Vorhi Alestrani
Blind Brawler
Name: Riftwood.
Designation: Non-sentient
Homeworld: Gonnos
Language: Some Shamans claim the trees communicate with them. Of course, some shamans are doing glitterstim before every ritual.
Average height of adults: The largest known specimen was 47 meters tall.
Skin color: The bark is a dark brown, the wood is usually lighter.
Hair color: The conifer-like flowers are bright red, and the leaves, rich in trace minerals, are a metallic purple.
Breathes: It breathes carbon dioxide into oxygen, like many trees. It has a preference for high-humidity atmospheres.
Strengths:
Distinctions: Aside from the colors and mild force aura, the final distinction of Riftwood is pollen. The pollen of Riftwood is light and highly soluble in water, and not separated by evaporation (boiling with a filtered kettle will alleviate this however). Because of this, storms of rain and pollen have been known to occur, including bright yellow tropical storms. This phenomenon is sometimes called “raining sunlight” due to the bright refractive nature of the pale yellow clouds and rain.
Average Lifespan: over 6,000 years.
Races: There is rumored to be a fruit-bearing variant that allows the eater to obtain powerful visions through the Force. It is claimed that this particular species only grows in a select few highly inaccessible mountains.
Diet: Sunlight, trace minerals in the soil, compost, the occasional dead lumberjack.
Communication: Technically a gifted force user who could speak to plants might get some kind of information from them.
Culture:
Riftwood has no culture of its own. To natives of Gonnos, Riftwood is an excellent source of timber, fuel, raw materials, and pretty scenery. Most of the Sky-Shamans consider the trees as somewhat sacred. Most timberers consider them profitable, but difficult sources of wood.
Many natives use them to make musical instruments, particularly flutes and drums. One Zabrak musician named Ignar Lolta IV runs a company that exports designer acoustic instruments of Riftwood around the galaxy.
Technology level: Not even remotely relevant.
General behavior: They tend to reproduce and grow more actively on soft soil than rockier mountainous regions. However, commercial farming of the trees occurs in cities that export lumber.
History: The Riftwood began evolving several hundred years after the migration to Gonnos. Xenobiologists believe the trees to have evolved in response to force cults using groves for sacred rituals as well as new pathogens coming into the planet. The progenitor species of said tree is not known for certain.
The other plausible explanation is that the various wars between force-users allowed midi-chlorian heavy blood to enter into the nitrates of the soil. The tree absorbed the midi-chlorians form the blood cells spilt on it, and began a gradual mutation.
The third, and more religiously popular explanation, is that the Force itself, sensing the power of various energies conflicting over the planet, imbued trees on the planet
Notable Player-Characters: I would not recommend a player character for a non-sentient tree. If you want to possess one with a force ghost and give advice like that one tree from the Pocahontas movie, go for it.
Intent: First off, I think a canon wood for making Saber canes and luxury furniture would be nice. Secondly, I wanted to explain how “Fake Force artifacts” could be a common export for a planet, and wood with a weak force Aura makes that work somewhat. I also promised to explain why “Pollen Storms” were a risk on Gonnos.
Designation: Non-sentient
Homeworld: Gonnos
Language: Some Shamans claim the trees communicate with them. Of course, some shamans are doing glitterstim before every ritual.
Average height of adults: The largest known specimen was 47 meters tall.
Skin color: The bark is a dark brown, the wood is usually lighter.
Hair color: The conifer-like flowers are bright red, and the leaves, rich in trace minerals, are a metallic purple.
Breathes: It breathes carbon dioxide into oxygen, like many trees. It has a preference for high-humidity atmospheres.
Strengths:
- Riftwood absorbs ambient force energy, saturating itself gradually over time. This makes older trees powerful sources of force energy, which can be used as locations of focused energy. Unfortuantely this energy doesn't really accomplish much other then trigger force-sensitives to notice it, making it great for fake artifact making and little else.
- Riftwood emanates a weak force aura even after it’s dead. This has been critical to the production of fake force artifacts on Gonnos.
- Riftwood is incredibly durable. Durasteel cutting tools wear out three times as fast when use on Riftwood compared to other trees.
- Riftwood trees are incredibly long-life, and their annual fertility periods.
- The leaf fiber is easily turned into a pretty thread known as “rift-touched silk” that has no force aura, but is very pretty, being a natural metallic purple.
- Riftwood is very lustrous when finished properly, making an excellent furniture.
- Like most trees, Riftwood is highly flammable.
- Trees don’t move, typically.
- Riftwood is terribly thirsty, and does not do well in dry atmospheres. Transplanting to a desert biome like Tattooine would kill virtually any specimen.
- Riftwood is a tree, and does not have sentience.
- Some people are highly allergic to the pollen, making pollen storms lethal weather for individuals. A vaccine has been created, thankfully.
Distinctions: Aside from the colors and mild force aura, the final distinction of Riftwood is pollen. The pollen of Riftwood is light and highly soluble in water, and not separated by evaporation (boiling with a filtered kettle will alleviate this however). Because of this, storms of rain and pollen have been known to occur, including bright yellow tropical storms. This phenomenon is sometimes called “raining sunlight” due to the bright refractive nature of the pale yellow clouds and rain.
Average Lifespan: over 6,000 years.
Races: There is rumored to be a fruit-bearing variant that allows the eater to obtain powerful visions through the Force. It is claimed that this particular species only grows in a select few highly inaccessible mountains.
Diet: Sunlight, trace minerals in the soil, compost, the occasional dead lumberjack.
Communication: Technically a gifted force user who could speak to plants might get some kind of information from them.
Culture:
Riftwood has no culture of its own. To natives of Gonnos, Riftwood is an excellent source of timber, fuel, raw materials, and pretty scenery. Most of the Sky-Shamans consider the trees as somewhat sacred. Most timberers consider them profitable, but difficult sources of wood.
Many natives use them to make musical instruments, particularly flutes and drums. One Zabrak musician named Ignar Lolta IV runs a company that exports designer acoustic instruments of Riftwood around the galaxy.
Technology level: Not even remotely relevant.
General behavior: They tend to reproduce and grow more actively on soft soil than rockier mountainous regions. However, commercial farming of the trees occurs in cities that export lumber.
History: The Riftwood began evolving several hundred years after the migration to Gonnos. Xenobiologists believe the trees to have evolved in response to force cults using groves for sacred rituals as well as new pathogens coming into the planet. The progenitor species of said tree is not known for certain.
The other plausible explanation is that the various wars between force-users allowed midi-chlorian heavy blood to enter into the nitrates of the soil. The tree absorbed the midi-chlorians form the blood cells spilt on it, and began a gradual mutation.
The third, and more religiously popular explanation, is that the Force itself, sensing the power of various energies conflicting over the planet, imbued trees on the planet
Notable Player-Characters: I would not recommend a player character for a non-sentient tree. If you want to possess one with a force ghost and give advice like that one tree from the Pocahontas movie, go for it.
Intent: First off, I think a canon wood for making Saber canes and luxury furniture would be nice. Secondly, I wanted to explain how “Fake Force artifacts” could be a common export for a planet, and wood with a weak force Aura makes that work somewhat. I also promised to explain why “Pollen Storms” were a risk on Gonnos.
