The World | Canopy

THE SETTING

In brief, the world of the Canopy takes place, as the name might suggest, entirely in the treetops. The forest where the Canopians live is not a jungle, but a temperate forest similar to a prehistoric version of the Pacific Northwest United States--meaning it experiences clear seasons, including a cold season that not-infrequently brings snow.

The chief difference between our redwood forests and the forest of the Canopy is the sheer size of the trees. Canopian trees dwarf earth redwoods many times over--and since even earthly redwoods are capable of sustaining entire separate ecosystems in their branches, this means Canopian redwoods are as lush with life as the forest floor. Most Canopians have never even lived among lower branches and thus may not have ever seen the ground unless they live in the outer trees and have climbed to their very peaks to see it from a distance.

The People do have a form of agriculture, made possible by the fact that decades of decaying leaves have created a sort of soil on the broadest, flattest branches of the Canopy--some of which have been carefully grown together over many generations to create fields. Seeds are born up by Descenders--the hunters which are the only People to brave the forest floor--but many already grew here, thanks to the visits of birds who’d feasted below. Most of the plants grown by the People are thickets of berries, but there are coarse, primitive grains as well. Due to the carefully-regulated nature of fire, almost all Canopian food is eaten raw, including meat.

While the People are omnivorous, their diet is mostly plant-based, with protein coming from legumes but also from birds, squirrels, and--most of all--insects, both wild-caught and raised as livestock. Water is collected in vessels from rain and dew. The forest is not drought-prone and rainfall is fairly heavy, so most Canopians never go thirsty. Primitive brewing of alcoholic beverages like wine and mead does exist, but is far from a refined art. Grains are far too scarce to brew beer.

The most valued livestock of the People--besides bees--is probably the silksquirrel. Raised for both meat and for fiber, these have been bred into many varieties for a diversity of coat colors and types for fibers ranging from fine cashmere yarns for knitting to coarse wool-like pelts handy for ropes and cloaks. This process has been somewhat detrimental to the mental acuity of the silksquirrel, and domestic silksquirrels are noticeably stupider than their wild counterparts. Some People keep silksquirrels as pets, as they can be raised to be affectionate, albeit not particularly clever or trainable. In addition to silksquirrels and bees, the People raise various types of birds, enormous spiders (larger than a person’s head), and silkworm moths for other types of feathers and fiber, as well as birds, grubs, and mealworms of various sorts for meat.

They also raise statta: a ferocious arboreal weasel creature with a prehensile tail, intelligent and loyal and somewhat comparable to a hunting dog. Statta puppies in unusual colors--especially white--are in hot demand among Canopian nobility, as are the extremely-coveted--and extremely rare--Birds of Paradise. The latter, renowned for their aesthetic beauty, lovely singing, and ability to mimic speech, are nearly impossible to raise from chicks and are impossible to tame in adulthood, as well as incredibly difficult to breed in captivity, meaning that hand-raised Birds of Paradise are elegant status symbols. The successful capture and raising of a single Bird of Paradise chick can ensure the wealth of a peasant Canopian for life, if he or she decides to sell--and remarkably, such is the social and superstitious prestige attached to the ownership of such a bird that only about half do. Learn more about Canopian pets on the Fauna page.

The People of all ranks inhabit basket-like or hammock-like houses woven of fibers, leaves, and green branches left to dry in shape, although some nobility inhabit houses grown into the trees themselves through generations of careful cultivation. Each tree is something like a distinct city, and the Great Tree--the central hub of Canopy life and the home of most nobles--boasts dozens of these elegant natural habitations, and thousands of basket-homes as well as a bustling central marketplace where merchants and farmers hawk their wares.

Most of the People have never seen the forest floor and never will, but some brave hunters, known as Descenders, make solitary assays to the forest floor to retrieve stone, earth, clay, and unusual trophies. The latter are as much for the purpose of boasting as they are proof of their outlandish claims of the strange animals below--deer, weasels, and (most bizarrely, to the People) fish.