Trees, Lumberjacking, and You: What in the world is THAT? 06/20/2015 10:16 AM CDT
Hi everyone!

While this isn't a full list of trees in the lumberjacking system by any means, I wanted to give you all some descriptive information on the Elanthia-specific ones as well as a few that exist IRL, but are either slightly different in their DR version, or are maybe a bit less commonly known to the bulk of non-forestry/lumber professionals in many countries.

All listings are in Tree Name (typical biome) format. All also include info on the tree itself as well as the wood.


The following must be provided for use in alterations:

Azurelle (boreal)
With coin-shaped brilliant blue leaves and a long, thin trunk with very few branches, the rare azurelle tree is certainly eye-catching.

Especially prized by bowyers both for its function and its place in folklore, the dark grey azurelle wood bares a slight bluish sheen that is emphasized when polished. Tales amongst archers say that bows made from azurelle should ideally be shaped so that the wispy graining of the wood flows along the weapon's length. This is said to be a charm to ensure that the winds always favor the aim of the archer wielding such a bow.


Bocote (tropical)
Bocote is a small to medium tropical tree with sharply pointed leaves, small, fragrant, showy flowers, and edible fruits.

With its striking, zebra-like contrasts, and bold figuring, bocote wood can be very eye-catching. It has a yellowish brown body with dramatic dark brown to almost black stripes. Its grain patterns tend to be interlocked, its texture medium and uniform, and its natural lustre results from being slightly oily to the touch.


Darkspine (deciduous)
The rare darkspine is a medium height evergreen tree commonly thought to be created as a side effect of sorcerous magics, an idea that is furthered in part by the fact that it is found most frequently within deciduous forests. Though perhaps this is only a folktale, these strange trees have sharp, jutting spine-like leaves that are deepest green to black in coloration, and their saplings are said to only appear in the wake of particularly nasty sorcerous backlash near new forest growth.

Whatever their origin, darkspine trees produce a prized wood noted for its pale coloration and jagged reddish brown graining.


Durian (tropical)
Typically a marsh tree, durians grow tall but have relatively thin trunks. This tree is perhaps most well known for its fruit -- a round, prickly, melon-sized fruit called, aptly enough, a durian fruit. The fruit has a very strong smell, and a taste that some people find pleasant and others find highly unpleasant.

Durian wood planes to a smooth finish and is reddish brown.


Goldwood (coniferous)
Not to be confused with goldenwood/goldenoak, goldwood is a rare mineral-bearing tree related to silverwood, copperwood, and ironwood. Goldwood is a special type of coniferous tree that grows over natural gold deposits in the soil and draws up the metal up into its porous structure, producing fine veins of gold that permeate the wood. The tree has gleaming golden seed pods that sparkle with the metal.

Properly cut and polished, the wood and gold form a harmonious blend of colors and textures.


Kapok (tropical)
The kapok is a majestic tropical tree that can grow to towering heights, dwarfing other trees in its native rainforests. The branches of the kapok grow in horizontal tiers and spread widely to create a crown with an open umbrella shape. Their straight trunks are cylindrical, buttressed, smooth, and gray in color, but their most notable feature are their many large, protruding spines. Kapoks are drought deciduous -- they shed most or all of their long, palmate leaves during the tropical dry season.

Kapok wood is a pinkish white to ashy brown in color, with a straight grain.


Rockwood (boreal)
Though similar in its naming convention, rockwood is not at all related to the mineral-bearing trees like copperwood, ironwood, silverwood, etc. It is the common name for a rare, low growing, widely branching tree with almost moss-like leaf structures. The trunk of the rockwood tree is very short, and its thick branches tend to grow nearly parallel to (and even in places touching) the ground in curving bunches, forming odd, lumpy configurations that often look similar to rock formations.

This strange growth pattern is the source of the tree's name, though the flat tan to greyish color of both the bark and the nearly grainless wood itself also contribute to its rock-like reputation.


Tamarak (boreal)
(Note: Though similar to the RL tamarack tree, 'tamarak' without the C is the correct spelling for the DR tree/wood.)

Tamaraks are small to medium sized boreal deciduous conifer trees. The bark of a tamarak is flaky and pink, with a more reddish hue often visible beneath the flaking sections. The leaves are needle-like, short, and a light blue green color that becomes bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale pinkish-brown shoots bare until the next spring.

Tamarak heartwood ranges from yellow to an orangish-brown. Its narrow sapwood is nearly white and is clearly demarcated from the heartwood. Planed sections of tamarak wood can exhibit a lot of interesting patterns in the growth rings, and knots are common but are usually small. The grain of this wood is generally straight or spiraled, and its texture is medium to fine with a greasy or oily feel.


The following are not needed for alterations:

Lelori (boreal)
The lelori tree is moderate to slow growing, and can attain significant heights with large, draping canopies of frilly, lace-like leaves. In wetter areas, it is evergreen, while in drier areas, it is dry-season deciduous. It is most commonly found in boreal forests.

Lelori wood is hard and coarse-grained, with an especially light, green-tinged hue that persists even when dry. The wood is resinous and durable.


Moabi (tropical)
Moabi trees grow in subtropical or tropical lowland evergreen forests. Shooting up from the rainforest canopy, the moabiā€™s parasol-like crown stands out clearly in the forest landscape, in part due to its very notable, very large, size.

Moabi heartwood is most often a uniform pinkish brown. This color tends to darken with age, with some more rare examples displaying a deep reddish brown hue. The sapwood is grayish brown with little variation. The wood's grain is most often straight to wavy, with a fine, even texture, though figured grain patterns are also seen, such as pommele, quilted, mottled, and beeswing.


-Persida
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Re: Trees, Lumberjacking, and You: What in the world is THAT? 06/21/2015 09:43 AM CDT
I was going through some things on Elanthipedia earlier and I noticed some errors in listing whether certain woods are required for alterations or not. I made corrections in the errors I saw, but I thought I'd drop a note here to hopefully head off any more confusion.

Unless a material (in this case I mean any substance any item can be made from, not just fabrics, and not just materials used in the player crafting systems) is specifically stated by GMs to be required for alterations, please don't assume that it is! We sometimes have rather complex rules as to what might be considered 'rare' in the right way to end up on the always required to be provided for alterations list.

With the introduction of the various systems for players to gather different materials for themselves, we also have different scales of 'rarity' being introduced. For the purpose of this post, let's call them "crafting material availability rarity" and "alteration material rarity". Much of the time these are going to match up (it's easier for everyone!), but not necessarily always.

Clear as mud, I know.

I like to think of it like this:

While members of the Adventurer class who engage in various crafts can be pretty amazing craftspeople, and the ones of them who engage in gathering crafting materials can be extremely skilled in that gathering, they're limited to the areas of the world to which they can gain access when they pursue their harvesting activities. To these people (ie: players) certain materials may be exceedingly rare to come by, however for certain other people who maintain lands or other avenues of obtaining certain materials (GMNPCs and NPCs, most notably various noble families, but also certain specific individuals, non-noble merchant families, and businesses) they may be much less so.

Now, those (GMNPCs and NPCs) who have obtained a stranglehold on ease of access to various materials may choose to manage them in such a way as to preserve their overall market rarity -- which would translate into them continuing to have alteration material rarity -- or they may decide to sell their materials without regard for such things -- making them available to an extent that most alterers (GMNPCs) might not bother to ask for a client (player) to provide those materials during the course of their work.

I hope that explains things at least a little bit. As staff, we're pretty invested in making sure you guys have the correct info for alteration material rarities (and crafting material availability rarities!). It really, really helps us out on the GM-end when players who want alterations are well informed about these things, so please trust me when I say that staff have no interest in making these categories opaque, even if the process for determining which is which isn't necessarily going to be something we can or will be transparent on.

As new materials are released, whether for crafting system stuff or just in general, we'll keep letting you know if you'll need to provide those materials for alterations! If a material's alteration rarity designation changes, we'll continue to let you know about that too!

-Persida
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