The Enchanted Forest

The Enchanted Forest

A magical place, hidden from the outside world.

Sprout Sprites aren’t the only creatures to dwell in the Enchanted Forest. Full of magical beings, the secrets of the Enchanted Forest remain mostly a mystery, but for how long?

Ecology

Atmosphere

The Enchanted Forest is a truly magical location. Although no human has been to this mystical sanctuary in over one thousand years, the feeling of walking through this forest has been preserved in our legends. Enjoy this collection of songs compiled by members of The Homeschooler’s Chat who dream of stepping foot into this secret world. If you listen close enough, you might find a little magic yourself.

Species

Harold and his fellow Sprout Sprites are native to the Enchanted Forest. It is unknown how many magical species call Brocéliande home. Tardigrades are abundant in the Enchanted Forest where Harold and his fellow Sprout Sprites live. Over 1,000 varieties of tardigrades can be found in the Enchanted Forest, including some magical types!

Location

The Enchanted Forest is suspected to be the very same Brocéliande Forest from Arthurian legend. This mysterious location is known for its abundance of magic, magical creatures, and strange happenings that are unexplainable by basic reasoning and human science.

It is unknown whether the magical forest where Harold lives truly is the same Enchanted Forest from the legends of King Arthur. All signs indicate that these magical places are one and the same, but further research must be done to confirm this hypothesis. This page will be updated when more information comes to light.

Dwellings

Sprout Sprite dwellings vary widely in size, appearance, and location. These Sprites historically value inconspicuous homes that blend into the nature around them. Trees, stumps, and logs are the most popular locations for Sprout Sprites to nest. When settling in a tall tree, Sprites will build elaborate walkways from one location to anther, for ease of access from ground level.

Some Sprout Sprites are known to create homes underground. This is a less common occurrence due to Sprite Sprouts needing a healthy amount of sunlight for nutrients. Underground areas are typically used for food and supply storage, keeping these items secure and out of the way!

History

Human Separation

Sprout Sprites separated from humans around the 6th century CE.

After witnessing the fallout from a large amount of human conflict in Europe during the 6th century, including King Arthur’s legendary battles, a long social conflict between Sprout Sprites ensued over the idea of placing the Enchanted Forest – along with the Sprout Sprites themselves – under a “hidden” spell. This spell would prevent humans from seeing, hearing, smelling, or sensing the Enchanted Forest or the Sprout Sprites in any way. The elder Sprout Sprites in favor of this concept hoped that limiting human knowledge of their home and their people would prevent damage – both physically and socially – to their society and its future. Those against this plan felt that while some humans had the potential to cause immense harm to most natural habitats and beings – Sprout Sprites included – forcing Sprout Sprite society to hide from the world would stunt their growth as a community and alienate them from the developments of the outside world.

The Herald Solution

The conflict over human separation ended with an agreement to follow through with the spell for the protection and preservation of the beings and ecosystem within the forest, with the stipulation that the Sprout Sprites of the Enchanted Forest would nominate a noble and brave sprite to the position of “Herald”. This individual would carry news and information to and from human society on behalf of the Sprout Sprite community. A new Sprout Sprite would be nominated to this position once every 100 years, allowing fresh generations to take part in this important practice.

The task given to each Herald is simple: gather new information about human society and bringing the data back to the Enchanted Forest to share with the community. In this way, Sprout Sprites are able to stay up-to-date on important world events and even develop new technologies alongside humanity, to an extent. While all other Sprout Sprites remain invisible to the human eye, this special explorer would be granted the authority to make themself visible to humans, overriding the enchantment placed on their people.

Note: due to the complexity of the native Sprout Sprite language, the term “Herald” has been provided to humans by these representative sprouts as an easy translation for English speakers. Similar terms have been provided in other languages.

The Spell

Humans are the only creatures to be banned from the Enchanted Forest. No human has entered The Enchanted Forest since the protection spell was cast, nor have they attempted entry due to the nature of the spell. This heavy enchantment causes any human too near the gateway into the forest to simply turn away, take another route around, or suddenly remember something needing their attention elsewhere.

Sprout Sprite elders keep the protection enchantment in place with regular maintenance and inspections, although this spell does not require intense upkeep. The simplicity of maintenance is mostly thanks to the involvement of powerful mages, witches, sorcerers, and other magical beings who saw fit to help the Sprout Sprites and other occupants of The Enchanted Forest safely escape the negative impacts of humanity. Controversially, a handful of the persons involved in casting of this great spell were humans themselves who had witnessed the destruction caused by their own kind. At the time of the enchantment being placed many Sprout Sprites worried that the human mages would leave a gap or loophole in the spell, potentially allowing humans to find the forest. No such weak point has been observed in the roughly fourteen centuries since the protection spell was cast.