The Awakened Jungle
- A jungle in the Drankorian Hinterland
The Awakened Jungle is a coastal jungle, south of the Garamjala Plateau and west of the ruins of Drankor, inhabited by a variety of talking animals and plants. Though far from all creatures of the jungle are sapient, numerous communities of plants and animals form societies of within the jungle, including Elvish-speaking fruit bats and coastal howler monkeys, held together by the wisdom of the trees, informally led by the eldest tree, known as Canopy. The inhabitants of this jungle have no sense of the outside world, rarely, if ever, interacting with humanoids, going about their lives in isolation from the world, with care, compassion, and cooperation.
In the spring of DR 1749, the jungle was struck by a wave of dangers and misfortune, associated with Seeds of Chaos fragmenting from the prison Cha’mutte constructed to hold Apollyon, as it dissolved. These fragments of Limbo corrupted the Awakened Jungle, leading to chaos elemental attacks and sickness, until the Dunmar Fellowship healed Canopy and broke the hold of Limbo over the jungle.
Pip’s stories of the jungle
Pip, the fruit bat who guided you to where she found the jade, was full of stories as she flew. She is only a few years old, and learned to talk as she learned to fly, knowing nothing of the history of the jungle and thinking nothing of her ability to speak. But, from her you heard the tales: of the mango trees who sing ballads when their fruit was ripe, calling her people, and many others, to feast; of the trickster monkeys who live in the mangroves on the coast, protected by Slither, an ancient boa constrictor, who are the town criers of the jungle, howling news and gossip to all; of the orchids that bloom in a blaze of color and whisper love poems to hummingbirds; of the groves of banyans who speak in many voices, weaving the tales of the jungle into dramatic stories; of the Fire clan, led by the tiger Blaze, who live along the big river, keeping a watchful eye.