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Vectra, The Scaled Forest


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Vectra, The Scaled Forest

 

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In the southern tip of a faraway continent named Aarlan, nestled between great ridges of mountains, lay the forests of Vectra. These forests, at the time gentle and welcoming, were considered a cradle of life, home to a number of prosperous Mali’ame seeds and revered druidic sects.

 

The idyllic home of the Aarlan Wood Elves would not last, though - such things never do. It was no special occasion when a neighboring human kingdom sought to cross the mountains and expand into these woods, adding land to their holding.

 

The war would change the continent forever, and turn this serene forest into something much less hospitable.

 

I - A History

 

The First Forest

Unrecorded - 1129

 

From as early as even the oldest living residents remember, Vectra has always been a bastion to the Wood Elves. No stories or histories document a time when any other race dominated its trees.

 

This large period of time, referred to as ‘The First Forest’ or ‘The Forest Before’ specifies the centuries where Vectra’s denizens lived in relative peace - the mountains surrounding the woods kept out all but the most determined bandits, and the simple lives of the Mali’ame left internal disputes to a minimum.

 

Life was quiet in these times, and life’s focus was placed on the arts and spiritualism, for most. While most men were hunters of some sort, true combat training was rare. Only among a subset of druids named as “The Huntsman’s Chosen” was fighting skill truly sought, and it was these druids who served as the closest thing to a standing military within Vectra. Highly skilled, they would be dispatched to protect the realm from the minor threats it faced - rabid beasts, bandits, or even the rare criminal.

 

In the First Forest, some degree of druidism was followed by nearly every resident. For a many families, a child’s early years would be spent in dedicancy with his attunement taking place on the day of his coming of age.

 

By the year 1100, approximately two-thirds of Vectra’s wood elven denizens were attuned druids.

 

The Mother’s Reckoning

1129 - 1134

 

In the early days of 1129, seeds closest to the Northwestern mountains began reporting sightings of more and more small bands of humans, all bearing the same colors. At first, they did little more than keep to the mountains - and the ‘ame were happy to let them, having no need of them.

 

Forts and roads were made, and in subtle response, a small recruitment drive was initiated for The Huntsman’s Chosen. By the time human emissaries arrived to the first settlements of the outer seeds, demanding they disperse, the band of hunters had amassed into a small army.

 

With the demands of the emissaries, the fears of many had been made real - the armies of the humans were coming, and so began the war that would be later called ‘The Mother’s Reckoning’.

 

The Wood Elves met initial success in the war, with the Chosen harrying the incoming troops as they passed through the mountains. This guerilla war was initially quite effective, with minimal casualties to the Chosen.

 

The few humans who made it past the mountains were stranded in a hostile land, their supply trains broken, and reinforcements uncertain.

 

Unfortunately for the ‘Ame, though, the Chosen were few in number. Even after the recruitment drive, every loss had impact. Where the scores they slain were simply replaced, every fallen hunter was a hard blow to the defense.

 

As the months turned into years, the Chosen grew fewer and fewer, and the quarry grew smarter. Desperate for numbers, any elf willing was soon given a sword - and where they were once elite marksmen, the Chosen soon came to more closely resemble a militia.

 

With the defense weakened, the human armies soon made it over the mountains. It cannot be said that the defenders did not fight with valor, but with the mountains crossed, little could be done as the invaders made their way to the coast.

 

By 1134, all but the heart of Vectra, its most sacred grove, had been taken. Most of the remaining Mali’ame sought refuge in its outskirts or in the treetops, hiding in rough canopy villages. It was in this grove that the event known as the Mother’s Reckoning would take place.

 

Little is known about it, today. The most faithful say it was a deliverence by the Aspects themselves. Scholarly folk theorize that the druids had somehow harnessed a void node’s power. Others still think darker forces were involved - nonetheless, the shrouded ritual changed Vectra forever.

 

It came quickly, forewarned only by select messengers mere hours before starting. Telling the wood elves to flee into the trees while the most powerful of the druids met deep within the grove.

 

Of the events that occured within, only two things are known - that Vectra’s animal and plant life experienced extreme growth, and that all druids involved were never seen again.

 

Villages were sundered as massive trees sprung from nothing, and the survivors could only hang onto their branches in terror as the forest underwent a thousand years’ growth in moments. The aready impressive treeline became impossibly tall, and the creatures within grew with it. When the movement finally stopped, the forest was an entirely different place.

 

The Scaled Forest

1135 - Present

 

The first days after the Reckoning were deadly for all those within the forest. Where once the most dangerous creature to roam it was typically the stray snake, giant reptillian monsters now traversed its floor. The humans who survived the initial event were forced to return home, the once ripe lands now effectively uninhabitable.

 

Over the coming years, the ‘Ame adapted. The remaining druids formed settlements out of the now-massive treetops, and those seeds with substantial influence ruled them. In a sense, the Wood Elves were forced to centralize. Only so many druids lived, after all, and only the most powerful leaders could guide their hand.

 

Starting with the great city of Cannavin, and expanding out, the strongest seeds came to house the weakest.

 

For a hundred years, life became more and more normal. With the aid of the druids, food was plentiful. Many elves were born and never saw the ground until decades into life. The Chosen once again grew, this time much larger and dedicated to protecting the city-bearing trees.

 

When the forest finally settled, the humans returned.

 

Many of the details are lost to time, but what is known is that a civil war erupted in the very same kingdom that sought to take Vectra. Confined to their own lands, internal strife began to set in as soon as the soldiers returned home, and soon after, war broke out.

 

Of those defeated, many were executed. The rest, banished to the lands that had plagued this kingdom - Vectra.

 

The arrival of these refugees was met with apprehension at best, and hostility at worst. Veterans of the war sought them dead for their part in the Reckoning. Others wished for kindness and hospitality.

 

Eventually, an unspoken truce formed. So long as the humans kept from the trees, the Elves would let them live, and die, in peace. For most, this was adequate, but as with any such situation, tensions soon rose.

 

Groups on both sides contribute to this - some of the more warlike seeds hunted humans as eagerly as they hunted monsters. Of the humans, the most desperate of them would sometimes try and capture even a tiny treetop settlement, to escape the massive, roaming beasts.

 

Such is the case even today - the exiles suffering in the dirt as the elves look on from above.

 

II - The People of Vectra

 

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The Forest’s Floor

 

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At the forest’s floor reside the dangers that give the region its name - massive reptilian monsters. Some walk on four legs, some on two. Some are peaceful grazers, others terrifying hunters. These creatures, dubbed ‘scalebacks’ locally, make conventional life on the forest floor impossible. Only on a few small permanent islands, just off the coast, can normal life occur.

 

None would live here by choice, only by force. Such is the case of the humans residing here. The descendants of exiles, families who sided the wrong side of some faraway civil war, they have long since abandoned the feudal ways in the forest floor.

 

The changing seasons sees the rising and lowering of the levels of the various rivers, and in the widest of them, some islands will appear and disappear from the waters. These temporary islands offer some of the only safety from the scalebacks, and most human residents move between these islands as the seasons change, living in camps.

 

The Wandering Clans

 

When the exiled families first came to Vectra, unity soon gave way to pragmatism. Those with the strongest followings made way to the islands, and held them. The rest were trapped on the mainlands, forced to compete with the scalebacks for survival.

 

Unable to return to their old lifestyles, these humans were forced into a life on the move. Any sort of permanent housing was impossible on the mainland, as the only places safe from the creatures were small, temporary islands along the rivers that were submerged at various points around the years.

 

Instead, the wandering clans keep to tents, and stay on these islands. For as much as months, or as little as mere days, these islands provide a refuge from the scalebacks.

 

Today, the clans operate much the same. They plant crops along the riverbeds, and harvest them next time they return to the area. They hunt the giant fowl of the forests, and for the fastest, survival isn’t the worry it was for the first.

 

Many seek to escape, though. The most skilled of the men often take up hunting - the hide of just one scaleback could get them enough money to take a ship away from Vectra.

 

The humans of the clans are a fairly primitive people. While much of the technology of their old home remains in their possession, rarely does an opportunity to put it to use arise. As such, society has for the most part regressed to tribalism.

 

Religion among the clans is notably absent, between the misfortune experienced by their ancestors and the wrath of the druids inflicted on them, few of the human residents are particularly religious. If anything, many of them have grown a healthy disdain of Druids and Elves.

 

Most of the humans take the roles of hunting and gathering, sustaining their tribes during the periodic movements through the forests. Most work revolves around this - leatherworking, trapping, and fletching are highly valued here.

 

 

 

 

The Canopy

 

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In the forest’s canopy, life takes a much easier turn. Far above the scaleback’s reach, great wood elven cities are built into the treetops. Wood Elven life here is a stark contrast from the humans below - food is plenty, and danger is rare. They live off of fruits and the giant fowl found in the trees, and only rarely visit the forest’s floor.

 

The Cities and Seeds

 

It comes as no surprise that the Wood Elves of Vectra tend to be quite reverent of the Aspects. Many consider the forest itself to be particularly blessed, and the druidic practises are prevalent within the raised cities.

 

The canopy cities are plenty, and they are prosperous. Most of the larger seeds have some form of holding, be they small treetop villas or even control of one of the great cities.

 

The Mali’ame of Vectra live easy lives. They suffer no real enemies, as the Scalebacks below keep any formidable force from nearing them. With their protected treetop cities, the menace that makes Vectra so inhospitable for the other races makes it ideal for the ‘Ame. Only the scattered humans below prove troublesome, with particularly desperate bands attempting to seize smaller canopies, from time to time.

 

Few ever seek to truly permanently the forest, but many of the young are encouraged to spend their early adult years in adventure and exploration. To experience the rest of the world, away from the relaxed and soft life in the forest.

 

Some take druidic pilgrimages, seeking out the world’s natural wonders. Others seek fortune hunting and fighting to build wealth for their return.

 

 

 

 

 

The Haven Islands

 

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Once largely barren, a handful of small islands off the forest’s coast provided safe haven to some of the exiled humans. Only here is life somewhat ‘normal’, as the most enterprising of the exiles quickly asserted control over the islands.

 

As small as they are, only some of those exiles were able to reside here. Those that did quickly resorted to force to protect their new homes - everybody wanted a place free from the scalebacks.

 

The largest of these islands, Strast, makes up the region’s only port. It has few exports, but one, the scales of the scalebacks, has made its rulers quite wealthy.

 

The Islanders

 

When the human exiles first arrived in Vectra, the most influential quickly took hold of the limited resource that was security. With space only enough to sustain a few, they claimed the small islands off the coast, and over time we able to build a life not terribly unlike the normalcy of home.

 

Of course, these islands posed their own challenges. While fish and fruits provided some food, inland expeditions are regularly needed to provide the rest. In the early years, small farms were made inland, as close to the shore as the grain would grow. Every harvest, men and armed escorts would make way into the fields, grabbing what crop they could and bolting back to their ships, eagerly awaited the next safe moment.

 

In more recent times, trade and prosperity have begun to come to these islands. With some careful planning, the scalebacks of Vectra prove to be quite profitable neighbors. Be it through hunting or trade with those living within, those on the Islands eventually came to be widely regarded for the sale of the iron-like hides of the beasts.

 

Where they were once scared men, clinging to rocks, the Islanders today are proud, wealthy people - much to the disdain of those abandoned to the forests.

 

III - Vectran Fauna and Flora

 

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Vectra, ever since the Mother’s Reckoning, has been home to numerous forms of life seen nowhere else in all the world. When this druidic calamity occurred, the growth of many things accelerated to such a degree that many of the results no longer even resembled what they had once been.

 

The Scalebacks

 

Truly the terror of Vectra, the Scalebacks are a general name for the variants of reptiles that were brought about by the Reckoning. While they are a wide group, almost all of them are vicious, deadly creatures. Most numerous of them are the Despots, the Thieves, and the Wanderers - though other, smaller species exist.

 

The Despot

 

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So named for its new place as the ‘king’ of this forest, The Despot is perhaps the most threatening breed of Scalebacks. Walking on two legs, the Despot is one of the tallest of the beasts. While its front arms are fairly short, it’s large mouth is host to nearly a hundred wicked sharp teeth, and its jaws have been seen to snap trees.

 

A popular superstition among the Clans is that the Despot cannot see stationary targets. Unfortunately for the many who have tried to evade them in this way, this is false. Few things can be done to escape an angered scaleback of this size but to run and hope that it chases somebody else.

 

To make matters worse, the Despot has the thickest scales of all its kin. Nearly impossible to harm with conventional weaponry, these scales make this beast as dangerous to fight as it is lucrative. To those aspiring hunters of the world, the thought of killing a Despot is a tantalizing ambition.

 

The Thieves

 

The thieves are, structurally, not dissimilar from the Despot. The main difference is in size - where a Despot towers over all those around it, the Thief is roughly eye-level with the humans who must live around them. What it lacks in size, though, it makes up for with speed.

 

Typically found in packs, the Thieves are named for a horrifying means by which they hunt. Rather intelligent creatures, in the wild they tend to resort to dragging off young prey while the adults are away - they steal eggs, they butcher pups, and they drag off even children. It is not unheard of for the young, both elven and human, to be lost to them if they wander too far.

 

The Wanderers

 

Not all of the scalebacks are rampaging monsters, in fact, many of them are fairly docile. The Wanderers are the most numerous of this sort, and they are quite content to keep to themselves.

 

They are fairly large, roughly the size of a large cow,  and primarily graze on the grasses and low-growing plants of Vectra. Some clans have attempted to use them as livestock, or beasts of burden, but soon discovered the difficulty of simply directing these creatures - they are quite difficult to force to do anything.

 

The only threat of the Wanderers comes in passive scenarios - they are known to eat growing crops, or trample the outskirts of camps.

 

 

The Flora of Vectra

 

When the Reckoning occured, the trees were not the only plants to experience extreme growth and change.

 

Most changes were fairly mundane - In the forest, things grow bigger, and faster. Watermelons the size of men are commonplace, and apple trees bear fruits the size of an elf’s head. However, some fairly dangerous flora emerged.

 

The Beastvine

 

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Some say that these creatures were the result of plant and animal somehow merging during the Reckoning. While these claims have nothing to support them, the appearance of these floral beings certainly lends itself to the theory.

 

The Beastvines are usually found in the canopy of the forest, growing from the massive treebranches. They consist of a long vine ‘neck’ supporting a head-like bud, complete with thorn ‘teeth’. The exact means by which they function is unknown, but they react with extreme aggression towards anything within their reach, and the largest of them have been known to swallow elves whole. Only the strongest of druids are capable of calming them, and then only temporarily.

 

The Seductress

 

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Another green killer, the Seductress is known for its bait-and-trap method of feeding itself.

 

Creatures of all sort are vulnerable to its intoxicating fragrance. Beast and man both experience an extreme compulsion when struck by its scent - a compulsion to find its source. It is here that the Seductress grows, it’s ‘mouth’ covered by large, luscious leaves.

 

When the victim is close enough, its vines snap out, attempting to pull the target into its waiting maw. While not impossible to break free from, the lovely scent of the Seductress has been the end to many a Vectran.

 

~~~~

 

Lore by Combustionary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dinosaurs, +1 for that

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I assume the dinosaurs are beastial, if so heck yes.

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More things to curse :)

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