Prologue 2: The Tree

It is believed that all life in Adthera originated from the tree. It is the largest known beacon of life, planted before the first age of elves, by the gods themselves, when the world had naught but empty lands and waters. The tree's roots spread throughout the entire world, reaching all the oceans and continents, if only by a little in some.

Where these roots reached, life spread, populating nearly everywhere. On land, parent trees of every kind, as big as small mountains, grew from those roots, ultimately cultivating massive forests around every continent. Though there were once many, only four still survive to this day; the great sequoia, willow, camphor, and mangrove have lasted throughout the ages in the center of their respective forests. These forests are big enough that few humans have ever laid eyes on their respective parent tree, even in The Great Forest that had been whittled down so many times. In the oceans, the tree's roots created the ocean forests that hug the coasts of many continents.

Most of the parent trees died of natural causes, leaving their lands to change into flats, plains, fields, and prairies. Many forests split into smaller ones over time, creating regular forests and woods around the world. Some parent trees were killed by the creatures from the pit, creating wastelands where there was once life.

Almost all life grew and evolved in these places. The first intelligent species to arise were the wood elves, who came to be by the tree. They were the first to develop and understand magic. All other types of elves originally come from them. Most wood elves left today live by the remaining parent trees and the tree itself to protect them.

The tree never wilts, never weakens, never bends or wains. And so long as that never changes, life will always exist in Adthera.