Snowhaven

This was an idea for a forest commune I had and worked on over a year ago, but I never mentioned it because we still have Hallifax, Gaudigach and Ackleberry (and now a possible rival to Ackleberry, the out-of-the-basin jungle of Jojoba) to be released. However, on reading the recent debates about a neutral organization, I thought I’d pull it out of storage and dust it off a bit.

History

Snowhaven is located in the north-eastern mountains. It is a commune whose primary goal is to survive. The very existence of forest itself is threatened by a great glacier that slowly creeps southwards over the forest. It has no rivalry with any other organization, for its rival is nature itself, who threatens to overwhelm and destroy the forest. This is of course a bit of a paradox - a love/hate relationship between the commune and nature. They follow the great spirits of Gray Wolf, a cunning spirit able to turn any situation to his advantage, and Old Man Rock, a mysterious spirit sometimes thought to be as insane and hard hearted as the Rock Lords.

(Note that what follows occurred before the coming of the taint.)
In order to survive, Snowhaven forest made many compromises that the other three communes regarded with suspicion. Their most far-reaching compromise, however was made during an exceptionally harsh winter, time when the residents of the forest were unable to prevent the glacier from engulfing their nexus, the Sovereign Snowfir Tree. The two Great Spirits of the commune made a pact with the Rock Lords of the Earth Plane, who petrified the forest, turning all the Snowfir trees of the forest to rock, and the Tide Lords of the Water Plane who imbued the Snowmelt River with healing powers that brought the rocks to life. Thus the sacred trees and nexus of Snowhaven were transformed to living rock, allowing them to survive being frozen in the glacier. The following summer, the druids and wiccans were able to force the glacier to retreat, freeing the nexus, now renamed the Sovereign Stonefir Tree.

The residents of Snowhaven cannot take a side in the struggles between the cities of Magnagora and New Celest, as damage to either the Earth or Water plane is harmful to their forest. Also, they refuse to take a side in the between the other two communes, as they view both as kindred forests.

Environments

Petrified Forest
Most of Snowhaven consists of a forest in which all the trees have been turned to living stone. Only the Greyfang druids can bond to this kind of forest, other druids must forestcast forest in order to bond to it. Like other forests, it also has trees that players can climb into if they have the necessary skills.

The Great Glacier
The Great Glacier flows down from the north of the Petrified Forest, and constantly threatens to engulf the whole of Snowhaven in its icy grip.

Snowhaven Commune
The Commune itself is located in caverns to the east of the forest. Inside these caverns are the trade workshops, and the great steamworks which warms up the caverns and provides heat to kitchens and forge. Dhazric the Leper, a corroding satyr who will buy corpses of the gemstone weevils that infest the pertified forest, also resides here.

Snowmelt River
The Snowmelt River draws its water from the snows and ice to the north of Snowhaven. It runs through the forest, disappearing underground in the southwest of the forest, before resurfacing near Avechna’s Peak as the Toranada River.

Kobold Quarry
The quarry is found a mountainous region, south of the forest itself. Rock is quarried here by the rock fae known as kobolds for the use of the Rockdancers.

Etherhaven
Found atop a craggy mountain to the northeast of Faethorn, the ethereal version of Snowhaven is not like other Ethereal forests. It does not strive to take control of Faethorn, but many of the fae wish to aid it in its struggle to survive. It is home to the three Avatars of Old Man Rock, the Thrall, the Karl and the Earl.

Animals

Forest
Snowshoe Rabbit
Lynx
Gray Wolf
Red Fox
Hedgehog

Trees
Pine Marten

River
River Otter

Quarry
Wolverine

Underground
Cave

Flying
Fish Eagle
Cat Owl

Guilds

The wiccans of Snowhaven follow Old Man Rock, who has three Avatars.
Master Stonebrow, the Thrall, is leader of the kobolds; ugly slave fae used for menial tasks such a quarrying rock. They will stand in front of their master, attempting to absorb damage directed at their master, as they are useless at attacking but can absorb a lot of damage.
Lady Jewel, the Karl, is leader of the valkyries, female gemstone fae who distract enemies with sparkling lights.
Lord Ironfist, the Earl, is leader of the satyrs, a powerful product of imbuing fae with astral power. These fae look like elfen males from the wait up, but from the waist down they resemble stainless steel goats. They blast enemies with their fiery breath.

The Greyfang druids follow Grey Wolf. They can only bond to petrified forest, but they have the ability to petrify a forest environment in order to bond to it. They have learned to use the strengths of their greatest foe, the Great Glacier, to their advantage, having the ability to freeze the ground into permafrost, throw freezing shards of ice at enemies, and summon the fimbulwinter wolves - vicious packs of cold-enhanced wolves that rip enemies to pieces with their icy fangs.

Attached Map

This is a map of part of the forest of Snowhaven, obviously there should be a lot more Petrified Forest rooms to the north, which are threatened by the glacier. Also missing are Grey Wolf, rooms linked to things released in the game after I made this - including libraries and bookbinding, kennels, a link to the aetherways and so forth.

Ithaqua?

the heck is jojoba? .... that just sounds weird, and I thought Gaudiguch sounded weird

Jojobo jungle was an Aslaran place, I think. Probably ruled by Sun. It's somewhere in the histories..

Its like Ithaqua... but not... but this will never fly.

If it is abstaining from all conflict, then one, it is going to be a damn boring place to live, and two, the divine wouldn't make this place because of the no conflict thing.

But good work though.

Lies! I study geology and I saw a petrified tree and thought hmm.....

By the way, you should probably never take anything I post 100% seriously. I was blessed by Mother Moon with Lunacy.

I always wanted to live in a petrified forest, I think the idea of it is pretty neat - but it does resemble Ithaqua quite a bit.

Get rid of the snow, and put the commune in Skarch as a petrified forest following Old man Rock, and I think you've got something good.

And the mother cactus!

Wouldn't she be a bit.. prickly to follow as a great spirit?

*giggle*

Damn...sounds like a really good idea. I wouldn't mind having that as a commune, and for warriors and bards you could do...Frostguards...and Rockmelodists...or something?

I think it would work better if it were built around an rp where they are accepting of all orgs so they are "neutral" in the sense that they have the freedom to choose any direction for their alliances it could be fun but they'd just stay neutral anyway unless prodded by an event

Everything is better with constructive criticism, so I will mention what I do NOT like in your idea.

If I do not comment on anything, it means I like it. I especially like the notion of nature being harsh and destructive, yet still revered by the commune. Snugglehippies for teh lose.

1. Somehow, I do not think that a commune signing pacts with ANY elemental lords is likely, even so lords of planes that oppose each other so much. It happened AFTER the whole tainting event, didn't it?

2. There is a slim chance that a commune which didn't appear anywhere in the lore and is completely, 100% made up, will appear.

3. Even though this commune is supposed to be neutral, you can be sure that sooner or later you will find Snowhaveners who will NOT be neutral in their points of view. If anything, they will counter-attack against people who will raid the commune - as I have no delusions that a neutral commune will make an EXCELLENT target for raiders/griefers, lured by the premise that no matter what they do, the commune won't strike back and will remain neutral. This will be especially true during the first months (OOC months) of the organisation, when it won't have strong security.

4. The idea on why this commune shouldn't attack cities is rather heavy-handed and limited - kill elementals and Snowhaven will suffer! But what happens if raiders from other orgs kill all the rock lords/water lords? Will Snowhaven be screwed because of that? And even so, potential Snowhaven attackers can still target Magnagora or New Celest, only the celestial planes or prime, and not elemental. And the idea on why Snowhaven won't attack communes is generic and very prone to change - will they still consider Glomdoring/Serenwilde a kindred forest after a huge raiding party comes in and kills all their Old Man Rock Avatars?

I like the idea. This would throw on an entirely new spin to the roleplay between commune and city, not to mention it would also further diversify the spirits of nature into an almost sub-classification. Love it!

I would kill for a desert society out in the skarch we could live at, even ifi t had no guilds... or anything. I just want to live in the Skarch.

You should come see my play 'Blown Away', Simimi.

Sure, I'll inquire as to how next time I am logged in! Would love to see how the plays system works.

Since you're not enemied to Serenwilde, you just have to go to our stage (finding it might take some help though) and buy a ticket for a replay. Bring some friends, since one ticket serves as many as show up.

Eventually, you'll also be able to watch it at the World Stage, but not for a few years at least.

I've always wished Serenwilde's roleplay was more like Ithaqua.

I know, not a very helpful comment, but this is the first time I've seen both mentioned in a thread.

If that thing was actually ever brought into Lusternia..I'd join it without a doubt.