Menella's Copse
Thought to have stemmed from the first ever garden that the Divine Menella planted on the Material Plane, Menella’s Copse is a vast stretch of woodland in the north of the continent of Euristan. Beneath its tall and ancient pine trees abundant numbers of animals can be found, but woe betide anyone who hunts them, save to keep themselves alive.
Geography
Menella’s Copse entirely encompasses the area of a peninsula that sprouts from the northern shores of the continent of Euristan and protrudes into the Icefang Ocean. It is bordered by the sea to the west, north and east, but its southern border is marked by the slopes of the Spears of Astartes mountains, which separate it from the rest of the continent.
The region is split in half by the Roaring River, a viscous torrent of water that gushes from the mountains, eventually disgorging its frigid contents into the sea.
The entire region is covered by a contiguous coniferous forest, see below.
Localized Phenomena
As the forest is protected by the divine will of Menella, those who hunt the creatures who live within its bounds for any reason other than their own subsistence are cursed. This curse is no idle superstition, those who hunt the animals of the forest will find that their features slowly and painfully turn into those of the creatures that they have killed. Noses become snouts, deer horns will sprout from foreheads and feet will become cloven hooves. Only fools hunt for sport within Menella’s Copse.
Fauna & Flora
The majority of Menella’s Copse is made up of a vast swathe of coniferous woodland that extends from coast to coast across the peninsula. Most of these trees are incredibly tall and ancient, with the radius of their branches meaning that the amount of light that reaches the forest floor is limited. Most of the underbrush beneath the canopy therefore is made up of large leafy ferns, but in areas where trees have died or have otherwise fallen down large wildflower meadows quickly spring up where light is able to more freely reach the ground.
With regards to the fauna, Menella’s Copse has a wide variety of woodland creatures living within its bounds, both herbivorous and carnivorous. Though the area does not have a particular tie to the Fey Wild, many Fey creatures have chosen to make the area their home. The regions close ties to Menella also mean that creatures of celestial origin who naturally occur in the Material Plane can be found here in larger numbers than they can elsewhere. Unicorns are especially abundant in Menella’s Copse, and it is one of the few places where large family groups or even herds of the creatures can be seen.
Natural Resources
The close connection of the region to the Divine, Menella means that Menella’s Copse is a particularly good place to find medicinal herbs, roots and plants. Medical practitioners from all over Kelbonnar’s Material Plane regularly dispatch expeditions to gather healing supplies from the woods and herbs from the region regularly fetch high prices on the open market.
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