Conversations with Ipthina

How are Grove trees related to Eldritch Spirits? Is the process consensual?

Grove trees are a modification of Eldritch Spirits, yes. They are grown from seeds, before a spirit is formed. The spirit lives within the tree and doesn't leave; instead they send fae to gather songs and return to them.   It's not clear to Heiassa that this is truly a consensual process - how much can a seed choose to be confined to a tree? But Ipthina's attitude towards it seems positive.  

What went wrong in the Pruning that led to the genocide of the eldritch spirits? If I continue bringing back fae, how do we avoid such problems again?

The Pruning was wrong to begin with. It wasn't just kinds Fae getting pruned away, parts of the Fae that made them real people as opposed to unfeeling plants was getting pruned away. A fundamental question of the pruning is whether the Fae are truly part of nature like all other growing things, or if they're apart from it like the other sentient races.   Ipthina was not alive during the Pruning. She was planted in the Grotto by Asphodeloideae the Gentle, a Treeborn fae who created the Grotto to atone for what the fae had done. Asphodeloideae was her mother, teacher, and companion for over 500 years while the Grotto established itself. She has visited several times over the past millennia but hasn't been seeing the last three hundred years. Whenever she visits she brings new seeds and stays for however many decades it takes to establish them.   According to Asphodeloideae, there were so many variants of fae that were diametrically opposed as part of their nature and that the conflict was inevitable but it escalated so much, especially when the Heart disappeared, that all but the Fae of Seasons are believed to have been killed off either directly or by the destruction of their Groves. She doesn't know why things escalated so much. Where did the fae learn to extinguish life so thoroughly?   The violence didn't start when the Heart disappeared but once she couldn't be reached things got much worse.  

There are fae cycles and Treeborn (Galfen the Blight, Fae of the End, Trenali) who seem well-suited to extinguishing life...is that not enough of a way to learn such a thing?

Asphodeloideae felt the Fae of the End (and Galfen and Trenali) should exist in balance with things like birth rates... Death is a part of life, things should end, but destruction that outpaces creation becomes wicked.

How do you know Jerun and who he used to be?

Ipthina was planted by Asphodeloideae and nurtured by her song. She retains wisps of Asphodeloideae's music and what she knew of Jerun, her brother.  

How do you know Magdalena?

Magdalena and Asphodeloideae had a complicated relationship... and whenever Magdalena showed up in the grotto, it was either because something sad had happened or because Magdalena wanted Asphodeloideae's help.   But the thing Ipthina remembers the most is the time Magdalena dragged herself into the grotto burned to within an inch of her life... it took hundreds of years in Asphodeloideae's care before she was well enough to leave the grotto.   According to Asphodeloideae, Magdalena had to choose between saving people or their songs, and she nearly died trying to do both.   Ipthina doesn't trust Magdalena... she respects and even reveres her a bit, but she believes that, if it would help her achieve her goals, she'd destroy the grotto without hesitation. When I allude to her perhaps hesitating now (knowing how furious it would make me) Ipthina thinks it unlikely but that she would probably cry after.   She's never felt The Reaper to be an unfeeling terror, rather, she fears that Magdalena would do the 'necessary' thing, even at the expense of weekdays left of her heart.  

How do Eldritch Trees have children? Are they like trolls?

Troll magic can shape growing things, they sing to trees and the trees bend to the will of trolls - it's something that could be terrifying to an Eldritch spirit. There is a respect between them but they have not historically been friends, nor have trolls tended to the trees.   Eldritch trees grow their own seeds, but there's an extra step to Eldritch tree reproduction. It's not good if a sapling grows too close to the trunk of its parent, so if the wind-born seeds haven't fallen far enough away from the trunk, once the sapling is large enough, the spirit will very carefully dig it up and plant it somewhere nearby where it will have room to grow.   Once there are trees in every direction that extend farther than a spirit could carry a sapling, the tree stops forming seeds.   Eldritch trees take 10 years to grow a flight of seed pods, usually between 20 and 30 seeds - of those, generally 2 to 4 will actually take root, but any seed that sprouts is given a place to grow in this way, the spread of Eldritch trees is actually very fast relative to their massive size and long growing period.