Night Jungle

"Beware the dangers of the Wilderness."

— Old Phadoyan warning

  The Night Jungle was a large, mystical jungle in the east filled with death and corrosion. There was no obvious pathways to leaving, and it was often surrounded by a thick fog. To be in the Night Jungle was to lose all hope of returning home. Most people who entered never returned. The few who did often bargained with higher powers to ensure they could leave freely. Even then, that came with a price for some.
  To this day, no-one knows how the Night Jungle came to rot. No-one knows what came before the Night Jungle, either. Most people believe that the excessive use of Necranis tarnished the jungle and made it sick. Over time, it got more and more sick until the entire ecosystem started dying.
 

Geography

It was often hard to tell what the Night Jungle looked like from afar, because of the fog surrounding it. Even those who managed to leave couldn't say much about it.
 

Plant Life

The Night Jungle was said to be a rotting forest with decaying trees and dying animals. Many trees remained standing even after dying, further obscuring the world around it. Only one type of tree could resist the decay, which was the ashibit tree.
 

Weather

The Night Jungle was hot and humid during the day, which probably caused the fog. It was also very cold at night, and people did not light fires to protect themselves from unwanted guests.
  The fog around the region often obscured the way of those inside the Night Jungle, meaning they could never find their way back. Over time, the fog would grow thicker until nothing else could be seen. This made it easier to be surprised by anything that could be found in the jungle.
 

"From where we were, we could only see a thick cloud of smoke. Even doing a simple map sketch was quite difficult."

— Yasumichi Toki, legendary cartographer

 

Inhabitants

The Night Jungle is said to have housed many creatures who struck fear in the hearts of travellers. These creatures lurked around, waiting for an unsuspecting or lost traveller to catch. The beasts varied in size and shape, but they could camouflage themselves in the fog, or hide in the trees.
  Other legends told of Spirits that preyed on others' misfortune, selling them lies and desparation to leave the jungle. The Spirits of the Night Jungle were inherently manipulative and took enjoyment from tricking those who were lost.
 

History & Legends

Many of the things people know about the Night Jungle come from legends. As very few survived their encounter in the wilds, many legends were born from fear.
 

Kishil's Bargain

There were many cultures and people that had personal experiences with the Night Jungle and their stories were passed down throughout the generations. The most famous one is the story of the Natuzans, whose ancestors were lost in the Night Jungle for a very long time. To free his people, a young man called Kishil struck a bargain with the God of Death, who then showed them the way to leave. From there, they journeyed to a land that could sustain them and allow them to thrive.
 

The Arja's Exile

Another legend tells the story of the Arja people. In the past, their ancestors in the Spirit World had a falling out and created two groups as a result. One group decided to exclude the other group and send them to the Mortal World. When they arrived, they found themselves in the Night Jungle and were lost there for many decades. They found they could not stay in one place for very long or they would be killed. So they started moving west, and created a pathway by planting new shoots in the forest. After some time, they created a home in the mountains to avoid the decay and called themselves the Arja.
 

Final Cleansing

At some point during the Age of Triumph, the Flora Dragon Kalico and his assistant, Sentinel Nadja, came to heal the forest of its sickness. It took them a long time to do this, and they both got sick by absorbing all the Necranis. But their efforts paid off when the Night Jungle became what people now call the Jade Rainforest.