City Image - Chedru

The city of Chedru is one of the strangest Elventi cities in existence. It echos the traditional giant HomeTrees and catwalks between them of "normal" Elventi city. Yet there is no forest here. The Elventi were deposited here, far from the green trees and mountains of their traditional homelands. The mechanism of this travel is not discussed by the Elders.

The area around Chedru is warm, dry, and rocky. Grasses and Mushrooms were the only plant life here, and the mushrooms were only along the riverbank. Using their knowledge of Elventi Enchantment, they adapted to this new land.

Chedru is a city of giant Mushrooms and bamboo catwalks over a wide and slow flowing river. The Mushrooms take the place of HomeTrees, mystically shaped trees that serve as Elventi homes. These mushrooms are the size of sequoias and redwoods and three times their diameter. The Elventi live in and along the stalks of these giant Mushrooms. There are rooms carved into stalks and under the caps of these mushrooms. Along the stalks they have made shelves of bamboo. These shelves stick out like a shelf fungus on a tree. Some of these shelfs are open air patios, others have grass huts built into them. While there are HearthStones here, they are rare and only used for cooking. It simply is warm enough here to not need home heating.

Each extended family has one HomeShroom, and others are used exclusively for storage, craft work, and future considerations. There are 80 HomeShrooms in Chedru. All are protected by the artfully hidden CityCairns.

These HomeShrooms are connected by a maze of bamboo catwalks. (The Bamboo is not really bamboo, it was merely a marsh grass when the Elventi first got here and shaped it). They stretch incredible distances across the watery expanses, supported by delicate rope strands intricately woven together. The patterns of the weave are visible only from a distance. Each walkway is railed, unlike most Elventi walk ways. There seems to be no good reason for it, just that is how the first one was, and all the rest followed that example. Along each railing, there are blue glow ball lamps.

The presence of Glow ball lamps 1283 along the walkways, and in the underside of the Homeshrooms (creating a overlight effect), make Chedru a City of Lights. The Elventi adapted the local glowbugs, trapping their essence in orbs, for illumination. Each one puts out a gentle white blue glow. (These are very different from the highly magical and difficult to make greenish MageGlobes that illuminate most Elventi cities). Since they are able to easily and quickly make glow balls, they are everywhere here.

A side note: In the Evenings, many blue glowbugs flit around the city, attracted by the blue glows of the GlowLights. Some of the bridgeway designers have taken advantage of this fact. They have placed glow balls and scent pots in their woven bridge supports. The glowbugs are attracted to certain strands and illuminate hidden patterns at night.

Floating at the water level of most HomeShrooms are ring walkways. Fish pens and river fronds are walkways. They are only reachable by rope ladders that are easily pulled up. There are certain animals that would climb up on these rings and up any stairs for a meal. Thus they are only accessible by their rope ladders.

The Elventi do not have any water craft of their own. They do not know how to make them, but they are aware of their existence. If there was no bridge, someone would have to swim to shore (a difficult task given the distance).

There are only three bridges from Chedru to the riverbanks. This is how the Elventi hunting and gathering parties, and the rare traders, reach the lands about them. While they are guarded, they can be made to break and fall apart by the guard on the city side pulling a single cord.