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Very neat picture Claragon! I like how the trees look in it; not to mention the different colors you see in the picture. Did you take that picture by chance? neutral

That sounds pretty cool! It seems like you are in a similar situation to my character known as Osmar cuz, he lives at the foot of a mountain and a lush forest is a few feet away from the entrance to his home. There's really nothing special about that forest except for the fact that my wood elves live in it. They're very protective of that forest and they have a history with Osmar's dad so they are allowed to live near it. 3nodding

Not bad! I actually like the idea of a forest being in the place where a kingdom once was. I wonder why I didn't think of it but now I know better not to use it.

I don't know if you know about the elves from Magic the gathering but, there is a particular race of elves known as Llanowar Elves. If I recall correctly, they deal with trespassers in a very harsh way. Their motto is: "Break a bone for each broken branch". How about that?
The elves in my story who live in a forest though, have an ever harsher way to deal with intruders, if you can believe that. mrgreen

Yeah, I don't wanna disclose their methods just yet but I came up with it after I read the text on the card I told you about.

So you have some people in your story who live in that forest where a kingdom used to be? What is it like? If you ask me to try and picture it, I think it must be similar to what can be seen in the first Metroid Prime game. If you haven't played it, have a look at this: You Tube link!

I know it doesn't have great resolution but it should allow you to see how I imagine it to be, sort of... sweatdrop

This is an interesting discussion. I can see the issue in two lights.

Real life: In real life forest can be very enchanting. In fact every regionseems to offer some sort of fantastic landscape. My home is located in the great basin region of the united states - basically a huge desert, so not many forest except for in the mountains and these are all ponderosa pine and quaking aspens - not too lush. Souther Utah has amazing scenery and rack formations. i perhaps should make a desert thread to compliment this one - I don't want to stray off topic here. My mother in law told me she saw amazing forests in Scotland. I've never traveled outside the U.S. myself. The most incredible forest I ever saw was on the west coast. My sisters and I traveled with my father some years back first through the giant redwood forest of California (where George Lucas shot footage for the Forest Moon of endor, home of the Ewoks, in Return of the Jedi) and up into Oregan and Washington to the temparate rain forest - a rare ecological niche. The rain forest looked a lot like one of Mel's first pictures, perpetually green and draped in moss. This was an evergreen (pines, spruce, fir) rainforest. One of the best descriptions that come to mind is primordial. I was always reminded of what a forest might have looked like in the Jurassic period before the evolution of flowers or grasses - with everything green, lacking the bright colors of flowers we often associate with lush vegetation today. Also I saw the forest in Yellowstone National Park shortly after the conflagration of 1988 that destroyed muchof the forest and forever changed American policy of managing forest fires. The landscape of scorched tree trunks for as far as the eye can see was truly haunting. If a lush forest appears home to elves, gnomes, or fairies, the burned forest looked more like it was inhabited by a fearsome fire breathing dragon that consumes all in his flames.

Fantasy: I recently watched Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, a Studio Ghibli film. This movie featured heavily a toxic jungle filled with giant insects that attacked any who dared enter it (Hypnocrown beware). A jungle is a little different from a forest I guess, but it had many of the same features. It was interesting how manmade polution was the ultimate cause of the jungle and how, despite being toxic it was actually beneficial to the Earth. I'll not give any more spoilers away.

Sounds good! I suppose the forest part of the planet the folks at "Retro Studios" managed to render for Metroid Prime is quite realistic, huh? It seems they made it so the structures built by the ancient civilization who lived there would not clash with the plants and I think that's a great concept. I mean, working with nature instead of destroying it or, let nature destroy the buildings.

Wow! I wonder if SK actually came or if it was Jen (his wife) actually posting for him, he-he.
Ha-ha-ha! Very funny about the giant insects thing! I do wonder what would be worse... lots and lots of tiny and annoying insects or a few gigantic ones?

I can see why LWS would dislike the heat cuz I can't stand it myself.

It's definitely a cool feeling, huh? Seeing someone agreeing with you, I mean... mrgreen

BTW, have you ever thought of an actual way that a building would be able to be one with nature? I mean a plausible way that can actually work in real life. I'm no engineer or physicist so I can't really come up with anything myself but it seems to me that if what can make a building collapse over time are the roots of plants like, trees for example, then it'd make sense to make a building that could sort of adapt to them as if it was alive. You know?

He-he, ok...

Ah, but you forget... if plants like trees and tangle weeds get all over the rock then their roots will slowly, but surely, break the building apart.
I was thinking more of a building made with some kind of adaptable technology so that for every centimeter a plant's roots move, the building can shift somewhat in order to compensate. That way, both the building and the plants won't have any problem at any point in time.