Cormanthor
The forest of Cormanthor (pronounced: /kɔːrmɑːnθˈɔːr/ kor-manth-OR), also known as The Elven Woods and The Northern Forest, was long the place of the elven empire of Cormanthyr. It is a large, dense forest comprising various species of plants, including some trees that could grow over 100 feet deep in the woods. It was primarily abandoned today because of the Retreat when over 90% of the elven inhabitants left for Evereska, Evermeet, or other places further west.
Geography
Although Cormanthor could be considered one forest, it incorporated four different forests: the Elven Court, Semberholme, the Tangled Trees, and the Vale of Lost Voices. The first three of these four roughly corresponded to the old elven communities of the same names. The forest was also divided roughly according to tree type.
The Rimwood was mainly made up of pine trees and was the least dense part of the forest. It was an area that ran around the edge of the forest, a ten or twenty-mile border between the interior forest and the rest of the world. The soil here was not rich in minerals and was quite sandy, so it lacked the variety of vegetation found further in the forest. Most of the trees were blueridge and needleleaf pine trees, but they had spread quite far apart, rarely touching one another, and didn't often grow over 20 feet. Because these pines dropped slow-to-decompose needles on the forest floor, other foliage, except softwood ferns, struggled to grow. The hillsides could be home to willow, spruce, and clumps of wiregrass. Although vegetation caused a lack of animal species in the Rimwood, insects such as beetles, lice, mosquitoes, red ants, and red leafhoppers thrived here.
The Midwood consisted chiefly of white ash and beech trees. The trees here were dense enough to provide a predominantly unbroken canopy. It separated the Rimwood from the Starwood and accounted for roughly half of the total area of the forest. There was a wide variety of other vegetation, in part thanks to the rich soil, including chestnuts and red maples in the hills north of Mistledale, honeysuckle and snapdragons in meadows and cherry trees and blue cedars in groves near Essemore, and ivory moss, moonfern, alders, hickories, and bitternuts. Some of the weirder vegetation included beetle palm, foxberry, and roseneedle pine.
The Starwood was made up mostly of giant oaks and maple and was the densest part of the forest. The maples averaged a height of 200 feet, and some of the oaks could reach 400 feet. The soil here was rich enough to be almost black and constantly moist, which produced a wide variety of undergrowth, and traveling through this could be difficult because of its density. Because of the high humidity, various lichens and mosses grew here. The Starwood was rich in animal species such as deer, dire wolves, elk, emerald constrictors, finches, manticores, owls, porcupines, skunks, weasels, and wood rats. Adventurers could also find some unusual vegetation here. These included medquat, chime oak, hinnies, and zebra grass. This forest area was split roughly into four, each with its distinct tree types, but all areas of the Starwood contained tall oaks, maples, and hickories. The central Starwood was west of the River Ashaba and home to spruce and hemlock trees. The north Starwood was rich in cedars and the home of Myth Drannor, the ruined elven city. The east Starwood contained the Elven Court and Tangled Trees regions, both former elven communities, and was home to firs and elms. Finally, the west Starwood had poplar and gum trees and contained Semberholme.
Rivers
Cormanthor was home to two main rivers that provided water to its inhabitants: the Duathamper, also known as the Elvenflow, and the Ashaba. The Duathamper ran along the southeastern border of the forest. The river was generally deep, more than 30 feet in most places, and wide, although it did become narrow and shallow enough in places to wade across. It had a large population of bass, catfish, and trout. The Ashaba cut the forest roughly from Shadowdale in the Dalelands to Semberholme. The river was several hundred yards across and deep, more than 30 feet in places. Its banks sloped steeply in most places, and it was home to carp, walleye, and bullhead. The carp, in particular, could grow enormous, large enough to threaten a human-sized creature.
Portals
Cormanthor contains several portals, such as the Cormanthor Portal to Cormyr, Glister, and the River Chionthar, and the Elven Unification Portal created by Jhaurmael and leading to Evermeet.
Localized Phenomena
The edgelands are patches between the forest areas where magic can go haywire and small animals' diets would change significantly. They are roughly circular areas no more than 60 miles in diameter, and there are usually only two or three in the forest at any time. They only occur between spring and autumn and are caused by energy drifts from Myth Drannor. They faintly radiate magic, cause spells to fail or go wrong, interfere with the powers of magic items, and cause unusual weather effects, such as snow during summer.
The fyreflies in the forest can cause wild blazes, especially on clear summer nights, when they assemble in huge swarms. In the past, efforts had been made to control their population, including introducing giant wasps to eat their food supply of cornflowers, but thefyreflies moved on to other food sources instead.
Climate
Light rain served the forest year-round, and the ground was usually moist, keeping humidity high. Winds could not penetrate the thick, dense canopy, so the forest was calm at ground level. At the height of the summer, the sun provided direct light for 16 hours a day. The extended daylight allowed crops to mature quickly, and summer storms could come and go in just an hour. There were often patches of dense fog in the forest, especially near the northern Elvenflow. This fog was thick and grey in the Starwood, allowing only a few hundred feet of visibility. According to Elminster, the magic of Myth Drannor could account for Cormanthor's favorable weather.
It was not unknown for climate extremes to strike the forest and, with them, their effects.
Fauna & Flora
Flora
Trees
Cedar (blue and common), fir, hemlock, pine (blueridge, needleleaf, and roseneedle), and spruce
Alder (common and red), ash (black and white), beech, cherry, chestnut, elm, gum, hickory (bitternut and shagbark), maple (giant, red, silver), oak (chime, gigantic, red, and shadowtop), palm (beetle palm), and willow (gray, silver, and weeping)
Ferns
Moonfern and softwood fern
Flowers
Cornflower, hinny, honeysuckle, and snapdragon
Grasses, Lichens, Mosses and Weeds
Quack grass, rye grass, wiregrass, and zebra grass
Ivory moss, Medquat (lichen)
Pigweed
Vines
Foxberry
Fauna
Fish
Bass, bullhead, carp, catfish, dogfish, gar, pike, sunfish, trout, and walleye
Crayfish
Leeches
Birds
Bluebird, finch, swallow, woodpecker, and wren
Falcon, hawk, and owl
Raven, vulture
Goose, pheasant, turkey
Mammals
Bat, badger (common and giant), bear (black and brown), blink dog, boar, deer (common and red), elk, fox, hedgehog, manticore, opossum, porcupine, rabbit, skunk, squirrel (black, flying and giant), weasel (common and giant), wild elven cat, wolves (dire and timber), and wood rats.
Insects
Beetles, fyreflies, giant wasps, lice, mosquitoes, red ants, and red leafhoppers
Reptiles & Amphiabians
Bluetail snake, emerald constrictor
Giant frog, giant toad
The fyreflies in the forest could cause wild blazes, especially on clear summer nights, when they assembled in huge swarms. In the past, efforts had been made to control their population, including introducing giant wasps to eat their food supply cornflowers, but they moved on to pigweed and quack grass instead.
Although dragons were incredibly rare in the forest in recent history, hundreds of years ago, green dragons were common. Because the dragons overhunted the centaurs, their numbers began to dwindle. They began to blame one another for the lack of food, which triggered a civil war that damaged much of the Starwood, and only a small number of green dragons remained.
During the Retreat, the elves left behind thousands of green warders (a type of plant construct, similar to blights). By 1371 DR, Dalelanders began complaining about warders on the fringes of the forest who were acting far more aggressively than usual.
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