Forest

The native forest of Gehennum yields slowly to the axe throughout the time covered by this encyclopedia, but even in the Decadent Period vast tracts of it cloak the steeper slopes and the mountainous interiors of the large islands.

Gehennese forest is a tropical rainforest, and consists of trees, climbers and epiphytes in a bewildering array of species. It is home to tigers, leopards, deer, wild pigs, monkeys, parrots, wolves, elephants, hummingbirds, and hundreds of other animal species. (see fauna).

Gehennese get timber from the forest, especially valuing teak, ebony, and mahogany. They hunt the animals for food and sport, and the birds for their feathers. Especially in the Archaic Period, before vast plantations are established, they also gather fruit, nuts, medicines, dyes, and spices in the forest.

Stories persist throughout all periods of naked primitives, ignorant of agriculture, their lives untouched by the influences of the leshy, surviving in remote and inaccessible forests. Certainly in the Archaic Period there are barbarians in western Thelmond and eastern Bethany practising swidden agriculture in the forests. By the Classical Period these people have all been absorbed into the mainstream of Gehennese culture.


Copyright © 1991 by Brett Evill. All rights reserved.