Soufest system

A cave system covering the south-west of Branul, used as yet another tool for the hidden war between Sheoka and Ocrius by both sides. It has wildly changed since the dawn of magic.

The caves

The cave system mostly covers the south-west of Branul, and it's mostly found under the countries of Sheoka and Ocrius, with most of the entrances to the system being found in the Lamargar Forest, which is the border between both nations, and in the Durgdows range.

It has never been fully mapped out, and, since the dawn of magic, most maps have had to be re-drawn as the dawn changed the cave system and added many challenges and dangers to the caves.

The war

Both nations are in a constant unofficial war for obtaining control over the Lamargar Forest, which, officially, is property of Sheoka. Both have thought that mapping the cave system and using it would give them the upper hand in the war, but after the dawn of magic Ocrius seems to have stopped getting into the caves while Sheoka has been seen sending more expeditions.

Brown rock formation during daytime by Bradley Dunn

The dawn

The cave, originally, was fairly bare of life. One could find some fungi and small bugs, maybe small lizards if the caves were close enough to the surface and more rarely a den of some mammal. Since the dawn of magic the fauna, flora, and even layout of the caves, have drastically changed.

A lot of new flora seems to not need of sunlight at all, mostly feeding of mana, and is often —or at least, some parts of it— luminescent.

Fauna seems to have flooded the caves, and many of the new species are aggressive on sight and dangerous. Most of them also seem to have some control over magic, or used to have, and the chaotic magic of Iphars makes them dangerous whether they intend or not; there have been next to no sight of animals living in groups so far.

The layout of the caves haven't been spared of changes. Tunnels collapsed, holes opened, some places where flooded, some now hold ruins that don't make sense how they got into it, and some tunnels have been reported to be actually hidden portals to unknown places. Minerals and crystals grew overnight in walls, covering giant spaces with materials that could or not react badly to being mined or interactions because they might hold unknown magic.