Tafunga

Deep in the heart of the Kozia Rainforest, Tafunga is one of the most biodiverse regions in all Gathandia. The enormous rainforest can roughly be divided into three tiers. The emergent layer is composed of the tops of the highest trees, where raptors and other flying creatures roost. Beneath the emergent layer, the thick canopy is home to the majority of Tafungan life. Jaguars, monkeys, various birds and reptiles, and all manner of mythical creature make their homes in the thick, tangled overgrowth that ranges from a couple dozen to a couple hundred feet above the ground. Finally, the forest floor exists as a dark, shadowed realm that never sees the full light of day due to the thick canopy. Enormous rodents, snakes, and crocodiles lurk in this murky region.

The tribes of Tafunga primarily make their homes in the wide boughs of the canopy, though some tribes or criminal groups are denizens of the forest floor. Tribes that live in the canopy are generally stationary, and those on the forest floor are usually forced to be nomadic due to monsoon weather causing seasonal flooding.

Academic.

Tafunga does not have schools confined to libraries and lecture halls. Instead, wise town and village elders will hold practical lessons with their students in the real world, showing them how to harvest mushrooms, interact safely with wild animals, navigate the trees, and the like.

Aristocratic and Political.

Tafungan society revolves around tribal communities. These tribes generally cooperate with one another, and tribal leaders will typically defer to whichever leader in a negotiation has the most populous tribe. Tribes will often team up with one another to fight monsters or foreign nations that pose a threat to all involved. If someone feels that their leader is insufficient to the task, then they can challenge the leader to a psionic duel imposed by mushroom consumption.

Mercantile and Trade.

Tafunga is most internationally notable for its exportation of many types of mushrooms with culinary, medicinal, and recreational properties. Tafungan merchants generally do not trade with Sozein due to their ongoing conflicts, but they will readily sell their mushrooms to Hadla, Nausa, Valstrom, and Shadradoth, as well as to any international merchants who make the journey to Tafunga. However, upstanding Tafungans do not sell the starcap mushroom to any foreigners, as this mushroom is considered sacred and commodifying it in any form of trade arrangement would be seen as blasphemous.

Militant.

While all of Tafunga’s tribes together do not have a particularly large military, they do have a key advantage in tactical combat. Tafungan soldiers consume mushroom spores that allow them to communicate telepathically with other soldiers, which allows them to silently coordinate their attacks. This makes them especially effective at sabotage, infiltration, and similar high-skill missions.

Religious.

Shamans in Tafungan society use starcap mushrooms to induce astral projection and vivid hallucinations. These shamans will then receive divine counsel from the gods. In these trips, the gods that the shamans speak with are usually the Archfae, although sometimes they are imaginary.

Social.

Tafungan peoples are generally very empathetic towards one another. An injured person from one tribe would be welcomed into the care of another tribe’s medical personnel without question.

Underworld.

Small, independent smuggling rings will export various mushrooms to the international black market. The most unscrupulous among them will even go so far as to sell starcap mushrooms.

Lootsdaot

Tafunga’s largest tribe is Lootsdaot, which has a tremendous city in the canopy of the rainforest an hour’s walk north of the Kosia Sinkhole. Like other Tafungan tribes, Lootsdaot does not have any major buildings for administration, religion, or education, all of which occur in the natural world and among the citizenry. Lootsdaot does maintain large bathhouses on the forest floor, as well as performance theatres and large inns and taverns in the canopy.

Points of Interest

Kozia Sinkhole. In the heart of Tafunga, less than an hour’s journey from the outskirts of Lootsdaot, the Kozia Sinkhole drops some two hundred feet down into the ground. It experiences flooding during monsoon season, but the Tafungans have dug artificial cave networks in and around the sinkhole to mitigate as much flooding as possible. The Kozia Sinkhole contains a jungle of exclusively mushrooms and similar fungi. Massive mushrooms grow out of even larger mushrooms beneath them, and smaller mushrooms grow on and around the enormous ones. The Kozia Sinkhole is mined for its mushrooms the way another nation might mine gold.

The World-Tree. Tafunga and Sozein have a tense peace at the World-Tree which rests on the border between the two nations. The Tafungans view this as a sacred site, and the Sozeini as an academic one. See Sozein for more information.

Quest Ideas

• The heroes are called upon by starcap smugglers to help them get the valuable mushrooms out of Tafunga.

• Tafungan tribal leaders ask the heroes to find and stop starcap smuggling.

• A ferocious monster has decimated the military forces of multiple Tafungan tribes. Can the heroes defeat the creature?

• A flood in the Kozian Sinkhole has left mushroom farmers trapped on a giant mushroom island without a way to get back to the mainland. Can the heroes rescue them?