Forests

[Vutall]

Forests
Among the forest birdsong and sighs of cicadas are echoes resonating from other realms. Ethereal forms dart about in the periphery of perception beneath the shifting canopy’s shadows. Even in the absence of sounds, one can hear a forest breathe. Forests are living beings, each with its own unique temperament. Anyone, from hinin to kuge, would be a fool to enter a woodland without first learning its rules. Within untamed nature, humans are trespassers—and those who show disrespect receive no mercy. Inside the dark hollows of trees, the tangled nests of briars, and the gaps between toppled boulders, spirits are every-where, watching.

Lumber
There are few materials as versatile as lumber. It is an essential component in tools and construction, and it even has value when burned into charcoal. Every member of Rokugan society has a use for this material, and therefore access to harvestable woodlands is vital.

Forests are plentiful in the lands of the Crane Clan. With the exception of the sacred Needle’s Eye Forest, the Crane’s woodlands are filled with cooperative spirits who allow the Crane to harvest lumber as they need it. Osari Mori is a beautiful expanse of diverse vegeta-tion. Inside it, hidden within a ring of elegant sakura, is Shizuka Toshi, home of the Doji Diplomat School. Farther south, Akagi Forest contains a stretch of pale-green bamboo with fluttering silver leaves. Kakita Duelists use these trees for tameshigiri—testing sword blades—and meditation, listening as the hollow shoots tap against each other in the ocean wind

Some clans have limited options when it comes to logging. Over generations, the Lion Clan has watched their only forest, the Heart of Vigilance, slowly become smaller. Through restraint and reforestation, they have begun to repair the damage. Their struggle seems minor, however, compared to the desperation of the Crab and Scorpion Clans. Few forests grow on the west side of the Spine of the World—that is, with one very notable exception. Shinomen Forest is an ancient, unpredictable place, yet the Crab and Scorpion dare to provoke its anger. Their logging towns are accustomed to strange happenings, and every once in a while, entire settlements disappear altogether

The applications of lumber can be beautiful as well as practical. The Unicorn Clan is renowned for their yosegi woodcraft, an art style that utilizes the trees of Dragon’s Heart Forest to create intricate wood mosaics. Yosegi artists use slats of spindle-wood for white designs, aged katsura for black, mulberry for yellow, cucumber tree for blue, and black walnut for all without the use of dyes. To their east, the Phoenix make the fin-est parchment in Rokugan with trees from the depths of Isawa Forest. To create their most sacred scrolls, Phoenix shugenja invoke kami to affect their work when they use suminagashi, a marbling technique. Willing spirits move the ink as it floats in a bath of water, and then their designs are soaked into the parchment’s fibers.

Spirits and Senkyō
The personality of a forest is determined by its spirits. Within hand-grown satoyama groves, there is very little spiritual activity. These lines of trees are planted along the edges of fields to prevent erosion and provide peasants with wood. These trees are felled while they are still saplings, for after the age of thirty, groves begin to show some character. Kodama spirits move into mature trees, and though their presence is not always guaranteed, loggers must be careful to check. Cutting down a kodama’s tree kills the spirit, and the woodcutter responsible incurs a curse.

Kodama are one type among the thousands of types of kami, most of which inhabit undeveloped nature. The kami live alongside humanity unnoticed, but nevertheless subtly affect their mortal neighbors. It is an important duty of shugenja to identify natural shintai—kami dwellings—for people unable to perceive spirits’ presence. Temples and torii arches are common markers of a spirit’s territory, as is the use of shimenawa, thick ropes tied around sacred spaces.

Said signifiers are rarely necessary in forests. Like mountains, wild woodlands are filled with spirits, and it would be folly to trek within their boundaries without expecting their influence. Within untouched nature, Ningen-dō bleeds into Senkyō, the Realm of Spirits. Travelers traversing ancient forests like the Shinomen or Isawa Forest may wander unknowingly into the territory of Chikushō-dō, the Realm of Animals, and Sakkaku, the Realm of Illusion. Often the differences are unnoticeable, but a keen observer can spy discrepancies: paths that seem to trace impossible directions, trees from faraway ecosystems, or unseasonable weather. Travelers may become disoriented both directionally and temporally, though whether this is an inherent quality of Senkyō or is due to the actions of trickster spirits of Sakkaku is impossible to say. It is believed that if a traveler makes the mistake of eating the spirits’ food, they become trapped forever.

Forests, in particular, contain the courts of the animal and trickster realms. The Needle’s Eye Forest in Crane territory is a well-known dwelling of the mischie-vous beings of Sakkaku. During the full moon, the trick-ster spirits become energetic, the force of their presence causing the trees to glow. Luckily for the Crane, said spirits typically keep to themselves and have even demonstrated a kindly benevolence. Needle’s Eye was the childhood play place of Emperor Hantei XXIII, who would sneak from the Imperial Palace to share the company of an ethereal silver fox. When he ascended to the throne, he proclaimed the forest sacrosanct, and to this day logging and hunting are prohibited with-in its borders. Neighboring the Crane in the south is Kitsune Forest, where the Fox Clan shares a similarly peaceful coexistence with entities from Chikushō-dō and Sakkaku. Their unity is emblematic of humanity’s potential to live in harmony with nature.

Violent Spirits
There are forests where corruption has twisted the trees into nightmarish distortions. When Senkyō is perforated by passages from Jigoku, the kami exposed to the corruption may become malevolent kansen. In the waning light of the evening, during a time called ōmagatoki, the boundaries of Senkyō dissipate and spirits roam free.

Below the Tower of Kelet lies an abomination against nature. The Dreamer’s Forest is a Tainted stronghold of kansen, and every evening it tries to grab human victims. Not only do the kansen want to escape, but mahō-tsukai want to enter the forest, to bargain with the corrupted spirits. The Unicorn Clan maintains a double-sided barrier around the forest. Every night, Unicorn priests walk along the deep trench dug around the forest’s boundaries, chanting sacred words and waving Ōnusa wands to purify the ground. Along their path stand pairs of komainu statues, lion dogs who face in opposite directions. As the priests approach, the statues emit a low growl, then return to silence upon recognizing their allies. Some komainu have been shattered, the spirit within lost. These weak points are fortified with lesser talismans that require replacement each time they are triggered by an intruder.

The Scorpion Clan harbors a dark secret within its lands: a grove too small to be called a proper forest but too dangerous to disregard. Unlike other corrupt-ed woods, the evil in this grove did not seep in from another realm. It is the site of a horrific ritual. Traitors from the Scorpion Clan are taken to the grove for execution, and their souls are imprisoned within the trees. Unable to pass on to Meido, the souls languish in torment. This sadistic prison is simply known as Traitor’s Grove.

Few are as adept at handling spirits as the Phoenix Clan, yet even they struggle with unmanageable forest spirits. The Isawa Forest is a peaceful woodland, but deep within its expanse exists a place inhabited by misanthropic kami. It is called Mori Kuroi, the dark forest. The kami here are not corrupted by Jigoku, but they have been traumatized by some unknown encounter with humanity. These spirits create illusions that drive mortal travelers into danger, or they even attack them directly. All attempts by Phoenix shugenja to soothe the embittered kami have failed, and the spirits cannot be convinced to voice their grievances. Kuroi Forest stands as a bleak example of what can happen if a for-est is mistreated. All woodlands, from the exploited Heart of Vigilance to the kindly Osari Forest, have the potential to become an unwelcoming wilderness.