Megaforest

Megaforests are a rainforest biome filled with large trees and megafauna. The canopy reaches high into the sky, where the dew of a constantly-damp air leaves a chill in the normally warm air. People make their homes high in the branches of the trees, seeking refuge from giant predators and dangers that lurk between the leaves. The biome is home to a wide range of biodiversity, with countless creatures that call these forests home.

Geography

The forests span great distances of the Etharyan continents, where standing atop the canopy in the centre of the forest will result in a view of giant treetops as far as the eye can see. These forests are tightly-packed with trees, foliage, and animals making their nests, making them incredibly hard to navigate. Due to the densely-packed trees and plants, the forest floor, the understory, the canopy layer, and the emergent layer all have entirely different flora, fauna, and ecosystems. Each of the layers receive a different amount of both sunlight and rainfall, leaving their environments entirely different from one another.

Ecosystem

The ecosystems of the megaforests can be split into four sections: those of the floor, understory, canopy, and emergent layers. The darkest layer, the forest floor, is the lowest layer of the forest, where large beetles find nests amongst the moss and grasses that spread across the roots of trees. The understory lies just above this, dark and humid, home to large flowers that grow on the lowest of the tree branches, and giant felines that prowl through the darkness. Different species of monkeys dance between this layer and the canopy, a higher layer of vegitation where the trees carry thinner branches and glossy leaves sprout from the plants. This layer is home to some of the smaller or flighted organisms of the forests, though small in this regard is still large in the eyes of the rest of the planet. Lastly, the emergent layer is home to birds nesting in the tallest trees, sapient species brave enough to dare to climb to their heights. The only animals living on the unstable and unsturdy branches and leaves of the emergent layer are those capable of flight or gliding, or those small enough to not sway the branches.
Spanning all or most of the layers are the trees of the forest, large, hulking silhouettes that can reach up to 20 feet in diameter. The largeroot tree is one such tree, with a very wide base that thins out very quickly upon reaching significant heights. The nelfall tree is much shorter, but can grow to incredible widths. The yellowbark palm is a thinner but taller species, with leaves that are incredibly useful as a building material.

Forest Floor

The forest floor is home to a variety of beetles, such as the crested blitzbeetle, the redbacked beetle, the grand king beetle, and the carnivorous bugbeetle. These bugs stand at 5-6 feet tall, and are eaten primarily by the jagged-toothed squirrel and the winded morsaw. The most prevalent plant species in the forest floor are the orphaned swellshroom, along with firmgrass and wirebush.
Species like the ink slug, wiggleworm, and crawling lichen act as decomposers, surviving of the rotting discards on the forest floor.

Understory

The understory is home to plant species such as the creeping vine, rot orchid, and fruitflower grow on the branches of other plants. The giant panther and the gigantiboa compete for prey, feeding on the smaller jungle rats, blue-faced chimpanzees, and long-legged jungle spiders.

Canopy

The canopy is home to the two sapient species that live in the megaforests, the qelk and the jylar. The jylar move primarily between the canopy and the understory, while the qelk typically find homes closer to the emergent layer.
Other species, such as the jungleradish and the zuothis, also live and grow in the canopy, making their homes high above the forest floor. Most species living up here don't ever touch the ground in their lifetimes.

Emergent Layer

The emergent later is home to many bird species, such as the longbeaked cacaw and the red-breasted thornbeak. Other species capable of controlled guiding also live at these heights, such as the winged mouserat. The apex predator, however, of the emergent layer is the yellingbird, a species that lets out a terrifying cry as its mating call.

Type

Forest, Jungle (Tropical)

Inhabiting Species

• Creeping Vine
• Crested Blitzbeetle
• Fruitflower
• Grand King Beetle
• Ink Slug
• Jylar
• Rot Orchid
• Speckled Tree Frog
• Wiggleworms
• Wirebush
• Yellingbird
• Zuothis