The Everwood

The Everwood is a large forest in the interior of Asuria, bordering on the city state of Caelester. Widely noted for its prodigious growth rate, it has been an invaluable source of timber for time immemorial. Where most forests grow slowly and require careful replanting projects and managment plans spanning decades to be harvested sustainably, here a cut tree resprouts within a matter of days and returns to its full size in as little as twenty years. This virulence has never been explained.
Another oddity is that the Everwood is completely uninhabited. While many fieldfolk and mountainfolk find any forest discomfiting, this one is truly unbearable for more than a matter of hours. Even the forestfolk find it strangely oppressive, and prefer to live somewhere "quieter." The fact that so many choose that term has long been a mystery, for the wildlife in the forest is no louder than any other. The only hint as to this meaning comes from the one documented instance when a mage with the ability to speak with plants has had the courage to go through with casting this spell. They reported that where normally they can converse with one plant, here they could hear countless voices speaking amongst themselves, as if the spell had worked upon the entire forest. Then, the voices silenced, and a chorus of pained whispers sounded at once:

"LEAVE US ALONE!

Recent Events and Future Quests

Since the Caelester Earthquake, timber harvesting from the Everwood has increased dramatically, with vast quantities of wood needed to rebuild the city. This will soon push the Everwood to a breaking point, driving it to attack the logging camps along its border and expand its territory.

True Nature

The Everwood is not a forest at all, but a single, enormous plant. When its branches grow heavy enough to reach the ground, they take root and grow down into the soil. When its roots spread and reach the surface, a new tree sprouts forth, feeding off the energy provided by the entire forest and thus growing with remarkable swiftness. And when it encounters another plant, it grafts itself to that plant, absorbing it into its being. It was once a single tree, but a combination of natural evolution and fey magic have given it these gifts. Eventually it came to be aware of itself, its different parts communicating and sharing nutrients for the good of the whole. By this point, regular logging was already underway, exploiting the Everwood's ability to resprout of its own accord. Thus far it has seen this as a natural part of its existence, but has grown to resent this as demand for its wood for the rapidly expanding shipbuilding industry has grown rapidly. The sudden uptick in demand caused by the earthquake pushed this to a breaking point, and it will soon wage war against the loggers and those who send them. Already its roots are spreading beneath the feet of the loggers who assail it.