"And what a forest!
"I had never seen trees such as this - mighty and majestic, of a deep, rich green, slightly tinged with gold. They towered, they soared. They were enormous pines, oaks, maples and many others which I could not distinguish. Through them crept a breeze of fantastic and lovely fragrance, when I cracked the window a bit."
'Nine Princes in Amber', Chapter IV
"After perhaps an hour, I had worked my way well back into the forest, where the trees were great dark towers, what sunlight I glimpsed caught like phoenix nests in their highest branches, an always moist, twilight softness smoothing the outlines of stumps and boles, logs and mossy rocks. A deer bounded across my path, not trusting to the excellent concealment of a thicket to the right of the trail. Bird notes sounded about me, never too near."
'The Hand of Oberon', Chapter IX
Forest Arden stretches further through both the 'shadow' in which Amber lies and off through shadow away from Amber than anyone other then Julian knows; certainly parts of it stretch through shadow almost as far as shadow Earth. Forest Arden is closest to Amber to the north of Mount Kolvir, where it stretches to the coast and northward for forty miles or so until its end; inland no-one knows how far it stretches. To the south the Vale of Garnath separates Arden from the sea. Julian lives in and guards the forest from Castle Arden, a large (though nowhere near as large as Castle Amber) fortification deep in the forest. It is of a much more Spartan design, inside and out, than Castle Amber, and is of a pale grey stone.
The Arden Rangers under Julian form the vast majority of Ambers standing land forces, and defend all the land approaches to Amber itself.
Villages, lodges and smaller fortifications are spread through all the shadows of Arden. Some of these live by hunting and gathering; others farm in clearings cut from the forest. Most of these settlements form part of the defences of Amber, or are related to the defence of Amber in some fashion. All of them are linked by each other, and Castle Arden, by a network of roads and pathways through the forest (some of which are hidden).
Close to Castle Arden lies what is known as the Tree Cathedral. This is a long-term project of Julian's, a vast temple of the Unicorn formed from a specially planted and tended grove of the most majestic trees of Forest Arden, which define its shape and walls. This looks very like the Whipsnade Tree Cathedral in the UK.
Some Amberite nobles have summer dwellings in the forest. Other than this Julian has strenuously resisted all attempts by Random to expand Ambers farmlands and settlements into the forest.
Although most of Ambers trade comes in by sea, there are a number of important trade routes which follow shadow paths through Arden into Amber.
Many dangerous creatures inhabit the forest. These include Arden tigers and aurochs, both of which are to the normal breeds as Morgenstern is to normal horses.