Waitwood

Upon the verdant world of Ethuirus, evolution proceeded on a unique course. Most species in the galaxy are innately mobile, and generally an offshoot of animals. On Ethuirus, however, it was the plants who gained intelligence as well as true souls. To be precise, it was the trees, which became psychic. How this occurred exactly is unknown, but what came after upon Ethuirus was the total dominance of the Waitwood trees , asserted over millennia and resulting in the eventual forestforming of the entire planet.

These Waitwood forests pooled the effective psychic powers and intelligences of their species as a whole into a single collective of minds, bridged by the roots of each tree. While incredibly weak individually (weaker than even a minor psyker) and with little true intelligence in the singular, in the aggregate they had both immense power as well as an eldritch mind, with their trillion of trees reaching complexities far beyond the conception of any individual single sapient.

By nature, though, the Waitwoods are also patient beyond imagining (ironically though, they are the least patient of the tree species). Ethuirus turned into a Forestworld, they (or rather the hivemind that was the world-forest) were content to spend centuries plumbing the warp for mysteries, reaching out with their thoughts to scry upon distant worlds and stars for new knowledge. The warp then was far calmer, for the Aeldari Gods still lived and fought their losing battle against Chaos.

The Aeldari Gods of old were trapped by their own choices, unable to avert the coming cataclysm that would consume them along with the Aeldari Empire. It was a nightmare, yet still they tried to find a way out of it, impossible as it might be. The Waitwood Forest-Mind was still but a speck to the gods even in their furthest decline. It was Cegorach, the Trickster, who saw them first, leading the astrally projecting Forest-Mind away from the rest of the Eldar Gods.

Cegorach among the Aeldari Gods was the most able at bending and breaking the rules of Asuryan’s Edict of non-interference with the Materium. Where other gods might have banished or killed the Waitwood entiny, the trickster god chose to converse with the alien Waitwood Forest. Translating the conversation between god and near-god into words would be difficult enough, and keeping the full meaning of it would be about impossible.

Suffice to say, the Waitwoods learned much of the coming cataclysm, as well as the Aeldari Gods and their mythology. One of secrets thought to them was the location of an Eldar Maiden World, then infested by orks who would slaughter the escaping Eldar that arrived there. Implicit was the suggestion that the Waitwood entity save the Exodite Eldar from the cruel fate that would befall them. The Trickster-God then banished the Waitwood Entity from their domain, warning them that other gods would not be as kind.

There was a great discussion within the Waitwood entity then, processed over long decades and centuries over the great forests across their planet. Attempting to visit the immaterium again was suicidal, with the entities there wielding more than enough power to squash them as bugs. Knowledge of the great cataclysm to come created consternation among the trees. Learning of the fleeing Exodite Eldar much curiosity.

It would be unsurprising that they at last decided then to reach out to the Maiden World, scrying the entirety of the planet as the Exodites arrived at last, fleeing from the debauchery of the Aeldar Dominion. When the Orks in a great Waagh attacked them in the prelude to a slaughter that would be repeated many times over, the Waitwood entity forced open a Warp Portal to the planet, offering the Exodite Eldar sanctuary upon it’s own world.

Desperate and guided by a Harlequin who had ‘happened’ to be with them at the time, the Exodites anchored that very same portal to where they had landed, before evacuating en-masse. On the other side of the great portal, they found a verdant forest-world, pristine and sculpted. Over time, they would learn of the secrets of the entity which had rescued them from destruction.

The Waitwoods exist in great Forest-Worlds, where the individually weak trees are effectively combined in their trillions into an immeasurably titanic force. Though the theoretical power of a Forestworld in its entirety should be enough to extinguish stars, the power wielded by a Waitwood Forest-World is far lesser, 'merely' acting upon the scales of an Alpha+ psyker.

This they wield to near constant use, proving immensely adept at reshaping continents and their ecosystems over the course of decades and centuries into the ideal environment for the Waitwood species. While on the planetary scale they wield their power with immense skill and discipline over immense periods of time, the hivemind is not quite as able in the short term, resorting to destroying foes with brutalistic strikes of power without real finesse.

Their planets are inhabited by Exodite Eldar, who fled there around the 29th Millenium. They have a unique symbiosis with the Waitwood Entity, with the Exodites being able to draw power from the Waitwood psychic gestalt as opposed from the Warp as a whole, effectively using the Waitwood Gestalt as a protective measure against Slaneesh (at least prior to Ynnead’s birth). However, this only works on planets where the Waitwood entity is firmly established - Which in the case of the Waitwoods means the conversion of the near the entire planet into a Forest-World.

Waitwoods do not expand to other worlds well: They must implant saplings which grow to maturity over decades and reach their fullness of strength over centuries. Additionally, due to the dangers of open warp portals, such a colonization attempt would not have the assistance of the original forest entity beyond that of a few groups of Exodites. Indeed, it is all but necessary to have a cooperative polity on the other side of the portal for any successful colonization attempt.

Waitwoods can be used to quickly and easily create a waypoint in the primal, as the strange minds of the trees resonate well with the instinctive nature of the Primal. In general, a single world can be given totally over to the Waitwoods to allow use as a primal waypoint that can be reached from three hundred light years away.

However, when used in such a manner waitwoods need to expend a small amount of their own power to enable transit, and this puts a limit on how much they can be used. As the waitwoods will not expend dangerous amounts of their own energy.