Sultan Ash

* Tree
* Fruit
* Seeds

Sultan Ash is a type of Primal Tree strongly affiliated with the elemental magic of fire.

## Description

The air blisters with heat amongst a grove of Sultan Ash, drawing sweat upon the brow of even the most stalwart of individuals, the pale grey bark hot enough to burn at a touch. Even when trimmed, shaped and otherwise worked, Sultan Ash remain a steady heat to their structure, and so, unsurprisingly, when used to make a spellcasting focus, aid spellcasters seeking to evoke spells that deal fire damage. In Atralran, Spellslinger Focuses made using Sultan Ash are constructed in such a way that allow an attuned wielder to cast *control flames, green-flame blade* and *burning hands*.

The fruit of Sultan Ash trees is similar in appearance to a glowing pomegranate, its interior superheated by approximately half a dozen white-hot seeds, the internal flesh black and porous like basalt. Upon removal of the seeds, the fruit quickly starts to deteriorate, but when eaten promptly shares its flavour with the warming, fruity tartness of wine mulled with cinnamon and nutmeg, although liable to burn the insides of any creature not otherwise resistant or immune if utilises too quickly after harvesting.

## Cultivation

Growing Primal Trees of all kinds is a difficult, time-consuming and often hazardous task, given the fickleness of the magics that are infused through their form. Even something as simple as irrigating Sultan Ash trees proves a challenge, given its proclivity to transform water cast its way into steam within a few moments as the soil in which they were planted started to blacken, burn, and in a few instances vitrify into glass over time. Only substrate from the Elemental Plane of Fire, or those exposed to potent elemental fire magics, seem to be able to resist this effect.

Furthermore, the planting of Sultan Ash trees within a certain vicinity of each other seemed to prove another source of trouble, their proximity effectively magnifying and compounding their heating effects even while they were little more than seedlings. As such, it is necessary to cool the surroundings of the place of planting to prevent damage to surrounding areas, which is most commonly achieved through manual use of elemental-cold evocations, or by mounting of an *Chalcedony Paraelemental Gem* at the edge of each subsequent seedling, the bound ice elemental contained within creating a perpetual source of cold.

Sultan Ash trees, like all Primal Trees, grow rapidly and will continue to grow as long as they have space to expand. They typically start to produce fruit somewhere between a year or two of germination, and continue to do so henceforth twice a year, regardless of the surrounding season, in increasing quantities with each harvest. A seedling's first fruiting might yield a single small fruit, within a few decades, it might produce dozens to hundreds.

## History

On their journey towards Sandoval Ravine to treat with the Auvryth Den as to secure the release of Clio ohd Monime, an adventuring party discovered a Sultan Ash tree growing in the Shifting Dunes, taking note of its curious properties. A year or so later, another party returned to the tree, looking to harvest some of its fruits and seeds to cultivate the tree elsewhere, finding it in a state of destruction by a group of azer at the command of their master, the efreet Zakalaan. After a goading back and forth, Ashewan was allowed to take three of the fruits for himself, after which the elemental beings destroyed what remained of the tree, remarking it had no place existing on the Material Plane.