Heart Trees

## Description:

Heart Trees are massive arboreal constructs located solely in forests, jungles, caves, oases, or tundras that are known to grow to heights of up to over three hundred (300) feet tall and over sixty-five (65) feet in diameter, often large enough to support entire villages atop their enormous branches and along their massive trunks. Heart Trees are incredibly rare, with fewer than fifty (50) instances known across Earth, but are always located in or near the center of the local forest/jungle/cave/oasis/tundra; a majority of the world's Heart Trees are believed to exist on the Continent of Pilbo. The containment of Heart Trees is not under the JPCU's jurisdiction, but instead often falls under local governments (including the SCP Foundation and CBPA) or the Elves.

Heart Trees are colossal in size and obviously magical in appearance, often sporting a reddish-brown, purplish-blue, or orangish-brown bark with brightly colored leaves; the physical appearance of Heart Trees varies according to the predominant tree species in the area around the Heart Tree. Heart Trees radiate powerful magical radiation that is known to influence life around the Tree, increasing the rate of growth and reproduction of plant life, inducing a state of calm and pleasantness in sentient beings, and passively attracting nonsentient animal life in a radius of six hundred (600) feet; the magic put off by Heart Trees is harmless, so long as the entities that come within its radius do not mean it or any lifeforms any harm. Should a creature or individual wish to harm the tree or another lifeform while in the Tree's area of effect, the person will find it difficult to carry out their aggressive or harmful desires, and may forget about their aggression altogether; lost or altered memories return to the individual when they leave the Tree's radius of magical radiation, but the feelings of passivity and tranquility remain for an average of one (1) hour after leaving the radius. This effect is further exaggerated should an individual be tainted or corrupted in any way (mutations, mental warping, Demonic blood or Soul, etc.), with the Tree reacting violently to the individual's presence; in addition, should someone manage to harm the Tree, all friendly creatures, individuals, and plant life in the Tree's radius will instinctively become hostile to the attacker, know where the attacker is at all times so long as they remain in the Tree's radius, and seek to kill, harm, incapacitate, or remove the attacker with all of their will. [Note: Facilities constructed around Heart Trees are to be built a minimum of 700 feet from the Tree itself]

Heart Tree magic makes it a very attractive location, with the water and soil magically enhanced to provide healing, life-extending, and life-granting effects. As a result, Elves (Wood Elves in particular) are naturally drawn to the Heart Trees, which they find and construct villages, towns, or cities around. Wood Elves worship Heart Trees as the physical manifestation of their deity, Mother Nature, while High Elves, Sun Elves, and Moon Elves consider the Heart Trees to be sacred and magical places that deserve to be feared and respected; it is unknown at this time if Heart Trees possess sentience or any form of intelligence, although it is suspected. The Drow consider Heart Trees to be wastes of space and energy, and feel physically uncomfortable to be within a Tree's radius of influence.

Heart Tree Fruit, produced once every year by the Heart Trees, are fruit (also resembling the predominant fruit of the surrounding area) with intense magical properties capable of linking the consumer's soul with the World Tree, making them immortal; those that consume Heart Tree Fruit can still die, their souls leaving the Material Realm and arriving in the Realm of the World Tree, at which point they are resurrected by the Heart Tree's magic, their soul puppeting their body from another Realm. Those who have consumed the Heart Tree Fruit will resurrect, reform, or respawn indefinitely, and the only known way to overcome a Heart Tree Fruit's enchantment is to have a nature deity sever the consumer's soul from the World Tree. Some Elven nations base their royalty off of those who are chosen via ritual to consume the Heart Tree Fruit upon the previous leader's death.

Consumption of a Heart Tree Fruit is considered the highest form of sacrilege possible in the eyes of the Wood Elves, and is always met with hostility and hatred. Consumption of Heart Tree Fruit by anyone is considered illegal by all magic-containing organizations on Earth and is met with immediate severing from the World Tree and then a swift death.