The Arcane Arbour

Located in the southwest of the continent of Euristan, the western boundary of the Arcane Arbour is set by the slopes of the Icevein Peaks, its eastern boundary by the course of the Weeping River, it’s northern boundary by the slopes of the Dragons' Tears Mountains and its southern boundary by the City-State of Zath, and beyond the waters of the Strait of Carboni.   The Arcane Arbour, along with its cousin to the north, the Hunters' Wood, is all that remains of the large swathe of rolling hills and woodland that used to cover the whole of the region once known as Mostriana, which is now the Desolation of Melchis. However, its proximity along a very long border with the desolation to the east, and the unpredictable magical currents that emanate from that region have twisted the Arcane Arbour to be almost unrecognisable from what it once was.   The trees of the region, known as Iron Oaks, have grown to enormous sizes and their branches are now so thick that they choke the sky, rendering everything beneath them dark and gloomy. The actual land on which the Arcane Arbour is based is predominantly quite flat, despite the proximity of the lower slopes of the Icevein Peaks to the west. However, this topographical feature is rather lost by the fact that the enormous roots of the trees that make up the forest have contorted the land into a twisting, labyrinthine mass of tussocks, hillocks, and exposed roots.

As it is bounded to the west by the Icevein Peaks, which are saturated with the magic of the Divine Malfrost, and to the east by the tempestuous arcane torrents of the Desolation of Melchis, the Arcane Arbour is a constantly shifting landscape. Paths open and close amongst the trees, seemingly at will, making it incredibly difficult to navigate the forest, often leaving unwary travellers suddenly stranded in dense groves of trees where there had been a clear path just a second before.   The seasons also flux constantly in the Arcane Arbour, with different parts of the region experiencing spring, summer, autumn and winter at completely different times, with these seasonal microclimates sometimes lasting mere minutes and sometimes years on end.

The trees that create the ceiling of foliage in the Arcane Arbour are a species of deciduous trees called Iron Oaks, which grow incredibly tall, with enormous thick trunks and with a network of upper branches and canopy that can spread over 10 metres in every direction. These naturally large trees have grown even larger, thanks to the currents of wild magic that wash over the region from the Desolation of Melchis.   Beneath the canopy, the flora of the region is almost entirely comprised of different forms of mushroom and other fungi that can survive with very little light. Some species of bioluminescent fungi form oases around themselves, as the light they emit allows other more light dependent plants and fungi to thrive much more effectively.   As for the fauna, the herbivorous creatures that dwell on the forest floor have been forced to adapt to eating a mostly fungi-based diet, which has produced some interesting sub-species of the normal deer, wild boar and other commonly found woodland species have developed there. The carnivorous creatures too have adapted a wide variety of additional traits to help them track prey in the gloom and the relative isolation of the region, combined with the warping effect of wild magic, has led to an evolutionary war between predator and prey as they try to develop different traits to outcompete each other.   In addition, creatures that are normally only thought to exist in deep underground places such as the Underdark, have been reported in the Arcane Arbour as the light levels there are so low that they are tolerable for creatures used to living in the pitch blackness of the subterranean.

The primary resource of the Arcane Arbour is the trees that make up the region themselves. These are harvested by the people of the City-State of Zath, and used to make all manner of incredibly strong crafts, industrial and building materials from the incredibly hard wood.