Calecolin Timberlands

The Calecolin Timberlands has never been completely explored. Many of the local townspeople believe that the Timberlands are in fact endless. From the point of view of a forester, the timberlands begin normally enough. The plains that the village is built on begins to give way to some deciduous trees. These trees are typical in every way that a tree can be. Easily accessible for building material, a normal height for a tree, and in the summer they have a healthy canopy of dark green leaves. As the forester moves from the edge of the Calecolin Timberlands inward, they begin to notice that the trees are getting Larger. Larger in the sense that these trees seem to be growing taller than the trees previously encounters, but also larger in that their trunks seem to be growing in diameter as well. All of this is perfectly normal for a tree that has been around for a while, so the forester is not too worried. As they move deeper into the Timberlands the trees continue to grow in stature, however the forester notices that these trees also seem to be growing closer together. The open channels that they navigated to get from the village to here have been steadily narrowing, and the canopy above seems to be blocking out more and more light. The foresters knows that they are at the edge. A few more steps forward and they will have gone deeper into the Timberlands than anyone else in the village. Moss covers the ground where they step, creating a soft carpet of green among the furrowed trunks of the giant trees surrounding the forester. The forester lights their lantern, and takes a step forward. The light coming down from the sky is now completely shut out by the canopy above. The trees extend past the radius of the lanterns light, making them endless. mushrooms and fungi grow at some of the bases of the trees, occasionally providing a dot of luminescence in the vast darkness. The forester swings the lantern at the sound of an animal moving at the edge of the lights radius, and comes face to face with a doe and her fawn. The forester recognizes that these animals could be considered deer, however, their size is something they have never witnessed outside of the Timberlands. The fawn reaches the foresters head, and the mother is well above double their height. The light swings around and the deer are illuminated for just an instant before they dart off into the darkness. The foresters lets out a sigh and decides that this is the farthest they'll go for now. as they make their way back to the village, the trees spread out, the light returns and a sense of normalcy returns, although as they pass from the Timberlands into the grasslands, the forester swears that the trees at the edge have grown taller and wider and new trees have begun to sprout closer to the village.

Geography

The Calecolin Timberlands is a massive forest who many believe is never ending. As locals move from the edge of the timberlands inward the trees grow larger and more dense. The light from above grows dimmer and more diffuse as the trees and their canopies get closer and block out the light. mosses, lichens, and fungi grow around the bases of the trees and on the floor. Once deep enough in the Timberlands it becomes nearly impossible to navigate in any sensible way. The paths accessible to normal sized people are winding and maze like,and without light from the sky, a lantern can only be so effective. Although it has never been discovered, many believe that their are river and lakes that cut through the Calecolin Timberlands. They believe that there must be something that sustains the forest otherwise it would be impossible for it to survive. If we were to fly up through the canopy and view the Calecolin Timberlands from above, the first thing you would notice would be that, while logically it cannot be endless, the area that it covers is akin to an ocean. The second thing that you would notice, is that all of the exploration that has occurred into to Timberlands has only scratched the surface.

Fauna & Flora

The Calecolin Timberlands are host to numerous type of trees, that grow supernaturally large as they move closer to the center of the Timberlands. The trees themselves are hard to identify because their canopies extend to such heights that seeing the leaves in any clarity is near impossible. The floor however, is home to many different types of fungi and moss, while lichens cling to the bases of many of the trees. While most fungi are not very tasty, or useful for civilization to cultivate, there are some varieties that are eatable and have been noted on staving back the hunger of a lost explorer. Some other fungi also have bio-luminescent properties, breaking up the darkness of the Calecolin sea with little blips of light. The Fauna in the Timberlands is something beyond what the people of the villages surrounding Calecolin can imagine. Much as the Trees and other vegetation grow in stature deeper and deeper into the Timberlands, so too do the animals that inhabit it. Foresters and explorers have witnessed deer twice or even three times the height of a person, insects the size of babies and although their has never been a physical sighting. One explorer believed she saw a track of a bear that was the size of a cottage.

Natural Resources

The wood harvested from the Calecolin Timberlands is useful for building materials and firewood for the outlying villages, however once the trees get too large, normal saws and means of cutting down these giants is impossible. Wood take from fallen gargantuan trees is similar in hardness to stone gathered from nearby quarries. There are several types of edible mushrooms that are harvested from the Timberlands to supplement the village diets. In theory the meat from a Timberland deer could provide meat for many months to a village, but there has never been any record of a successful hunt of these creatures.

Alternative Name(s)

The Timberlands, The Calecolin sea

Type

Forest