The Forest of the Balanced Rocks is a region within the Taizzan Expanse. This massive collection of sandstone spires stretches for miles in the desert, ranging in size from barely taller than a human to upwards of sixty feet tall.
Though difficult and dangerous to traverse, many have been drawn to the Forest. Some catfolk from the tribes of the southwestern Taizzan make pilgrimages to climb the stone spires to build cairn shrines on top, like they do for the Floodstacks closer to the Shields. Nomadic Ku-Hakkara gnolls also frequently travel to the Forest, using the many hiding places within as secure sites to establish their temporary camps.
Those traveling the Golden Path generally keep a good distance from the Forest, well aware of the gnoll raiders who hide within. Still, some make detours south from the route in hopes of seeing the "flames of the rocks", an odd yet wonderful phenomenon in which the tops of certain spires within the Forest literally burst into fire when the first lights of day strike them at sunrise. These marvels have not been well-studied by scholarly minds, largely owing to the danger of the surrounding desert, but these particular spires are popularly called "phoenix nests" in the belief that they house, or are, the eggs of the magical bird.