The Word for World is Forest is set in the fictional Hainish universe, which Le Guin introduced in her first novel Rocannon's World, published in 1966. In this alternative history, human beings did not evolve on Earth, but on Hain. The people of Hain colonized many neighboring planetary systems, including Terra (Earth) and Athshe, possibly a million years before the setting of the novels.[11] The planets subsequently lost contact with each other, for reasons that Le Guin does not explain.[12] Le Guin does not narrate the entire history of the Hainish universe at once, instead letting readers piece it together from various works.[13]
The novels and other fictional works set in the Hainish universe recount the efforts to re-establish a galactic civilization. Explorers from Hain as well as other planets use interstellar ships taking years to travel between planetary systems, although the journey is shortened for the travelers due to relativistic time dilation, as well as through instantaneous interstellar communication using the ansible, introduced in The Dispossessed.[12] At least two "thought experiments" are used in each novel; the background idea of a common origin for all the humanoid species, and a second idea unique to each novel.[11] In The Word for World is Forest, the second thought experiment is the colonization of a pacifist culture on the planet Athshe by a military-controlled logging team from Earth, known in the novel as "Terra"; additionally, the inhabitants of Athshe recognize the people from Terra as human, but the Terrans do not see the Athsheans, who are small and covered in green fur, as human.[14] The Athsheans refer to the Terrans as "yumens", while the Terrans tend to use the derogatory term "creechie".[15]
Most of the surface of the planet of Athshe, known to the human colonizers as "New Tahiti", is taken up by ocean; the land surfaces are concentrated in a single half of the northern hemisphere, and prior to the arrival of Terran colonists, is entirely covered in forest.[16][15] The Terrans are interested in using this forest as a source of timber, because wood has become a highly scarce commodity on Earth.[15] Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainish stock".[17]
The Athsheans are physically small, only about a meter tall, and covered in fine greenish fur.[18] They are a very non-aggressive people; at one point, one of the Terrans observes that "rape, violent assault, and murder virtually don't exist among them". They have adopted a number of behaviors to avoid violence, including aggression-halting postures and competitive singing.[18] Unlike Terrans the Athsheans follow a polycyclic sleep pattern, and their circadian rhythms make them most active at dawn and dusk; thus, they struggle to adapt to the 8-hour Terran working day.[18] Athsheans are able to enter the dream state consciously, and their dreams both heal them and guide their behavior.[19] Those individuals adept at interpreting dreams are seen as gods amongst the Athsheans.[18]
In the internal chronology of the Hainish universe, the events of The Word for World is Forest occur after The Dispossessed, in which both the ansible and the League of Worlds are unrealised dreams. However, the novel is located prior to Rocannon's World, in which Terran mindspeech is seen as a distinct possibility. A date of 2368 CE has been suggested by reviewers, although Le Guin provides no direct statement of the date.[20][21]
