“Sure, you can often get away with going somewhere and making do with what you have, but it would always be more comfortable and convenient to do so after you’ve done your share of research on what would be needed to make life comfortable in such a place.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

After her visit to Port Lif and meeting Arquivaldo once more, Aideen headed west to the Forest of Shadows, where many of the elves that had been assimilated to the Lichdom lived. She went there with a purpose in mind, namely to research what sort of preparation she would need to bring in order to be able to clear an area in the Forest of Despair and found a city efficiently.

Both the Forest of Shadows and the Forest of Despair had temperate climates with four seasons, which made the location well-suited for such a research. The main difference was the lower mana density and the notably less dangerous wildlife in the Forest of Shadows, but those were factors that wouldn’t skew things too much as far as Aideen was concerned.

There were some notable differences that she had to take into consideration, though, like the different sort of flora that grew in the two locations. The trees that grew in the forest of shadows tend to be of the taller, larger variety, which made their branches more suitable for building treehouses on, whereas those in the forest of despair tended to be smaller and shorter, and thus less suitable.

Not that Aideen planned to build a city amongst the trees anyway. She had always planned to clear out an area for that purpose instead. While treehouses offered safety from ground-bound animals and the like, it was more difficult to construct them to the scale that the elves typically did without the aid of multiple druids skilled in manipulating plants.

Such a construction also made trade less convenient for the most part, and while Aideen’s primary intention for the city she planned to build was as a refuge for her kind, many of them were like her and very much still enjoyed mortal luxuries, so trade would be needed eventually for that reason alone. As such, her plan had always been to build a more normal city which would require clearing out a sizable chunk of the forest for the city itself as well as roads that led to its surrounding nations.

Since she felt that the location near the lake was probably most ideal to build the city at, that would make it easier to build things like earth and mud hovels, or thatched huts, as there were plenty of reeds in the lake they could harvest and dry for the latter. Since her planned group of pioneers would be mostly if not entirely unliving, they could worry less about things like food supplies, whereas shelter was more a matter of comfort rather than survival.

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After all, for the unliving heat and cold barely affected them. They could get away with very rudimentary shelters early on and polish the town to a better state as they build it up. Time was another thing they had in excess, after all. Where most pioneering groups had to worry about achieving self-sufficiency within a year or so at the most, unliving like her could survive merely off the dense ambient mana of the region, so that was another worry to write off.

They would need tools to build their houses later on, though, as well as to clear their way through the forest. Some weapons would likely be needed as well, given the beasts that inhabit the region, though an all-unliving group would at least not have to worry about losing people to such creatures, even if some of them might be in discomfort for a while if they had the bad luck to be swallowed by a large enough beast.

Mages of the earth and mud affinity might be good to have for construction purposes, but early and for later on as well. Fortunately those affinities were amongst the more common in the majority of people, and such a proportion naturally carried over to the unliving population as well. Even amongst the couple hundred people who showed interest in the project, Aideen could count at least a dozen earth affinity people – both mages and not – and around half as many people with mud affinity.

Since they would not be in a hurry, even the non-mages would be able to help despite their meager command of the affinity, so every little bit helps.

At least the climate would be comfortable for most of the year, given the similarity with the forest of shadows. Some bits of rain in summer and autumn, with perhaps only a few weeks of particularly hot or cold weather around the solstice, and comfortable weather for the rest of the year. It was the sort of climate most people wished they could live in, though the decidedly unwelcoming flora and fauna of the region made most turn away. Those who had attempted to delve deep into the forest failed to return, at least until Aideen did so, and she completely understood why.

Unless someone was truly uncaring about the potential casualties the pioneers would take, it was difficult to build any sort of habitation in the unwelcoming and aptly named Forest of Despair. Aideen dared to make her plans since her pioneers would be unliving, who really had no care about the dangers since none of them would die from it, but others before had had no such luxuries.

Even so, it didn’t hurt to make her preparations as thorough as she could make it. She had time and resources to begin with, so there was literally no reason for her to not make the proper preparations, especially since she planned to get things done right the first time. It was a taxing enough task to build a city in the middle of nowhere, notwithstanding the other potential difficulties that might happen during the process.