The Valley of the King of the Trees
Location: Outlands / Brinklands
In the Valley of the King of the Trees, just a stone’s throw from Faunel on the cusp of the Beastlands, the forest is just as active as the critters that roam it. This ain’t no ordinary forest, cutter. Here, the climate’s got more moods than a Xaositect. Up top, it’s as chilly as Cania, but stroll down to the valley’s belly, and you’re in hot, lush jungle. The valley teems with all manner of talkin’ beasts. They’re smart, these critters, spell-slingers even. Unlike the talking creatures of the Beastlands, who seem to be cooperative and even friendly, these cutters live by a code of tooth-and-claw. It’s the survival of the fittest out here, and nature’s brutal rules reign supreme.
But that ain’t all. The trees here are actually petitioners, and each one has a name, a personality and a voice. From the frost-kissed pines up high to the sun-soaked palms and mahoganies below, every tree’s under the domain of its own lord. Betula is the birch lord, Quercus is queen of the oaks, Acer is the maple king, Salix is queen of the willows, and Pinene the lord of the evergreens. This whole place is like a parliament of trees, with each variety represented by its own baron. Every dozen seasons, the treant power Emmantiensien can be found here, conversing with the high-up trees of the valley. It’s not know what they talk about, but it can take many weeks for a conversation to begin and finish. The native tongue of the treants is not for the impatient.
Now here’s the dark of it—this valley wasn’t always part of the Outlands. Some say it used to be a slice of the Beastlands, but when the philosophical winds changed, so did the valley. Folks started thinkin’ that the perfect wild was only for the animals, and that’s all it took. Those tree lords felt the shift, uprooted themselves and their leafy kin, and made for the Outlands. They were after a place where balance rules, far from the meddling hands and noisy philosophies of mortals. Well, some say that. Others reckon the realm used to be in the Plane of Wood. When that place was sealed off from the rest of the Inner Planes to protect itself from Ayrzul’s blight, the King of the Trees took umbrage and moved their realm to the Outlands, refusing to be cut off from mortal worshippers. Since the re-emergence of the Plane of Wood, graybeards are wondering how long it will be before the realm undergoes its next planar realignment again.
Source: Joshua Jarvis and Jon Winter-Holt
