The Bleeding Forest

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"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"

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"The Wakers speak of the Bleeding Forest's temptations and dangers. They name the chert, the flinty principle which stifles the heart; the Huz whose stings bring weeping death; the Accidental Men; the Road-of-Seven. They name other things besides, but their words sink beneath your memory like stones into water. They cackle as they name them. 'You may end in the Forest,' one advises you, 'but now it will not be our fault.'"[1]

The Bleeding Forest is an extremely dangerous forest that lies beyond the safety of Caution. It is filled to the brim with flora made of organs, flesh, and gore.[2] Since it is located deep within the Elder Continent, the Bleeding Forest is often plagued by strange sights and dangers that blur the line between reality and imagination. These might include London-esque mirages made of plants and refuse;[3] the Conjunction of Fancies, where the waking world and Parabola collide;[4] and cliff-faces... with faces.[5]

The Trees Are More Alive Than Usual[edit | edit source]

"There is something uncanny about the road. You quickly become uncertain about the direction you've taken. Haven't you seen that toothed shrub before? That fallen carcass-tree? Then the sounds begin in the undergrowth – the rustling, the clicking. Eyes flicker like knives. The counsel-trees have sent their agents to suck the counsel from your bones."[1]

The way through the Bleeding Forest is called the Road-of-Seven. This road is paved with seven-sided tiles, which do not tessellate in real life.[6] Since it is made of impossible stones, the Road-of-Seven often warps and twists underfoot, and may even disappear entirely.[7] Etched upon the stones are faint glyphs that encode the tales of the counsel-trees:[8] stories of the old kings and queens of the Elder Continent.[9]

Deeper into the jungle, there is a vale where the trees are made of flesh and stone, blurring the line between animate and inanimate. Like the cliffs, these trees also have faces,[10] including the faces of the travelers they see.[11] This stretch of forest is inhabited by beings that resemble fantastically beautiful humans, who request travelers' tears[12] in exchange for their protection,[13] but age rapidly and disappear into the trees when rejected.[14]

Further on lies the Horned Maze, a labyrinthine plant which lures trespassers into its gaping maw.[15] And beware the Tigers of War; these feral cousins of the more civilized tigers live within a large flooding pool in the Bleeding Forest, and often engage in destructive battles with their salamander foes.[16] Other potential dangers of the Forest include bloatfingers[17][18] and Heart-Takers.[19]

Is There Anyone Out There?[edit | edit source]

"This far into the jungle, they're unlikely to be citizens of the Presbyterate. They won't respond to Presbyterate passphrases. But perhaps you can make yourself understood."[1]

Civilization in the Bleeding Forest is rare, as one would expect considering all of the above, but a few isolated settlements are known. The jungle is remote enough that most people living here are not citizens of the Presbyterate.[20] The Village-Fruit is a giant, gall-covered fruit[21] inhabited by the (predictably named) Fruit-Dwellers,[22] who love to read,[23] and who communicate in a mixture of English, Latin, and the Presbyterate languages.[24] The House of the Map is a run-down shack filled to the brim with paintings of the Elder Continent,[25] but its owner has shriveled to coal.[26]

The bees of Huz are abundant throughout the Bleeding Forest, and will happily help travelers along the road,[27][28] so long as the bees are allowed to nestle in their clothing[29] and drink their tears.[30] But don't swat them, or else.[31]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Flint, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Eyes swivel to watch you. Hand-fronds reach languorously to caress you."
  3. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Dresser with cloisonné knick-knacks; bookshelves; dining table and chairs; armchair and sofa; a neatly made-up double bed. Not unexpected for a London townhouse, but unusual for a forest clearing. Leaves, flowers, droppings, blood festoon everything."
  4. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "This is the Conjunction of Fancies, when the dream-realm of Parabola presses against the membrane of the world."
  5. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "In a cliff to your left, faces writhe into view."
  6. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The seven-sided flagstones of the road, impossibly, fit together with nary a crack or gap, [...]"
  7. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "It runs straight, but its direction seems to change each time your attention wavers."
  8. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Road-of-Seven is the path the counsel-trees built to keep their stories."
  9. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The glyphs are a bastardised form of at least three different scripts [...] This is the story of Nicator the King, and your path takes you to where he found his fatal mirror. This is the story of the Queen of Skite, and each stone is one of the wounds she gave the King of Statues, for love. This is the story of the escape of the Shames from the Mountain's garden."
  10. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "There are fewer hybrids of plant and flesh, and more that seem hybrids of stone, [...] faces writhe into view. One calls your name."
  11. ↑ Flint, Fallen London ""You are almost there," it intones in the Bishop's voice. "Now be careful. You may lose a friend. You may lose an enemy. You may find yourself in the slow embrace of years. These are my warnings. Here are my signs—""
  12. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The tree-trunks here bear complex patterns [...] all the patterns line up neatly, resolving into a clear scene. Men and women of luminous beauty beckon you down a dimly-lit space of columns and divans. [...] In her left hand is the chalice; in her right, a dulcimer. “Weep,” you distinctly hear her whisper."
  13. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Your tears flow easily. [...] But you feel the strength of the sword."
  14. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The youth and the maiden step back. Their faces look suddenly drawn and old. [...] the scene dissolves back into splotches of paint on the trunks of stony trees."
  15. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Maze is a single plant of vast extent. Its leafy convolutions form an elaborate labyrinth, adorned with sights and scents to draw foolish travellers into a core like the heart of a thorned cabbage."
  16. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The surface of a mirror-dark pool trembles. [...] Salamanders slink hissing from the grass. Tiger-heads break the pool's surface. "War," a voice cries. "War!""
  17. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Here, the trees bend to offer faceted apples of yellow chert. [...] Fight off the bloatfingers [...] They fall by the dozen!"
  18. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Bloatfingers are so enraged by their own ugliness that they kill those who observe them. [...] they hide behind trees. The more they eat, the bigger they grow, and the harder it is to find hiding places. The one behind this tree must be colossal."
  19. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "Gnarled plants swim in a crimson haze. Their fanged tendrils writhe and snap. Drool-strung mouths gape greedily at their roots."
  20. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "This far into the jungle, they're unlikely to be citizens of the Presbyterate."
  21. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "A gall-ridden fruit hangs from the biggest bough of the biggest tree. Villagers in woven gall-fibre watch you warily from the fruit's hollows."
  22. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "It tells you what you need to know, [...] to turn aside the spears of the Fruit-Dwellers."
  23. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The villagers disdain the shiny, the tasty and the squishy. They are delighted, however, to see that you have a stack of emergency penny-dreadful serials tucked away in your luggage."
  24. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "She speaks to you courteously, though, in a peculiar melange of English, Latin, and the Presbyterate languages."
  25. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "A shack stands by a stream. A lamp glows in the window. The door stands ajar. Within, the walls are crowded with paintings – views of the forest, of the Mountain. The shelves are filled with flaming, brilliant pigments. The air is choked with colour."
  26. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "You find the painter slumped on a mattress in a corner. [...] He has become coal in the shape of a man... [...] "Time to go," says your Deputy, tugging at your arm. [...] 'light consumes'."
  27. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The Huz whisper to you of the Bleeding Forest and its dangers. The counsel-trees, the traitor paths, the Road-of-Seven. The sorrow that remains in this land from the Mountain's wound. Their own sorrow at their exile from the Mountain's Garden. "This place changed us," they lament. "We became less; but had we been more, we would not have endured.""
  28. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "They outline a path for you, sign by sign. Follow the stream which speaks in the seventy-seventh tongue of Caution. Pluck the eye-fruits and allow them to direct your gaze. Pass through the hollow lit by candle-ghosts. Raise your eyes to the cliff-top. Follow the path marked with chalk and time."
  29. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The bees nestled in your clothing – the Huz, they call themselves – are whispering to you again. "We choose to make our home here. You will assist us.""
  30. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "The bees forsake the flowers to crowd curiously around your face, investigating your eyes. You recognise a diplomatic overture when you see it. [...] As soon as they have tasted your tears, they begin to speak. "Now you'll take us with you," their tiny voices sing. "Let us nestle in the crevices of your clothing, and we guide you past the Heart-Takers. We can even be of service to you. Do not crush us. You will regret it.""
  31. ↑ Flint, Fallen London "[...] one of your assistants succumbs to apiphobia, slapping at a bee [...] Immediately the others descend in an indignant insectoid tornado. Instead of screaming, your assistant bursts into tears. [...] You [...] watch helplessly as the melancholy of their stings wrings the life from her."
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