Anierry Brumal Forest

Geography

An Thierry Brumal Forest is a vast, cold-temperate taiga (boreal woodland) that covers the storm-wracked northern interior of the world during the Twilight Age. It is the antithesis of the saturated thaw-plains of Agaro, or the exposed stone barrens of Aightu. An Thierry is characterized by crushing, suffocating cold, and monumental snowfall accumulations that are topped off with a seemingly endless ocean of ancient, old-growth evergreens able to withstand months of extreme, prolonged seasonal darkness, and winter gales.

Topography and Geology

An Thierry consists of the surface of a sprawling basin of undulating uplands, low mountain ridges, and deep river valleys that were aggressively carved by glacial advance and retreat over the span of great geologic ages. It is the most topographically uneven part of the world-which is itself a deceptive quality in that the true nature of the terrain is hidden by thick layers of the suffocatingly dense evergreen canopy, as well as dense mosses, peats and centuries of accumulated forest detritus. The forest floor is the most treacherous and uneven landscape in the world. Its landscape is composed primarily of frost-heaved root systems, monumental deadwood deadfalls, and freezing marshes and hidden stream corridors that will not un-freeze and emerge for many months per year.

The underlying geology is composed of deeply ancient granite bedrock, immense deposits of glacial till and deeply weathered metamorphic ridges. The immense scarring of the Ice Age is readily apparent throughout the forest. Enormous glacial erratics and smoothed-stone outcroppings litter the terrain, particularly across the more elevated ridgelines where the oncoming continental ice scoured the landscape bare of its topsoil in millennia past.

Climate and Hydrography

The climate of the Brumal Forest is excruciatingly hostile and deeply seasonal. The winters last an agonizingly long time. Freezing gales persist month after month, and subzero temperatures reign during extended periods of total darkness. Immense blizzards will roll across the canopy, burying the valleys many meters deep under snowpack and creating absolutely zero visibility. However, the extreme density of the interlocking forest canopy serves to keep some of the extreme winds away from the ground level, and the extreme conditions have created its own distinct microclimate on the forest floor. In the forest, there is instead an immense and freezing humidity, trapped within the deepest parts of the woods.

An Thierry is powered almost entirely by the winter snowpack. The summer thaw, which arrives but a few short months later, causes the slow melt of these immense, snowdrifts, and a proliferation of a chaotic, sprawling network of braided rivers, kettle lakes and peat bogs. Because the subsurface often remains frozen solid, no true deep-water drainage can occur, so the lowlands are permanently waterlogged. Here it is forever the summer thaw and freezing rains, and dense, ceaseless fog roll through the trees.

Traversability

Navigation within the An Thierry Brumal Forest is a frustrating and potentially fatal endeavor. The incredible density of the old-growth timber makes overland traverse impossibly slow, as does the treacherous terrain of bogs and poor visibility. The reliable path during the dead of winter, is the frozen river or hardened marsh, though one must ever be on guard for sudden, unpredictable collapses and whiteouts. When the thaw hits the terrain, one faces a flooded, impassable network of frozen mud, hidden sinkholes and waterlogged land trapped forever in the dimness of the canopy.

Plants

Flora Canopy Flora (Boreal Evergreens and Old-Growth Taiga)

Plant life in the An Thierry Brumal Forest is characterized by an extremely harsh environment and agonizingly slow biological processes. Unlike the desiccated, wind-whipped terrain of Aightu or the vibrantly seasonal flora of Agaro, An Thierry's flora has evolved for nothing more than sheer endurance under one of the most brutally adverse forest climates in the Twilight Age. The highlands and glacial valleys are completely shaded by a vast, ancient canopy of old-growth evergreen conifer trees. These ancient titans survive not by being agile, but by being tough. The An Thierry have slender, needle-like foliage that has been armored with thick, waxy cuticles to prevent both winter desiccation and sub-freezing winds. Their body plan is rigid and conifer-like, with steeply sloping branches that have a slight spring to them to shed heavy, deadly snowfalls. Since the permanently frozen sub-soil prevents development of deep root systems, these ancient conifers have relied on an incredibly wide, interwoven mat of lateral roots which bind the waterlogged floor and prevent the titanic tree from being felled by powerful winter gales.

Understory Vegetation (Cryptogamic and Fungal Networks)

Below the overwhelming canopy the forest floor is perpetually cold, dark and damp. Direct sunlight rarely reaches it, making normal photosynethsis quite rare. Instead, plants of the An Thierry understory consist primarily of highly shade tolerant shrubs, thick, spreading colonies of lichen and extremely dense beds of cryptogamic plants (plants that reproduce via spores), such as mosses. However, the truly most important biological organisms in the An Thierry environment are underground. Gigantic mycorrhizal networks of fungi extend deep into thefrozen peat below, serving the function of the An Thierry ecosystem's circulatory system. Connecting younger, immature canopy giants to their ancient ancestors, these fungal webs permit transfer of stored nutrients to where they are needed and are the driving force ofdecomposition in this extremely cold region. During the brief summer thaw, temporarily light-struck patches created by falling trees, or particularly massive avalanches, will blossom for a few weeks with flowering plants before the canopy, inching across it, smothers everything in darkness once more.

Riparian and Bog Flora (Muskeg and Wetland Woodlands)

The winding, glacial rivers and deep, extensive peat bogs that dot the An Thierry landmass feature entirely distinct sub-ecosystems. These wetland woodland regions-where the bogs are also called muskegs-are characterized by sedges, water-loving shrubs, and extensive reed beds thriving under seasonal flooding and water saturation. Many bog-dwelling plants have evolved special spongy root systems, or shallow spreading networks of them, to draw oxygen from the surface into the anaerobic mud where they reside. The oldest, deepest bogs in the An Thierry region also contain vast floating expanses of sphagnum moss that expand outwards across open meltwater, forming a deceptive, unstable biological surface that could potentially crush an unprepared traveler or beast. The rivers' riparian corridors are the only places where breaks appear in the overwhelming canopy, and thus represent the only zones in the An Thierry landscape that support fast, vigorous, and more or less normal plant growth on a seasonal basis.

Seasonal Adaptations (Cryo-Dormancy and Fire Succession)

On An Thierry, evolution has valued patience above all other traits. For most of the long, bitter winter, the flora exists in a state of deep cryo-dormancy. During this period, tissues of An Thierry plants are saturated with various naturally occurring cryoprotectants (an artificial antifreeze compound) to prevent their cells from rupturing as a result of extreme cold. While much of An Thierry operates on a slow and steady timeline, occasional bouts of chaos periodically "reset" parts of the landscape. Occasionally, during periods of particularly severe summer dryness accompanied by lightning, devastating wildfires sweep across the upper reaches of An Thierry's ridges. These rare blazes perform a crucial ecological service, burning away accumulated detritus, cracking open fire-adapted pinecones, and opening large clearings to brief but intense growth and succession before the ancient, stoic forests inevitably creep back over the wounded land.

Animals

Canopy and Taiga Fauna (Boreal Forest Species)

The fauna within the Anierry Brumal Forest represents a feat of extreme cold adaptation and deep-woodland survival. Unlike the vast, nomadic wanderers of the Aightu Rockland, the fauna of Anierry remains inextricably bound to the protection of ancient timber. Dense arboreal omnivores,cold-adapted browsing herbivores, and highly insulative apex predators flourish in the coverage afforded by the pervasive evergreen canopy and the elevated ridges.

Each species utilizes thick, multilayered pelts, large stores of subcutaneous fat, and compact body shapes to precisely minimize heat loss. The ability to traverse the deep snowdrifts and treacherous frost-heaved roots of the Brumal requires specific physical traits-broad, splayed paws spread weight and act as natural snowshoes for the enormous herbivores and predators, as well as specialized leg morphology for increased reach across treacherous terrain. Predators are obligate ambush hunters, as there is simply not enough space in the suffocating timber for prolonged pursuit. These hunters use the dim light caused by freezing fog and deep woodland to track their prey along narrow, iced game trails.

Understory and Bog Fauna (Muskeg and Wetland Species)

The waterlogged, perpetually shadowed understory and deep bogs support a highly specialized world of moisture-adapted scavengers, semi-aquatic animals, and burrowing detritivores. The lack of visual stimulation requires animals with exceptionally water-repellent fur and vibrissae for detecting motion. It is common for the smaller understory animals to dig complex burrows into the surrounding logs, root structures, and mounds of insulating moss, in which to create climate-controlled dens against the raging polar storms.

During the short thaw, an explosion of massive swarms of biting insects and various detritivores are the primary recycling engines of the taiga, thoroughly decomposing any accumulated matter before the inevitable cold locks them out. At the onset of the storm season, many of these understory animals enter a truly deep hibernation beneath the subnivean-which is a protected area of airspace between the frozen earth and the deep snow layer above.

Glacial Lake and River Fauna (Riparian Species)

The winding, glacial rivers and kettle lakes serve as arteries for the Brumal Forest, the highest concentrations of fauna in the region can be found in these riparian corridors which offer access to water for aquatic predators, migrating herbivores, and enormous flocks of waterfowl in the warmer months. These corridors become chaotic, hyper-active feeding grounds during the thaw. This behavior completely inverts itself when the blizzards descend; when the lake and river beds have frozen to depths of meters, all life retreats into the deeper trenches and groundwater-fed channels which do not freeze, the ice provides a unimpeded surface highway over the impossibly deep snowdrifts and tangled undergrowth.

Behavioral Cycles (Torpor and Food Caching)

Animal activity in the Anierry Brumal Forest is entirely driven by the immense gravity of the long polar night and the crippling depth of the snowpack. Creatures must conserve energy at all costs. Any creature active year-round is capable of intensive food-caching behaviors and highly specialized anatomical features designed to keep in heat. Animals unable to sustain their metabolic rate over the winter months hibernate, essentially turning themselves off for several months. Spring thaw brings an immediate and violent biological imperative, as it bursts through the ice on the rivers and streams, releasing countless life processes in one frenzied rush to breed and feed before the darkness and the cold fall again.