God's Grove is a planet within the WorldWeb of the Hegemony. It is the world of the Templars, a quasi-religious organization dedicated to the reverence and protection of nature. The planet is covered in a vast forest of massive trees, the largest of them being the Worldtree. It has two natural satellites.
Het Masteen, one of the last Shrike pilgrims, was born on this planet.
Ecology[]
The Templars were said to have turned God's Grove into a world forest, with trees taller and more beautiful than the redwood and sequoias of Old Earth. Over twenty million Templars were said to have lived on the planet, in cities and platforms on the tall trees.[1]
God’s Grove was home to “refugee” lifeforms, such as the orphan montgolfiers that were saved from the slaughter on Whirl. Their bodies were of many hues, and they would float towards the sky similarly to terrestrial Portuguese men-o-war.
Visitors to the Worldtree on God’s Grove would see radiant gossamer fluttering around the foliage, with their thin solar wings designed to collect sunlight. Ravens were also present on the planet. “Arboreals” were also described there, presumably primate-like beings, coming from many worlds and from ARNied chimpanzees.[2]
Locations[]
- Sierra
- Hokkaido
SPOILER ALERT! The section(s) below are MAJOR SPOILERS.
Artistic interpretation of God's Grove by Timothy Cross. Photocopy transfer on silk.
Pax Era[]
Hundreds of years following the fiery destruction brought upon God's Grove at the end of the days of the Hegemony, God's Grove is described as a heavily-clouded, damaged world, with its continents and oceans gone - now a single verdant landmass covered by long "lochs" of salty water, following a pattern like "claw marks" on the face of the planet. Most of the redwood and sequoia forests are gone due to the planet-wide forest fire that had caused a nuclear winter. Although receding, snowfall and glaciation is still present in large segments of both north and south hemispheres. The thick cloud cover that envelops the planet is beginning to recede from a thousand-click band from either side of the equator.[3] Around the same time, the Worldtree was said to have been reduced to a remnant that resembled a large blackened shield volcano when seen at a distance.[4]