wild forest

The core of a village is a cluster of houses adjacent to a source of flowing water, a stream or small river. Within a short walking radius, about ten to fifteen minutes, are the women's farm trees. A much larger radius encompasses the foraging range, where women and older children go to gather wild-growing food. This area is kept clear of dangerous plants, while edible and useful species are encouraged to grow. Beyond the forage zone is wild forest, inhabited by giants and rife with hazards.
Wild forest is off-limits to children. Women keep an arsenal of lurid stories about the child-eating giants and strangling vines found there to discourage little ones from wandering off alone. Grown boys and girls are allowed only as members of wood-gathering parties, limited to scavenging the border for firewood. When women hunt in wild forest they do so in groups. Boy packs also generally avoid traveling through forest, keeping to the well-trodden river trail that connects villages.

Fauna & Flora

The dangers are greatly exaggerated for the benefit of impressionable children, but for good reason.  Wild forest is home to a number of predators, poisonous plants, and questionable fungi.  Some of the most beautiful colors belong to the most toxic species.

Natural Resources

Wild forest contains all the same useful plants as the village's farming and foraging zones, but the yield is low and the risk of accidentally collecting something poisonous is too high. Still, many poisons can be medicine when given in the correct dose, and a village's Spirit-talker lives closer to the wild forest so she can more easily gather these ingredients. The water sensitivity she must possess to earn the rank gives her an advantage in finding exactly what she needs.

Inhabiting Species

• giants
• pipe tree
• sunfeather bird

View from the future:

200 years
The bands that migrated down the river became intimately familiar with "wild forest", both its true hazards and its beauties. The environment they eventually settled in is significantly different, despite having some of the same plants and animals.
12,000 years, The Ocean
Today there are fewer unexplored wildlands in the areas where humans live. Perhaps the most similar environment is on Ralcondray, where a small colony has been gradually expanding its sphere of influence into another temperate forest.