Great Forest

South of the plains that border Haven lies a verdant wilderness stretching across almost the entire southern half of The Northland. The flora varies at differing latitudes, ranging from a mix of pines, oaks, maples, and birches to a myriad of jungle species further to the south near Mexico. Within this expanse are also countless animals and monsters, along with several tribes of more primitive races such as kobolds and goblins. There are no roads that lead all the way through the Great Forest, and all major settlements are either coastal or close to the borders of the treeline. No one can be sure what lies within the forest's deepest depths.

History
The Great Forest once covered a much greater area of the Northland, but it remains at about 60% of its original size today. The primary factor in this reduction was the expansion of Haven. As Haven grew and its rural outer reaches were urbanized, new area for farmland needed to be cleared in the south. This process was gradual and controlled, giving the ecosystems of the forest time to adapt.

What was not gradual or controlled, however, was The Great Owlbear War. In ages long past, while the earliest Northland humans were building their first villages, the Owlbears populated a sprawling network of cities and towns reaching all throughout the forest, but a plague forced them into a long hibernation. When their hibernal cavern was accidentally discovered by The Iron Helix Syndicate, they awoke en masse and frenzied. They would fight Haven and The Guild in a bloody conflict that would claim millions of lives and leave huge swathes of the Great Forest destroyed. After, further destruction was caused when the Owlbears settled the edges of it and began to expand just as Haven had.

The Arachne also called Great Forest home, although they lived far in the northwest, away from the Owlbears. Their section of forest was claimed by Haven's need for a western port, and they were forced to assimilate into the city.

After reaching both coasts and thousands of miles south, Haven's expansion finally began to plateau, and destruction of the forest on a large scale ceased. A few years later, however, the Leviathan Impact would occur. The resulting earthquake and tsunami, though they shook many of Haven's towers to rubble, had virtually no effect on the Great Forest. Short term flooding on the west coast would disrupt life for a time, but not permanently.

Present Day
Currently, due to Haven's ruined state, the forest has begun to grow northward again. Some small towns and villages have also begun to emerge at its edges, formed by Havenic survivors. With abundant farmland now open and resources left behind by Haven able to be salvaged, the main threat posed to these survivor villages is not their environment, but the other inhabitants of the forest. Raids from the nearby goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear, and kobold tribes are quite frequent. Aside from this local threat, bands of Githyanki and Githzerai from the Astral Plane have also begun to appear in the forest, though in small numbers. It is not clear why they have appeared now, but they have been seen trying to kill one another by some of the villagers. Much deeper into the forest, there is also the small but wealthy city of Neuschwanstein, founded by some of Haven's elite seeking to seclude themselves from the rabble of Haven.