> Except that trees do not require fire and/or smoke to be
> born.
Sorry, there are plenty of species that do. Even if_Eucalyptus regnans didn't, there are plenty of other species that do, and which evolved before humans. In some cases (Sequoia), there are even individual trees still standing that might have sprouted before humans arrived in their home areas.
> >Umathelans were attempting to exterminate the aldryami.
>
> They succeeded.
And our barbarian characters' ancestors helped to bring them back via a Lightbringer's quest, one reason why the Aldryami tolerate some of the barbaric behavior, such as burning.
> That's true but since Umathela is said to be a green
> and brown elf forest, its characteristics are fixed.
Sorry, but I just like the idea of a little variety in Aldryami lifecycles.
"Once Seed Chaser, the elf who talked to us for the Council, came to our village and asked for me. He said he wanted to know the most auspicious time was for lightning in Fire Season. He had helped us a lot when the Fonritians last came to over the ridge, so it was easy to pull together some folks and read the signs. The smoke over the sacrificial fire took the shape of a great hand, holding thunderheads in its palm, so I told him to watch for that in the sky."
"I forgot all about it, until he came back near midsummer and demanded that I join him immediately to receive a great honor for our people. It wasn't a great time, but I packed up and followed him deeper in the woods than I had ever gone, while the sky slowly shrank behind an iron wall of clouds, shaped just like the hand I saw in the smoke the previous season."
"We stopped at a place where someone had piled up a great ring of earth, almost like a fort without a palisade. Inside, there was a crowd of hundreds of ancient elves, all alike, standing there as if rooted. Suddenly, I realized that the tallest one with the strange tuft on the side of his forehead was Blue Gum Wise, who had been a great friend to us when I was a boy. He saw me as well, and spoke, like branches creaking in a slow, tired wind."
"'I have asked you to come because your people have always been obedient, and you fought bravely against the city builders', he said. 'And I want you to stand here and wait, so our friendship goes forward to the next generation.'"
"We stood silently there for a long time, as the sky darkened. And just when the longest finger of the cloud stretched over the fort, there was a huge flash and explosion. By the time I had blinked the spots out of my eyes, Blue Gum Wise was completely aflame, spewing sparks over the entire enclosure. One by one, each elf in the place exploded, and things got so hot that I had to step back from the wall. But the elves outside kept dancing and thrashing like fools."
"It didn't take long for the entire crowd inside the fort to burn down to a few inches of ash. Seed Chaser took me back to the village, silent. And I didn't say a word."
"But ten years later, when Ironhelm pushed the slaver army all the way to Dawn Wind lands, my son said he saw a clutch of a dozen Aldryami scouts who greeted him as a friend, even though he had never laid eyes on any of them. And they all had that screwy tuft on their foreheads."
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