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Living adjacent to forest deities required constant negotiation. The boundary between settlement and wild was not fixed line but permeable membrane, crossed daily by hunters, foragers, wood gatherers, travelers. Each crossing was potential encounter, each interaction opportunity for offense or alliance.
The wise maintained relationships through regular small offerings—a portion of the hunt left at the forest edge, the first fruits of harvest placed at the sacred tree, bread and ale poured onto the ground before entering the grove. These were not superstition but practical diplomacy, maintaining friendly relations with powers that could help or hinder.
Elders taught children which plants could be harvested and which must never be touched, which paths were safe and which led to places where human authority ended. This knowledge was survival information, as practical as knowing which mushrooms were edible and which poisonous. The forest deities were real, their power demonstrated through observable effects, their preferences learned through costly experience.
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