Twelve trees and green suns; refrences to a real world mythology?

[Composer99]

Water as a "recording medium" might also be a reference to the idea of "memory of water", which comes up in Frozen 2, for instance.

I don't know what, it any, folkloric basis the idea has, but it is part and parcel, if memory serves, of the sympathetic-magic-turned-pseudoscience of homeopathy. I daresay the idea didn't originate with homeopathy, though.

 

[Bohandas]

Ok, just came across another group of franchises where there's a striking similarity. The eponymous Dark Tower from Stephen King's book series has a lot of similarities with the tower lore from The Ender Scrolls (although I think in this instance both may have been inspired by the mythological trope of the Axis Mundi)

 

[aramis erak]

The twelve thing is weird. Generally speaking 12 is a holy number in most cultures, and enormously so in Christianity. I don't know of any examples to the contrary, for trees or anything else. Possibly a conscious subversion of something holy? That would makes sense for the Abyss thing, although who knows about Twin Peaks.

Several flavors of the Gnostic Christians saw the 12 as deluded, save Judas; Mary Magdalene and Judas vie for importance by sect. They were said to have received the correct interpretations. Some sects said Judas, others said Mary, others said both.
It's also worth noting that 13 is a special number as well.

The surviving Gnostic sects are small, insular, remote, and in Islamic nations, so there's not much on current Gnostic belief available. Most of what is known of the Gnostics prior to the discovery at Nag Hamadi is written by their detractors....

 

[Autumnal]

Check out David Litwa and Justin Sledge, among others, for ongoing retranslations and reconstructions of interesting people like Celsus, Basilides, and Marcion. It’s a great time to be interested in gnostics. They’re both on YouTube, Sledge as Esoterica.

 

[Koloth]

The tree circle could be a variation on the Fairy Circle, commonly of mushrooms.
For more southern cultures, green auroras would be rare and might be associated with bad stuff on the way. Then get handed down as green sun instead of green night sky.