The Faerie Ring It all began with an explosion—a violent blast that tore apart the trees, reshaped the land, and killed thousands And, at its center, Korapira was born She was found by islanders, those who had survived the eruption and subsequent tsunami, unconscious and curled up on the shore They took her into their homes and cared for her as one of their own, tending her needs and anticipating her will These were the Tufaga, and they had been waiting for her FROM ASHES, GROWS GREEN Korapira shortly awoke to her new role as god to the Tufaga, whether she wanted it or not She was illprepared and not caring to deal with such “animals” and abandoned them for the jungle where she sat long with her children—for even then, she thought of the oldest of trees as her children It is in these moments that she was able to plant and nurture her Heartwood, establishing its link to Tanarao and insinuating it within the weave of reality as a crossroads, connecting forests across the multiverse She would return to the Tufaga, periodically, only to gorge on their flesh And the intensely devoted islanders reveled in being devoured, being chosen, by their living god Intrigued by their behavior, it wasn’t long before she let herself fall into the role of god, and they became favored pets The Tufaga eagerly offered themselves to her depraved experiments, developing a mystical connection with the plants, truly becoming one with the jungle They have been given the highest of honors of any animal: they have free reign over her forests throughout the multiverse They ask for nothing but to serve, and she prospers from it It is the Tufaga (sometimes known as the Green Ones by those that fear them) who have been paramount in supplying her with victims for her experiments, and they are merciless in fulfilling her demands Confronted with failure after failure, her needs were great DEATH BREEDS ANEW Korapira has always preferred to keep her distance from other lords, but it was about then that she discovered Red Jack during her explorations of the Green Expanse The Heartwood had established a partial connection to his withering demesne—warping and convulsing in its death throes With their fateful meeting at the shuddering border of their two worlds, Korapira offered to protect his demesne, Strangle Grove Since it was not his from the start and since he isn’t a true sovereign, his demesne was becoming unstable He had not yet the skill or knowledge to stave off its complete unraveling for long But by securing it to the Green Expanse, Korapira tapped into a vast well of power to help stabilize his realm and bring it under the aegis of the Green Expanse In return, she seeks his knowledge of death Korapira is fascinated by Jack: despite his shortcomings in life as a mere animal, he has become the very face of death In fact, it was because of his animal nature that she was inspired to undertake her more chimerical experiments, attempting to find that certain something that she’s been missing His journey, his willful domination of death, is what she hopes to emulate for her children, so she has sought his counsel She seeks all his wisdom of death, and in just a short time already, he has advanced her efforts tenfold COUNCIL OF THE GREEN Ring-a-ring o’ roses, A pocket full of posies, A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down —British nursery rhyme More recently, Korapira has let herself be pulled into fey politics Queen Mab has approached Korapira after again losing her throne to Titania and her treacherous pixies Blind with rage, Mab needs help if her plans of a drawn-out revenge are to succeed, and she has given Korapira free reign to target those pixies who support Titania Accordingly, Korapira has begun a shadow war against Titania and her pixies Normally uncaring of the other lords, Korapira has agreed to an alliance largely due to her fear of Manitou Now, she seeks any chance, no matter how remote, to stave off possible retribution for her ambitions Targeting pixies (or any fey favored by Mab or Manitou, for that matter) is something Korapira avoided in the — 71 —