Corthan Spring

Once a reservoir, the Corthan Spring is a lake in the Great Corthan Wood. It is ancient; originally a spring-fed pond, it was diverted into the moat of the city of Cortha, which is also fed by a large river. Eventually, the regulation of these bodies of water became natural, resulting in an ecologically diverse waterway network in the Corthan forest. It is the third-largest (or second-smallest) of the four major lakes of the Fifth.

History

Early History

The lake was originally a small pond. It fed by springs, like the former marshland of the New Forest. Directing water away from the springs in the marshland helped to permanently flood the area. This process began naturally, and was accelerated by Corthan projects dating to its earliest history.

Corthan Projects

The small pond was used as a source of water to fill a new moat for Cortha. Due to the reliability of the spring, the moat would stay full. Expansions to the moat eventually demanded a new water source. The region to the south, now the New Forest, was at that time a vast brackish swamp, stretching from the canyon all the way to the eastern ocean. A series of canals was built to transfer the drainage of the swamp from the canyon to the pond, and later to other points in the Corthan water system.

The canals were built to be permanent, to become part of the natural environment requiring no long-term maintenance. This has resulted in the transformation of the ancient swamp to the New Forest, the shrinking of the Talkyra Canyon river, and the formation of the Underground River, which carries water from these above-ground sources to the vast network of underground waterways.