Wilderlands Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildermods) wrote2018-01-29 11:02 pm
wildermods) wrote2018-01-29 11:02 pm
THE PARLIAMENT OF TREES
THE PARLIAMENT OF TREES
The Wilderlands houses the spirit of the Green, a living force that is threaded through nature in every world. This force is what brought the PCs to the Wilderlands, empowered or altered them, and bound them on their quest. It isn't capable of communicating directly with people easily, but many other nature spirits tied to the Green have some insight on interpreting its will.
The Parliament of Trees is the loosely allied congregation of nature spirits that are tied to the Green. Due to the Wilderlands combining the Green of many worlds, some of these spirits have become aggregate in nature, having many different faces from many different universes.
The spirits seek to interpret the Green's will and work in its best interests, and are hoping to save the Wilderlands. That said, saving humans and other beings is only a priority for some of these spirits. Others don't care what happens to the people in the Wilderlands as long as the Green is saved.
Gaia is the spirit of the Earth, and since many Earths are now bound to the Wilderlands, she's a conglomeration of all of these different Gaias.
The leader of the Parliament of Trees, she's one of the spirits most sympathetic to humans and other beings. While their destruction of nature causes her great harm and distress, she would prefer to see them learn to coexist with the natural world. She hopes to bring the worlds back into balance once more, and to see them safely separated in a way that doesn't harm sentient beings or the natural world.
Gaia is a tempering influence on the spirits of the seasons. While Old Man Autumn and the Spring Child are relatively well behaved, the Wintersmith and the Summer Lady dance around each other and challenge the hold the other has on the world, in ways that are sometimes harmful to life. Gaia keeps them in check and intercedes anytime one of them tries to upend the balance.
It is Gaia who has realized the way to fix the Wilderlands is to endow herself and the spirits of the seasons with greater power so they can restore the rightful order.
Gaia will not set the PCs on a mission to empower herself. Instead, she will task them with slowing or stopping the forces of Sauron and the Unfinished Princess.
Old Man Autumn is a relatively gentle soul who oversees the change from summer into winter. He is the one that creates the fall breezes and the changing colors of the leaves. Everything he does is meant to create a gentle segue into winter so that people and animals actually have warning for what's to come.
He takes the form of a tree-creature touched by fall, similar to that of the Ents of Middle-Earth. Wherever he walks, pumpkins and gourds grow and ripen and the leaves of the plants change color.
Old Man Autumn's quest will involve a harvest of some kind, the gathering of something valuable.
The Wintersmith is the spirit of winter. For the most part, he is content with his role in causing living things to die as part of a natural cycle of death and renewal, but sometimes he can get in a pissy mood and overstep his bounds. During these times, he takes on a slightly more menacing, older appearance as Old Man Winter.
On rare occasion, the Wintersmith falls in love with mortals and can be a bit too dogged and obsessive in pursuing the target of his affections, such as doing things like making snowflakes shaped in their image.
He is not to be confused with Jack Frost, whose amalgamated form is a bit more lighthearted and fun.
The Wintersmith's quest will involve helping something end.
The Spring Child is a plant sprite who helps things grow after the winter months cease and the warmth comes back to the world. In some tropical areas of different worlds, she works all year long. She is an innocent, gentle soul, who cares about all living things, from the largest animal to the tiniest plant sprout.
Her quest involves nurturing something or helping something grow.
The Summer Lady is a fierce and dangerous being, like the Wintersmith, and while Old Man Autumn and the Spring Child have their roles to play in the transitions between winter and summer, it is still the dance between the Summer Lady and the Wintersmith that signals the changing of the seasons.
She is the shape of the smell of apples or the shimmer of heat above a desert wadi. Everywhere she walks leaves a burning footprint, but new plants sprout from the ashes. When she takes human form, her appearance can vary, but her eyes are always a glowing, snake-like yellow regardless of what form she takes. Like the Wintersmith, she can be very dangerous - summer can kill just as easily as winter, after all.
Her quest will involve a sacrifice.