The Grandfather Tree

The Grandfather Tree is the ancient, rooted patriarch of the Met Sakinsa (the Tree Folk/Leshi), physically located on the other side of Callidore. The Met Sakinsa maintain their connection to him even through the Anghysbel jevolar (the no-magic zone) "through other means than magic. It can be a struggle, sometimes, but the connection is always there, as long as there is life" (Deeproot). He is never seen directly; Minalan communicates with him through the three rooted Father Trees of the Leshwood Court (Strongbranch, Deeproot, and Wideleaf). The grove is "more like a temple than a grove," with a "loamy scent, with the occasional aroma of spice." Speaking-gourds with eyestalks descend from their canopies as sensory organs.

He personally consulted and granted permission for Minalan to take the striekema. More consequentially, he delivered the prophecy that Minalan could save the world only by accepting the Yith's interrogation "at the new moon," at the price of "madness and death. Mine." The prophecy drives Minalan to submit to Szal the Yith's memory-exchange (which kills him for four minutes before Lilastien revives him).

The Grandfather Tree is himself one of Szal the Yith's hosts, part of the same lineage that includes Lilastien and (by the end of Book 13) Minalan. Lilastien makes this explicit after the Yith encounter:

Once you enjoy the Grandfather Tree as a host, you feel a certain obligation to let him know what is going on.

The Met Sakinsa's planet-scale spore network is itself a form of Yith-compatible hosting consciousness: the Grandfather Tree hosted Minalan's mind during the sporing ritual to plant the prophecy, in the same mechanical sense Szal hosted him later. Afterward the Grandfather Tree "is gratified that you survived the challenge of the Yith," speaking as a fellow initiate. He grants his people the right to take refuge in Minalan's lands from the coming Anghysbel eruption.

At the climactic moment of the Mad Mage arc, when Minalan crafts the world-saving enchantment around the Ghost Rock of the Snowflake:

As I touched the sliver of striekema at the center of the enchantment, I felt the distant presence of the Grandfather Tree through its connection. Indeed, I felt the entire vast network of the Met Sakinsa as it spread out to every corner and crevice of the world. While the Vundel and the Alka Alon and the gods themselves were terrified of what I had wrought, only the placid Met Sakinsa seemed willing to face the consequences of what I proposed. The Grandfather Tree regarded me directly, for a timeless moment.

He "understood and approved" Minalan's plan, confirming him as an ongoing ally and the only planet-scale sapient champion of the Ghost Rock gambit.

The Grandfather Tree himself remains rooted on the far side of Callidore, but his subjects arrive in Vanador:

More than three hundred of the most active Leshi had made the trip: tall, strong-limbed males and shorter, bushier females who were still in their active phase. They came through late in the caravan, and carried or pulled platforms filled with hundreds of saplings behind them.

The Met Sakinsa evacuation through the Anghysbel portal fulfills the refuge-grant the Grandfather Tree extended to Minalan in Book 13.