The Devouring Forest Hub

How The Devouring Began

The continent had always been isolated. Boats could pass through rivers just fine, but the seas were vicious; living, roiling things, with terrible and massive entities deep in their darkness.

But once it was a continent with with rocky plataeus and vast swaths of grasslands. There even was once desert, as unbelievable as that is to hear, and mountains that weren't covered in trees.

Now, it's a continent where all life not suited for the trees has died out.

...Mostly.

Humanity clings to civilization. There are ways and means to slow the forest's hunger. Although one must not sympathize with humanity too much, for it is their fault in the first place that things are like this.

There are ancient powers.

There are ancient powers, and they do not take kindly to being disturbed.

It had been asleep, dormant, for an eternity. It had been sealed away, safe, for almost as long. Humanity's relentless drive for expansion - humanity's relentless curiosity - resulted in its awakening.

They were warned.

They were warned, and they did not listen.

Now, they call it The Devouring Forest and, for as long as any living human can remember, they have been fighting a slow and losing battle against it.

Humanity swears it stands alone. Fae steal their children; fae curse them. The spirits of the forest are restless and unkind. Though humanity still takes from the forest - wood, forage, supplies - they do so with great care, always afraid. Always knowing that the forest might do what it does best and devour them.

But there are creatures of water, creatures of desert, creatures of snow and ice, and all of these creatures are forced to a land of verdant green. Territories shrink. Territories shift.

The theft of children is a result of a desperate attempt to survive. And there are plenty spirits and entities who would ally with humanity, if only they would let someone nonhuman into their stone and sigil walls...

This is the devouring.

This is the end of the world.