Timbergrown
Playable Sophont
Wandering Woodsmen
Made by unknown craftsmen, the few Timbergrown that wander Haven search the world with growing desperation to understand their origin. Due to their totemic and often horrific design, the Timbergrown find no solace in the company of the other races and are more often feared than accepted. Many of them wander Haven but they few who do not congregate do so in the Gorgewald Forest.
Timbergrown cannot remember their former lives and are haunted by that looming absence yet comforted by the instincts left behind. Their quest for past and identity is attributed to much of their wanderlust, their harrowing stories giving birth to entirely new people.
Timbergrown History
Timbergrown first emerged from the Gorgewald Forest, believed at first to be a spirit of nature, not a Blackstone Vestiges. It was not until one was, unfortunately, killed that they discovered the infantile creature was a Formedfolk designed to serve as a refuge for the soul and not, in fact, a monster. They are a blending of man, nature and machine entirely unseen in the other races of Solith. No one, not even the druids of Wyldkeep, could discern their creation or true purpose; They only knew some men went into the forest and walked out as a Timbergrown, a newborn life in a body of living wood. Each one devoid of memory and experience, like a slate, wiped clean but forever marred by what was once written.
Over the next decade, only a handful more would emerge from the deepest recesses of the forest, and as few as a dozen exist today. Their stories became tales of hardship and perilous journies as they wandered from place to place in fruitless search of the missing pieces of themselves. Some joined the society of others, bringing the wisdom of the ancient wood to the cities of mortal man. While others secluded themselves deeper into the wild places of Solith, becoming one with the woods and the land.
Expanded Perceptions & Lost Identity
Unlike other Blackstone Vestiges, Timbergrown perception is not rooted in the shell that houses their soul. A Timbergrown experiences the world as if they were the very land around them; they see through wind rushing past them, the grass softening their step, the stones beneath their feet, and the creeping roots extending their reach below. This expansion of self only adds to the loss of their sense of identity and so they wander the land seeking identity and purpose.
General Information
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
10 years longer than their origin species.
Average Height
5 to 6 feet tall.
Average Weight
300 to 600 pounds.
Related Ethnicities
Naming Schemes
Timbergrown, like most Vestiges, have two names. Their first name is their true name and the name of the soul that gave birth to their shell. This name haunts them like a dream, a foreign thing yet still so familiar.
A Timbergrown's second name is taken from the trees of Solith from the Brittlebark of the Throat of the World to the mighty oaks of the Verdant Expanse.
Description
Timbergrown vary widely in shape, design, and color as each incorporates the wood of its namesake. While some of these constructs sport forms of worked and polish wood, others wear forms as wild as bramble bushes, and upon close inspection, no two Timbergrown are ever the same. The greatest similarity shared between the varied forms of the Timbergrown is the ethereal green light that emanates from deep within the construct core.
This emerald light seems to draw in the life around in causing colors to bloom with vibrancy and nature to flourish. The interior of a Timbergrown is a mess of vines and organic fluids filling cavities that protect the construct's Blackstone core. These interior spaces leave the Timbergrown incredibly buoyant, and though they weigh several hundred pounds, an unaided Timbergrown will float on the surface of water like a log. The sight of a Timbergrown flailing around in the water is like a turtle flipped onto its back, a sad and helpless sight.
Origin Species
When creating a Timbergrown, remember that though they were once flesh and blood, they cannot remember their past, but their instincts and subconscious remains. What shadows remain of your past? Who were you before this wooden form, and why can you not remember how or even why it happened in the first place? Who are you, really? This man of living timber or the shadow of the life you can't remember? Which is truly real?
Society
Timbergrown do not have a traditional society for they are scattered and few with tenuous ties, at best, between each other, but there is an unspoken bond among them. Deep within the Gorgewald Forest they were each born in bodies that thrummed with the heart of the forest. They were each one with nature and in turn one with each other, a bond few outsiders could ever comprehend.
Though some may never have met, they may not even know one another's name but they would always recognize each other in a crowd. They would always turn at the sound of one another's voice, would unknowingly yearn for each other's company when one was far, and feel the loss when one passes and the world grew darker. Timbergrown were unified by greater things than blood, burden, or oath.
The Grove
There is said to be a hidden grove in the Gorgewald where all Timbergrown are born, where nature swallows men and the trees uproot to take their form. A place where the wild rules and the gods dare not tread.
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