How to treants feel about mistletoe?

[Nifft]

Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

It's good manners to give credit when you post lyrics.

- - - - -

I really love the idea of a treant "race war".

-- N

 

[the Jester]

What if the eucalyptus trees had treants as well? I can imagine a warmer southern wood that has become very dangerous because the treants are having their own "race war."

There's a Rush song about that.

 

[paradox42]

The Rush song was indeed the perfect quote to drop into this thread.

And the Treant Race War idea has definitely started gears turning in my head. I even have the right deities in my setting to cause such a thing- who's to say the god of Hatred and Prejudice wouldn't want to get intelligent plants fighting the way he gets "regular races" fighting, after all?

Brilliant idea, Prince of Happiness.

 

[ephemeron]

Anyway, mistletoe is a parasite and a plant. How would treants regard it? Would it be a disease to be removed from forests, or simply another plant to be protected and nurtured. How would a treant which was infested with mistletoe feel? Would it be painful, a minor inconvenience or even a blessing? How would other tree dependant creatures, such as dryads, feel about it?

I could see entertaning differences of opinion between treants and druids over mistletoe. To the druids, it's a sacred plant; to the treants, it's irritating and unsightly (I like Set's comparison to athlete's foot, but that's not as visible... so maybe mistletoe is like a cross between athlete's foot and really bad acne, in the treants' view?). It's kind of the druids to take the stuff away, but the treants have a hard time undersanding why otherwise right-minded beings would value something disgusting.

 

[Celebrim]

Warm fuzzy talk about preserving the balance and harmony of nature is usually the product of not having to live in it or with it.

I wouldn't imagine Treants to be that foolish.

According to wiki...

The species grow on a wide range of trees, and can eventually prove fatal to them where infestation is heavy, though damage more commonly only results in growth reduction. All mistletoes are hemiparasites, bearing evergreen leaves that carry out some photosynthesis on their own, relying on the host mainly for water and the mineral nutrients it carries. The genus Arceuthobium (dwarf mistletoe; Santalaceae) has reduced photosynthesis. As an adult, it manufactures only a small percentage of the sugars it needs from its own photosythesis but as a seedling it actively photosynthesizes until a connection to the host is established.

As gardeners, I think that Treants would tend trees to make sure mistletoe was not common enough to become a serious pest, but would not obliterate it entirely because it provides an ecological nitch for certain otherwise benign organisms.

I would imagine however that for the most part, they groom themselves well enough to avoid any such infestation themselves.

To a plant, mistletoe is something like a vampire. Druids may value mistletoe precisely because it represents a synergy between creative good (plant life) and destructive evil (paracitism). In a fantastic setting, there may be mistletoe that is far more evil than good, for example, undead mistletoe or magically fecund vareities which are practicularly dangerous to plant life. This might make the basis of a pretty decent adventure, if a Treant found himself with an infestation of vampiric mistletoe which could only be removed in relatively safely by animals (on which it could not feed).

 

[Gez]

What about a Treant wizard with an Awakened Mistletoe familiar? Uh? (A mistletoe Treant would be cool, too.)

Mistletoe was often used in druidic ritual. It's a symbol of the moon, and also of life as it's always green. Oaks with mistletoe were sacred, because actually oaks are very resistant to Mistletoe and it's very rare to find one of them infected by it.

 

[Pickaxe]

This subject assumes that the only view of mistletoe is that of its biological effect. In a fantasy campaign, it's not a problem to return to a fanatstic view of Nature, rather than deal with a strictly biological view. "The Golden Bough" was, according to the author James Fraser, mistletoe, and it represented the (separable) soul of a tree to the ancient mind. Later, it remained sacred but not necessarily seen as a literal talisman of a soul, so we have it being used in druidic rituals and playing a key role in the story of the death of the Norse god Balder.

So, in a fantasy campaign, you could ignore the biology of mistletoe and focus on its spiritual value. A treant might use mistletoe as a place to keep its soul or its power, or it might recognize the magical nature of mistletoe and respect it or even worship it. You could still have plenty of intriguing treant-based plots using mistletoe, except that the treants might be trying to gather more rather than destroy it.

--Axe

 

[Andor]

So, in a fantasy campaign, you could ignore the biology of mistletoe and focus on its spiritual value. A treant might use mistletoe as a place to keep its soul or its power, or it might recognize the magical nature of mistletoe and respect it or even worship it. You could still have plenty of intriguing treant-based plots using mistletoe, except that the treants might be trying to gather more rather than destroy it.

--Axe

A Treant lich with a mistletoe phylactery?

 

[tensen]

I would expect the treants would want it removed. Which could explain why the druids use it. I mean, it could be part of their task... the removal of the mistletoe, to keep their groves healthy.

 

[Nifft]

A Treant lich with a mistletoe phylactery?

Hm... how about a Treant Wizard who has undergone the equivalent of the Worm That Walks template ceremony, and is now actually Kudzu? Or fungus spores?

-- N