Goldenweed Wastes
The Goldenweed Wastes are a desolate region of The Wildlands located to the southwest of the Sleeping Lands country of Chelestra.
Geography
The Goldenweed Wastes are a rugged grassland that, to an unwary observer, might look like a vast field of wheat ready for harvest. But the plant in question is, in fact, the deadly Goldenweed that gives the Wastes their name. Goldenweed is an extremely strong grass, generally growing 4 to 8 feet tall, and, due to a particularly intense magical storm in ages lost to time, is extremely dangerous to animals, intelligent or otherwise.
Anything that moves near a Goldenweed plant causes it to lash out and wrap around whatever moved and squeezing it like a constrictor snake. While it is possible to navigate the wastes by moving extremely slowly, few are willing to even make the attempt. The instinct, if it can be called that, to constrict around moving things has no intelligence behind it - witnessing a windstorm blow through the wastes is said to be a fascinating and disturbing experience, as untold millions of plants are blown about in the wind and latch onto eachother as the whole field spontaneously weaves itself into a chaotic tapestry of living grass. When movement subsides, the plant relaxes and slowly retracts and returns to its normal vertical position. Curiously, while the plants can detect each others movement caused by wind, they do not react to other plants reacting to movement.
The Goldenweed is equally destructive to other plants, as very few species of plant can withstand the regular thrashings caused by windstorms. The only major exception to this rule is the Gossamer Oak, a tree with a complementary magical mutation. These trees are as mighty as any oak, but paradoxically seem to defy gravity, making the plant float high above the surface of the wastes. Their exposed root systems create a beautiful lattice of tendrils, reaching down to the surface below. Gossamer Oak seedlings tend to grow stably only a few feet above the ground - low enough that a human could reach up and grab one if they so dared - but as they grow into saplings, they start to rapidly expand their root network downwards, relying on the Goldenweed and its grasping instinct to anchor it as it grows to a point where it can float much higher. Gossamer Oaks have their roots broken by the thrashing of Goldenweed in every windstorm, but their massive root networks make it very unlikely that a tree will lose its anchor to the ground entirely. This does happen occasionally, but not even the Welkin Gnomes native to the region knows what happens to a tree that floats up past their cities and out of sight.
Comments