Keepin Corellia Weird
Ori'ramikad Tree
Intent: To create a rare form of tree that for the Mandalorian people
Image Credit: Here. Dividers were a custom creation by [member="Anija Betna"]
Canon: N/A
Creators: [member="Maple Harte"] & Ijaat Mereel (submitted by Ijaat Mereel due to formatting issues for Maple. I want to stress the unique originality and heart & soul of this really awesome idea came from Maple. I just formatted it to look pretty and flow better really.)
Links: N/A
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Ori'ramikad Tree (Taung War Oak)
Homeworld: Mandalore, Concord Dawn
Other Locations: Any planet with a harsh climate will be a suitable place. Most common in formerly or currently occupied Mandalorian territories
Classification: Tree
Average Growth Cycle: Six years to reach maturity, though it will continue slowly growing for twenty to thirty years afterward, and has no known maximum age where death and petrification automatically happen. On average, due to maturation being reached and them being harvested and other external factors, it is rare to see a tree of this species go beyond one hundred, or one hundred and fifty years of age, though some much old in more remote places have been reported.
From a seed, it slumbers for a full year after being planted, areas heavy tectonic activity are best as the vibrations stimulate it as it sprouts. The first six months are crucial in determining whether it will reach maturity since roughly seventy-five percent of the sproutlings do not survive the six month maturation period. The ones that do violently burst through the soil one day looking for all the world like a wooden spear.
The "spear" grows tall and after thirteen days past sprouting, it begins producing resin over its body, followed by slow expansion and harsher, more gnarled wood growing through and eventually the sapling being covered in a layer of golden resin that is completely poisonous to the touch. This will end with the tree to be covered by another layer of wood. Lumps develop on the final outer layer, which blackens as it reaches full maturity. Upon the death of the tree, a special chemical reaction in the resin takes place, resulting in complete petrification in minutes. The bark turns a sterile white marked with gold strands of resin, though it is still useful, if not more so, once it reaches this point. Death can be caused by 'poisoning' the soil with beskar dust, amphistaff venom, sonic emissions at the right frequencies, and the still living tree will die quite violently if bes'manda is present in the soil, the two seeming to be polar opposites. Or it can happen naturally, as for any other plant.
Viability: It needs to be planted in an area of harsh, arid soil and severe tectonic activity for best growth and strength. Ori'ramikad trees need very little water to survive, about an hour of moderate rainfall can keep it fed for weeks. Arborist have noted that burying dead flesh by its roots or spilling warm blood from a carcass stimulates the tree and makes its surface more even and smooth for harvest, though those are not a requirement for its survival or full maturation. This is believed to possibly be due in part to the increased iron content of the 'fertilizer'. Mandalore itself is an ideal ground due to the tectonic volatility of it's surface since the cataclysm. The shifting of the planet's surface plates seems to create just the right 'background noise', if you will, to give the growing saplings what they need.
Description: A fully grown example resembles a giant, lumpy bonsai tree with lumpy overgrowths of bark and obsidian leaves. At death the wood turns a clinical white, and the leaves turn blood red.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Average height: Fifty Meters full grown
Average length: Fifty meters
Color: Black, like obsidian.White with gold resin streaks as dead wood.
Nutritional Value: You would not swallow a beskad, so you should not eat any part of this tree, because its tough fibers and untreated resin will treat your insides just like a beskad would. Death from ingestion of any part of the ori'ramikad tree is long and painful. And typically inevitable
Distinctions: The Plant is characterized by its intimidating presence, jet black on the brightest of days, and there seems to be no difference in color in regional growths, only in the number of branches. (Six for Mandalore, five for everywhere not Mandalore) When used to strengthen or make armor, its extremely resistant to kinetic impact and possesses energy resistance, both of which depend on where it is grown. Armor made from trees grown on Mandalore always have the highest level of resistance in both categories
Strengths:
- I admire its purity: The tree is capable of absorbing severe kinetic impact, even stopping vibro-tools specifically designed to cut tough bark. The trees on Mandalore always produce the strongest results and in character, Mandalore grown trees always produce double the quality of non-Mandalore trees.
- Lightweight: The harvested timber results always produce armor and devices of extraordinarily light weight in comparison to others.
- Energy resistant: The resin when treated and bonded to the wood makes it resistant to energy weapons to a mild degree, and it is rumored the resin can be applied to other items with similar, if lesser results.
- Multi-Purpose: The wood, when properly cut, can be fitted around handles, such as staves, or even used to make special lightweight vibroswords. Often weapons crafted from this wood are highly prized heirlooms & ceremonial, even given to outsiders over beskar as tokens of esteem and trust.
- Situational strength: The oak if grown elsewhere simply will never be as strong as the stuff on Mandalore. The conditions may be proper for it to survive, with those trees bearing five branches being the strongest, decreasing in strength with less. Two branch trees barely offer more protection than run of the mill light armor, though it retains its extraordinary light weight.
- High maintenance: Things made from the wood must be regularly treated in the oak resin of its species to retain its kinetic resistance properties once harvested. Overlays or underlays for armor using it must have a light amount applied every six months, to help the wood retain its molecular properties as well as its energy resistance.
- Vong Vulnerable: The wood seems almost allergic to anything vong shaped, and Amphistaff venom eats through it in rapidly, the energy field around an amphistaff similarly slicing through it as a lightsaber through durasteel or duraplast
- Requires experienced harvesters: Only Mandalorians bear the secrets of proper wood harvest, upgrading, creation, and repair. But even they have trouble, as the wood even under the best conditions is difficult to work, and must be cut with special tools with monomolecular edges and shaped painstakingly, and an improper working can render it all unusable. Beskar, or bes'manda, edged or made tools seem to cut through it easier than most, with bes'manda made devices slicing clean through it.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
There is no record of this species before the Gulag Plague. It was first discovered in an underground forest, and the metalsmiths discovered it kinetic absorbance properties, producing specialized armor pieces excellent for surviving either blunt force trauma or armor piercing rounds, with the resin granting it limited energy resistance. Difficult to properly cultivate even for experts, the armor made from this is often ceremonial, finding more use in upgrades for other armors. But for those who can afford it, Taung War Oak offers excellent kinetic and energy protection for what it is. The wood, however, is uniquely vulnerable to vong tech, giving some Mandalorian smiths a suspicion that the species is the remnants of a former Vong project.
