The Grandfather Tree

The Grandfather Tree is the eldest and most revered of the Met Sakinsa — the ancient race of sentient, mobile trees known as the Moonriders — and serves as spiritual elder and seer to his entire kind. He is rooted on the Met Sakinsa homeland, a large continent on the far side of Callidore blanketed by thousands of hectares of living forest, yet his awareness and influence extend across the entire world.

The Met Sakinsa communicate with the Grandfather Tree through a specialized biological organelle — a fusion of the bolatha, dremaratha, and relatha systems — that forms once a tree enters its permanently rooted phase. This network allows even the Leshi groves deep within the magic-dead realm of the Jevolar to maintain their link with him through alchemical and root-based means rather than magic. As Father Tree Deeproot explains: "We live in the shadow of the jevolar, yet we still maintain our link with the Grandfather Tree through other means than magic. It can be a struggle, sometimes, but the connection is always there, as long as there is life."

When Minalan and Lilastien visit the Leshi grove in Anghysbel and petition the Court of the Father Trees, the Father Trees consult the Grandfather Tree across the entire world. His counsel comes back through the grove network with notable speed: he grants permission to harvest the rare striekema herb, and delivers a cryptic forewarning that Minalan will face death and madness before the task ahead is done — a vision that proves entirely accurate. "The Grandfather Tree does not prophesize," Bomoadua clarifies. "It sees many futures."

Lilastien holds the Grandfather Tree in the highest possible regard — a personal perspective, given that she once served as one of his Yith hosts and feels a lasting obligation to him because of it. She describes him to Minalan plainly: "The Met Sakinsa have never been known to be dishonest. The Grandfather Tree is revered as a source of wisdom even among my people. Even above the Vundel." She considers this reverence well-earned, though she is careful to note that wisdom and infallibility are not the same thing.

His nature, Lilastien concludes, is fundamentally protective — rooted in the Met Sakinsa's long history as guardians of Callidore, a role originally undertaken at the Vundel's request during the ancient war against the Formless. He is driven by a deep commitment to the worth of life itself, a belief he shares with Minalan: "The Grandfather Tree and I might disagree on many counts, but the idea that life had worth and merit was not among them."

During Minalan's half-mad creation of the Snowflake artifact at Sevendor, he experienced a direct and unexpected connection to the Grandfather Tree through the striekema glass at the heart of his enchantment. In that moment, Minalan felt not just the Grandfather Tree himself but the entire vast network of the Met Sakinsa spreading out across every corner and crevice of Callidore. It was one of the few times a human had ever been in direct contact with him.

The Grandfather Tree regarded Minalan directly — and understood. He saw the solution Minalan was reaching for, grasped the nature of the sacrifice it would require, and approved. In that moment Minalan realized the deeper truth behind the permission granted to harvest the striekema in Anghysbel: the Grandfather Tree had foreseen, even then, that this particular human mage would find the answer that the Vundel, the Alka Alon, and the Met Sakinsa themselves could not.

"The Grandfather Tree understood and approved when all the other life on Callidore trembled in fear," Minalan reflects. "That gave me the surety I required to embrace the solution, including all of the long, terrible, difficult steps it would require to get there."

While every other great power on Callidore reacted to Minalan's working with fear — the Alka Alon reeling, the Vundel alerted, the Formless shrieking in their prisons — the Met Sakinsa alone faced the consequences with measured calm. The Grandfather Tree's faith in Minalan's path, conveyed in that brief wordless moment of contact, proved to be a turning point in the Spellmonger's confidence that saving the world was truly possible.