scholars claim every human becomes a ghost. Others suggest only those with especially traumatic deaths or goals as of yet unaccomplished on the islands do so. Ghosts likely go *somewhere* over time, because the eldest are only a few hundred years old. The goal of Yanism is to avoid becoming a ghost after death and go straight to becoming one with the spiral.

#### Djinn

Djinn are beings of heat and light that occupy the land around a dormant volcano. They are naturally devious, often possessing humans, but their curious minds make them easily tricked and exorcised. Djinn have three forms: one of billowing smoke, one of burning flames, and one that resembles a human.

#### Keres

Keres take on the physical form of human women with vulture's wings instead of arms. They can also travel the world as the embodiment of misery, loss, pain, grief, and death. Keres are attracted to battlefields, where they feast on the suffering, though they have no ability to bring physical harm to humans themselves. The Henesians claimed to end the practice of slavery because it drew too many keres to their cities.

#### DIrae

If keres are the embodiment of sadness, the dirae are the embodiment of rage. They travel in groups of three, taking on the appearance of a young girl, a beautiful woman, and an old woman stooped with age. It is unclear whether every set of three dirae is the the same being (or are the same beings) or whether there are multiple groups of three. They turn selectively invisible and offer poor advice to leaders, leading them to their doom. In Kuan legend, dirae can see the future and are bound to only tell the truth.

#### Phoenix

In Makkadi legend, a phoenix is born every time a book is burned, with the words of that book written on its fiery wings. In Seprum, phoenixes are more like regular birds who burn up and are reborn from their own ashes if they died in the Forest. The only way to destroy a tree in the Forest is to burn it with the ashes of a phoenix.

#### Moirai

Moirai generally take the form of women. They revel in telling people the day they will die, always truthfully. If asked a question three times, moirai must answer with the truth. If a traveler can intuit the true name of a moirai, he will gain power over it, so they guard their names fiercely.

#### Twins

Twins are humanoid figures, generally guards of a tree, doorway, or ruin. Though they do not appear to have emotional or historic connections to whatever they guard, they refuse to allow passage to travelers who cannot answer a question correctly. Some scholars argue that twins are merely an example of a motivated ghost.

## Mapping the Forest

Makkadi merchants and the trade agency have the best maps of the Forest, though some speculate that Ma'hea travelers may have better ones. In Makkada, they separate the Forest into shallow and deep sections. Shallow sections generally have a gradual downward slope and mostly flat terrain, excluding the trees. Though ventures into the deep Forest are rare, observations from the edge of the terrestrial shelf suggest the topography is far more varied. Some go so far as to postulate that entire mountain ranges and valley systems exist in the deep Forest, hidden beneath the trees.

Gaining access to the deep Forest is difficult. The cliffs at the edge of the Katari Trench are between four and five hundred feet tall and sheer—only the sturdiest trees can grow on them. Though large, these cliffs can, according to traders, "appear out of nowhere." Cause of death in the deep Forest is unknown but impact injuries seem likely.

Tree species and biome type can help merchants navigate the Forest. The maple current southeast of Umay and Assa tells traders where to travel further south to avoid mysterious, long snake-like creatures that permeate the area. The space between Umay and Assa is mostly temperate pine trees, widely considered to be the safest type of Forest. Some Ma'hea even claim sections of Forest are composed entirely of leafless, dead trees.

## Migratory Patterns

Evidence suggests that the Forest moves slowly over time. Makkadi merchants have found human-made artifacts in the heart of the Forest based on designs from no known cultures and often half buried. When the Seprums managed to fell a tree near the edge of the Forest, hoping to study how quickly new trees grew, they found that the nearby trees simply expanded into the new space at a slow, inexorable rate but that no new tree ever grew. According to Dhi myth, the central island used to be connected to Dhi, but one day, a small alder tree sprouted near the base of a mountain, where normally alders didn't grow. Over time, the tree got bigger and bigger, its roots digging deep into the earth, pushing the central island away from the mountain. More trees took root and did the same until the central island was invisible from Dhi. A Diao academic measured the distance from the Forest to the wall of her estate every year for three decades and found that the Forest moved a little bit closer each time.

Methods explaining how the Forest moves are lacking. Most rely on some commanding intelligence behind the Forest, like the queen of a beehive, setting out directions, but those who spend time in the Forest and amongst the trees often report the opposite: the Forest does not feel goal driven. It is also unclear whether the Forest only devours land or whether it also raises up new islands from the depth. If the former is true, the eventual loss of all habitable land would likely spell the end of humanity.