Wizards

A rarely-seen species that evolved from humans after the Melting who resemble trees that are cut short at the head about 8-9 feet above the ground. Their feet and toes crawl out like roots underneath them, their limbs (still only two legs and two arms from when they were humans) are sometimes knotted, barked, or spindly like branches, fingers warbled and numerous like twigs. They can not grow leaves (being mammals, they evolutionarily have no use for them), though leaves and bird nests and other adornments that trees have are part of wizard fashion, clothing and accessories. Because of these adornments, most of the time one would not be able to distinguish a wizard from a tree at all, despite the fact that wizards are only 8-9 feet tall and without the adornments, looks like the tree would have been chopped from full height.

Wizards resemble any type of tree, and sometimes have features from a combination of different trees. Female wizards are often more warbled, their spines growing in shapes that mirror an arbutus or Douglas fir; while male wizards are often straighter, their limbs more distinguishable, like cedar. And of course, there are others who are a combination, at times resembling no type of existing tree at all.

Wizards can be found everywhere in the Molten World, if one has a keen eye for them. Most often, wizards are passed by without notice. They resemble trees so much that they are considered to be trees themselves in some cultures, and that trees are wizards too. In fact, wizards, when close to death, will sit themselves upon a tree of their choosing, usually one that is struggling, a sapling, or a tree of significance to the wizard, and let themselves pass away in the position. Dead wizards will decompose similarly to both a tree and a human, and their intention in for their body to be used by the forest to support the growth of the tree they sat with at the time of death. Those who pass by this communion with often merely see a healthy tree sprung up from a dead, rotting one, and will often not see that one of them is the corpse of a wizard.

Wizards are seen in most cultures to be somewhat of deities. They can live as long as three centuries, growing into adulthood for an entire century before maturing. They move slowly, when resting are completely immobile, and their personalities mirror the personality of the entire forest. They fall in love with each other easily, and they protect their forests their whole lives, including all inhabitants. All of these traits actually have resulted in somewhat of a worshipping religion of trees among the Tree Elves, whose society deems cutting down a tree an offence of utmost severity. This is because wizards are the protectors, and for Tree Elves, trees and wizards are indistinguishable, all working to protect them as the forest as a whole, in their own, silent ways.

It is worth noting that Umbrae have not been able to research or meet any wizards in the Molten World, and being removed from the environments that wizards protect (being colonizers), Umbrae do not have the skills or deep understanding to know a tree from a wizard. For the most part, Umbrae do not know that wizards even exist, and they largely believe that their existence are myths.