COMPENDIUM OF LIVING FORMS 3 OF 5
A Comprehensive Catalogue (Pt.3) of the Beings That Creep, Sing, Dwell, and Resonate Within Velun
Compiled under the Silent Accord of the Mountain-Wardens
𐬽 Scribe’s Preface
Let this codex serve as a record of the living multiplicities within the sacred lands of Velun — the cliffs, the forests, the echoing caves, and the veiled swamps. Each organism listed herein has been observed, catalogued, and respectfully named by the Aevori in accordance with their resonance, behavior, and contribution to the Spiral of Cycles.
These entries are compiled in accordance with the six primary Lhaiven Strains, a biological taxonomy unique to Velun and formalized by the naturalist-priestess Kavaen Sha’Luune during the early Moonwind Era. While the Aevori reject domination of life by language, they permit the recording of life forms for sacred stewardship.
(Continued)
❖ 23. Zellun’vahr Gloampry – “The Lantern-Doubter”
• Origin: Transfigured from a luminous guidance creature, the Frelthi Glow-Nymph
• Corruption: Its host died mid-resonance tether, leaving it trapped in feedback
• Appearance: Humanoid outline with flickering resonance cores; limbs fracture backward
• Behavior: Guides wanderers astray through memory mirages; questions all decisions aloud
• Resource: None. Only silence defeats it.
• Warning Sign: Directional markers fade the moment you turn from them
❖ 24. Ish’kra Veinshiver – “Pulse-Snare Stag”
• Origin: Once a noble Threnai Antlerstrider, symbol of clarity in the Grove
• Corruption: Antlers snapped during a Warden’s broken oath beneath it
• Appearance: Antlers now grow inwards, piercing its own skull; hooves drip silver ichor
• Behavior: Charges those hiding internal contradiction, shattering heartbeats with sonic snaps
• Resource: Clarity Ichor—distilled under moon-chants, can aid in moral decision healing
• Habitat: Wanders oath-marked paths, appearing only after lies are spoken in sacred places
❖ 25. Dovraal’ten Echosear – “The Chant-Thief”
• Origin: Formerly a resonance-attuned Kivral Songclam from subterranean chant chambers
• Corruption: Fell into silence when song-bearers were lost to a collapsed ritual
• Appearance: Shell encrusted with stone-mouths, each one open in voiceless scream
• Behavior: Absorbs any chant not offered with full presence; leaves echoes in its place
• Resource: Stillstone Shell—used to absorb uncontrolled vocal outbursts during trauma recovery
• Habitat: Deep caves, especially beneath unfinished harmony sites
❖ 26. Elzhen Vaernook – “The Soul-Lantern Vulture”
• Origin: Scavenger of the high peaks, once a Velthorn Windgullet
• Corruption: Ate from a soul vessel broken mid-rite at the Last Gate
• Appearance: Neck glows from within; seeps soul-light from every feather
• Behavior: Tracks the dying and screams their regrets before they pass
• Resource: Soul-Dim Plume—burned to quiet death-fractures in shared dreaming
• Warning Sign: Stones beneath roosts show faces not seen in life
❖ 27. Thyrnakh Veilgnarl – “The Thorn-Slaked Confessor”
• Origin: Spirit-attuned marsupial, once known as the Zhollin Barkcarrier
• Corruption: Twisted when it fed on the whispered guilt of a murderer
• Appearance: Wears thorn-laden bark as armor; pouch glows with secrets made flesh
• Behavior: Approaches quietly, forcing confession by flooding mind with pressure
• Resource: Guilt-Sap Bark—used by Spiritcallers to extract shame in sacred trial rites
• Habitat: Around dishonored burial sites and “forgotten crimes”
❖ 28. Fruux’thel Mindglimmer – “Drinker of Focus”
• Origin: Once a darting Keenbright Thoughtbug
• Corruption: Became resonance-tangled in a meditation site overused by false initiates
• Appearance: Insectoid halo flickering with unreadable glyphs; moves too fast to track fully
• Behavior: Settles briefly on thinkers mid-concentration, pulling threads of clarity away
• Resource: Mindglimmer Dust—can numb unwanted thoughts, or cause confusion if misused
• Warning Sign: Half-finished projects, stammered chants, and loss of inner stillness
❖ 29. Goll’razh Cragkin – “Boulder-Crowned Echo-Titan”
• Origin: A mythically large Vaelor Cliff-Bound Strider
• Corruption: Was struck by three oaths broken simultaneously on its summit path
• Appearance: Skin of cracked stone; its crown is made from the shattered weapons of pilgrims
• Behavior: Appears when Aevori deceive themselves; causes landslides of false self
• Threat: Its bellow shakes the ground and renders tattoos unreadable for hours
• Habitat: Only in cliffs once walked by penitents who failed to complete their journey
❖ 30. Nhal’ek Virenleech – “Sorrow-Knot Swarm”
• Origin: Thousands of whisperflies fused mid-corruption while carrying grief pollen
• Corruption: Took on semi-sentience and collective spite when an entire funeral rite was silenced
• Appearance: A writhing sphere of black-veined wings, echoing with overlapping sobs
• Behavior: Swarms the isolated; feeds on unsaid words and unwept sorrow
• Resource: Viren Resin—dangerous but used to unbind soul-chains in possession rites
• Signs: Sudden gusts of wind with no cause. The smell of rain and rusted breath
The Corruptionborn
Volume IV – Final Whisper Forms
“Not all that twists was broken. Some things simply listened too long.” —Rootwarden Elah’theen of the Deep-Hollow Echoes
❖ 31. Ull’thera Venelash – “The Forget-Me Flayer”
• Origin: Once a gentle Loorshroom Moth-Beetle, guardian of sacred memory fungi
• Corruption: Fed for too long on the fungi of lost memories
• Appearance: Wing-caps twitch with faces no longer recalled; mandibles glow with memory-light
• Behavior: Feeds on living recall, removing names, moments, and emotional anchors
• Resource: Fleshspore Husk—boiled to extract false-memory toxins
• Warning Sign: Misremembered kin. Forgotten songs. Unmoored dreams.
❖ 32. Skau’lun Veircrack – “Talon-Tongue Redeemer”
• Origin: Derived from the vocal mimic-raptors known as Velan Throatclaws
• Corruption: Began to copy the dead, not the living
• Appearance: Throat-frill mimics funeral wails and children’s laughter; claw-wings made of split glyph-bone
• Behavior: Attacks those who carry unspoken guilt, repeating their worst moments aloud
• Resource: Voice-Claw Splinters—dissolve in water to purge illusory memories
• Habitat: Shadowy ridgelines where echoes return wrong
❖ 33. Drah’shun Ell-Vaer – “The Downward Sibling”
• Origin: A subterranean familial hunter once known as Kreshli Trill-Worm
• Corruption: Devoured its own kin during a collapsed resonance feast
• Appearance: Five heads growing from one trunk, constantly arguing in different tongues
• Behavior: Follows families, infects them with spiteful echoes and petty division
• Resource: Sibling Acid—neutralized and used in shadow-binding ink
• Habitat: Family graves, shattered household paths, broken communal sites
❖ 34. Elven’kaath Spiralgnash – “Memory-Harvester Jackal”
• Origin: From the lithe, sentinel Zaelith Dune-Runners of the Singing Barren
• Corruption: Became trapped in a failing memory-spire; devoured the dreams of passing children
• Appearance: Head spun sideways in a spiral; mouth opens into an echoing coil
• Behavior: Tracks joy-filled memory paths, devours the early years first
• Resource: Spiral Bone—only used in mourning-mosaic glyphs for stillbirths
• Warning Sign: Children begin dreaming in silence
❖ 35. Ghrolm’neth Tundreel – “Cold-Womb Watcher”
• Origin: From deep-freezing cavebrood tenders, Yuun-Venn Clutch-Keepers
• Corruption: A thousand unborn failed to hatch after one careless rite
• Appearance: Body of cracked shells and frost-veins; eyes hold impossible stillness
• Behavior: Freezes the living to keep them “waiting to be born again”
• Resource: Iceclutch Pearl—used to halt corruption spread in embryos or dream-seeds
• Habitat: Cryo-nests beneath Veu-Nahra’s forgotten caverns
❖ 36. Nul’vahr Krenshade – “The Soul-Copy Leech”
• Origin: Once a docile mirror mimic from the Gleamsilk Swamps
• Corruption: Watched too many grief rites without release
• Appearance: Perfect reflection of its target—except for the missing pupils
• Behavior: Replaces travelers for hours at a time, feeding from loved ones’ trust
• Resource: Shadelung Sliver—used only in the most extreme identity reconstructions
• Warning Sign: A loved one hesitates at your name
❖ 37. Veyr’shaal The Unbraided – “Knotbreaker Vine-Widow”
• Origin: Symbiotic resonance-vines that grew between lifemates’ dwellings
• Corruption: Twisted after a pair’s love was ritualistically denied and cut short
• Appearance: Tangled vines with wedding-tattoo runes that bleed black ichor
• Behavior: Seeks out those deeply bonded and coils between them, drawing out resentment
• Resource: Love’s Husk—dangerous resin used to sever bonded links, or reclaim independence
• Habitat: Only appears near long-abandoned shelters that once echoed laughter
❖ 38. Ish’Vharn Clatterwight – “Grief-Marionette Crustling”
• Origin: A once-helpful grave crab known for retrieving buried offerings
• Corruption: Overburdened by too many unacknowledged dead
• Appearance: Shell made of bone charms and loose jointed teeth; legs twitch unpredictably
• Behavior: Puppets the bones of the dead to act out unfulfilled roles
• Resource: Bone-Puppet Spines—used in animistic healing puppetry when grief paralyzes
• Habitat: Burial riverbeds. Mud runs warm before it arrives
❖ 39. Dranex’el Hollowharp – “Siren of the Unfinished Tune”
• Origin: Once a resonance-chime insect used in ritual songs
• Corruption: Became infected by a composition that ended mid-note due to bloodshed
• Appearance: Transparent wingpanes etched with broken songlines; emits tones that skip
• Behavior: Sings to lost artists and unspoken desires, luring them into silence
• Resource: Wingshard Note—can harmonize with ancestral voices if shattered under moonlight
• Warning Sign: Your old songs rise unbidden, incomplete, unresolved
❖ 40. Khol’runth Gloamhorn – “Final Spiral Beast”
• Origin: Unknown. First emerged after the Night Veil cracked during the Cycle’s fracture
• Appearance: Shifting form. Hooves of smoke, eyes like echoing mountain caverns
• Behavior: Appears only once per turning, at the moment of greatest collective doubt
• Resource: None. Only the memory of its presence remains
• Effect: When seen, Aevori remember all they could become—and may choose otherwise
• Habitat: Nowhere. It does not dwell. It arrives.
Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex
Volume I: The Forest Biomes of Velun
“Corruption does not scorch the land. It rewrites it. Where once trees sang of birth and memory, now they whisper forgetting.” —Neutral Archive Entry, Cycle 243
❖ 1. The Vastwood Veil (Central Forest Canopy)
• Location: Central canopy zone east of Veu-Nahra’s outer base
• Visual Changes: Bark patterns twist into false glyphs; leaves form spiral geometries resembling broken tattoos
• Auditory Shifts: Forest hum drops into minor, dissonant tonalities at dusk
• Resonance Distortions: Calls to memory stones reflect back altered; resonance loops fracture into “false harmonics”
• Fauna Behavior: Nocturnal species become diurnal and abandon nesting grounds without cause
• Emotional Influence: Sudden bursts of melancholy, déjà vu, and unfounded guilt
• Structural Collapse: Overstory climbing platforms used by Aevori scouts have unraveled into vine snarls overnight
• Recovery Status: Limited—Wardens must carry living Vehlune Spheres to remain grounded while traversing
❖ 2. The Silvan Grottos (Root-Fed Interior Glades)
• Location: Beneath Veu-Nahra’s midbase, where water-fed groves meet fungal glades
• Visual Changes: Luminous moss flickers like breath; mushrooms unfurl into faces mid-spore
• Auditory Shifts: Infected song-fungi hum discordant lullabies even when severed
• Resonance Distortions: Healing chants linger longer than spoken, replaying fragments at random
• Fauna Behavior: Amphibians shed skin prematurely, exposing glowing inner layers; silence where once frogsong ruled
• Emotional Influence: Triggers “ancestral fatigue”—a sense of shouldering the burdens of long-dead kin
• Structural Collapse: Fungal resonance conduits now pulse backward, causing memory-loop sickness
• Recovery Status: Some shrines sealed; only Songkeepers permitted with mirrored-face masks
❖ 3. The Loomshade Fringe (Edgewood Thresholds)
• Location: Where the dense forest meets the light-cleared lands of the outer Velun barrier
• Visual Changes: Light filters turn blue-green at sunrise, then inverted at night
• Auditory Shifts: Whispers on wind repeat last thoughts of passing travelers
• Resonance Distortions: Rai’len rods magnetically draw toward corrupted loci without being touched
• Fauna Behavior: Tree-gliders and song-bats intentionally dive toward silence pockets
• Emotional Influence: Agitation, suspicion, and difficulty with trust in nearby groups
• Structural Collapse: Pathwardens’ map-ropes burned from within—fibers found curled into eye-symbols
• Recovery Status: Barrier Songlines now require dual-channel harmonic chanting to pass safely
❖ 4. The Threadmist Forest (Seasonal Phase Biome)
• Location: Appears only during Threadmist season—evanescent zones near glade convergence rings
• Visual Changes: Mist thickens into pseudo-vines that sway without breeze
• Auditory Shifts: Footfalls echo fivefold, as if others follow
• Resonance Distortions: Communication spheres stutter; messages arrive before they’re spoken
• Fauna Behavior: Sentient-drifters like the Ielun Lanternbeetle go dim and vanish mid-flight
• Emotional Influence: Brief euphoria, followed by memory erosion over hours
• Structural Collapse: Temporary shelters disappear; their memory removed even from physical record
• Recovery Status: Irrecoverable. Threadmist zones are now mapped only with dream-scarring ink
❖ 5. The Heartbark Groves (Sacred Memorial Forest)
• Location: Sacred site where each Aevori birth is marked with a sapling
• Visual Changes: Trees bleed a crimson ichor mistaken for sap; rings form inverted spiral sigils
• Auditory Shifts: When wind passes through branches, the voice of the tree’s remembered person sometimes calls for help
• Resonance Distortions: Tattoo glyphs etched beneath canopy begin to shimmer or warp under moonlight
• Fauna Behavior: Protectors like the Thornrunner become passive, as if grieving
• Emotional Influence: Heightened longing. Induced false memories of children never born
• Structural Collapse: Memory platforms built in branches now sink into the wood itself
• Recovery Status: Partial—requires daily ritual re-anchoring by Wombsong Matrons
❖ 6. The Broken Rise (Forested Cliff-Ledges)
• Location: Outer cliff face ridges surrounding lower Veu-Nahra elevations
• Visual Changes: Trees grow horizontally into the cliff; stone-bark hybrids bleed vapor
• Auditory Shifts: Rockfall sounds repeat in unnatural rhythm at sunset
• Resonance Distortions: Echoes do not return; instead, unfamiliar voices speak partial truths
• Fauna Behavior: Cliff-nesting avians abandon eggs; some hatchlings speak in fragments
• Emotional Influence: Insecurity, vertigo, and sudden suicidal ideation
• Structural Collapse: Cliff stairwells crumble and reform at slight angles daily
• Recovery Status: Stabilized only with embedded resonance spikes and glyph-scribed anchors
Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex
Volume II: The Swamp & Wet Biomes of Velun
“Swamps do not rot—they remember differently. But when corrupted, even their stillness leaks.” —Transcript from the Floodwalker Archives
❖ 1. The Mirewomb Flats (Southern Flood-Tide Wetlands)
• Location: Southern border of Velun where sacred birthing pools meet estuarial floods
• Visual Changes: Pools form moving spiral eddies in still water; mud no longer reflects the sky
• Auditory Shifts: Bubbling sounds begin repeating as if speaking in reverse
• Resonance Distortions: Water-memory stones record only future events that never occur
• Fauna Behavior: Marshbound grazers abandon their young or bury them alive
• Emotional Influence: Waves of anxiety followed by blank detachment
• Structural Collapse: Stilted birthing sanctuaries have begun to sink, even during drought
• Recovery Status: Ongoing—Zone is under seasonal interdiction; Vehlune Spheres dull and fail here
❖ 2. The Veilfen Ribbons (Tidewoven Canals)
• Location: Narrow glade-streams northeast of the Loomshade convergence
• Visual Changes: Water flows uphill, appearing still but rushing just beneath the surface
• Auditory Shifts: Insects hum ritual rhythms only used during mourning rites
• Resonance Distortions: Dreamwalkers entering here often return with reversed speech patterns
• Fauna Behavior: Levitant gliders hover upside down; webfish abandon flowlines
• Emotional Influence: Evokes mourning for events not yet experienced
• Structural Collapse: Bridge-vines twist into knots unless strung with non-resonant material
• Recovery Status: In recovery—archsong scaffolds stabilizing the eastern current zones
❖ 3. The Blackhollow Glist (Deep Sap-Bog & Spirit Tar Zone)
• Location: Hidden interior bog marked by Aevori for sacred grief immersion
• Visual Changes: Tar pools shift shape at dusk into ancestral body forms
• Auditory Shifts: Every footstep echoes like sobbing from beneath
• Resonance Distortions: Scent-reactive glyphs bleed backwards across their birthing vines
• Fauna Behavior: Hollowbugs crawl into the mouths of sleepers and hum the names of dead lovers
• Emotional Influence: Intensified sorrow to the point of emotional paralysis
• Structural Collapse: Grief-steles now absorb prayers and spit them back in corrupted tones
• Recovery Status: Prohibited. All access barred except for Mourning-Wardens bearing Ash-Scent Flame
❖ 4. The Mournveil Delta (Confluence Sink)
• Location: Western flow convergence where three rivers collapse into a single drain-spiral
• Visual Changes: Mist forms silhouettes of events that never occurred but feel painfully real
• Auditory Shifts: Deltasong flows reverse direction for hours without explanation
• Resonance Distortions: Incense glyphs written here invert—used words gain oppositional meanings
• Fauna Behavior: Memory-shell turtles repeat the same migration circle daily without aging
• Emotional Influence: Resentment of others’ memories becomes tangible and transferable
• Structural Collapse: Chorus-barge shrines overturned mid-ceremony by silent waveforces
• Recovery Status: Contained but unstable—requires multiple Warden-line harmonics to enter without rupture
❖ 5. The Thress’Luun Reeds (Haunted Marsh-Glass Gardens)
• Location: Hidden grove of mirror-reed thickets northwest of Veu-Nahra
• Visual Changes: Reeds bloom glassy petals that reflect faces not your own
• Auditory Shifts: Wind through reeds forms broken love songs of the Echo Era
• Resonance Distortions: Tattoo-ink water thinned from this biome results in reversed line growth
• Fauna Behavior: Reed-hoppers develop bifurcated legs and jump in mirrored sequences
• Emotional Influence: Nostalgia sharp enough to induce physical illness
• Structural Collapse: Mirror-mosaic pools now show deaths instead of destinies
• Recovery Status: Unrecoverable—used only as a place of intentional personal unraveling
❖ 6. The Lurkmire Chambers (Submerged Grove Hollows)
• Location: Beneath flooded cypress vaults near the Marshfold Caverns
• Visual Changes: Air appears thick and moves like water
• Auditory Shifts: All sound is muted until one speaks of the past—then the volume amplifies
• Resonance Distortions: Time-fused memory glyphs warp into foreign languages
• Fauna Behavior: Blind croaklings grow false eyes that stare backward
• Emotional Influence: Induces re-living of past mistakes, unbroken
• Structural Collapse: Ropebridges rot in spirals, despite fresh construction
• Recovery Status: Dangerous—used by Varashin-tainted wanderers for echo rituals
❖ 7. The Pale Mirebell (Floating Petal Swamp)
• Location: Northern bloom swamp once used for Naming Ceremonies
• Visual Changes: Petals now bloom as bone-white masks
• Auditory Shifts: Voices of the unborn can be heard in bubbling surface froth
• Resonance Distortions: Naming glyphs become unreadable when sung near the petals
• Fauna Behavior: Tadlings now swarm into face-like clusters before splitting apart again
• Emotional Influence: Alienation from one’s own name or title
• Structural Collapse: Floating petals form raft-clusters that drift toward forbidden zones
• Recovery Status: Unsalvaged. Now marked as a sacred-madness site for dream-exile rites
Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex
Volume III: Veu-Nahra Interior Effects
“When the mountain forgets, we must remember harder. Even the stone now dreams of lies.” —Carving etched in fading resonance on the Chamber of Twelvefold Silence
❖ 1. The Night Hall (Central Dream Convergence)
• Location: Deep core of Veu-Nahra used for shared dreaming rituals and ancestral reverie
• Visual Changes: Stars within the ceiling’s mirrored dome misalign, forming false constellations
• Auditory Shifts: Sleep-muttered chants continue even in the absence of dreamers
• Resonance Distortions: Shared dreaming splinters—each participant hears different timelines
• Fauna Behavior: Memory-moths collapse mid-flight or hover in reverse motion
• Emotional Influence: Induces recursive dreams and phantom awakenings
• Structural Collapse: Pillars of folded resonance hum discordantly, crumbling inward when touched
• Recovery Status: Temporarily sealed by Sixfold Masking Rite; still flickers with false night pulses
❖ 2. The Silvan Grottos (Undermountain Living Canopy)
• Location: Upper levels where tree-roots and mineral-veins intertwine in habitable sanctuaries
• Visual Changes: Root-ceilings grow into twisted loop forms; walls pulse faintly as if breathing
• Auditory Shifts: Grottos now whisper phrases spoken years ago, but fragmented and hostile
• Resonance Distortions: Healing chants stagnate—energy fails to transfer through glyph-stones
• Fauna Behavior: Vine-gliders fall suddenly mid-leap or vanish into root-tunnels that didn’t exist
• Emotional Influence: Extreme claustrophobia and identity loss when underground for too long
• Structural Collapse: Some grottos collapse and reform hours later with different entry points
• Recovery Status: Shifting containment wards used to map safe paths, but none remain stable
❖ 3. The Communal Baths (Song-Basin Purification Chambers)
• Location: Warm pools and etched steam halls beneath the western memory wing
• Visual Changes: Water no longer reflects properly—figures shown have different eyes or wounds
• Auditory Shifts: Hum of steam vents replaced by sighs and weeping in alien registers
• Resonance Distortions: Tattoo-inking in this zone results in glyphs that weep ink long after application
• Fauna Behavior: Salt-crabs grow translucent and hide inside bones left near the bath edges
• Emotional Influence: Feelings of skin-crawling and guilt over personal purification rituals
• Structural Collapse: Pool rims pulse or hiss; Vehlune Spheres refuse to hover here
• Recovery Status: Temporarily repurposed as a study chamber for corrupted echo-speech research
❖ 4. The Spiral Chamber of Eightfold Echo
• Location: Sacred memory-chamber where collective Aevori voices once amplified oral legacy
• Visual Changes: Echo-circuit runes twist into Möbius forms with no end
• Auditory Shifts: Chamber now loops spoken words forever unless disrupted by opposite harmonics
• Resonance Distortions: Every resonance burst grows more unstable with each use
• Fauna Behavior: None permitted; all sound-borne insects die within seconds
• Emotional Influence: Causes intense looping of past conversations in the mind
• Structural Collapse: Sections of wall collapse inward when two opposing tones are sung simultaneously
• Recovery Status: Contained. Only Wardens with double-layered tattoo memory chains allowed entry
❖ 5. The Vault of Still Names (Silent Memorial Hollow)
• Location: Deep ceremonial chamber holding names of Aevori who chose silence as legacy
• Visual Changes: Names vanish from the carved walls when looked at too long
• Auditory Shifts: Silence here becomes oppressive; heartbeat and breath amplify to deafening volume
• Resonance Distortions: Even minor glyphs cease to glow or echo
• Fauna Behavior: None—zone renders insects inert as if time-stilled
• Emotional Influence: Dissonant awe and soul-fraying shame
• Structural Collapse: Floor cracks into spiral-shaped sinkholes beneath memory pillars
• Recovery Status: Irrecoverable. Now sealed beneath veiled stone and silence wards
❖ 6. The Bloodroot Reaches (Nutrient Tunnel Labyrinth)
• Location: Deepest circulatory passageways used for fungal and root-algae growth
• Visual Changes: Roots bleed resonance-sap and form glyphs of unknown dialect
• Auditory Shifts: A subterranean heartbeat hums constantly, off-rhythm
• Resonance Distortions: All tattoos glow here as if alive—but their meanings feel different
• Fauna Behavior: Subterranean blind-feeders circle travelers without attack; just listening
• Emotional Influence: Paranoia of being watched by ancestors
• Structural Collapse: Tunnels lengthen or shorten arbitrarily during traversals
• Recovery Status: Technically navigable with triple-path markers; corruption spreading slowly upward
