Ban'ware Fungal Jungle Hills

Place

Place Name:

Ban'ware Fungal Jungle Hills

Biome:

Fungal Jungle Hills

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

History

Historical Overview

Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills are among the most ancient rock formations within the Canlai landmass. The Jungle itself is also very old, considering that many of the plants and trees that grow there have an estimated age of nine hundred years, while some rare specimens are said to be born even before the Iron Age (2E 0 – 2E 700). Since this place was colonized during the Stone Age (before 1E 0) different tribes exploited the Jungle’s resources for food and water. However, the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills’ territory was never controlled by any city or tribal zu’aan until the beginning of the Twilight Age in 4E 0. During that time in fact, Oughiaenth Tribal Zu'aan migrated in the hilly area to better defend themselves from the kin’toni raids and asserted their dominion over the Hills and the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle.

Being essentially a vegetarian tribe, the Oughiaenth zu’aan applied various restrictions to best preserve the fauna living in that territory. During the most recent times, the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills territory has not seen any particular forms of bloodshed or wars: the zu’aan inhabitating the area during the Ages were always pacific populations. Not even the kin’toni seem to have reached the Hills yet during the Awakening Age until now. Altough no blood was ever spilled within the territory of the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills, this doesn’t mean the place is to be considered completely innocent: a well know deadly mushroom species is known to grow and thrive in the Jungle.

This specimen is called “kelrak fungus”, notorious for its infamous usage during part of the Ancient Age and mainly during Middle Ages. Back then, in fact, when homicides occurred and no murder weapon could be found, it was most likely the work of an assassin who used this mushroom to kill their target. The most notorious event that occurred during the Middle Ages has been the so-called “kelrak plague” (3E 1980): three whealthy families living not far from the Hills area where poisoned by the unintentional ingestion of small parts of the mushroom. No one ever found the culprits of this mass murder, leaving the case unsolved. Still now, stories about the case of the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills’ dangerous inhabitant are written and many authors still get inspired by the place’s both enchanted and ominous nature.

To this day, excursions through the Jungle are allowed but not without a guide who can easily avoid the areas where the kelrak fungus grows. Except from the latter, all the other mushrooms growing in this place are perfectly edible and also play a major role in the Oughiaenth Tribe’s cuisine: the most known dish cooked with the gifts of the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills is certainly the famous “Ban’ware Soup”, a broth made with freshly picked herbs and tin'ildo mushrooms coming straight from the depths of the Jungle. Since the establishment of the Oughiaenth Tribal zu’aan, all the animals living in the Hills’ territory have been declared protected species.

Geography

Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills are situated in the southern and most humid region of Canlai, about five hundred kilometers south of Hixizo City, in proximity of the Great Roroth Pale River’s eastern bank. The territory in characterized by mostly gentle slopes and only some steeper ones. The highest hill of the area is called “Great Ban’ware Mushroom Head” due to its round shape, being six hundred meters tall. The Jungle covering the entirety of the hills has a slender, narrow shape, while its wider part extends in the middle, heading towards the river. The Jungle grows where time ago part of the Eada Cold Flower Forest was before it shrinked. Some scholars argue that, just like the Eada Cold Flower Forest, also the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle territory narrowed since the beginning of the Industrial Age (3E 2600).

But not as drastically as the aforemetioned Forest: in support of this hypothesis there is the recent discovery of some very old fungi fossils within the region of the Hyd-Cramdu Deadlands that are most likely some of the extinct species coming from the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills. The whole Jungle presents a huge number of swampy areas that can be more or less extended. The bigger swamp that can be found within the borders of the Fungal Jungle is the Ban’ware Mossy Swamp, extending for two hundred kilometers east and about fifty kilometers south of the Great Mushroom Head Hill, in the centre of the hilly area. Other swampy soils that serve also as tourist places are Oreh Swamp (about fifty kilometers diameter), Orep Swamp (also known as Oreh’s twin), Mouror Brown Swamp, Kalper Water Point and Oelmu Dead Swamp.

All the other swampy territories are minor ones and most of them are too dangerous to cross to be considered safe tourist places. The Swamps are also the home of the majority of the insects living in the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills such as worrak and rakal. A very important drinking water source for the Oughiaenth Tribal zu’aan is a Great Roroth Pale River’s tributary called Neyrold Water Vein: this river is about eighty kilometers long and flows from the source situated on the Neyrold Hill, also known as the White Fountain. This water body has been very useful for the Oughiaenth Tribal zu’aan since the beginning of the Twilight Age, since it not only served as a drinking water source, but also as the most important communication route for commerce and fuel for water powered machinery.

The hilly area characterizing the growing spot of the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle, apart from the Great Mushroom Head Hill and the Neyrold Hill, has a very hot and humid climate, reaching about fourty-five degrees Celsius during summer and not lower than eighteen degrees during winter. However, especially during autumn, the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills are heavily wet by torrential rains, thanks to which the most mushroom species grow and thrive (exception for the kelrak, that preferes the coldest months of the year to grow).

Plants

A huge part of the vegetation that can be found in the Ban’ware Fungal Jugle Hills’ territory consists in mushrooms and parasite plants. Only a third of the mushroom species living in the Jungle are considered edible by the zu’aan, even though some animals can easily eat almost every type of mushroom. Here are listed some of the most important components of the Jungle’s fungal flora:

Tin'ildo: This type of mushroom is considered edible and is one of the most common among those growing in the area. The tin'ildo is characterized by a round greenish cap crossed by golden veins, spongy brown gills and a long, thin, translucent stem. It can be generally found around rocks during the warm seasons, especially in the springtime, when its spores get spread the most. Since ancient times this mushroom has served as one of the major ingredients in the local cuisine: the Oughiaenth Tribal zu’aan’s diet revolves heavily around it. Moreover, the Oughiaenth Tribe holds a monopoly over the trade of the tin'ildo with other tribes.

Saytane: this mushroom’s peculiarity resides in its way of feeding by parasitosis. It generally grows on tree trunks, feeding on their lymph: it has a flat shape and its colours can vary from violet to yellow on the underside. Scholars who studied the saytane discovered a curious behaviour of its spores: it seems like this mushroom can not only feed on trees but also on a few kinds of insects. Some of the spores the saytane fungus produces don’t grow like most, but remain microscopic and, carried by the wind, they attach themselves to the insects inhabitating the Fungal Jungle: the process of parasitosis has been observed by scholars, who describe a change in the insects’ behaviour after being attacked by the spores.

In fact when infected, these small animals tend to climb on the highest spot they can reach, and when they find themselves about two meters or more above the ground, the parasite mushroom takes over and grows from the insides of the insect and kills it. It is unknown whether the saytane's spores can attack bigger animals: the scholars are keeping some specimens under their control.

Kelrak: this mushroom is considered perhaps the most dangerous and letal of the known fungal species. It can be easily recognized by its dark purple bell-like cap and tall white stem. If ingested, any part of the kelrak will result in the eater’s instant death, as the mushroom’s poison causes a massive allergic reaction. The kelrak is the protagonist of a macabre history of deaths during ancient times. Especially during the Middle Ages, this letal mushroom was said to be the assassins’ preferred weapon since not many people knew about it back then: to help the killers there was the fungus’ peculiarity of not releasing any particular scent or easily identifiable toxins.

Animals

Most of the animals populating the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills’ territory are part of the category of the “fungi eaters”. The most famous one is the yevarli, the mossy rock-like endangered animal also known as one of the inhabitants of the Eada Cold Flower Forest. Other less known fungi eater species are found all around the Jungle:

Lyelor: This curious fungi eater animal lives in the highest regions of the Ban’ware Fungal Jungle Hills. It presents itself as a tiny ball of fur with nine fluffy tails: the males are usually black and some rare ones also have white spots, while the females have a wider range of colours such as copper-red, violet and yellow. The lyelor was, during past Ages, a domestic animal: after the arrival of the zu’aan Oughiaenth Tribe in the Twilight Age, though, keeping these animals as pets was declared illegal. The lyelor were in fact useful for the zu’aan as they feed on mold and parasite mushrooms and used to keep the spaces clean, but soon enough the Oughiaenth Tribal zu’aan understood that these animals were meant to live in the wild, and keeping them indoors was causing their extinction.

Oldon: being a cannibal species, scholars are still debating about whether the oldon is to be considered an actual animal being or a mushroom. This curious life form is in fact, under many aspects, very similar to the most common fungal species: it has the shape, life cycle and reproductive system of a mushroom, but it breathes air through many holes similar to nostrils and can move from a place to another to seek food. The name of the oldon (meaning "cannibal") originates from its habit of eating mushrooms and, sometimes, even specimens of its same species. Unless it’s moving, it’s very difficult to tell whether a specimen is an oldon or a normal mushroom since its looks are very ordinary: it is characterized by a long, brown cap often covered in white scales and a thick white stem. In the Oughiaenth Tribe, some groups still eat the oldon despite them being mostly vegetarian.

Bel'ash: the bel'ash usually lives on trees where colonies of saytane grow the most. Most say that its characteristic purple colour derives from the fact that it exclusively feeds on saytane fungi, which are purple too. The bel'ash does not have eyes and it breathes through the skin: it only has a large hole that serves as its mouth, which can expand up to fifteen centimeters diameter to eat the fungus whole. The bel'ash only comes out during the day since its purple glowing skin can warn predators of their presence during night time. Its most feared predators are generally some types of birds of prey, some of them being the aony, the iwori istai and the aler inhabitating the whole region.

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	Oughiaenth Tribal Zu'aan

This article is written by Lunaris Lumen. Copyright 2026 Lunaris Lumen. All rights reserved.