Usæ Gawoa
Stretching across the whole of the lowland areas of Oam Province, the Usæ Gawoa is an enormous expanse of forest, whose canopy is so thick that the forest floor is shrouded in almost permanent darkness. The humanoids and creatures that survive here must be tough and constantly on guard, for who knows what lurks in the darkness awaiting its next meal.
Geography
The actual land on which the Usæ Gawoa is based is predominantly quite flat, but this topographical feature is rather lost by the fact that the enormous tree roots of the trees that make up the forest have contorted the land into a twisting, labyrinthine mass of tussocks, hillocks and exposed roots. The areas of the Usæ Gawoa that border bodies of water, such as the coastal areas and the areas that border the Gaka River are almost permanently waterlogged and have become mangrove swamps.
Fauna & Flora
The trees that create the ceiling of foliage in the Usæ Gawoa are a species of evergreen called Iron Oaks, which grow incredibly tall, with enormous thick trunks and with a network of upper branches and canopy that can spread over 10 metres in every direction. Beneath them, the flora of the region is almost entirely comprised of different forms of mushroom and other fungi that can survive with very little light. Some species of bioluminescent fungi form oasis around themselves, as the light they emit allows other more light dependent plants and fungi to thrive much more effectively.
As for the fauna, the herbivorous creatures that dwell on the forest floor have been forced to adapt to eating a mostly fungi based diet, which has produced some interesting sub-species of the normal deer, wild boar and other commonly found woodland species have developed there. The carnivorous creatures too have adapted a wide variety of additional traits to help them track prey in the gloom and centuries of isolation in the Usæ Gawoa have led to a evolutionary war between predator and prey as they try to develop different traits to outcompete each other.
In addition, creatures that are normally only thought to exist in deep underground places such as the Underdark, have been reported in the Usæ Gawoa as the light levels there are so low that they are tolerable for creatures used to living in the pitch blackness of the subterranean.
Natural Resources
Whilst there are undoubtedly untapped caches of resources across the Usæ Gawoa, the difficult terrain, lack of Imperial interest in the region and lack of interest of the Bamæ peoples to industrially exploit their forest home mean that other than wood that is cut from the edges of the Usæ Gawoa by the Dosog peoples of the Túgimubæ for timber, the Usæ Gawoa is not known to be a hotbed of rich resources
Alternative Name(s)
The Midnight Forest
Type
Jungle
Included Locations
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