COMPENDIUM OF LIVING FORMS 4 OF 5

A Comprehensive Catalogue (Pt.4) 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)

Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex

Volume IV: Caves and Subterranean Distortions

“Some caverns whisper before they collapse. Others wait for us to forget what silence means.” —Found carved in a forgotten depth of the Ashbone Split

❖ 1. The Griefvane Hollow (Deep Mourning Cavern)

• Location: Under the lower eastern rootline of Veu-Nahra

• Visual Changes: Stone surfaces appear smooth but cut flesh when touched

• Auditory Shifts: Cavern echoes your own voice, aged and breaking, regardless of speech

• Resonance Distortions: Attempted song-based mapping loops into false geographies

• Fauna Behavior: Echo-swallows circle endlessly, forgetting how to land

• Emotional Influence: Profound mourning for nameless things

• Structural Collapse: Roof sheds iridescent ash that saps strength from memory tattoos

• Recovery Status: Unclaimed—used by grief-bound exiles in silence-journeys

❖ 2. The Vehlune Shard-Womb (Crystalline Birthchamber Cavern)

• Location: Beneath the collapsed Singing Spine of Veu-Nahra’s southern interior

• Visual Changes: Crystals emit reversed light—illuminating only shadows

• Auditory Shifts: Harmonics here generate false Aevori voices; often those of the dead

• Resonance Distortions: Glyphs etched into crystal appear correct, but change meaning upon recitation

• Fauna Behavior: None remain—migrating crystal-borers were last seen melting into the floor

• Emotional Influence: Terror masked as awe

• Structural Collapse: Shard-spires grow and burst in fractal formations, impaling memory-vault entrances

• Recovery Status: Active containment—used in corrupted glyph analysis under Warden rites

❖ 3. The Virelung Teeth (Jagged Wind-Carved Shafts)

• Location: Cleft-spiral cave mouths across the southern ridge fissure

• Visual Changes: Rock appears to inhale when unobserved; breath-mist flows upward

• Auditory Shifts: Whispers become physical—spoken words leave residue on cave walls

• Resonance Distortions: Tuning forks used to navigate hum endlessly, even without contact

• Fauna Behavior: Lurk-hounds fall silent here, tongues stilled by echo-poison

• Emotional Influence: Crippling fear of open space despite the enclosing rock

• Structural Collapse: Shards fall from above that resemble teeth—never in the same place twice

• Recovery Status: Hazard-tier active. Pathwardens rotate entry rights weekly

❖ 4. The Bone-Sheen Vaults (Echo Burial Chambers)

• Location: Secret ossuary beneath the First Warden’s Retreat

• Visual Changes: Bones emit soft light in darkness, glowing with forgotten names

• Auditory Shifts: Dripwater sings funeral chords that do not match known scales

• Resonance Distortions: Mourning-song played here ages the performer visibly

• Fauna Behavior: Resonance-mice hide inside ribcage hollows and hiss when approached

• Emotional Influence: Induces reverence so powerful it overwhelms memory function

• Structural Collapse: Bone-pillar stacks fall in patterns of ancient alphabets

• Recovery Status: Preserved in protective crystal layering; open to Wardens only during Ascendant Rites

❖ 5. The Dreamgullet Passages (Memory-Digesting Caverns)

• Location: Twisting vertical corridors near the Gloomrend Faultline

• Visual Changes: Walls shift hue depending on the dominant emotion of those present

• Auditory Shifts: Moaning stone pulses, mimicking a slowed heartbeat

• Resonance Distortions: Speech glyphs decay mid-etch; names dissolve from memory

• Fauna Behavior: Pale filament-crawlers whisper stolen dreams to sleeping trespassers

• Emotional Influence: Loss of personal identity; travelers forget their intentions

• Structural Collapse: Passageways tilt mid-traverse, causing falls into false depths

• Recovery Status: Unstable—only mapped partially through dream-echo method

❖ 6. The Blind Ember Depths (Heatless Fire Caves)

• Location: Deep under Veu-Nahra’s heart-core magma veins

• Visual Changes: Fire glows in cold blue spirals; gives no warmth but burns memory-scrolls

• Auditory Shifts: Popping sounds echo like language, but words rearranged unpredictably

• Resonance Distortions: Flame-reactive tattoos invert meaning when touched by emberlight

• Fauna Behavior: Flame-sprites mimic travelers’ movements in delay before vanishing

• Emotional Influence: Destructive urges rise in even the most pacifist Aevori

• Structural Collapse: Caves implode outward, forming sudden pressure voids

• Recovery Status: Quarantined—used only for tattoo purging and ritual erasure

Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex

Volume V: Aerial & Canopy Biomes

“The heights once sang with feather and wind. Now even silence falls heavy among the leaves.” —Noted in a Warden’s sky-climb journal, year of the First Veilstorm

❖ 1. The Spiral Canopy of Tzel-Vun (High Woven Glade)

• Location: Ancient helix-shaped canopy terrace once used for rites of vision

• Visual Changes: Leaves unfurl into sigil-forms that dissolve under observation

• Auditory Shifts: Wind spirals form song-snares—loops of wind-tones that trap birds in endless glide

• Resonance Distortions: Tree-chimes respond only to memories unspoken, rejecting all song

• Fauna Behavior: Skyvane moths flutter in permanent circles, wings frayed but unaging

• Emotional Influence: Paranoia of being observed from above—even with open sky

• Structural Collapse: Branches form false paths that snap without warning

• Recovery Status: Dusk-usage only under glyph-anchored harnessing rituals

❖ 2. The Wreath Perches (Vehlune Sphere Orchard Highlines)

• Location: Upper boughs of sphere-bearing trees, sacred to resonance recharging

• Visual Changes: Spheres dim at irregular intervals, flickering like dying stars

• Auditory Shifts: Fruit-mist carries ancestral voices begging for unknown forgiveness

• Resonance Distortions: Spheres cannot be harmonized; hums spiral into nausea-inducing frequencies

• Fauna Behavior: Glow-birds plummet mid-flight as if forgetting they had wings

• Emotional Influence: Heightened guilt when plucking sacred fruit—even ritually

• Structural Collapse: Perches with resonance rope fail to echo when tested—false security

• Recovery Status: Some trees pruned and ritually sealed, others left to grow wild and unharvested

❖ 3. The Breathvine Bridges (Aerial Root-Highways)

• Location: Interconnected rootways between cliff oaks and canopy-gazers

• Visual Changes: Vines bleed mist that obscures one’s footsteps

• Auditory Shifts: Hollow steps echo ahead of movement, as if predicting fall

• Resonance Distortions: Rai’len Rods fail to balance on vines, instead singing minor warnings

• Fauna Behavior: Threadrunner beetles swarm in spirals, nesting in invisible hollows

• Emotional Influence: Deep spatial disorientation; perception of time slows

• Structural Collapse: Some vines snap only after crossed completely, erasing the path behind

• Recovery Status: Limited traversal allowed during dawnlight; marked with scent-runes

❖ 4. The Crying Crown (Epiphyte-Laced Weather Nest)

• Location: Uppermost reach of the tallest living tree in the Vastwood

• Visual Changes: Epiphyte pools form faces that mimic the observer’s sorrow

• Auditory Shifts: Every rainfall sounds like a child’s cry, but in reverse

• Resonance Distortions: Tattooed arms react violently to rainfall—burning sensation, then numbness

• Fauna Behavior: Rain-leeches inflate and burst when touched

• Emotional Influence: Sudden weeping without cause; emotional bleed-through between climbers

• Structural Collapse: Crown branches bend unnaturally, preventing safe grip or descent

• Recovery Status: Banned as of Year 732 of the Spiral Cycle—marked as ‘Untouched Sky Wound’

❖ 5. The Hollow Antler Limbway (Ancient Stag-Tree Remains)

• Location: Canopy carcass of a once-living Great Tree, shaped like antlers by myth

• Visual Changes: Bark smooths into mirror-flesh, reflecting alternative futures

• Auditory Shifts: Wind through its limbs mimics ritual horns—but always out of time

• Resonance Distortions: Attempted glyphs mutate mid-carve into unknown script

• Fauna Behavior: Limb-mites tap rhythmically, mirroring breathing patterns of travelers

• Emotional Influence: Sudden flashes of non-existence; visions of never having been born

• Structural Collapse: Wood turns brittle in moonlight, shattering at half-pressure

• Recovery Status: Marked sacred/untouchable—visited only by Dream-Walkers once per Cycle

❖ 6. The Azure Nest-Fog Reaches (Perennial Mist Elevations)

• Location: Mist-hung upper trees along the cloud-threshold above Veu-Nahra’s western cliffs

• Visual Changes: Mist glows faintly but casts no shadow or depth

• Auditory Shifts: Wingbeats echo like wet silk folding

• Resonance Distortions: Mist crystallizes around sung glyphs, choking their meaning

• Fauna Behavior: Nest-fliers enter with memory, exit with blank instinct

• Emotional Influence: Apathy so deep it mimics serenity

• Structural Collapse: Mist pools suddenly, hiding limb absence—multiple plummets recorded

• Recovery Status: Guarded by Cloud-Wardens with soul-tether lines and paired breath glyphs

Post-Corruption Environmental Effects Codex

Volume VI: Seasonal & Breach Zones

“The seasons no longer whisper their arrival—they scream, unravel, then disappear into seams no hand can stitch.” —Excerpt from the Journals of Warden Eleshen Veir

❖ 1. Threadmist Zones (Late-Turn Season Convergence)

• Season: Transition from Blossom to Storm

• Visual Changes: Silken, iridescent fog threads through trees, clinging to eyes and mouths

• Auditory Shifts: Mist hums with incomplete lullabies, remembered only in dreams

• Resonance Distortions: Rai’len Rods vibrate continuously, unable to focus tone

• Fauna Behavior: Animals pause mid-movement as if caught between moments

• Emotional Influence: Sudden onset of nostalgia for untraceable events

• Collapse Effects: Fog condenses into liquid threads, binding limbs and memory-spheres

• Breach Probability: Moderate—known to open temporary gaps into earlier seasonal echoes

• Recovery Status: Partial—Thread-Finders use braided glyph harnesses to walk memory safely

❖ 2. The Shiverturn Fringe (Frozen-Heat Anomaly Zones)

• Season: Early Coldshift

• Visual Changes: Frost blooms in sunlight, leaving trails like fire veins along bark

• Auditory Shifts: Cracking ice mimics laughter but warps into sobbing tones

• Resonance Distortions: Heat-sensitive glyphs behave in reverse—cooling when ignited

• Fauna Behavior: Frost-wings perch upside down, whispering warnings in reverse speech

• Emotional Influence: Uncertainty in decision-making and time perception

• Collapse Effects: Sudden reversal of localized temperatures; melting ground becomes brittle frost

• Breach Probability: High—gates to paradox folds often emerge along root fissures

• Recovery Status: Guarded—only traveled by Cloak-Minders and Frost-Wardens in shifts

❖ 3. The Drownwake Expanse (Breach Flood Phenomenon)

• Season: Mid-Veilstorm

• Visual Changes: Water accumulates from dry air; puddles float upwards in spirals

• Auditory Shifts: Running water sings names—sometimes those of the living

• Resonance Distortions: Tattoo-ink liquefies under skin and floats into droplets

• Fauna Behavior: Aquatic sky-leapers become feral, mistaking land-walkers for prey

• Emotional Influence: Paranoia of drowning—even in open sky

• Collapse Effects: Gravity distorts; pools fall up and shatter against unseen ceilings

• Breach Probability: Extreme—often leads into echo realms or flooded memory folds

• Recovery Status: Emergency path-cutters now operate during high alert using air-sealed memory lines