Velok the Younger
When I Was A Young Warthog
Image Source: Here.
Intent: A new Force-related crafting material, explicitly Light Side-oriented.
Development Thread:
- Puzzle Pieces: Rave's research notes, primarily crystallography
- Spirits of the Dead: Rave gathers materials and discusses relevant concepts with Dissero
- Tentative Inroads: Rave demonstrates the wood's effects during medical experimentation
- O, the cry did knock: Rave walks Isley Verd through the project from concept to execution
Model: N/A
Affiliation: Select customers
Modularity: Not as such, though as a crafting material it can be adapted for various purposes.
Production: Limited
Material: Specially spliced and nurtured wood, interwoven with veins and nodes of naturally occurring crystal.
Description: Ankarres Wood is formed according to the following closely guarded process. A soil blend is created, partially from the following substances:
- Shredded Jal Shey garments, primarily belts which help their wearers resist the mental and emotional influence of the Dark Side.
- Mineral-rich soils, particularly the leavings from phrik mines. (Note: no phrik is present in the wood.)
- Powdered crystal, primarily from well-used Kasha stones, simple healing artifacts, knockoffs of the Ankarres Sapphire and Healing Crystals of Fire, healing-cut Upari crystals, etc.
- A carefully researched combination of parasitic, microscopic, symbiotic, and biochemical factors, derived from the process which grows crystal inside the living bones of rancors and other creatures on Felucia.
The altered trees and the wood itself have a calming and healing aura. Talismans, furniture, and other pieces of Ankarres wood retain these effects. The wood is named after the Ankarres Sapphire, a legendary healing crystal whose principles and physical presence influenced the growth process. The trees were grown under the Sapphire's aegis.
- (+) Ankarres wood is a multipotent crafting material that can be turned to a variety of Light Side functions, primarily those related to Jal Shey imbuement, Wookiee Upari-cutting, Lorrdian stone-imbuement, Gesaril carving, and other Light-oriented Force crafting traditions. The wood can serve the function of a Felucian skullblade, a natural analogue of the Force-imbued blade crafting process.
- (+/-) Nurtured by Lightsiders and the explicitly Light-oriented elements in the soil blend, Ankarres wood can be corrupted to the Dark Side but only with effort. Corrupted Ankarres wood is not as strongly attuned or multipotent as true Ankarres wood. Ankarres wood was designed for the Light Side.
- (-) Fundamentally, on a physical level, Ankarres wood is just wood. It was not designed for combat functions. It has the structural integrity of your average hardwood. This makes it relatively easy to shape, but weak against kinetic damage, heat, etc., in general. Its grain is also prone to split.
- (+) Wood of sufficient grade, quantity, and Force presence, living or dead, has a complex Force aura. Derived from the preceding factors, the aura serves to soothe the Dark Side out of a mind and amplify nearby healing/medical processes. The central purpose of Ankarres wood -- with the right grade, quantity, etc. -- is to assist in the curing of alchemically altered beings. Not immediately, not dramatically, but consistently. Tests were conducted in which teams of Ithorian doctors and healers worked to revert Sithspawn into their original state. In the presence of Ankarres trees and wood, the patients experienced soothed emotional and mental conditioning, reduced aggression, reduced manifestation of alchemically-exaggerated traits, resurgence of formerly suppressed bodily and mental processes, etc.
- (-) Be aware that Ankarres wood is not a healing artifact on the order of the Ankarres Sapphire or the Healing Crystals of Fire. The presence of multipotent Ankarres wood may cause a small wound to heal in days rather than a week, for example.
- (-) Ankarres wood is multipotent (can become quite a few things), not totipotent (can become anything). Force functions outside the more peaceful side of things have difficulty taking hold in Ankarres wood, regardless of the crafting art or skill involved.
- (+/-) Anyone can carve a piece of Ankarres wood into a given shape, assuming they don't mind their blades going dull or their saws throwing out bits of superheated crystal should they hit a thick vein. However, it would take someone skilled in Force crafting, especially Light-oriented crafting arts (Jal Shey, Gesaril, Alkahest, holocron creation, Cerean Kasha stonecutting, Ithorian tree nurturing, Wookiee Upari-cutting, Force-imbued blade forging, etc., etc.,), to use Ankarres wood to its full potential. Ankarres wood prefers a respectful craftsperson.
- (-) Ankarres wood is extremely rare and (unless contributed for a pro bono project) extremely expensive.
A few examples of potential uses might shed more light on how Ankarres wood functions.
- The chairs in a Jedi Council's chamber might help the Masters resist anger and recover from physical and mental stress.
- A lightsabre hilt or talisman might help its maker stay close to the Light Side and heal slightly quicker.
- Standard Jal Shey imbuements might be placed upon articles of Ankarres wood rather than cloth or metal, potentially producing stronger results.
- Ankarres wood might be a perfectly suited material for Gesaril carvings, which retain the emotion felt by their creators at the time of creation. Such carvings might be more strongly imbued than normal.
- A Jedi Master's walking stick or cane might be an especially suitable conduit for Force Weapon or other abilities that require a physical focus object. Likewise, a piece of Ankarres wood could serve as a less-personally-attuned equivalent to a Felucian skullblade or a standard Force-imbued blade.
- A chest of Ankarres wood could serve to insulate a Dark Side artifact from unwary or prying senses, not unlike nullification resin, or the Dagobah cave's reciprocal long-range cancellation of Yoda's presence.
- Ankarres wood is a favored construction material for surgical beds within Ithorian medical wards on Varunda IX, and the trees are often grown in or near similar locations.
Primary Source: No Chaos canon influences or sources. Some functional similarities to Jal Shey Robes of Remembrance. All canon influences linked above in the appropriate places.
