The Glazier's Forest

Overview

Filling a valley that passes through the Furnace Peaks, a few days' ride northwest of the City of Idols, the Glazier's Forest is one of the true marvels of Far Kuramen - a massive forest rising in the shadow of the volcanic slopes, formed entirely of gleaming glass and crystal. It is said that when the sun rises the wood burns brighter than the heart of the Inferno itself, but few have ever lingered long enough to see this for themselves, for the Glazier's Forest is known to be prone to sudden and ferocious storms of lightning that strikes from the very trees themselves.

History

The history of the Glazier's Forest is long, dating back to the Age of Calamity when the world was sundered; back then, the forest was a thing of common wood and shrub, young but growing strongly amid the mighty Furnace Peaks. It was the Calamity itself, when the Hollow sought to return the world to formless Void and was stymied by the dual power of both the Great Mother and the Shining One, that brought about the forest's change; with the three Primordials struggling, the natural balance of energy in Kuramen was upset, and the ruthlessly orderly nature of the Shining One manifested itself amid the forest. In the span of a heartbeat soft, chaotic living matter was transformed into unyielding crystal, only to have the Shining One's power overturned a few moments later with a crashing tide of the Great Mother's creative, chaotic force that rekindled the life in the forest; gleaming crystal and glass, imbued with the nature of a living forest. When the world split, the strange forest was dropped into the chaotic realms of Far Kuramen, along with the entire range of the Furnace Peaks themselves.

For centuries the forest grew, spreading and swelling with at a near-geological pace, he regular dusting rains of ash and soot settling across the valley and trickling in streams amid the glittering crystal leaves. In time, the life-imbuing energy pervading Far Kuramen awoke an entire ecosystem of crystal and stone amid the forest, delicate creatures of mineral prowling amid the glistening trunks and padding across the ashen sands.

With the coming of the Mortal Races to settle within the City of Idols, so came the discovery of the crystalline forest; for a brief time, it was briefly considered as a possible resource or haven among the settlers, until an ashfall from the nearby peaks, the fine grains of ash slithering across the gleaming crystal leaves and glassy trunks, provoked an explosion of brilliant lightning and crashing thunder that left the Mortal Races who survived awestruck, as if one of the Lost Gods or a Dragon had dropped in to express displeasure at them.

Thus it is that entering the Forest is taboo, and the trade routes between the Silvercliff settlement and the City of Idols skirts the outermost fringes of the valley, remaining as far from the forest as possible for fear of provoking a lightning storm amid the heavily charged trees.

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