Raavrad

Introduction
Raavrad, also known as the Nightlands, is located at the southern pole of Apophis. It is covered in a dense rainforest adapted to the extreme seasons that befall the lands. It is a land constantly shifiting between the heat of perpetual day and the cold of perpetual night.

Flora
Raavrad is a land dominated by dense jungles, adapted to the icy and lightless winters. These cover almost the entire continent; let alone a few mountains, grooves and valleys. Although its specialised plant-life is very adapted to its enviroment, almost all plants growing in Raavrad are living fossils; silent heirs of the ancient times when forests like these covered most of the old world. Remnants of these species can be found all over Apophis or even other planets; either in isolated valleys or as fossils burried deep in the earth. Raavrad is the only known place among the worlds where these organisms can thrive on a large scale.

Because of the extreme shift of climate and light the forests of Raavrad undergo each year many smaller plants will live short seasonal lifes before freezing or starving to death. Large and more permanent plants use all sorts of oils, proteins and toxic substances to withstand the long nights frost. Without the light of the sun they enter a state of hybernation, often throwing off their leaves in the process. Such plants usually form specific leaves or tubers they use as resevers during the darker half of the year. Thanks to the moist air, the rich soil and the perpetual light of summer almost every plant thrives enough to make it through winter with ease.

The undergrowth of these jungles is dominated by all sorts of ferns. They cover every corner of the lush woods, either as large bushes or small trees that can grow larger then a human; together with primitive cycads. Under their feathered leaves grow all sorts of herbs, fungi and small plants. The most dominant of these is the southern moss. It is extremly thick and can grow at a rapid speed, covering the junlges floor like a carpet that even grows up the trunks of larger trees. Yet some vines and furry herbs manage to pierce this carpet, accompanied by various types of succulents. These are as adapted to heat as to frost, using specific oils that prevent them from freezing.

Another notable lifeform that grows in the lowest parts of these forests are fungi. Most of them live in a symbiotic or parasitic relationship with the larger trees. They connect almost every larger plant with a webwork of hyphae and mycelia, exchanging biological messages and singals between them. When these produce sexually they grow large spore bodies shaped like large fens. These fungi are very different from any other species found on Apophis and the can only survive in the rich soil of the southern pole. Next to them grow more common mushrooms feeding on organic waste or wood. However their caps often grow in the dark in a ghostly green or blue, using bioluminescence to attract animals that consume them and their highly resistant spores. They resulting mushroom will start growing in their feces and spread to any form of food nearby. Some of these glowing species have even adapted to humanoids, only feeding from their excrements as these are usually gathered at specific location.

Above these lower levels of the jungle rise large and ancient trees. They grow incredibly slow but can live for uncounted centuries. To outlanders they appear exotic and stranges as their likes can be found nowhere else on the planet. The most common of these is the monkey tail tree, yet there are countless other pines adapted to these specific locations. Their leaves are thick and meaty, resembling large scales rather then needles. Next to them grow more moden palm trees adapted to the shifting climate aswell as Giant Groundsels and larger Ferntrees. Between them spins an intricate web of lianes and creepers. They attach themselves to these massive trees and build tubers or leech their hosts for energy to survive the long night. They share this parasitic lifesytle will all sorts of succulents and herbs adapted to grow on the outside of trees. They are renowned for their beautiful but toxic flowers that blossom all summer.

Fauna
The smallest creatures that inhabit the jungles of Raavrad are flying roaches and beetles. Most of them are scavengers or plant eaters. While the spend the summer feasting on anything they can digest, the allow themselfes to freeze in the winter, entering a forst-induced hybernation. When the ice melts and the days grow longer they will unfreeze and move again. This way some of these insects can live several decades. Other arthropods will simply burry themselves or escape the cold in the counltess tunnels and caves under Raavrad. Their main predators besides lizards and bats are the large centipedes that roam the forests trees and undergrowth. Some of them can grow as large as small cat. Their toxic fangs are strong enough to pierce any shell and their toxins are capable of paralyzing a horse, making them lethal predators. The only insect that can repedatly escape their fangs are the polar locusts that can leap up to a meter in the sky before flying away. Although they are very survivable and large, they only live for a single summer before succumbing to the frost.

The only insects able to stay active in the winter are Ice-termites. They live as parasites inside of trees, building their nests inside the trees still living wood and consuming it from within. Through vibrations they can produce enough heat to survive inside their nests. Yet they often leave their nests even in winter to search for more nutricious sorts of food like frozen roaches and burrowed animals. While mostly moving through small tunnels they carve through the fertile soil, they sometimes even break through the layer of ice to the surface. Although they are incapable of flight their tiny wings can be used to create heat, allowing them to surivie the long night.

Most lizards and frogs are incapable of coping with the cold. Like many insects they allow themselfes to be frozen or hybernate in a safe burrow. Others are specifically adapted to surivive in Mare settlements in the winter, seeking shelter in their warm walls and houses.

Crocodiles can not survive in the cold climate of the polar forests. They have been replaced by a unique breed of amphibians. These giant salamanders lurk in the murky waters of Raavrads swamps and lakes, waiting for prey to come close enough to pull them underwater and drown them. Although these creatures are slower then crocodiles their skin is capable of changing its colors, allowing them to perfectly blend with their surroundings. They hybernate on the bottom of larger lakes that do no freeze in the dark winter. In the summer they spend almost their entire time to hunt and feed. The largest of these salamanders can grow up to five meters with jaws strong enough to shatter bones. They evolved from ancient sea salamanders, the predecessors modern sea reptiles. While they went extinct in most of Apophis seas some of them remain in the shallow coasts and lagoons of Raavrad.

The most numerous of Raavrads inhabitants are bats however. They live in every corner of the polar forest and are by far the most species-rich type of mammal on the entire planet, all thanks to their incredibly high concentration in the south. While most of the insect hunting bats and fruit eating flying foxes are rather small, not bigger then a human hand, there exist far larger species. Those bats that pick up larger prey are about the size of a cat and hunt for mammals and reptiles. They remain active in the winter and use the vibrations of their voice to locate the burrows of hybernating animals. Redtails are a type of flying fox that grows larger than a man and is so common in every part of the forest that their furr is the main material for Mare clothing. However their carnivorous cousins can grow even larger. The hunting bats around the coasts, most notably the Blacklight Terror, are the largest flying creatures on the entire planet. They have a wingspan of up to eight meters and hunt for amphibians and fish in the winter and synapsids, birds and large lizards in the summer. Some of these giants have lost their ability to fly entirely and roam the jungles as increadibly large and heavy omnivores. They live a bear-like livestyle and seek refuge in the countless caves and tunnels under Raavrad where they remain active and use their echolocation to seek out prey. These are probably the largest landdwellers on Raavrad, reaching sizes close to that of horses. Like most mammals almost every bat has a unique winter coat. Since black is a color quite expensive to produce many mammals develop dark red fur in the winter that makes them just as hard to spot in the dark forest.

While Synapsids thrive on the rest of the planet, only few species manage to survive in the colder temperatures of the south. There exist a few species of small and fast moving herbivores about the size of a dog, known as froststriders, that even survive the winters. They have developed thick scales to protect them against the cold aswell as a fast metabolism that forces them to find much more food then their nothern cousins. Most other synapsids in the polar forest appear like a mix of rats and lizards with both scales and fur. These live on the higher trees to feed on termites, eggs, fruits and seeds. All larger types of Synapsids only visit the pole during its warm summers and leave when the days grow shorter.

Together with these there exists a large host of migratory birds and fish that live and breed in Raavrad during its summer. During these times the jungles are loud and teeming with life. Sometimes these birds are so numerous that they even outnumber the large swarms of bats and flying foxes that normally roam Raavrads skies.