Deepwood

The kingdom of Deepwood is a land cloaked in dark canopies and filled with humid mists. The wood elves who call it home spread far and wide throughout the territory, with most of the population living in small, isolated family units. Despite this, a few cities exist within Deepwood, though they differ greatly from conventional cities that one might find elsewhere in Andara. Though the forest is contiguous with that of Calar Dunn, the flora and fauna of Deepwood are notably different, thanks to a much warmer and more humid climate. Tales of great lizards the size of houses stalking through the gloom keep many travellers in Deepwood from straying too far from the paths, though the real threat comes from the less civilised tribes of wood elves who are known to hunt without discretion; be it man or beast.

Geography
The great, all-encompassing canopy of Deepwood's forest makes it somewhat hard to discern the topography of the kingdom, save for a few large forested mountains breaking through the foliage. Whilst one might assume that the kingdom is relatively flat due to the relative evenness of its canopy, the land beneath the trees is marked by an intricate network of rivers, canyons and caves which make travel throughout the forest even more treacherous. The forest grows right up to the coastline, which is shared between the Great North Ocean and Trader's Bay to the east. The largest river in the continent, the river Hart, flows along its south-eastern corner.

The cave systems beneath Deepwood are the remnants of gargantuan burrowing creatures from ages past, which scholars believe to be an ancestor of the infamous purple worms of the Underdark. These maze-like caverns support a unique ecosystem of cave-dwelling beasts and fungi, and it is believed that the caverns stretch all the way to the Underdark in their deepest areas.

Settlements
Wood elves do not live in towns or cities like most other races, instead residing in an immeasurable amount of close-knit communities known as tribes. A tribe is composed of a few families that live together in a small collection of huts and tree houses. These tribes form a network of communities that span the entire kingdom, and when a tribe member comes of age it is common for them to move to a nearby tribe to start a family.

Shades
The closest thing the Deepwood has to a capital, Shades is a large congregation of treehouses, tents and huts set at the bottom of a small valley and entirely shaded by the thick canopy overhead, hence the name. Like much of wood elf culture, the leadership and religion found within the city do not fit the conventions of other societies. What they refer to as a queen is in fact an ‘elected’ individual, chosen by a series of sacred divination rites from the kingdom’s finest huntresses. Currently, the position is held by Queen Feluna, a popular figure who established one of the finest royal guards in the known world; Feluna’s Sparrows. Not only a monarch, Queen Feluna leads the Great Hunt; a quasi-religious doctrine that most wood elves, save a few savage tribes, follow from birth until death. The rules of the Great Hunt are dictated by the queen herself, for example she may impose a ban on hunting a certain animal if its population numbers get too low, or she may encourage the consumption of certain foods over others if they are found to be more nutritious. As such, the Great Hunt controls much of a wood elf’s life, should they choose to follow it.

Culture and Tradition
Wood elves have had a deep connection with nature for millennia, and this is reflected in all aspects of their culture to this day. Every facet of a wood elf's life will have some link to nature, no matter how small.

Religion
Religion is a complex topic in Deepwood. The Wild Faith has its oldest following with the wood elves, with Therro and Malladach having particularly large and long-standing followings within the kingdom. The Old Faith is also worshipped to a moderate degree, though this is usually on the fringes of the kingdom or other places which receive heavy influence from outsiders. Despite this, the teachings and traditional worship practices that these religions receive in other parts of the world are not to be found in Deepwood. Instead, anything that resembles worship, prayer or doctrine to the wood elves is done in the name of the Great Hunt. The head of this quasi-religious system is also their political figurehead, the queen, and it is her words which guide the actions of most of Deepwood's inhabitants. The wood elves believe their queen to be an interpreter of the gods' will, and view the ways in which outsiders worship their same gods to be incorrect or at the very least, inefficient. Wood elves are somewhat arrogant with their connection to and understanding of the land, and take a condescending pity on other cultures for not understanding how to properly respect and worship the gods of the land.

Marriage and Family
Marriage and courting are relatively unremarkable within wood elf culture. Much like high elf culture, the courting process takes years simply due to the lengthy lifespans of elves, however wood elves are much less extravagant in the way they approach love. Romance is far more organic for wood elves; they simply wait for the strings of fate to bring two soulmates together, and the concept of arranged marriages is truly alien to them. When two lovers decide they are to be wed, their respective tribes will take part in a ceremonial pilgrimage to a sacred site such as an ancient tree, waterfall or mountain top, whereby the couple will exchange vows and become wed in the eyes of nature itself; there is no priest or officiator in the traditional sense.

Family is incredibly important to wood elves however, due in large part to the way in which they live. Their close-knit, tribal culture forges unshakable bonds between families and their wider tribe; to be exiled is one of the utmost horrors in the eyes of a wood elf. To outsiders, this strong group bonding can appear clique-like and unwelcoming, and some ignorant individuals will dismiss wood elves as cold or unfriendly. In truth, this is far from the truth. Whilst a friendship may take years to solidify, once it does, it is incredibly deep and strong.

Food and Drink
Many outsiders find wood elf cuisine to be modest and simple. Meats are either spit-roasted or air-dried with little seasoning, and paired with foraged vegetables. Most meals are cooked as a hearty broth which can be added to at any time and will often be kept cooking for months; being restocked with ingredients whenever it gets low. Despite its simplicity, this food is some of the healthiest and most nutritious; obesity is practically unheard of in Deepwood, though this could also be due to the effort that goes into collecting the food in the first place.

Wood elves seldom make their own alcohol; though this by no means should be taken to suggest that they do not enjoy alcohol. Almost all alcohol in Deepwood is an import; being traded for with the neighbouring kingdoms of Warmwood and The Crownlands. Much like their cousins to the west, they have quite a taste for wine, though halfling ale and mead is also a popular drink within Deepwood.

Cannibalism
Whilst cannibalism one of the greatest taboos in most other cultures, it has long remained one of the most sacred aspects of the mourning process for wood elves in the form of funerary cannibalism. Consuming the flesh of a dead relative is a way of honouring the cycle of life and death, as well as the person themselves. A piece of the body is cut off, cooked and consumed before the rest of the body is buried and returned to the land. The exact body part depends on what the individual was known for; an arm is usually appropriate for an archer or a soldier, whilst a heart might be consumed if the person was particularly brave or courageous.

Unfortunately, some of the less civilised tribes of Deepwood engage in cannibalism for less wholesome reasons. These cannibal tribes will regularly kill and eat their fellow elves or any other humanoids who are unlucky enough to cross paths with them. For some tribes this is simply their chosen form of sustenance, whilst for others it might be part of abhorrent rituals to appease evil beings of great power from other planes.

Ecology
Whilst Deepwood is home to a wealth of exotic creatures found nowhere else on the continent, by far its most famous creatures are the dinosaurs. These enormous beasts appear as distant cousins of the dragons with their outwardly reptilian appearance, though they posses no magical abilities whatsoever. Instead, these frightening beasts rely on natural cunning, pack tactics or sheer strength to take down their prey or avoid predators. Tyrannousaurs, carnotaurs and allosaurs dominate the top of the food chain, surpassing even the panthers and tigers which many would presume to be apex predators. Some herbivores, like brachiosaurs and ankylosaurs are simply too bulky to be brought down by even the fiercest of Deepwood's predators, and thus smaller creatures like deer, hadrosaurs and even elves become the prey of Deepwood's many predators.

The caves of deepwood are home to a unique ecosystem of cave fishers, giant bats, spiders and great burrowing worms. Legend tells of a lineage of dragons which found their way into the caves and never returned to the surface; instead evolving into twisted, blind monsters which prowl the darkness and hunt using their heightened sense of smell, though the reports of such creatures are dubious at best.

Though Calar Dunn and Deepwood share one contiguous forest, there is a clear difference seen in the types of tree between the two kingdoms. Deepwood's forest is primarily formed from hardwoods like ironwood, mahogany and teak. These trees are some of the largest in the known world, and are nigh impossible to fell. As such, most buildings in Deepwood are constructed from a mixture of living material that has been coaxed into shape by druids, interwoven with bamboo, reeds and palm fronds. Aside from its immense trees, there is a diverse understory of fragrant flowers, fruits and nuts which form a large part of the base of Deepwoods enormous food web. Due to the sheer amount of forage offered by the rainforest, wood elves have little need for agriculture and only a handful of gourds and fruits are actually grown as crops within the kingdom.