Sentinel
Something not quite natural
S
entinels are naturally-occurring, vaguely-humanoid tree formations that tend to leave human passersby unsettled.
Origin
The sentinels were here before humans invaded these forests, and they'll be here long after the humans have retreated.
Morgan Edne, Goddite fisherman, 1498 AoE
T
hey were originally believed to be the deliberate machination of... somebody, to portray... some kind of message to the greater population. Many sentinels have appeared so lifelike and so deliberate in their poses that it was assumed, for thousands of years, that they were the purposeful design of a particular group looking to leave their mark on the forest - or on the broader culture.
Natural Phenomena
For those who favor empirical evidence, the cognoscenti have cast doubts on many of these ideas in recent centuries. The sentinels were first recorded in regions where no human was known to have traveled. And in all the succeeding years, no one has ever observed a single human "creating" a sentinel by manually manipulating a tree's growth. And the fact that sentinels are typically observed in full-grown specimens casts further doubts on the idea that they're man-made. Because it's easy enough to twist a juvenile sapling into a desired shape. But the specimens acknowledged as sentinels have typically been alive for thousands of years - and any configuring of their juvenile forms would have long-since been obscured by centuries of growth. In fact, some of the trees acknowledged as sentinels didn't truly come into their affronting shapes until they had been alive for many centuries.
Theories
Although there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that sentinels are anything other than peculiarly-shaped trees, even the cognoscenti admit that their repeated occurrence across the planet, coupled with their uncanny resemblance to real creatures, seems too fantastic to be written off as mere chance. There is a consistent belief amongst the commonfolk that someone or some thing is responsible for creating the sentinels. And this in turn feeds all manner of legends that connect sentinels to the Absents, the Watchers, Nocterns, as-yet-unidentified aliens, pollution, secret cognoscenti experiments, and the tortured souls of dead ancestors.
Legend & Legacy
You keep insisting that the sentinel is nothing more than a tree. But I've noticed that over the course of the last week, you haven't gone anywhere near the thing.
Owena Evin, Presian bounty hunter, 3228 AoG
S
entinels don't simply provide a vague approximation of humanoid forms. Most of them are so overtly unnatural that the average observer becomes significantly unhinged in their presence. It doesn't matter how many times the cognoscenti assure anyone-who-will-listen that sentinels are nothing more than random fluctuations in the arbyr population. Once the townsfolk get wind of a local sentinel, that location will likely become a center of myth and legend - and most of those myths will be worrisome and foreboding to the local population.
Shrines
Entire regions of forest have been blocked off as "uninhabitable" or "undesirable" by those who fear the imagined voodoo of a sentinel. Village elders have repeatedly recommended chopping - or even, burning - them down. But whenever these "remedies" are proposed, there is an opposite, and equally strong, contingent that swears such an action would be suicide. They believe that removing, or "harming", a sentinel would be tantamount to attacking a god or destroying a temple. So with this in mind, most sentinel locations have, over time, become de facto temples in their own right. Although most casterways are content to completely avoid the phenomenon at all costs, sentinels that have been known to exist for centuries will typically have a collection of gifts and offerings littered around their base. The offerings are left by those wishing to pay their respects to "the spirit". Or by those hoping to avoid the wrath of the dour creature that seems to be trapped in the wood.
There is no official religion that deifies the sentinels as anything more than oddly-warped trees. But even without a formal, religious designation, most casterways are extremely uncomfortable around a sentinel and will do nothing to be seen as providing any harm to the location. Most people seem to take the viewpoint that, "These are just trees. There's no reason to believe that they hold any special powers. Nevertheless, I'm not going to be the one to tempt fate by disturbing these ancient, creepy trees in any way."
Manifestation
Had I encountered the sentinel in dark or twilight hours, I might have run, screaming in terror, from the site. The living tree did not have one trunk - but four. Each approximated a twisted, broken "leg" anchored uncomfortably to the forest floor. A bulbous head-like appendage rose from the center of its "back" and the penetrating rays of Syrus illuminated a gnarled grimace strewn across an angry "face".
Madya Ivany, Maversian hunter, 2002 AoE
T
here is no hard-and-fast definition of what makes a tree a sentinel - or not. Sentinels can be comprised of any species of tree. And they can theoretically arise anywhere on the planet (although they are most prevalent on the shores of Sentinel Bay). The general consensus is that a sentinel is a tree which has grown, or somehow been twisted into, a configuration that is reminiscent of some kind of creature. But that kind of "creature" could be... anything. The general rule-of-thumb is: "If you're not certain that it's a sentinel, then it's not a sentinel."
Humanoid Forms
The most famous sentinels are those that appear human - or humanoid, to some degree - but sentinels have been documented with distinct likenesses to many of Excilior's other fauna. Although they come in many shapes and configurations, the most-acknowledged aspect of sentinels is that they never appear to be truly "human". Sentinels don't look like people that have been trapped in the form of trees. They don't appear as though they were carved from trunks to resemble "regular" folk. Sentinels almost always look like twisted, tortured, angry, and not-quite-human souls that are doomed to stand guard over the forest for all their days.
Trees acknowledged as sentinels are never modest in size. They are always full-grown specimens - which makes their eerie-and-unusual formations all the more disturbing to the casual observer. They are mature trees that, somehow, have assumed a form that is both arresting and bothersome for the typical human who happens to stumble across them.
Localization
S
entinels are most-closely associated with Sentinel Bay. But it is a mistake to think that, "Sentinel Bay is where sentinels are found." They have been documented on every continent, and in every corner of Excilior. They may be strangely-common amongst the shores and border-nations of Sentinel Bay, but they have been identified, on some level, in every place that casterway society has spread.
Type
Natural
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