Towering Watcher

The north area of the Karte Island is dominated by the Chalk Expanse, the biggest of the White Forests in the archipelago.
Hundreds of plant and animal species inhabit this very special ecosystem, adapted to a soil that does not allow for green-coloured plants.
The Chalk Expanse is well known for the circle of gigantic waterfalls known as the Mightiest Roar, but no less impressive is its population of Towering Watchers, a tree, found only there, that can reach up to 140m high, making it the tallest plant in the archipelago.

The Haan Archipelago

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Danae by Naelin

The cartographer Danae from the City of Birdland in Thaur was commissioned to draw a map of the Haan Archipelago for the second edition of The Book of the Habits and Beasts, published in the 3rd of Birthing, 3 E.Ru.
Danae took advantage of the enclyclopaedia's team of researchers to gather precise information and went himself into research expeditions to survey remote areas. His work resulted in what is considered the most accurate and widespread map of the Archipelago to this day, which details even most of the coasts of the Savage Isles.

Towering watcher
Show to the bad birds your might
Keep an eye on their flight
And tend to my dreams this night

— A Kartian children's rhyme, sung before sleeping

Biology

This tree, also known as Alcholoh's watchtower due to how this particular bird uses their treetops to make their nests, usually reaches between 70 and 100 meters high on its maturity (At around 100 years old) and then keeps growing very slowly over the rest of its life.
The base takes around 20 to 30 meters of diameter on its maturity, though the trunk quickly slims to a diameter of around 10 meters, staying mostly constant up to the treetop.
Towering watchers are a white plant species, and can only grow on terrain unfit for coloured flora. They grow in extremely humid and foggy areas of the Chalk expanse, particularly close to the rivers that cross it. They produce gigantic clusters of orange flowers whose pollen gets carried to other trees by the wind, producing a small hard-shelled fruit that gets usually cracked open by the impact as it falls to the floor.

"That hit harder than a watcher's shell"

— Popular Kartian saying

Uses

Fruit

When the fruit of the towering watcher hits the ground, the hard shell cracks by the seam, revealing two halves separated by a soft membrane. Inside, it contains a very sweet jam-like red substance full of small, tasty and nutritious seeds.
Though nobody has successfully produced a watcher's fruit outside the Chalk Expanse, inhabitants of Karte sometimes roam the jungle's floor in summer to gather the halves, wearing big, hard hats and shoulder pads to prevent being knocked out by the hard shells, a rare occurrence, albeit prominent in the Kartian informal lexicon.

"Gotta be careful with these balls dropping"

Bark and wood

Towering watchers have an extremely thick bark that is very resistant to fire. The plant uses this to survive forest fires and spread its seeds on the burnt ground, and people have learned to use this bark to fireproof buildings and structures. Its wood is not widely used, as chopping down a towering watcher is considered from disrepectul to bad luck in the Kartian culture. However, wood from naturally-fell trees is sometimes used to make tokens and toys, or sometimes beams and other structures that benefit from this wood's pliability.

Effects of the The High Rust

Trees took a hard hit with the High Rust though, for most species, it meant losing a good chunk of their leaves and top branches, just to regrow them later.
In the case of the towering watchers, though, the mature ones got affected by rust in the middle of their trunks through an area several meters tall, and in some cases, the rust carved into them deeply, infecting and spreading far and wide. Dozens to hundreds of towering watchers died and fell, broken in half, into the forest floor.
Most of the surviving trees show the scars of the rust, as a very wide band of corroded, orange bark.

Ecological Impact

Alcholoh by Naelín

Alcholohs, gigantic scavenger birds, prefer to soar the skies at very high altitudes, and almost exclusively make their nests on mountains or the treetops of towering watchers.
Dozens of species fed off the fallen fruits of the tree, dispersing its seeds with their droppings, though the plant fares quite better when its fruits fall on recently burnt ground, as it will have less competition.

Cultural Impact

Being the tallest, biggest tree in the archipelago and being found exclusively in the Chalk Expanse, the towering watchers became an integral part of the Kartian's cultural identity.
These trees have inspired and made themselves present in dozens of poems, songs, popular sayings, and artwork, from the most elevated professional pieces to the bread and butter of everyday conversation.

"What a tragedy, he was nutted by a watcher"

"As small petals dance in the stagnant air of the Expanse
I made myself small, for you, for a rotten romance
I gave everything away to meet once more, to be joined again.
I humbled myself at the bottom of the unbroken tree, was it all in vain?"

— Fragment of a Kartian poem

Chopping down towering watchers is considered outrageous in Karte, but the small pieces made with the already fallen wood are treasured by its people.

Towering Watcher by Naelin

Lifespan

1200~1500 years

Average Height

70~100m

Geographic Distribution

• Karte Island

"I've gone to the Roar to hear its scream
I've travelled north through corridors and bridges
I've stared at the waters and I've seen
The wailing souls emerging from the seams
The reflection of my nature staring back at me
The newfound memories creeping up my skin

"I've got what I came for" I deemed.
Then I felt how judgement on my scales leeched
A sight unseen, mighty and keen
Peered from above crushing me
Then I saw it, a survivor of the rust, the tallest tree
How could I miss the Expanse's truest king?"

Big boys

The stunning size of the towering watchers could not be supported in most places outside the Chalk Expanse: At a certain height, the tree would simply be unable to make water reach the leaves at the top.
This is the reason why the largest, eldest trees are found in the most humid areas of the jungle: The Chalk Expanse is extremely prone to thick, dense fog, which aids the tree in keeping the water going up to its extreme heights.