[center][b][h3]The Tree of Genesis[/h3][/b][/center]

[center][b][h3]I[/h3][/b][/center]

It was an early morning in the Garden of Dreams. The warm light from the sun danced across leaves and bathed the land in its soft glow. Insects were already abuzz with activity while diurnal animals started to wake up, and a light breeze weaved its way through the dense, lush forest.

With the advent of light, the more exotic of the species of flora in the land woke up in a flurry of activity, with Minus and Magnus orbs, as well as all kinds of flying flora taking to the skies in order to soak up the sunlight and attract prey with their scents.

That calm morning, a morning like any other, things changed forever. 

For weeks now the Tree of Genesis had been hard at work. It had been so consumed by its project that it had stopped communicating to the Voice, who sat cross legged in the middle of the entrance to the Inner Tree.

He took in deep, long breaths as he felt the gentle sunlight revitalize him. With his eyes closed, he was free to wander the memories he had accumulated in his short life. He re-lived moments over and over, reflecting and learning from his mistakes. 

That is, until a set of many hundreds of footsteps suddenly breached the peaceful silence of the morning. 

There were some gasps and some muttering as the footsteps came to a stop quite a distance away from the Voice, who opened his black eyes to see a human tribe standing there, at least five hundred meters away. He couldn’t see their eyes and yet somehow, he knew what they were feeling. 

His usually calm heart started to race, he trembled and shivered, and his jaw would not stay still, making his lower teeth strike the upper over and over again.

It was something he had felt before in two occasions, but never to that extreme, and never mixed with so many other feelings. Fear.

The Voice stood and began to walk closer to the humans. It saw how the men pulled the women and children behind themselves and gripped their crude stone cudgels and knives.

It worked both ways, however. While the Voice was feeling their emotions, they were feeling the Voice’s. So, no matter how much he approached, they could not force themselves to truly draw their weapons. They didn’t want to do so, as the calmness radiating from the Voice settled their hearts and minds. And when they had grown calm, so did the Voice.

[color=khaki]”Humans,”[/color] The Voice spoke and scanned the crowd with his eyes, the glow coming from inside him growing intense as he came upon several small, brown-green things covered in cloaks, [color=khaki]”who do you bring with you? No one whose identity is unknown shall be allowed into the Great Tree.”[/color]

The tribe was confused. Of course it was, they did not expect this walking tree to be able to speak. But there were a few sharper people in the crowd, thankfully. A man wearing the furs of a Leon, conveniently covering most of an ugly scar running along his side, stepped forward while motioning to the women to bring the little brown-green things to the Voice.

The woman only brought two of them to the man, and he put his rough hands on their backs, pushing them forward and allowing the voice to inspect them as their hoods came off. 

One had green skin, the other brown. Clearly a male and a female, but they seemed… Young. They had similar features to humans, but the way they were exaggerated and sometimes slightly misshapen gave them away as an entirely different race.

“They are Goblins.” Said the man in a relatively high-pitched tone.

[color=khaki]”I see. Have everyone take their hoods off.”[/color]

Everyone in the tribe did as requested, showing their faces to the Voice. Well, everyone but one boy who had to be slapped over the head by his mother.

After the Voice had memorized each of their faces, it turned around and walked back to its spot on the entrance to the Inner Tree, then spread his arms in a welcoming manner and nodded his head in approval.

[color=khaki]”Welcome to the Garden of Dreams, Humans and Goblins. Whether you are visiting or planning to stay, you should make yourselves at home. The Tree of Genesis provides and it will ensure your safety as long as you make your home inside of it. Now, settle your hearts and walk towards the future!”[/color] He proclaimed, and let his arms fall back to his sides as the tribe began to move once more. They would make their home in the lower levels of the Tree of Genesis. He knew this to be the case. He was not expecting, however, for one of the women to speak to him as the rest of the tribe made its way into the God.

“W-Who are you? What is this place?” She asked, keeping a tight grip on her children’s hands.

The Voice let a small smile slip. [color=khaki]”I am the First Voice of the Tree of Genesis, the Omnibloom, the Great Tree. I am its representative, and speaking to me is akin to speaking to the Great Tree itself. Be honoured, for the Tree of Genesis has given you permission to live within it. How many of your fellow humans can say they have made their homes inside a living God?”[/color]

The woman’s eyes sparkled, but she did not smile. Instead, she frowned sadly. “You’re a… God…?”

[color=khaki]”I am merely its Voice. A weak servant to the Tree of Genesis… I will one day expire, much like all of you.”[/color]

“Oh… First Voice, have you or the Tree seen my husband…? Or his friends… It was many moons ago, they left our camp in the direction of the Tree. They were supposed to return quickly, but they never came back…” She fought back tears with a sniffle. Her children, who were extremely young, didn’t quite seem to understand the situation. Of course, the Voice himself had never met a human in his life. He merely held knowledge of them thanks to the Tree of Genesis.

[color=khaki]”I apologize, you and your tribe are the first humans I’ve seen.”[/color]

“Ah… Yeah, okay…” She muttered, pulling her children closer to her and then catching up to the rest of her tribe. The Voice looked at her for a while, and then furrowed his brow as he felt a dull headache begin to form. 

[center][b][h3]II[/h3][/b][/center]

The Tree of Genesis was quiet. As the rays of warm light were replaced by the soft cool reflections of the moon and day turned to night, the world became quiet. Few creatures chose the night as their preferred time for activity, but there was always one. One that was eternally active, working, plowing through problems and providing solutions to issues that had yet to exist in the Garden of Dreams.

Deep within the Tree of Genesis, in the lowest, most visceral level, there was a small chamber with a single wooden table in the center. Sitting on the table was a small form, wearing a hood made of writhing vines. The figure felt conflicted. All the things it did, it had done in order to prepare for what was about to happen. So… Why? Why did it feel so… Distraught, and alone? It would be breathing life into a people so beautiful and pure… A people designed to make the world a nice place to live in, and still it felt like it needed to do more. 

Had it not done enough already? 

With a shake of its obscured head, it laid down on the table and, with a tiny sniffle, closed its eyes.

[center][b][h3]III[/h3][/b][/center]

That night, while all the newly arrived humans and goblins rested, the Tree of Genesis acted. In the twenty-second level, roots came to life. They lined the walls, created subdivisions in the level, and lined the walls of those subdivisions with more roots. All in all, there were ten thousand roots, and through each one was cursing a dim stream of light, and they all radiated heat enough to take the whole massive chamber into a comfortable temperature.

All over the ceiling, numerous kinds of intensely bioluminescent mushrooms started to grow, spilling their bright purple lights down onto the whole level and giving the ceiling the appearance of an alien night sky. Beautiful, unrecognizable, and mysterious. 

In the center of the level, roots carved a hole large enough and then filled it with desalinated water straight from the ocean.

Interestingly, very few of the roots lining the walls actually had a clear view of the central lake. Only twenty of them had that privilege… And it was those twenty that shone the brightest and the most beautifully, for they would be the firstborn of the Great Tree. It was the Tree itself that poured most of its energy into their creation and their nurturing. It gave its all so these firstborn would be perfect and healthy in every way, and soon the first of the roots became thin and translucent and slowly ts form into that of a pod. That pod started to leak a clear golden liquid, and then it spilled open.

The twenty-second underground level of the Tree of Genesis had a convenient slant, and all the liquids immediately flowed down towards the central lake, mixing with the pristine water in the middle. 

And then, from out of the pod dropped a single shape. A being, a new life. 

[url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5e/56/a8/5e56a8859df6617994167d5ee731f296.jpg]He, was all the Tree wanted[/url]. Bones made from ultra dense wood cores, flesh and organs made of all kinds of plant fibers… A completely functional body, capable of living perfectly fine without solid sustenance, but perfectly capable of supplementing its ideal diet of sunlight and water with more mundane food sources.

His skin was a spring green pigment, his eyes were slanted, with huge honey-coloured irises, a black pupil and what little could be seen of its sclera, was black. Instead of the abundant, hard-to-wash hair that humans all had, he had strong, beautiful leaves and flowers sprouting from the top of his head and the top of his shoulders and Instead of nails or claws he had soft bark covering his fingers and toes.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4XixubpDVk]He truly was what the Tree of Genesis wanted[/url]. As soon as the new life stumbled onto his feet, groaning and taking in his first breaths, its creator let go of its deep connection to its mind, giving it a deep sense of loneliness and sadness.

Even though he knew nothing of the world, even though he didn’t know where he was or what he was supposed to do, he still knew he had lost something important to him. He slipped and fell onto his knees, sobbing. He didn’t know what was happening, and it scared him. He rubbed and rubbed at his eyes, trying to get the tears to stop, but they wouldn’t let up. he tried to get his breathing under control, but the sobbing seemed to be there to stay.

It felt like his heart was broken in half, but he stood and stumbled his way to the lake, illuminated by the strange purple lights. There, he saw his reflection. For the first time, he saw himself, and then he saw the sea of lights coming from the ceiling, and he turned to stare at them in awe. In a split moment, his sadness had vanished and it had been replaced by a sense of childlike wonder. His heart, still broken, was already healing and it beat strongly and steadily. 

As he stretched his left hand up towards his night sky, nineteen other pods opened, and nineteen different cries were as one.

That chilly, breezy spring night, the first of the Sylphi were born.

[hider=Summary]
A human tribe and a few goblins arrive at the Tree, and are welcomed by the Voice and told to make their home inside the Tree. This is the beginning of the city of Arborea.
There is a scene with a smol thing deep in the Tree of Genesis’s Heart.
Finally, we see the creation of the Sylphi, a race of pure hearted plant humanoids with the abilities of reincarnation and enhanced empathy.
[/hider]

[hider=Might Summary]
Tree of Genesis
4 MP - 3 DP

Used 2 DP to transform the twenty second underground level of the Tree into Arborea’s Heart, a holy site with the following titles:
  Womb of the Sylphi II: This Title allows Arborea’s Heart to birth an approximate number of 10.000 new, fresh Sylphi every year (1.000 after the Tree shrinks during the timeskip)
  Lake of Newborn Tears I: This Lake washes all impurities from the bodies of those that bathe in it, usually cleaning infected wounds and encouraging proper healing. It also makes you smell like your favorite flower for a day afterward. The water is regularly filtered and cleaned out by the Tree’s extensive root systems.
  Faraway Night Sky I: The ceiling of Arborea’s Heart is dotted with countless mushrooms and plants which emit both a deep violet and blue hue of bioluminescence, imitating an alien night sky. Looking at this Godly work of art instills a desire for adventure, exploration and discovery in the hearts of newborn Sylphi.

Used 2 MP to create [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/01/bf/54/01bf54fcd5ca3cde66ce617b36067879.jpg]the Sylphi[/url], a race of humanoid plants. They’re capable of naturally interbreeding with humans, due to most of their biology being inspired by humans. They can live perfectly well on just sunlight and water alone, but can also supplement their sustenance with solid foods (mostly meats as they find eating flora to be extremely uncomfortable).

2 MP - 1 DP Remaining
[/hider]