Darven Forest (The Darven Forest)
Comprising a great deal of land in northwest Dreamworld, this Forest is still quite wild, lying at the northern edge of a still-frontier Darvenland. Not many humans live within the boundaries of the forest, and those that do are generally fisher-folk along the waterways and lakes of the Tegg-Wood system.
Fishing is abundant in Tegg-Wood, and the industry allows for a great deal of trade out of Ersthall at the southern border and Bucklund just beyond the north. A unique village culture thrives along the waters between those two places. A link:
The forest in between is still largely unexplored by humans. Grimlocks roam the land, and orcs camp at the eastern edge along the Antir hills, and there are many other creatures that haunt the woods, but human habitation is limited mostly to loner-souls that seek out the wilderness as an alternative to town and city life. Roaming long enough in this forest, one will come upon at least one hermit if not more.
Limestone caves abound in the Darven Forest, and not just in the more hilly east. Little outcroppings here and there can shelter any number of different beings within and beneath them. Towering bluffs and limestone cliffs, divided by old rivers, rise above the forest.
The Darven Forest is not generally a place where civilized people go. “It’s all the forest to me,” say the folks in Ersthall and Vesthall, with a roll of the eyes and a little scoff. Indeed, to the higher classes of these two cities, the forest is seen as a place of barbarians, monsters, and dirt, and they love to see its trees cut down, its lumber and limestone used to build, its beasts hunted out.
WEATHER of the DARVEN FOREST The forest is generally a dry area, and in the late summer into fall it is hot, with dry, dusty ground conditions and limestone cliff tops that bake in the bright sun, and wind is relatively limited. The creeks and rivers remain nearly full due to rain and snowmelt further up altitude to the east. Winter is generally cold and dry, frequently below freezing (for even up to two weeks at a time, but very rarely longer). The eastern hills can get snow that stays for up to a month, but maybe 3 or 4 inches at most. Lower down, the light snowfalls will melt soon. In any case, precipitation in Dren-Hakk and Dren-Toor (months 10 and 11, Hearthside and Deep Winter) is rare, but snowfall will happen. A real snowstorm is all but unheard of: a 20 year event at least. Lake Tegg and Wood Lake experience freezing temperatures on and off beginning in early Dren-Hakk, and it can freeze over the top every year or so. (Walking out on the lake is never advisable in any case.) Fishing activity generally continues unless the ice reaches a thickness of an inch or so, and this usually doesn’t last long. The air and the water are extremely cold, and the spray from the hulls can freeze on a person's sweater. The fishing is far less active until Yelmouth, when the ice is out for certain and for good, and the rains become the discomfort. By and large, the fishing season is about 10 of 13 months of the year. The rainy months are the first two of the year (Yelmouth (first spring) and Yel-brite (high spring), peaking in early Yel-brite. These rains (and some thunderstorms) make the forest pop with green and life. Once Yel-toor (deep spring) comes around, the rainfall dies down, and by Summer Day (yel-fori 10 (spring’s ripening 10)) the forests begin to settle into a dry period. The Lakes are generally known for their stormy weather during the first two months of the year. Yelmouth is particularly dangerous: Storms can come up fairly quickly, and many a sailor has had to ground his craft hastily to wait on eout. In the fall, toward Deathfest (sem-darth 27), the leaves are completely dried out, leaves turned dark red, brown-yellow, or just plain brittle-brown, and many of them already fallen to the forest floor. Soon thereafter the plant life begins to wither, and over the course of the next month dies. Fall turns out to be great for fishing, at least on Wood Lake, for the calm and balmy weather and the Big Browns coming back to the lake from their spawn. Sem-fishing is hands down the best.
For the Moor to the North, by Wood Lake: Darvenmoor
For the Plants of the Forest: Darven Forest Botany
Fishing is abundant in Tegg-Wood, and the industry allows for a great deal of trade out of Ersthall at the southern border and Bucklund just beyond the north. A unique village culture thrives along the waters between those two places. A link:
The forest in between is still largely unexplored by humans. Grimlocks roam the land, and orcs camp at the eastern edge along the Antir hills, and there are many other creatures that haunt the woods, but human habitation is limited mostly to loner-souls that seek out the wilderness as an alternative to town and city life. Roaming long enough in this forest, one will come upon at least one hermit if not more.
Limestone caves abound in the Darven Forest, and not just in the more hilly east. Little outcroppings here and there can shelter any number of different beings within and beneath them. Towering bluffs and limestone cliffs, divided by old rivers, rise above the forest.
The Darven Forest is not generally a place where civilized people go. “It’s all the forest to me,” say the folks in Ersthall and Vesthall, with a roll of the eyes and a little scoff. Indeed, to the higher classes of these two cities, the forest is seen as a place of barbarians, monsters, and dirt, and they love to see its trees cut down, its lumber and limestone used to build, its beasts hunted out.
WEATHER of the DARVEN FOREST The forest is generally a dry area, and in the late summer into fall it is hot, with dry, dusty ground conditions and limestone cliff tops that bake in the bright sun, and wind is relatively limited. The creeks and rivers remain nearly full due to rain and snowmelt further up altitude to the east. Winter is generally cold and dry, frequently below freezing (for even up to two weeks at a time, but very rarely longer). The eastern hills can get snow that stays for up to a month, but maybe 3 or 4 inches at most. Lower down, the light snowfalls will melt soon. In any case, precipitation in Dren-Hakk and Dren-Toor (months 10 and 11, Hearthside and Deep Winter) is rare, but snowfall will happen. A real snowstorm is all but unheard of: a 20 year event at least. Lake Tegg and Wood Lake experience freezing temperatures on and off beginning in early Dren-Hakk, and it can freeze over the top every year or so. (Walking out on the lake is never advisable in any case.) Fishing activity generally continues unless the ice reaches a thickness of an inch or so, and this usually doesn’t last long. The air and the water are extremely cold, and the spray from the hulls can freeze on a person's sweater. The fishing is far less active until Yelmouth, when the ice is out for certain and for good, and the rains become the discomfort. By and large, the fishing season is about 10 of 13 months of the year. The rainy months are the first two of the year (Yelmouth (first spring) and Yel-brite (high spring), peaking in early Yel-brite. These rains (and some thunderstorms) make the forest pop with green and life. Once Yel-toor (deep spring) comes around, the rainfall dies down, and by Summer Day (yel-fori 10 (spring’s ripening 10)) the forests begin to settle into a dry period. The Lakes are generally known for their stormy weather during the first two months of the year. Yelmouth is particularly dangerous: Storms can come up fairly quickly, and many a sailor has had to ground his craft hastily to wait on eout. In the fall, toward Deathfest (sem-darth 27), the leaves are completely dried out, leaves turned dark red, brown-yellow, or just plain brittle-brown, and many of them already fallen to the forest floor. Soon thereafter the plant life begins to wither, and over the course of the next month dies. Fall turns out to be great for fishing, at least on Wood Lake, for the calm and balmy weather and the Big Browns coming back to the lake from their spawn. Sem-fishing is hands down the best.
Geology, Featuring Karst Topography
The Darven Forest mostly sits on a very deep bedrock of granite. Granite outcrops are common in the hills east and west of the forest, but atop these is a rich landscape of Karst topography, for which the forest is known. Closer to Darvenland proper, the land is a rich tapestry of green hardwood forest and varied Karst topography. The northern forest has a slightly drier climate. The limestone formation lies almost like a valley between the granite hills west and east… Lots of caves; areas have been washed away over ten thousand of years. There are numerous fossils in the limestone (see below), representing over 400 million years of ancient ocean deposits. The hills that lead up into the Antir lands to the East are granite outcroppings, and the land below with its frequent beds of limestone (at least where it hasn’t been worn away by lakes and rivers) comprise most of the forest itself. Gullies, layered cliffs low and high, underground caves and rivers and lakes, and sometimes much larger old valleys are features of the landscape west, northwest, and north of Lake Tegg. The valleys between towering limestone formations left in their wake are formed mainly by the The Great River Tegg, the Danger Creek Forks, and Orc Creek. Lake Tegg itself, and its partner Wood Lake to the north, lie in a big scoop taken out of the limestone, left there by some unknown process, be it magical or geological. Some posit that a huge iceberg used to sit on the spot, and its weight ground down the limestone into marble (for marble the lakebed is) and then slowly melted away. A glacial process? Perhaps the glaciers were once up in the Antirs, flowing down and accumulating, but stopping at the lakesite, before the Limestone Formations? For Darven Forest Limestone Caves: Darven Forest Limestone Caves For Wood Lake in the North: Wood LakeFor the Moor to the North, by Wood Lake: Darvenmoor
For the Plants of the Forest: Darven Forest Botany
Fossils from millions of years ago, embedded inthe Forest's limestone…
Lowest layer:- striated cubic creatures (up to 1’ in diameter),
- and littler tetrahedrons and octohedrons. All of these still retain the slightest green tinge.
- Also long thin whisps, anywhere from 10’ long t 10cm.
- Little asterisk clouds, huge clouds of tiny spheres.
- dominated by large water snakes;
- one location known, on a limestone cliff at Tegg’s edge, an enormous snake-fish with great fangs, and a smaller one in its belly…
- also flatfish, like flounders, with worried little faces (on specimens you can see better)…
- and thin whisps not so thin anymore, with hints of fins,
- and tetrahedrons larger now (1’ across) with a mass of legs or tentacles.
- Harder to find these fossils, many eroded away
- Long flat turtles, 10’ or more in diameter
- Serpents large and small
- Dragon-like creatures, very rarely super-huge… These the local populace hold terrible fear, at least the superstitious ones… and their nests and eggs sometimes
- Some mammals, although small: semi-humanoids, tiny dogs, tiny horse-bears
- Some birds: small mammals with heads like hawks, tiny geese
"It's all the Forest to me..."
- - the Upper Crusts of Esthall and Vesthall
Creatures and Living things of the Forest:
Darven Forest and Current Creatures and Darven Forest Botany
The Village of Current, a Wood Lake Village: Current For towns and SETTLEMENTS in and around the Forest:
Darven Forest Settlements
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Darven Forest and Current Creatures and Darven Forest Botany
The Village of Current, a Wood Lake Village: Current For towns and SETTLEMENTS in and around the Forest:
Darven Forest Settlements
TRADE AND RESOURCES
- The Darven Forest is a source of lumber, to be sure, but there just aren’t that many big settlements to clear it. The FisherFolk and the cities south of the forest use the most, eating slowly into the borders of the forest, cutting Red Maple (and more prized: Jack Maple) for their buildings, boats, and tools.
- There are not many metal resources, and the metal implements that show up are generally from Ersthall, Vesthall, and (if through orcs) strong steel from the Antir Hills. The FisherFolk get some of their iron and steel from their northern neighbors.
- Limestone is abundant for building. Ersthall and Vesthall are built out of limestone almost exclusively; less so the Fishing Villages.
- Crops are grown in amazing abundance south of the Forest, but there is no agriculture but for small individual gardens within it. The Grimlocks might be an exception, but their agriculture is still on a very small scale, and not very diverse.
THE SHARPLEAF
Is an addictive substance traded up and down the shores of wood lake, and it comes down through the forest to Vesthall and Esthall, where it is sold by middle-men to addicts and recreational users. The Grimlocks are those that harvest it the most, and the very few ventures and interactions they have with the Darven People are to trade this precious leaf for goods in return. For more information about this important (if rather underground) substance, read here: The Sharplead Other plants in the Forest: Darven Forest Botany
Type
Forest, Temperate (Seasonal)
Gems and Minerals:
- In the hills, the Prize of the Forest: Yellow Sapphires (corundum), called “sunstones” by those who deal in them (2000)... Exist in limestone deposits, and for no good material reason. There is magic there, from long ago.
- In the Hills: Tin (5cp)
- Gypsum (pearly, fibrous masses, used in the south by farmers, as a fertilizer)
- Chalk-Limestone (5cp)
- Smoky or Clear Quartz crystals (50gp +/-)
- Crinoidal Limestone--ranges scarlet, maroon, red-brown, white-grey, slate colors (500gp)
- Jade when water washes down from the higher land, where marble has been exposed, and at the base of the Antir hills, more rarely. Fairly easy to find in these places if you’re looking in old streambeds
Creatures of the Darven Forest
Dangerous creatures might lurk anywhere, but those in the lower land where there is water are perhaps the most dangerous, for they have the element of surprise. Creatures like the mudmaw can attack out of nowhere and drag unsuspecting creatures down into swamp-water. Other creatures have learned to be careful when gathering plants or water. Many creatures of the swamp live on the higher land, for safety and convenience.
Darven Forest Creatures and Plants
HUMANOIDS of the FOREST:
See Darven Forest and Current : Creaturesor for specific information regarding Darven Forest groups: Darven Forest Humanoids: Specific
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