Ta-Lasau-Kori (pronounced TAH-lah-SAH-KOH-ree) is both a type of tree native to the Wounds and a faith centering around the veneration of the trees. The most devoted of the religion's adherents attempt the difficult task of propagating the trees to new islands.
Edicts and anathema
- Edicts
- Plant and tend to Ta-Lasau-Kori trees, travel as widely as possible, offer shelter to travelers and those without shelter of their own, protect flora and especially rare plants
- Anathema
- Harm a plant unnecessarily, start an uncontained fire or allow a fire to spread, pollute water or soil, remain in one settlement or community for more than a year
Ta-Lasau-Kori trees
Description
Ta-Lasau-Kori are immense palm trees. Most are somewhere around 100 feet tall, though they seemingly never stop growing high, albeit very slowly. The texture of their pseudobark renders the trees remarkably easy to climb despite their size. Up to half the tree's height in length, their extremely long and thin fronds drape towards the ground.
The seeds of Ta-Lasau-Kori trees are similarly large. Each can be more than 4 feet in length and weigh half a ton. As they are incredibly selective about the conditions in which they grow, it is rare for a Ta-Lasau-Kori seed to germinate, let alone thrive. This is hampered further by the fact that the seeds do not float, and therefore are incapable of reaching new lands on their own.
Ta-Lasau-Kori seeds, or more precisely their endosperm, have the remarkable ability to cure nearly all poisons. Because they are so difficult to propagate, however, the seeds are very rarely used by worshipers of the Ta-Lasau-Kori for this purpose, as they are thought to be far more valuable when put to use in growing another tree.
Unusually for a palm, the roots of Ta-Lasau-Kori trees reach quite deep, up to a dozen feet down depending on the soil in which they live.
Psychic abilities
While not considered intelligent under most definitions, Ta-Lasau-Kori trees possess latent psychic abilities. They are aware, or possibly are able to protect, incoming threats, whether that be sea-borne raiders, powerful storms, or some other risk to themselves and those who live around them. In addition the trees are capable of reflecting the prevailing moods of their worshipers who gather around their bases. In times of happiness their fronds hang loose in the winds, but when their communities are overcome with anxiety and dread the fronds tightly curl up.
Locations
The oldest known Ta-Lasau-Kori tree is located on the island of the Roots, one of the easternmost islands of the Chain. At over 150 feet tall it is larger than any other of its kind - it has been growing on the Roots for as long as the oral histories of the nearby peoples can recount. Its seeds are particularly sought after for propagation.
Elsewhere in the Wounds, Ta-Lasau-Kori trees can be found on scattered islands throughout the Chain, Ha-Rase-Metu, the Protectors, the Wisps, and the Angry Kings. While the trees are quite rare, most of the major archipelagoes are home to at least a few. Several once grew on the Greivous Islands but were long ago cut down by the dwarves of Harv Taruhm.
Only one Ta-Lasau-Kori tree is known to exist outside the Wounds - the settlement of Great Seedling, in the southern Laqto Rainforest, is built around one.
Beliefs and followers
Worship of the Ta-Lasau-Kori is in no way organized, and as such a variety of beliefs are held by different peoples regarding the trees. There are many broad similarities between these practices, however. The majority of those who venerate the Ta-Lasau-Kori are Keleta-Ru or Farnakara, but other groups, such as the Fjarri, sometimes worship the trees as well.
The trees are not deities, precisely, but more akin to spirit reservoirs. To enhance the psychic abilities of the Ta-Lasau-Kori their followers inter their dead amongst the trees' roots - doing so is thought to absorb the spirit of their deceased, carrying it into the tree and, through the roots, into the island itself. Certainly the trees appear to grow more psychically capable after such a burial, to the degree that they can grant prophetic visions to those particularly close to them. Yet burial of one's foes, defeated raiders for example, amongst the roots can only bring ill, for the trees absorb their spirits too - only nightmares and ill fortune is sure to follow. The remains of deceased animals, those hunted for food for example, might be buried by the trees as well, but only if they were killed in particular ways and after rituals were performed to release any lingering suffering.
The unusually deep roots of the Ta-Lasau-Kori trees are said to anchor their islands to the world, preventing them from disintegrating or falling back into the sea.
Adherents to the Ta-Lasau-Kori usually eat diets of meat and fish only, eschewing fruits, nuts, and other foodstuffs that come from plants, applying their desire to protect and preserve their trees to all flora. In addition most seek to build their homes, tools, clothing, and other items only out of non-plant materials, though the degree of strictness to this doctrine varies. Ta-Lasau-Kori followers in the Angry Kings consider sea-dwelling plants an exception to this rule and therefore open to any degree of use as is necessary.
The need to assist the Ta-Lasau-Kori in propagating is a a central tenet held by those who venerate the trees with very little variation. Due to their seeds' weight they rarely move far from where they fall on their own - should they fall into the waves, they simply sink. Worshipers of the trees therefore take great care in collecting the seeds when they drop naturally, protecting them while they are carried to either new islands or new locations on the same landmass. Once a suitable location is chosen, the seeds are buried within a mound formed of the corpses of sacrificial animals, collected to nourish the seedling. Most fail to germinate. Those that succeed call for times of great celebrations, feasts and festivities attended by the faithful from near and far.
Partially as a result of their religious requirement to help the trees spread and partially as an inherited trait of the cultures that most tend to worship the trees, followers of the Ta-Lasau-Kori consider it a spiritual imperative to maintain nomadic lifestyles, carrying the seeds with them as they move and establishing new communities as they wait for them to sprout. At the end of a year, whether their efforts met with success or failure, each community must relocate once more, acquiring another seed and starting the process again. Even those who leave the religious communities but keep the faith rarely settle down in any one location for long.
Some worshipers of the Ta-Lasau-Kori trees believe they can foretell future events by reading the patterns in the motions of the tree's leaves. This idea is held to most strongly by the Keleta-Ru living on Ha-Rase-Metu.