Tebinstot-Fero, Rooter Founder

A life dedicated to the great Sequoia

Tebinstot-Fero

Tebintot-Fero was a tree-like bumer that preferred his male name, Tebinstot, and was born in 953, forty-eight years before the Beings abandoned the forest. He also had an unusual fondness for skees and would often let then harvest the berries that grew from his branches in the summer.

Beginnings

"I was merely walking near Lake Paho, considering how great the forest once was, and missing the majesty of the mighty sequoias, when I came upon the stump of one, larger than any of the others I'd seen. I could not see where it began and where it ended, and just the stump itself rose up above the current treeline. I felt such grief seeing it. It must have been as old as the Beings themselves. Suddenly the ground around me began to rumble and shake, so much so that I fell forward with my face to the ground. When I looked up one of the stump's large roots had dislodged itself from the ground and was holding a large stick, looking as if it was holding it out to me. Then, somehow, this dead tree spoke to me saying, 'This is my body. I have much to teach you.'"

Tebinstot, describing when he first met the Stump

After this strange experience, Tebinstot began to spend all of his days communing with the Sequoia, finding that the stick that it gave him offered him a connection to the tree's memories. This stick became known as Tebinstot's Staff and Tebinstot could often be found eyes close, standing near the Stump and leaning against this staff. The longer he communicated with the Sequoia, the deeper into its roots he could go.

Rooters

After Tebinstot spent two years with the Stump, he claims that it asked him to begin sharing his knowledge and abilities with other bumers. So in 1004 Tebinstot began to teach other bumers how to commune with this great sequoia, and the community shared its finding and discoveries with each other.
Tebinstot began fondly referring to his students as Rooters, and the name stuck.

"As bumers, we do not have the same connection to the ground as our plant counterparts. We lack roots, so we must work to create them spiritually."

Tebinstot to his followers

Species

The Bumers

Life

953 1165 212 years old

Circumstances of Death

Tebinstot died peacefully of old age. According to his wishes, his body was left to decay on the site where the Stump offered him his staff.

Eyes

Red as a Rowan Berry

Height

20'4" at time of death

Notable Beliefs

Tebinstot's most impactful work was merely by bringing together bumers at large. Up until this, bumers were almost entirely solitary creatures that never interacted with each other. In his early years, he hoped that by doing this work the bumers could discover why the Beings had left Kelunbar and perhaps how to bring them back. In his later years he became less interested in this goal, but many bumers still carry this hope on.
Tebinstot was among the first to realize that the mysums, which had newly appeared with the death of the sequoias and other great species of Kelunbar, existed to help creatures pass from life to death, and also from death to life. This teaching still hasn't gained much popularity, as mysums still symbolize only death and destruction to much of the forest.
Later in his years, Tebinstot began to teach that the forest was not made up of millions of seperate living things, but was, in fact, a living organism itself.