Soul-Pod

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Soul-Pods are the seeds from which new Sylvaneth are born and where their spirits go upon their death. Without soul-pods, the sylvaneth would die out, and so the groves where they are cultivated are prime targets for their enemies - and the most heavily defended parts of Sylvaneth Enclaves.[1a]

Origins

The first soul-pods were sown from the hopes and dreams of Alarielle infused into seeds the Everqueen had saved from the World-That-Was, and these most ancient soul-pods still contain echoes of the World Before Time. In the Age of Myth, she planted these seeds when she grew tired of wandering the Realm of Ghyran alone, and the first sylvaneth sprouted from them. As she walked through the realm planting the seeds, she sang a beautiful song of hope and wisdom - the first notes of the sylvaneth Spirit Song. The precise conditions of each seed's sowing affected what sprouted from them, and Alarielle guided the newly podborn creatures both as they grew to maturity and afterwards, becoming the sylvaneth mother-goddess.[1a][1b][2a]

Forms

Soul-pods come in a vast variety of different forms – some are huge verdant trees whilst others are seeds cloaked in razor-sharp thorns and diaphanous wings. Soul-pods have been seen that resemble clouds of magical spores; probing, stretching roots; and multi-coloured fungal orbs. Not even Alarielle herself knows what will emerge from a soul-pod, for they are as capricious and beautiful as the goddess herself.[1a]

Whatever their form, soul-pods cleanse the land as they grow due to their stores of life magic.[2a]

Locations

Alarielle planted the original soul-pods in all manner of environments across Ghyran, from high mountains to ocean depths.As the Sylvaneth spread and founded new settlements, they planted new soul-pod groves in Ghyran and beyond. They favoured locations with powerful life magic to help the groves grow. [1d][2c]

In Enclaves

All Sylvaneth enclaves have a soul-pod grove at their heart; they must if they are to survive.[1a][2a] For this reason, the soul-pod groves are the most treasured and well-defended places in the enclaves, generally located at the very heart of the settlement and heavily guarded.[2d][3a]

Branchwyches are protectors of each enclave's soulpod groves, and also harvest and gather the lamentiri - the life echoes of fallen Noble Spirits - so that they can be planted anew in the groves.[1e] Branchwraiths tend to the groves and watch over the growth of the soul-pods.[2e]

Lamentiri

Lamentiri - sometimes called Heartseeds or Tears of the Mother, among other names, by outsiders - are beautiful soulseeds that contain the racial memories of the previous generations of the clans. They have been likened to motes of the sylvaneth's collective soul. Sylvaneth of higher standing above that of the Forest Folk, usually Noble Spirits, are podborn with a lamentiri somewhere within them, usually within their heartwood or twisted within their branches. When their bearer dies, the lamentiri is harvested and replanted in a soulpod grove, releasing their energies and the essence of the last bearer into the land. The next generation of Sylvaneth from that grove will sprout with the accumulated experiences of the Sylvaneth already in their mind.[1c][2b]

This recycling of souls greatly infuriates Nagash.[2b]

Sources

Sylvaneth
Units Forest Folk (DryadBranchwraith) • Free Spirits (Arch-RevenantGossamid ArchersKurnoth HunterSpirit of DurthuSpiterider Lancers) • Noble Spirits (BranchwychRevenant SeekersTree-RevenantTreelordTreelord AncientWarsong Revenant) • Outcasts (Spite-Revenant)
Characters ArdanethBramble-MaidenCuthrucuItharyLady of VinesBrachylaenaDollenhalMaesleirOadenwulShaddockFelyndaelHaaldhormWilde KurdwenLharentholNellas the HarvesterRhalaethSternbarkSvarkelbudWythaDrycha HamadrethKelaraUsnielYlthari
Glades DreadwoodGnarlrootHarvestboonHeartwoodIronbarkOakenbrowWinterleaf
Defunct Daereth-HarEiderbractFrondkinHawthornSilverthorn
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