Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest lies in Pyrus, it was once a living forest until a series of disasterously intense volcanic eruptions caused all the life forms within it to die and, in the case of the trees, even petrify. While most of the non-sapient animals inside had been burned to nothing by small lava rivers that ran through the forest at one point, some have been organically mummified by the ash that coated their bodies.

Geography

The Petrified Forest once grew across a range of what used to be fresh and healthy soil which is now coated in cooled lava from the massive eruptions that caused great ruin to Pyrus, forming a rough and rocky ground. Some areas may still have tiny flows of lava from nearby eruptions. Despite this however, it is still possible to dig away the stone and still find some healthy soil left that is even able to grow new plant life.

Ecosystem

The Petrified Forest, being practically destroyed by the eruptions long ago, has no current living ecosystem, however, when it was still living, various species of insects, such as Pyrainian Fireflies, beetles, ants and even some spiders thrived there, along with the various tree life, including Sunreachers, Heat Orchirds, Joy flowers and even some of Forbidden Paradise flowers along with Stone Grass and Rust Moss on the forest floor. The insects would even pollinate some of the flowers like the Heat Orchirds when they entered the flower to drink it's necter.

Ecosystem Cycles

The Petrified Forest seldom changes in modern day due to all it's life being long dead, but in the past, the insects would spend most of their time up in the trees, within the leaves eating the fruit, leaves and necter of the trees while protecting themselves from any lava flow during the dry season. During the wet season, many of the insects were far more active, flying buzzing about and even fighting with one another to find mates before returning to the tree tops when it was dry season again.

Climate

The Petrified Forest is hot and dry, due to all the smoke in the sky making it harder for clouds to gather enough moisture to rain, before the massive eruptions, the Petrified Forest got a fairly regular amount of rain, allowing it to keep the many trees and insects that lived there alive and well. Due to the small cracks in the ground, lava can sometimes flow through it during eruptions, so non-fire elementals struggle to navigate the forest without at least a few burnt toes.

Fauna & Flora

The Petrified Forest Contained various species of animals, including Aurus Beetles, Funis Spiders, Pyrianian Fireflies and Pyre ants. The Petrified Forest was once quite diverse in terms of flora as well, including Sunreachers that make up for most of the trees, Heat Orchirds that sometimes grow on the Sunreachers, Joy flowers and even some of Forbidden Paradise flowers along with some Stone Grass and Rust Moss that would grow on the forest floor.

Natural Resources

Explorers that go to the Petrified forest will often go to see or even take the petrified flora and mummified fauna, though, doing so too much in this one area is heavily discouraged and disliked when done by anyone outside of professional archologists. It also contains surprisingly healthy soil underneath it's normally rough and rocky ground. One might even find some coal made from long dead insects deep under the ground.

History

The Petrified Forest was once a lively forest filled with various species of insects and arachnids along with various species of trees, flowers and other plants until many years ago, a series of incredibly violent volcanic eruptions across the planet caused massive amounts of ash and smoke to blow over to the forest, choking out all life forms swiftly and silently.

Tourism

A fair amount of explorers (at least the ones willing to enter Pyrus) explore the Petrified Forest to find and even take some bits of Petrified wood and even fossilized inscect bodies. Though some instead choose to try and dig into the ground to get fresh soil in order to help grow plants, especially if they're trying to keep current Pyrianian species alive as the rocky land of Pyrus makes it quite hard for most flora to grow.

Type

Forest

Location under

Pyrus