Exotic flora and fauna are great! I think little touches like this really help to convey a sense of wonder. Here's one of the more exotic examples from my home-brew setting:
The Blood Trees of the Western Reach:
Far to the west, across the Wasted Lands, is a forest of strange trees, found nowhere else. The forest itself is found in a large, remote valley, boxed in on three sides by towering sandstone cliffs. This valley is in an arid land, where water is scarce and the sun parches the life out of everything it touches.
These trees are like no other found in the world. They rise more than 300 feet into the air, and their trunks grow to greater than 40 feet in diameter. The most peculiar feature of these trees, however, is that they don't seem to be made of wood. Their "bark" is thick, smooth, and supple, a mottled mixture of mauve and brown. The material beneath the "bark" is soft and yielding, like knotted flesh. If a tree is wounded, it oozes a thick, sticky sap that is dark red, almost black, in color. The trees have no leaves.
Legends tell that the trees are the long lost Daernan Elves, who angered the gods of the world during the Fire Wars by worshipping Durla Kryl, the primeval god of chaos and destruction. As punishment, their lands were cursed to suffer eternal drought, and they were transformed into giant, living mockeries of the trees they had once loved. There they stand, to this day, fed by their agony and scorching beneath the relentless sun.
The Blood Trees of the Western Reach:
Far to the west, across the Wasted Lands, is a forest of strange trees, found nowhere else. The forest itself is found in a large, remote valley, boxed in on three sides by towering sandstone cliffs. This valley is in an arid land, where water is scarce and the sun parches the life out of everything it touches.
These trees are like no other found in the world. They rise more than 300 feet into the air, and their trunks grow to greater than 40 feet in diameter. The most peculiar feature of these trees, however, is that they don't seem to be made of wood. Their "bark" is thick, smooth, and supple, a mottled mixture of mauve and brown. The material beneath the "bark" is soft and yielding, like knotted flesh. If a tree is wounded, it oozes a thick, sticky sap that is dark red, almost black, in color. The trees have no leaves.
Legends tell that the trees are the long lost Daernan Elves, who angered the gods of the world during the Fire Wars by worshipping Durla Kryl, the primeval god of chaos and destruction. As punishment, their lands were cursed to suffer eternal drought, and they were transformed into giant, living mockeries of the trees they had once loved. There they stand, to this day, fed by their agony and scorching beneath the relentless sun.
