- Intent: To create an interesting submission for the Netherworld contest (You'll probably read that line or something like it a couple dozen more times eh?)
- Image Credit: Gabriel Forsén
- Canon: N/A
- Links: N/A
NETHERWORLD INFORMATION
Gate: There is a gate always open at the beginning of the Long Walk but where it opens to changes frequently. 90% of the time the portal opens up to another area of the Nether.
Lucidity: They mostly follow the laws of the real world except when they don't... Each area is explained in more detail.
Hostility: The tree, and its surroundings, are apparently indestructible and thus there is nothing defending it, thus it is a rather peaceful place.
SETTING INFORMATION
- Landmark Name: The Thousand-Faced Tree, The Origin Tree, The Ghost Tree
- Classification: Giant tree
- Location: Netherworld
- Affiliation: Nothing
- Size: Massive
- Population: Uninhabited
- Demographics: N/A
- Accessibility: The Thousand-Faced Tree is a strange phenomenon, it is only accessed by a gate that will randomly appear and disappear at random locations within the Nether. However, once in a millennia this gateway will appear on a planet within the physical galaxy.
- Description: The Thousand-Faced Tree is a completely alien tree who's exact physical details seem to differ from every account that is given. Hundreds of written accounts have been found, all differ on the texture, number of faces on the tree, if there are leaves or no, if there are leaves what color, etc. The size is also frequently debated, some claim its the size of a large moon, others claim its the size of a larger space ship, the smallest account claims it was the size of a particularly large island. There are however a few details that are uniform. In every account the tree is covered in faces of marble, seeming to emerge from the trunk like bulbous growths. Every face except the massive central one is incredibly detailed, down to the wrinkles and individual hairs/scales/etc, this central face is missing most of these facial features, and apparently is viewed differently depending on the race viewing it. Humanoids and Near humanoids report it looks like a mostly featureless human face, while other races report that the face looks like their own races but mostly featureless. The entire tree and the various points of interest below seem to hang unsupported in a void filled with various glittering and moving lights that resemble different colored stars.
The Long Walk
The long walk is the name given to a path stretching several kilometers up from the portal to the Glittering Sea. The path is primarily made up of uncut rough stone overgrown by what is assumed to be moss and lichens. Many who travel the path find themselves just beginning to then find themselves at the end, having no memory of actually travelling the path even though if they look behind them they can see footsteps and feel as exhausted as they would be after such a journey.
The Glittering Sea
The Glittering Sea is a massive ocean/lake that is drinkable but has absolutely no taste or texture and gives no sustenance. It, like the Long Walk, is several kilometers in length. However, unlike the Long Walk those who traverse it remember every second as if it is some persistent memory they cannot forget. As soon as they leave the Thousand-Faced Tree to return to other parts of the Netherworld or the Physical world then the traversing becomes like a normal memory and is sometimes forgotten. Where the Long Walk ends and the Glittering Sea begins is an overgrowth of roots, inside this 'shack' are what appears to be platforms of these roots overgrown by moss as if offering for a place to sleep or rest. But should someone actually fall asleep on these beds they will awake outside the portal and must start the journey over again. Just outside this overgrowth is a path of roots just under the waters surface leading all the way across the Glittering Sea in a relatively straight line to the Stairs of Ascension.
Just above the sea are thousands glowing twinkling lights differing in size and of unknown origin that seem to dance and play. Yet if you watch them long enough you can detect a clear pattern, as if they are completing some complex orbit of some invisible star.
Stairs of Ascension
The Stairs of Ascension are stairs similar to the make up of the Long Walk reaching up to the Gate of Faces. These stairs are covered in names, countless, and all written in different languages. Each name is written in the native language, so Chiss names are written in Cheunh, Sullestese for Sullustan names, and Twi'leki for Twi'lek names, and etc. Any name read is permanently burned into the memory of the man or woman who reads it and they somehow gain a vague memory of the face that the name belongs to. These names are never in the same place, but those who frequently try to memorize these names and their locations to try to re-find them usually go mad from their mind being filled with names and faces they do not recognize. Thankfully any force ability that can alter memories can undo this effect, but those unlucky enough to somehow stumble upon the names without knowing any force users are doomed to remember these names and faces.
Gate of Faces
The Gate of Faces is one large marble face that opens up through the mouth into the Inner Chamber. It is here that a traveler can finally get close enough to spot the billions if not trillions of faces formed out of marble all over the tree. The Gate itself is so large that some large cruisers could probably fly through it if they ever made it.
Inner Chamber
The Inner chamber is perhaps the most peculiar location around the Thousand-Faced Tree. Located within the tree itself, the chamber apparently has no end, should you walk in one direction for long enough you will simply find yourself where you started eventually. The only landmark in the entire chamber are several massive roots coming from the infinite above and slowly forming thousands of smaller branches that are covered in leaves. None of these branches or leaves actually touch the surface of the chamber, suspended just above it by a few inches. The leaves are un-breakable under normal circumstances unless you 'sacrifice' an item of great importance to the tree. Should this item be submerged into the foliage (where it will promptly disappear) the person who sacrificed the item will be able to remove one leaf after reading one of the names on the Stairs of Ascension and matching it with a face somewhere on the tree. These leaves prove incredibly poisonous, able to kill any and all organisms within the known galaxy within a matter of hours with no known cure. The leaves also seem to have a bizarre after effect as those who are killed by them can no longer be contacted within the Nether, as if their souls no longer exist. It is theorized that perhaps the tree eats these souls, or perhaps leads them on to a better or worst place. The roots and floor of the Inner chamber are covered in complex paintings, runes, and symbols. Some of them are from recognizable cultures but some from cultures never even dreamed of. All of these are impossible to remove.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Thousand-Faced Tree has been in countless legends of hundreds of cultures. Few are clearly unreliable as their evidence is contradictory, but a couple dozen all seem to be real stories telling similar events with similar circumstances and similar surroundings. Small tribal religions have grown up over these stories and the portals that would grace them periodically, having complex rituals around the consumption of the leaves either personally or assassinating your foes with them. Other religions see the journey to the tree as a great walk of personal enlightenment.
However it is only in recent times with mass data sharing among cultures has this been realized and the scientific community actually managed to visit the tree. The wealth of anthropological data gathered from the stories of the tree as well as the paintings inside.
