The Ashen Tree (5e Deity)
The Ashen Tree[edit]
Alignment. Neutral
Domains. Death, Knowledge
Divine Rank. Lesser Deity
The Ashen Tree is a worldly power from the Sanctuary's Lot Setting.
Sometimes called The Sallow Tree or The Pale Tree, this being is now a legendary figure, alternately seen as a god, demon, prophet, and an impenetrable mystery.
A coalescence of thousands of frenzied souls from The Verge, The Ashen Tree was able to first leave the Verge and enter this world by possessing the body of a necromancer Tajitt in the 1st century (a.s.). Its first act was to write the legendary tome, A Testament of Ghosts. Afterwards, it subsumed the soul of Tajitt into itself, and seemingly abandoned the writing for others to find. Where the Ashen Tree travels, it will, seemingly at random, consume entire populations of mortal souls, leaving aimless undead in its wake. While other times, it will clear an entire locale of undead, leaving the area free of unquiet spirits.
As a collection of sapient souls killed during the visitation, its knowledge of the pre-visitation period is unparalleled. Its writing implies it has an unusual insight into (and even foreknowledge of) events after the Visitation. When it is not creating or destroying the undying, it is recording volume after volume of arcane lore.
Works attributed to The Ashen Tree over the past forty centuries include: Broken Places, The Dreamwalker’s Shadow, Descendants of Autumn, A Vision of Secrets, The Rose Crown, Book of the Golden Tear, King in Ashes, The Serene Afflictions, Benediction of the Sinking Seasons, and Sensibility’s Fading Light.
Historically, necromancer cults dedicated to contacting The Tree and studying its texts spring up frequently. Usually assembled by a single individual or a small group seeking power and knowledge over death.
Its mortal vessel is portrayed as wearing a large, heavy, square amulet on a long, metal chain. Usually surrounded by a ghastly collection of spectral bodies, faces, and emaciated, grasping limbs, all compressed and contorted into a shape resembling a huge, leafless tree.
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