Tree Spines

The following is an excerpt from the journal of Beryl Cardan, half-elven sociologist, from her visits to the Erina people in The Dell:

==Tree Spines==
As a sort of epilogue to my above section on the surprisingly complex belief system of the Erina, I wanted to share a curious piece of folklore I was told about on a walk into the borders of the Feythorn Forest with an older Erina named Tommasu.
I had noticed a number of small symbols about the Dell made of pine needles and asked about them as we walked past some pine trees in the forest. He explained that this is because the Erina, to varying degrees, feel a strong kinship with the pine. It is a strong wood, but not afraid to bend with the wind rather than simply standing fast against it to their own destruction, like the Erina's own philosophy regarding combat. Shrouded in needles, it is prickly at first, but a moment's care and thought gets around that to discover a wonderful and useful tree.
There is a tale told amongst the Erina that the Pine Tree is actually an exalted form of a great Erina leader, so at one with nature and wise that they were immortalised by the spirits into the form of a new kind of tree, to live forever at the centre of a great forest of their children, providing shelter and resources for their mortal descendants in perpetuity. As a result of this, pine needles are considered quite sacred to the Erina. They may still burn them with the wood in fires, but always with a touch of reverence and gratitude, as perhaps this tree is a distant relative, giving of themselves for the Erina's benefit.