Ormdan Forest

Historical Timeline of Ages

Age Name	Dates	Controller
Stone Age	Before 1E 0	Unknown
Copper Age	1E 1–1E 2200	Unknown
Bronze Age	1E 2200–1E 4400	Unknown
Iron Age	2E 0–2E 700	Unknown
Ancient Age	2E 700–2E 2200	Unknown
Middle Age	3E 0–3E 2050	Unknown
Early Modern Age	3E 2050–3E 2600	Unknown
Industrial Age	3E 2600–3E 2700	Unknown
Machine Age	3E 2700–3E 2800	Unknown
Atomic Age	3E 2800–3E 2850	Unknown
Space Age	3E 2850–3E 2875	Unknown
Information Age	3E 2875–3E 2900	Unknown
Genetic Age	3E 2950–3E 3000	Unknown
Awakening Age	3E 3000–3E 3415	Unknown
Twilight Age	4E 0–4E 500	Pertiay Tribal Zu'aan

History

Ormdan Forest was largely uninhabited after the Awakening Age. The region would remained uninhabited for almost two centuries after the fall of the empire, with zu'aan settlers appearing after their previous home was destroyed by the release of ancient imperial chemical weapons made to destroy those infected with the kin'toni plague. The arrival of the Pertiay majorly disrupted life in the forest as they were quick to overhunt and forage, quickly picking Ormdan Forest's resources apart like starving beasts. These bad practices would later lead to their current state as a shattered people known for their banditry and ruthlessness.

Their transformation from survivors into destroyers, though quick was more complicated than what it would first appear as they took to rapidly expanding all over the forest fearing that they were actually being attacked by the infected, while in reality they would only show up almost a century later for completely unrelated reasons. In theory the forest can simply heal all the resources the early Pertiay people took but, because it would take decades to see even the faintest signs of that, the desperate and violent clans of that compose the tribe wage war on eachother but above everything else on the rest of the world, looking for more food, more metal, better tools and stronger people to consume and incorporate even if by force.

Some say they are worse than the kin'toni, and that the Pertiay of Ormdan Forest are the real plague threatening the world. Their fall from grace doesn't have one particular culprit but their fears and anxieties were exploited by a increasingly power caste of witches known as the Beriog-Nay, who claimed they could speak with the dead through ectastic rituals. While they didn't have any real magical powers, their organization was in posession of many medical equipment from the Empire which they used to synthetize a more controlled version of Antuli pollen, which caused mass hallucinations on the clans they were accepted in, and used this perceived power to usurp otherwise rightful leaders, though their competence was questionable as they were ultimately the ones who took the tribe down a dark path, the witches just did nothing to improve the situation of their people.

The Beriog-Nay were led by Great Xyllee, but their leader was stabbed to death by her underlings during a coup. The coup failed as conspirators descended upon eachother and the people watched in horror and confusion as the wisest among their leaders bled to death in front of hundreds of her followers during a tribal gathering in the village of Batoth, now known as Batoth-Xyllee to mourn the witch's murder. Now, the Pertiay are a fractured people led by charismatic leaders who, while they could not save their tribe from their own short-sightedness, have long memories when it comes to grudges and think nothing of sacrificing everything they've built if it means bringing one of their many, many enemies down.

Geography

Ormdan Forest's terrain is comprised of gentle hills and slopes, easy to traverse and navigate as the Jakeri trees, while utterly dominating the landscape, do not cover the night sky with their canopy allowing canny explorers and scouts to use the stars to move through the forest. Pertiay settlements don't remember villages so much as they resemble citadels of wood and stone. They are heavily fortified and guarded by their warlike inhabitants as they prepare to raid their neigbors, travelers, or to hunt for game in the depths of the forest. These settlements are usually ruled by a witch and her retainers, usually members of the old ruling clans with the notable exception of Batoth-Xyllee which is ruled by clan Glavel until another Great Witch is chosen.

Other notable Pertiay settlements include Aalina which is ruled by the witch Nierat, infamous for her bloody rituals of Zu'aan sacrifice. Hylore and Edhoan have a notoriously long grudge that remains unresolved since their foundation as they were once a single settlement called Caenti, until the witch Koidne poisoned the entire Caenti clan in a single night during a feast to honor a political marriage, which created internal strife in Caenti and lead to the people splitting into two factions that would later on form those settlements. Pothen is the home of the most vicious group of Ormdan bandits known today, the Dunthir clan, lead by the witch Ileara who is not only a skilled herbalist but also a complete frothing psycho as she is known to behead any who would stand against her desire to raid beyond Ormdan and attack the nearby tribes directly.

Other places of interest include the Robune river, a large river which crosses the entire region and almost splits it in two, with bridges being constantly built and burned as a part of the local struggle for supremacy of the different groups clans of the Pertiay. Festar Graveyard is known for housing the skeletons of almost five hundred Pertiay warriors that died defending Ormdan against a kin'toni invasion. Gasman is an old trading post that the Thortr clan established to lure merchants and travelers from others regions, and it did work for a few years until their scheme of attracting people to rob and kill them was revealed by a survivor and the place was avoided entirely by passerbys. The burial site of Chief Rayand is considered to be a cursed place as he is said to rise from the grave and kill any who would dare invade his tomb.

Ormdan used to be a place of plenty, and while overtaxed nature heals itself here at pace much faster than anywhere else, with entire sections of the forest that were cut down regrown in a few years. This makes it so unless considerable effort is made to alter the enviroment, if one day the Pertiay were to be destroyed, and their ruins turned to dust, they might leave no traces of their existance at all.

Plants

• Antuli flowers that grow nearly everywhere on Ormdan Forest. They form beautiful fields of multicolored, shimmering plants that create beautiful psychodelic patterns. Their beauty hides niddle-thin but extremely sharp thorns that can horribly scar anyone that tries to rip out one of them fron the ground. Locals usually avoid picking them up out of fear of their terrible thorns but Pertiay witches make a point of wearing a crown of them, which someone doesn't horribly wound them.

• Jummon are a species bioluminescent fungi that fill with air and pop, spreading their spores around. They seem to grow all over the forest and are big enough to light up smaller sections of it. Locals cultivate them to substitute using torches; a very primitive form of public lighting used in Pertiay villages.

• Kinele trees are very common throughout Ormdan Forest. In fact they are common all over the world but in Ormdan they grow specially tall and specially strong due to the forest's fertile soil. Their wood is strong and easy to work with being used in almost everything the Pertiay build, from tools to their houses. They are also home to Yentens, who practice their acrobatics by jumping from tree to tree.

• Fyllal are white flowers that grow in shaded areas near the roots of Kinele trees. Its unknown why they do it but Imperial scientists believed they must be some kind of parasitic species. Locals don't think much of them as they are nothing special when it comes to beauty. Fyllal also have no known medicinal properties but are nonetheless a part of the local flora, though their function in nature is unclear.

• Jolinds are the delicious, slightly bitter but delightfully refreshing fruits eaten by most of the inhabitants of the forests. Yentens love it and will steal it from eachother, other animals and even zu'aan carrying it. The locals eat it more often than meat as they are so easy to come across, which explains why foraging is way more popular than hunting. Hunting is seen as more of a sport than a necessity by the local people.

• Dassen plants are rare, medicinal plants used for creating a powerful poison and also its antidote. They were made purposefully rare with the rise of Pertiay witches, who saw how they were used to sow strife among their people and envied such power. The plant itself is very inocuous and can easily be confused with generic foliage, though those that know what they are looking for can easily tell when they found one by their black veins.

• Iddian are strange plants. They are composed of a thick stalk with many thin, razor sharp leaves. Their leaves can cut flesh with ease which fascinates the Pertiay and terrifies the local fauna, who actively avoid running at full spead out fear of getting eviscerated by one of these on accident. Nobody really dares try and collect leaves or the stalk of one of these plants.

Animals

• Oculen are massive winged beasts that nest on Ormdan Forest. Their flight causes the entire canopy of the forest to shake, creating massive gusts with each flap of their wings, flying far away and returning after months of hunting, or not at all. They are as mysterious and impressive as creatures of nature can be.

• Aukabos, while seemingly harmless and frail, these multi-legged, chitinous beings explode into action by lunging for the throat and back as soon as a zu'aan exposes any of the two to them. These creatures are considered to be extremely dangerous and as soon as one is spotted you should stablish eye contact and slowly back away with deliberate movements. Its said that they can smell fear pheromones and it drives them into a bloody rampage.

• Yentens can be seen all over Ormdan Forest, being more numerous than zu'aan. They are loners by nature and slow to breed, but Ormdan has been their domain for thousands of years. Yentens are medium sized beasts capable of quickly climbing trees with their dextrous hands and prehensile tails. They are shy and avoid contact with other animals entirely, usually only meeting other Yentens to breed, which produces only a single offspring. Here though, young Yenten form packs to play and forage together, something that imperial scientists observed with great interest, though researchs into Yenten behaviour were cut short by the kin'toni plague.

• Nellecs hide in the shadows of the forest and avoid the other inhabitants at all costs. They are deathly afraid of Micruls and if cornered or ambushed by them will fight to the death though they actually pose no real threat to apex predators like micruls. Nellecs are small, six legged, fur covered creatures that hide in burrows beneath trees and scurry about Ormdan Forest with great stealth. Micrul seem to have a taste for their flesh above all else, and even if it takes dozens of nellecs to actually satisfy their hunger, they will stop dead in their tracks to hunt down one of these creatures.

• Micruls are six legged, gigantic organisms that can climb any surface and spin silky webs with a viscous substance their bodies produce. They excrete this substance through their mouths, and while they do it, it looks like they are vomiting. They are capable of weaving elaborate traps for large creatures like Eperoi or even zu'aan and stray kin'toni, though they often die soon after eating one of the infected. Those that survive become resistant to the plague and go on to eat even more kin'toni, if they are not torn apart by their vengeful prey.

• Eperoi are four-legged animals that are commonly used as beasts of burden by the locals of Ormdan Forest. They are sturdy creatures, docile in nature, feasting on Qibive fruit and living in small herds of 5 to 10 members. They are prized for their stamina and cool demeanor and are never slain by the Pertiay, even at desperate times, as they are seen as just too valuable and even as sacred to the otherwise ruthless tribals.