Shendoral Forest is central in Sartor. It is best described as a combination of old-grown fir and redwood forest, with its own ecology distinct from other woodlands scattered around the kingdom, and its own inhabitants, notably the Loi, beings who were not indigenous, but predate humans coming to this world by unmeasured time.

Humans regarded the Loi as indigenous as Loi did not measure time in any way meaningful to humans. However, unlike most of the world's indigenous beings, they manifested to humans and have interacted with them, even going so far as to live among humans and to accept humans among them, helping them adapt. (The only problem is, once you adapt, human form becomes increasingly cumbersome to resume, and is always abandoned.) They look small, blue, and winged--the wings being an affectation that arose out of human perception of wings because Loi also don't pay much attention to gravity, unless fully in human form. They liked the idea of wings, and added the semblance to their appearance when they manifest, but the wings are seldom there if they take on full human form, since they are unneeded.

There is always a Loi spokesperson for dealing with humans, called in Sartoran the Aroel. The current one is a half-human girl, a descendant of the Deis, called Merewyn, or Linet.

Loi magic is powerful, but it is location based, and so its effect diminishes the farther one gets from Shendoral. However, they share magical energies with the Geres of the Fereledria or the equatorial mountains on land, which are riddled with magic, and utterly untrustworthy as far as space/time stability is concerned. But Loi magic and Geres magic reinforce one another.

The enchantment over Shendoral most known to humans reflects violence onto the doer. This means not only violence against other humans and animals, but also against the trees. Thus the Wood Guild has no need to supervise the gathering of deadwood.

Space and time can also prove to be untrustworthy, especially if someone enters that the Loi do not trust. Thus, Norsundrians on a blood hunt, for example, meaning to capture and drag out an enemy, will discover themselves riding around in circles no matter how diligent they are in following a path, and sometimes--if particularly venal--will discover themselves thrust years ahead or back when they finally do emerge.

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