She of Many Names
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Why not?
- Image Credit: Here, here, and here.
- Canon: Not Applicable.
- Permissions: Not Applicable.
- Links: Elzeri.
- Name: Lembasalda.
- Origins: Valythor.
- Other Locations: The plant can be found on the many planets the Elzeri species have settled after leaving their original homeworld, Valythor, for they were small seeds brought with them as tokens of their lost home planet. Planted on many lands throughout the galaxy, the Lembasalda has been mostly ignored by its planetary natives, its properties were forgotten by all those that know little about elzerish culture.
- Classification: Tree.
- Average Growth Cycle: Considered a youngling when it reaches no less than a hundred years, a Lembasalda is considered fully mature when it reaches its first thousand years of age, but that barely stops the tree from growing. That cycle can go on for a little more than nine thousand years, when the tree is considered ancient for its standards and dries itself up, becoming hollow, withering away, until it can finally be considered to be dead.
- Viability: Aside from dire infertile landscapes or planets where higher levels of radiation and atmospheric pressure such as the one occupied by species as the Skakoan, there is not a single record of a Lembasalda not growing on any sort of terrain. Even the smallest amounts of H2O can assist this plant is flourishing. For its roots will find their way through the harsher parts of a planet's water table until procuring a steady supply of water for themselves, while its only request being that of being provided with light, be it from the sun or, pale moonlight's.
- Description: With immense thoraces, broad and robust. This tree species has colorful leaves of many shapes and sizes, those that are easily dissolved in contact with hot water, while its roots stick so hard in the earth that removing a Lembasalda can be a tedious and long job that can take months if not handling the proper tools for the task. It is not recommended to be cultivated in populated areas such as cities, as lembasalda has a curious habit of spreading its roots in the area where it lives, destroying properties and damaging other people's goods without any distinction.
- Average Height: Up to 10.000 meters.
- Average Length: Up to 1.000 meters.
- Color: Throughout their history, the Lembas Tree has provided a myriad of colorful examples in foliage. Going from vibrant shades of sapphire, through the deepest tones of reddish tones as far as pale turquoise.
- Nutritional Value: Variable. While its leaves can be boiled to teas, those aren't considered very nutritious, as its large oval-shaped berries are filled with fructose values and are considered enough to feed a small family due to their sizes.
- Toxicity: Of extreme lethal potency if not boiled properly, Lembasalda leaves are capable of killing a great krayt dragon with ease. As for its fruits, the trees will release a deadly toxin in their berries if harvested before their proper ripening time. Causing severe hallucinations, high fever, absurd nausea, and leading to fatal cardiac arrests.
- Other Effects: No information on any other side effect is known.
- Distinctions: A well-known fact noticed by xeno-arborists of the major galaxy is the fact that most Lembasaldas are 'born' during autumn, where its first sprouts rise from the ground, growing fast during the adversities of winter, something considered very unusual among all the plants in the galaxy. It is their need for large amounts of water that has given this species the ability to basket itself on colder seasons as most specialists have noticed, however, the moisture on the surface doesn't play a vital role in its birth, as the tree's roots will eat their way through the deep earth in search of moisture from its water tables to ensure its survival. For when the summer season arrives, when the sun is the hottest, the Lembasalda can focus itself on the sole purpose of growing, for blooming heavily during springs, around each Lembasalda, small 'ponds' of its fallen leaves can gather, creating hills of fresh flowers, not only enhancing the land with beauty but also serving as nourishment for other creatures. However, the first batch of its fruit and famous leaves don't appear until its hundredth cycle, which for those familiar with the species can be considered a fantastic festival, for the tree will choose what tone of color it will permanently have through its life. Those that have walked on lembas woods have said that their smell remembers a wide variety of textures, and they all never smell the same way twice.
- Resilient Bodies - The bark of Lembasalda, formed through thousands of years of layers growing over layers of frustum growing over one another. This strange aged composition has given this tree ligaments resembling metallic compounds of ores and minerals of the strongest formation know to the galaxy, yet, keeping itself light when cut and easily malleable, making it very harsher to be cut and even more to be burned even by its miners. It is said that the oldest sprouts of the Lembasaldas are so hard to cut that even lightsabers find resistance on piercing through, in properties that may resemble songsteel.
- Nutritious Fruit - The fruit growing on a lembasalda's branches take shape of large oval-shaped berries that are filled with fructose values and are considered enough to feed a small family due to becoming too large in sizes. Those fruits are highly sought on the major galactical major due to their properties on strengthening immune systems, moisturizing dry skins when milled to a cream, and curing hangovers and headaches when boiled into teas.
- Absorber - The tree's roots and bark can absorb a tremendous amount of electrical energy. Perhaps due to growing to gargantuan sizes, the tree has evolved to withstand the blows of lightning and electrical storms with relative easiness. The energy is theorized to be absorbed and used to empower the tree's bark resilience, as its dispersed through the earth by its roots.
- Sensitive Whatever Trees call it - The tree is very sensitive to a great number of fungi, of any kind. When infected, the fungi can spread like a disease, killing everything from the inside out. The fungus is also capable of peeling off its bark, making it sensitive and brittle.
- Sensitive Skin - A great number of acidic weaponry found in the galaxy can easily melt their way through this bark, making it release a poisonous smoke when melted away in contact with acid.
- Sensitive Hearing - The bark is also ridiculously sensitive to any sort of intensive sonic distress. To the point that the most experienced practitioners in the galaxy regarding the enhancing of their voices, such as force screaming, can shatter these tree's barks to pieces with a single powerful shout.
- Not Indestructible - Despite growing to a resilient compound capable of withstanding a lot of damage from the galaxies deadliest sort of weaponry, such as lightsabers and disruptors, much like blasters and masers, the bark on the Lembasalda ain't immune to its effects, and with due time, alongside exposure to such damage can pierce through the tree bark quite easily.
The tales of the Lembasalda's go as far as the memory can remember. The elzeri species claim that they have used those trees for nourishment, protection, housing for thousands, and thousands of years. They said it was taught by them to do it so by the first settlers of Valythor, that when Elwë, one of the first leaders among the elzeri, lead his people to the further depths of the land, until he found the great forest of Doriath, and claimed its surroundings as his own. From there he taught his kin how to live inside those trees, by slowly carving them to become a great number of buildings.
His tale became legendary, and word of that became known to every single member of the species. The lore regarding how to work the inside of the Lembasalda became so popular that entire courts were housed inside those trees, whole villages were built and the lembasalda became a symbol of elzerish dominance over their planet. To offworlders, the cutting of a Lembas Tree was punishable by death, not even the elzeri enjoy bringing them down and have very long rites of acknowledgment for how much they gave to their planet in matters of providing the land with fertilizers, oxygen, cooling of the ice caps and shelter from predators and invaders.
It did not come as a surprise when they brought seeds and sprouts of the Lembas Tree with them when they were forced to leave their ancestral home. Many of those were planted on planets the elzeri attempted to colonized on the Unknown Borders of the galaxy, and rumors say that those trees still stand, while its most familiar sight became a matter of wonder and discussion for the xeno-arborists of the greater galaxy when the Star Children occupied planets such as Kaikielius and the Elenna System. However, it was only near the end of the Old Republic that the Elzeri even allowed offworlders to study those trees, and that proved to be a sinful act during the following decades as the Galactic Empire began researching how to weaponize the potential flora, forcing the elzeri into compliance or to face oblivion. Luckily, when the Empire fell after Palpatine's death on the Battle of Endor, such an act had not yet been able to occur, allowing the Lembasalda to breathe in safety.
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