Forest of Decay

The landscape is composed of a Woods biome stuck in perpetual autumn, where trees, plants, bushes, and plant-life creatures constantly shed their orange, yellow and red leaves to the ground while having enough life power to regenerate them back in an instant. This effect is called Stasis by the Government, and Habitaia by the local wildlife, and as consequence, the brown grass of the ecosystem's soil is shared by mounds and mounds of shed leaves which make the terrain seem... primordial, beautiful, and overall, vivid as heaven.
It is hard to find any windswept plain or mountainous area in the orange woodlands of the forest, its like the minibiome refused to generate life on capable lands just for a sense of disparity. For all we know, if the biome had full control of the continent, it would bring life, joy and whimsy to every corner of Mystralis, giving even the undead a change to live in peaceful, harmonious, and bountiful communities.

The natural beauty of the location is only enhanced by the view of the Whispering Peaks up North, towering over the landmass like natural protection, shielding the land against natural snowstorms, heatwaves, or natural phenomena. Thanks to their deflection, the Forest of Decay is a perfect place to live for communities looking for a conservative place that does not change, does not endanger lives, and nevertheless, provide them with the fruits of nature every time they asked.

That is, unless you consider the environs of the Monasterium that gives this place life, the Night Cemetery, the true source of Decay.

Trust Nature's Will, and Thy Will Never Want for Anything, in Life, or Unlife.
Respect for the natural way of life is treasured here as a mandate, provide for nature, and nature will provide for you. The abundance of natural resources including wood, bark, all types of fruits, bushes, twigs, flowers, underground water, and life, ever-regenerating and ever-living onward, makes this place a perfect place to leave for many creatures that depend on nature's will to live, including peaceful communities of Treants, which commune with nature to thank him after every harvest. Or Elves, who appreciate the quiet, the whimsy, and the capacity for growth in a place life this, far from developed society and close to the source of all life.

Most interesting of all, are the peaceful undead who have found a place to stay here, in the forest of hope and darkness. Since trees are so plentiful across the entire lands, sunlight doesn't penetrate that much inside the environs of the forest, leaving place for sunweak communities to thrive, learn, and be active 24 hours a day. Undead here not only find a connection to this place thanks to the Night Cemetery's Decay, but they can really unlive here in the presence of other actors of nature whom respect them as such. The biggest threats in the Forest of Decay, including Nightcrawlers, Bodaks, or even Devourers, they don't attack undead, as there is no substance they can take from them other than flesh and negative energy they already have plenty of, so expect the typical undead greeting whenever you enter a random community in the forest, as they love visitors as much as they love themselves.

Autumn is the main season of the forest, a time of the year where life decays only to grow again, better and stronger than ever before in the following Spring season. The cycle here though, it never really starts, nor will it ever really end, as life here does not "grow" nor "die" in the common sense of the words, it just "lives on" as if it always has existed. Even new trees generated by the spread of the forest seem to just be, they don't grow from a sapling, they don't mature to old age, and they never die, they just are, even those who seem to have lost all their leaves, they still generate and shed even if a little amount of them, communication to everyone around them that they aren't really "dead", they just are.

This effect can be seen in full color when trying to cut down a tree, even if you axe it from the trunk up, the bark will grow again, from the ground up, at such a fast pace that you won't even notice it ever left. And the bark you cut from the tree? It's there, on the ground, waiting to be used as a place to live, as furniture to decorate, or as tools to wield. It's like the tree duplicated itself, all in the blink of an eye, and gave you its first body so you can make use of it. Nature Provides, does it not?

The climate in this Minibiome is of a Temperate Continental Climate, and since it is always stuck in autumn, the temperature is never too cold, and never too hot, allowing all kinds of life to thrive here with no need for external heating, external freezing, or any type of temperature regulation.
Rain coming from the western ocean sometimes reaches this zone, and normally like gentle clouds of bounty that merely want to provide the woodsfolk a little bit more of clean water for their underground water springs. All it can be said as factual information, is that the climate here is perfectly fit for life, nothing more, nothing else.

Even if this biome may seem hostile from an outsider's point of view, the lands far from the Cemetery are actually very peaceful and bountiful, since resources constantly regenerate. They are also decently isolated from the outside world, the Monarchy's traditions above all, so communities of the following species have formed around these ever-decaying forests of hope:

• Decaying Treants: of all types, be it golden willow, black locust trees, dark brown oaks or grey elms, even birch wood, all kinds of plant-like creatures thrive here as if they were native for this new minibiome of the Central Plains, and are normally never a threat to any passerby who dares talk with them! They love to engage in experienced conversation wounded up by hundreds of years of experience, they never had in the first place! Weird, isn't it.
• Elves and Half-Elves, making up the biggest elven community in all of Mystralis, from High to Drow, and from Sea to Wood. From all over the continent elves have hid here to be far away from the grasp of the Monarchy and live their solitary lives without intervention, at least, until the Aetherveil Doomum decided to take camp in the forest and opened its doors to monarchy officials to teleport there for daily checks and collections of tribute. So yes, they are not completely secluded from Divine Order, but the Government has decided to leave them the solitude they deserve, as long as they provide new findings and academic research to the Monarchia every year, emphasis on nature.
• Nature Spirits such as Dryads and Nymphs have taken place here, fey-maidens who acted as the protectors of forests and trees, and guardians of wild places. These are immigrants from the Fae Forest who found their place in the calm and wilderness of the Forest of Decay rather than in the upbeat, energetic and enigmatic place of the Fae full of trickery, charms, and play games .
• Undead of many kinds, peaceful and hostile, good and evil. Some have even formed their own civilizations under the Dead Trees, called like that not because they are dead, but because they are populated by undead, those trees remain as healthy as ever, even thriving, shielding the communities from harming sunlight that could tear their societies down. Undead culture is common place here, so one can encounter many graveyards, crypts, morgues and catacombs where the undead live! Party, meet, feel, kill, and nurture. Anything a living being would do in their place.

However, around the Night Cemetery, all-powerful creatures of negative have been spotted by surviving witnesses, rendering the areas surrounding it unhabitable to anyone who is not undead:

• Bodaks, the relentless avengers.
• Corpse Flowers, the incarnations of antinatura.
• Devourers, the feeders of life.
• Nightshades, of each and every variety, including Nightcrawlers, Golothomas, Nightwings, and the perilous Nightwalkers, the enders of life.
• Revenants, vengeful spirits of souls lost to themselves.
• Will-o-Wisps, the fireflies of the dead.
• Wraiths and Ghosts of many kinds and power, threatening to end life as it is.

Why these creatures, haters of the living, eaters of life, and dangers to the cycle, are generated by the same force that give so much life to this single piece of the continent, is still a mystery.

Time. Time. Time. Time. Is of the essence. Time. How much do you have left? Time. Time is. Time is the bane of men. Time is the ender of life. No one beats Time. Bodies may contest Time. But no one survives Time. Time corrupts. Time decays. Time destructs.

During Expedition Fall, expeditioners quickly met the Imperator of the Monasterium in the Night Cemetery. After losing most of their ranks designated to the Forest of Decay, they knocked the door on the Cemetery's entrance, only to be greet, in the dead of night, by the titanic Wight King, a giant skeletal figure wearing a crown of golden bones, ragged leather armor with studs made of a weird black metal unidentified as of yet, and purple jewel eyes. He invited in the expeditioners as if they were in an accepting home, and after that... they ######### # ######### ## ###### ## ########## ##### ##### ##### #### ######## ### #########. Only one, the sub-expeditioner commander, was left to live to tell the tale, supposedly by choice of the Wight King itself as #### told official sources. He is now held under heavy psychiatric warding and in constant observation, as he just #### ## ######.