The East Wood once stretched as far as the Mountains of Sleep, completely filling the Great Northern Plains. As Alpha Polis grew, the hardy timber of the northern forests was taken to frame the houses and fuel the fires of the Worldcity. In time, the northern lands were cleared, and the East Wood became the last habitat for a variety of wildlife from the north. Thanks to the implementation of tree ranching in farmlands in and around Alpha Polis and the refinement of construction methods within the city, East Wood was left untroubled by the forester’s axe or saw.

There are many species of flora and fauna within East Wood. The ancient trees account for the greatest mass of botanical life, and also act as host to a vast variety of smaller plants, mosses, and lichens. Younger hardwoods are usually only found in areas cleared by fire or storms, where they compete over decades with hardy underbrush. The most problematic of these lesser cousins to the great trees must surely be the ivy-thorn shrub. Ivy-thorn propagates itself like a weed, and is just as difficult to eradicate, but its greatest danger to more valuable trees comes from the damage it inflicts on the soil. Ivy-thorn can drain the soil of water and nutrients so completely that precious little else can survive near its root network. Not until the plant dies and returns these qualities to the soil will other plants begin to colonize the area again - and all too often the first plants to take root will be a new generation of ivy-thorn.

Ivy-thorn is a staple in the diet of various herbivores indigenous to the East Wood. The unique species commonly referred to as ‘antler-boar’ is gifted with strong teeth and a tough hide, allowing it to pierce the woody bark of ivy-thorn and resist the inevitable spines that give the plant its name. As you can see from these illustrations, the antler-boar’s curiously pronged head growths are often used to keep younger branches out of its way, allowing it to feast on the richest, juicy heartwood. Farmers who live along migratory routes from the East Wood often have domesticated antler boards to keep their fields free of stray ivy-thorn shrubs.

Antler-boars are not the only unique animal species in the East Wood. A subspecies of barker rat, marked by its scaled tail and abnormally large eye, is a common vermin on the forest floor, and a similarly sized creature known as the fur-spider can be found lurking amidst the branches of the mature trees. Fur-spiders subsist chiefly off of eggs stolen from birds’ nests, but supplement this with insects found on or in the tree bark. The chief predator of the East Wood is a distant relative of the common bear. The clairen is slightly smaller than black bears in size, and has a grey fur broken by large, leathery pads at the hips, shoulders, and knees. Despite their bulk, they are stealthy predators, and chiefly hunt antler-boar, wild boar, and deer. Clairen cubs prove to be remarkably adept hunters at an extremely early age, and have been observed to hunt barker rats and fur-spiders in small groups. I believe the last plate in your booklet of illustrations depicts just such a scene.

- Excerpt from the introduction to Professor S. Bodynn of Eastly House’s lecture, “Ecology of the East Wood, a Children’s Primer”