Tolmeshal forest
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Contents
Danger: Normal
Sub zones: Safe Harbor, Fairy pond, Nekomura
Inhabitants: nagas, kensha beasts, fairies, dryads, echydins, noghdongs, iampis, podmaws, poisonous creepers, arboreal frogs, starkala bugs, pantaurs, duikers, glouteux, spine beetles, drakewillow nexolts, mumansis, bugle lizards, dridders, boom bees, black skin-divers, furred parrots, cyganeka worms, eliocanthes, apluyahs
Characters : Ajab, Drayla , Artemia, Elle, Jora, Sonya, Milly, Masumi
The name Tolmeshal comes from the Sagolian "Tol-Mesh-al". The signification is uncertain, but some believe it means "the hungry forest". This name is rarely used though, as most people would simply refer to it as "the jungle" or "the middle forest", as it's situated roughly in the center of most Felarya maps. Tolmeshal forest is an immense jungle area sprawling from the west of Ur-Sagol and the foothills of Frost peak, to the Forest of whispers, and to the Ascarlin mountains in the south, as well as the Grove of carnivorous plants. It's believed Miragia forest was part of Tolmeshal millenniums ago, before an accident turned it into what it is now. It's crossed by countless rivers and streams, the main one being the Shard river and holds many iconic landmarks of Felarya such as the Giant tree.
Tolmeshal forest is your typical Felaryan jungle. It's a beautiful and thick, lush jungle, teeming with life. The atmosphere is hot and humid. Some trees grow to truly gigantic size, dwarfing their surroundings, and stretching majestically toward the sky. It's common to see thick vegetation grow on these behemoths, even smaller trees sometimes! It's quite possible to navigate and find your way on their giant branches, hundreds of feet above the ground. You need a sure footing though, as the slightest slip can be fatal, and to watch out for canopy predators, such as arboreal frogs or pantaurs. The jungle floor is much more shadowy and damp and, while you don't risk falling to your death here, sometimes the vegetation will turn into an impenetrable wall of vines and poisonous creepers.
Tolmeshal forest is as deadly as it is beautiful. It's inhabited by a large variety of hostile beasts and giant predators, more than ready to catch and gobble up any unaware adventurer. It's a dangerous and predatory world, full of subterfuge and camouflage. Nothing is as it appears. A large, bright, beautiful flower could reveal itself to be a deadly trap, and what look like a quiet cave could be the hungry mouth of a dryad lying in wait. You can’t sit down without running the risk that something big and hungry will find you, and during the night, the place becomes even more frightening, full of strange, scary sounds and even deadlier creatures. It takes lot of courage and determination indeed, to venture deep into the jungles of Felarya.
Fairy pond
Danger : Hazardous
Inhabitants : fairies, dryads, echydins, doormat plants, mermaids
Characters : Lucilya
Situated in the eastern part of Tolmeshal forest, the fairy pond is one of the wonders of Felarya. The ground is covered by bluish grass and beautiful flowers, and the air is filled with their intense aroma. The pond itself is of the purest water and the sound of the nearby waterfall is relaxing. This place is truly enchanting and you could lose yourself in contemplation for hours. However, the water is magically enhanced in more ways than one. One of the magical enchantments is that of purity, as the water stays totally pure and crystalline. If you were covered in mud and took a bath here, the water wouldn't become even the slightest bit murkier, nor would it become even a tiny bit less clean. Another magical enchantment is an enchantment against drowning, which has been in place since a day long since past when a mournful fairy enchantress cast the enchantment over the waters to ensure no one else would ever drown in it like her daughter had. The last and most interesting enchantment is an enchantment of size changing. The waters of the pond will instantly shrink any human or neko who touches it to a height of three inches... providing an easy and quickly replenishing source of food for the numerous fairies who dwell here.
The whole area is saturated with magic, making it very pleasant and refreshing for magical beings. Along with the fairies, a few dryads live here, and sometimes mermaids from the adjacent Shard river come to visit as well. Besides being relaxing and a great hunting ground, this place acts as a safe haven. The neighboring areas have been overrun by insects, the main danger for fairies in Felarya since most insects have strong anti-magic abilities. However, the pond keeps them away.
Safe Harbor
Nekomura
Danger: Very Low
Inhabitants: nekos
A Neko village, south of Tolmeshal forest. While a sizable population of Nekos live within Negav, a much larger community remains outside the safety of the city's walls in the Nekomura village. Nekomura has a somewhat rustic feel to it, with simple dwellings on the ground and various structures built into the sides of the great trees that surround them. Interestingly, instead of traditional rope bridges linking the tree dwellings together, there are merely straight ropes! Given the amazing balance and agility of nekos, sprinting across a half-inch rope is as easy as running across a wide stone bridge. The people here are mostly content and feel relatively safe even though they are outside the protective walls of Negav. This hasn't always been the case, however.
History
For nekos, living in Negav among humans has never been an easy affair. Under the reign of neko kings, tensions were already simmering between the two races. Then came the Great Destruction, when a good part of Negav was destroyed, and Tonho and many nekos were devoured, especially members of the military. In the aftermath, nekos and humans survivors worked together to build and reinforce Negav. The humans were now clearly in charge though, having suffered less from the Great Destruction and being led by the powerful Ps'isols mages. Thus, when the dust of destruction and rebuilding settled, thing became more and more complicated for Nekos. After several years, racial tensions were again running high, in part because king Tonho was held by many negavians to be solely responsible for the catastrophe that destroyed so much of the city.
When the Ps'isol magiocrats took power, they "encouraged" nekos to leave. A large number of nekos followed their advice, feeling that proximity to humans wasn't doing them any good. They set out to construct a separate village a short distance to the north: Nekomura. Under the term of the Mancala agreement, Ps'isol magiocrats offered the nekos a crystal of the same kind as the Isolon Eye in Negav, as a sign of "eternal friendship". The neko's crystal, however, is just a mere shadow of the original, as it stands less then 5 feet tall. It does more or less the same things as the Isolon Eye: wards away large predators that might otherwise feast on the village. However, unlike the eye, this crystal must be regularly recharged by the mages of Negav, which they do for a fee. This treachery has kept tensions high between Nekomura and Negav, however the nekos still dutifully pay the fee as they know the crystal is the only thing keeping ravenous predators at bay. There have been recorded instances where the crystal weakened enough to allow a giant naga a large enough window to snatch some villagers before finally being driven back by the magic.
Thus the two populations don't interact very often, save for basic trade, and sometimes knowledge sharing. A large number of nekos both within the village and within the city will frequently offer their services as scouts in the jungles of Felarya. In fact, the nekos scouts are so well known and respected that even the isolationist Delurans have turned to them on more than one occasion to assist in their scouting duties.
- credits to Servomoore for some ideas to develop the fairy pond.
