Twilight Woods
The Twilight Woods was a treacherous forest bordered in the east by the Mire, in the west by the Deepwoods, and in the north and south by the Edgelands. The Twilight Woods was vastly smaller than the Deepwoods, the Thorn Forests, and the Nightwoods to the west of it. No settlements were ever built in the Twilight Woods, and the only permanent inhabitants were those unfortunate creatures who had got lost inside.
Properties
The Twilight Woods was bathed in an eternal twilight glow, and it had a horrible effect on everyone who went inside it. Those who entered the Twilight Woods gradually lost their memories, their sense of self, and their minds, but not their lives. The powers of the Twilight Wood resulted in an eternal living death. The effects could be resisted if one constantly focused on one’s identity and purpose, but it was very difficult to do so for long. Shrykes were completely immune to the madness-causing effects of the Twilight Woods, and waifs were very susceptible to them. Very rarely someone would escape the Twilight Woods after going mad. Such individuals, known as Death-Cheaters, sometimes recovered over time, but most remained weak, lost, and insane.
The Twilight Woods was the only source of stormphrax in the Edge. Occasionally Great Storms would form out in Open Sky and come in over the Twilight Woods. Then they would deposit a single bolt of stormphrax. Tiny particles of stormphrax were scattered throughout the Twilight Woods, so that creatures who walked through them collected minute amounts of stormphrax on their toes. Over time, stormphrax in the wood was ground into phraxdust by the twilight glow.
Role in history
In the First Age of Flight
In the First Age of Flight, the Twilight Woods was vital as the only source of stormphrax, which was needed to weigh down Sanctaphrax and prevent the city from floating away into Open Sky. Over the years many Knights Academic went stormchasing over and within the Twilight Woods in an attempt to retrieve stormphrax. The Twilight Woods also formed a difficult barrier for migrants attempting to come to Undertown. During the First Age of Flight there were no structures of any kind in the Twilight Woods.
In the Second Age of Flight
In the Second Age of Flight, the Twilight Woods was no longer the destination of stormchasers, for there were no more sky ships to stormchase with due to stone-sickness and Great Storms had stopped coming to the Edge for some reason. However, it became home to a section of the Great Mire Road, the main trade route between Undertown and the Deepwoods after stone-sickness struck. Towards the end of the Second Age of Flight Lentil Spume used Death-Cheaters from the Twilight Woods as slaves in his Phrax Glade.
In the Third Age of Flight
In the Third Age of Flight the Twilight Woods once again received great importance as the lone source of stormphrax. With the invention of phraxflight, phraxweapons, and other stormphrax-powered inventions, stormphrax was needed for the entire Edgeworld. To obtain it, phraxmines were built on the western edge of the Twilight Woods.
Role in the Edge Chronicles
In the Twig Trilogy
In Stormchaser, Cloud Wolf, Twig, and the rest of the crew of the Stormchaser went stormchasing in the Twilight Woods. Mutiny and the ravages of the Great Storm forced Twig and the crew (except Slyvo Spleethe and Mugbutt, who had mutinied and been killed) to abandon ship into the Twilight Woods, but Cloud Wolf stayed aboard to continue his quest. Twig was unanimously made captain and tried to lead his crew out of the Twilight Woods, using techniques such as focusing on his name and purpose and tying everyone together, but he still lost Tem Barkwater and Stope Boltjaw to madness in the woods. After Twig and the remaining crew escaped, Hubble and the Professor of Light both died from injuries they had sustained but had been immune to in the Twilight Woods.
In the Rook Trilogy
In The Last of the Sky Pirates, Rook, along with Magda Burlix and Stob Lummus, traveled through the Twilight Woods on the Great Mire Road as part of their journey from Undertown to the Free Glades. Later, in Freeglader, the groups taking part in the Third Great Migration were forced to travel through the perilous Edgelands to avoid going through the Twilight Woods during their journey to the Free Glades.
In The Immortals
In The Immortals, Nate Quarter and Slip worked in a phraxmine at the edge of the Twilight Woods. Later on, Nate and his companions flew over the Twilight Woods aboard the Archemax when they traveled to the Edge.