This post was seriously delayed due Finnish national sport - Friday night.

The first image people who travel back to the Old World from the New want to conjure to their listeners is the one of the great forests. The ones near the coastal area are mainly birch, oak and hazel, when you travel inlands, gigantic pines and spruce come to view. The trees can sometimes be so huge it is near impossible to see the top if you’re standing next to them.

Wildlife is abundant everywhere. Huge flocks of birds fly through the area, small animals such as squirrels and opossums scurry about and deer, elk, boars and other creatures roam the land. Bears, wolves and other predators find life easy, and are commonplace. But the area is highly affected by the turn of the seasons - during the summer, the temperature is searing, but in the winter it’s freezing. So life changes a lot during the year.

In addition of these natural creatures, many “composites” or “chimeras” roam the land - creatures that show traits that are usually associated with elementals or elves. For example, a bear with ever-flaming fur or a flock of birds with feathers that are rock-hard and razor sharp, or a fox that distorts light around it. These creatures are something many experts around the worlds want to study, and not much is known about their origins or purpose.

Some travelers talk of groves of trees that display composite traits (such as a floating forest), but no facts support these claims. The new world might be full of wonders no-one ever dreamed of.