The Canopy

The Canopy

The Canopy is what Dreamers call their world. One interconnected Canopy of endless trees fighting and vying for all the sunlight they can get. It is not a canopy made up of one tree, or a handful, but more than you can see. In all directions branches from different trees overlap, knot together and fight each other for what little sunlight there is. Further down the branches are thicker, stronger, in some places enough to allow four or five people to walk shoulder to shoulder on a single one. The higher you get the more wood gives way to leaves, capturing more of the sun up here. The branches grow thinner and thinner, until reaching the very top where nothing but the smallest of birds can perch without risking breaking something from simple bodyweight.

The ground is a long way down, in most places further down than can easily be seen.  In some places over a mile, and the lack of branches on the trunks around there – where sunlight is scarce and there’s no reason to bother growing such things the climb a dangerous one. All that waits on the ground is a cold, dark death with no promise of ever climbing back up to the safety of above. For these reasons, and the fact you can only just get a glimpse of the dead, sun robbed world below from the lowest of branches it is not even considered an option for the tribe. No Dreamer has ever touched the ground and they are all unaccustomed to walking on something so flat, with so much lack of give and variety. Dreamers walk and climb with a gait suited to the treetops, one where you’re always braced to climb and leap, lest the “ground” you’re travelling on splinter and give way. This is more of a risk either on smaller branches where bodyweight and impact are an issue, or very low where everything is colder, darker and more prone to rot.

The very world around them is growing, alive, changing with what seasons there are in this giant of a jungle. The tribe themselves are nomadic, always moving never settling down anywhere, yet despite this they have never reached the edge of The Canopy, or even anywhere close to it. Their world is one of wood, leaves vines and all the creatures that call the place home. Bones, feather, skin and wood are common materials but even stones are rare – only gathered from the stomachs of specific species of birds.