Fantasy Trees

Sarang Mahajan is the author of INKREDIA Luwan of Brida, a fantasy novel set in the INKREDIA universe. This is the first book of the INKREDIA series and centres around a teenaged boy named Luwan and his journey to safety. He is being hunted by deadly assassins but he does not know why. He must escape Brida along with his sister Meg to remain alive. Why is he being hunted by supernatural assassins of the worst kind? Will he be able to complete his journey to safety without any major losses? Buy the book to know more. Recently, Sarang did an interview where he gives insights about the book and his writing process and inspiration. Check it out to know more about him and his INKREDIA universe. The interview can be found here: https://khyatigautam.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/interview-author-sarang-mahajan/

The Dark Tree Finding its mention in the supplements of the Dungeons and Dragons, the Dark Tree is a fascinating dark plant which will carefully devour its prey. The many amazing plant creatures in Dungeons and Dragons that unleash their evil on their victims make it more interesting. Though the Dark Tree looks pretty much like an innocent Cypress Tree on the outside, it is evil to the core. Characteristically, like the Cypress Tree, it has a really long life. The Dark Tree's bark hides a hideous, evil face which marks its personality as deeply negative. The Dark Tree is like a lioness patiently waiting to pounce on its prey. It exists in a warm, dense jungle and counts on intelligent creatures to wander in its close space.  Once the Dark Tree senses a prey, it will attack, show no mercy! Two of its branches function like its arms. These arms are spindly and wooded, strong and menacing. It will keep on attacking its prey until it falls dead. The Dead Tree will then take

Man-eating tree Man-eating tree, as their name suggests, are carnivorous plants popular among Cryptozoologists as cryptids or mythical tree big enough to kill and consume human or other large creatures. The largest known Carnivorous plants known to exist in the real world is probably the Nepenthes rajah, a Pitcher plant with almost 40 cm tall Pitcher and with volume up to 4 liters. Many popular fantasy works cited about the existence of Man-eating trees in their literature. Edmund Spencer in 1874 fabricated an article about the discovery of Man-eating trees in Madagascar. The article was published on 26 April 1874 in the New York World and was repeatedly published to gain popularity. The article was about a letter written by a German explorer Carl Liche (1881) in the form of a report of encountering a man-eating tree to whom the Mkodo tribe of Madagascar was sacrificing a woman. Other newspapers and magazines tried to catch the race by reprinting the article, however, after 1

The Ellcrys The Ellcrys is a beautiful tree with a crimson leaves and a silvery bark. The Ellcrys is cited in the two novels of The Shannara Trilogy, with a foremost appearance being into The Elfstones of Shannara, a sequel to the first book. The Ellcrys, being glorified for her beauty, played a pivotal role in trapping and expelling the demons, which walked on the four lands, into another world called the Forbidding, much like a Prison with a barrier in between. The creation of Ellcrys was an outcome of efforts by a group of young Elves known as The Chosen, preferred by the Ellcrys itself. The first appearance of Ellcrys is believed to be a crusade for the rebirth of Ellcrys before she died, led by a group of Protagonists. The Ellcrys has a lifespan of around centuries to millennium during which they exploit every bit of their good healthy in keeping the demons locked in the Forbidding. But over the time they lose their healthy state as they too go through the natural pr

Tree of Souls The Tree of Souls is a giant tree that forms the closest spiritual means for a humanoid species called Na’vi to connect to their deity namely Eywa. Na’vi inhabit Pandora, one of many moons of the gas giant called Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri A system, far away from the Earth but makes the closest star system to our own Sun. Pandora’s rich bio-diversity, including the Tree of Souls, which forms a centre around which the Na'vi life revolve, makes it much an Earth-like moon. But humans have much bigger reason to colonize Pandora; their intention is to mine a precious mineral called Unobtanium, a room temperature superconductor, housed in an enormous amount below the Tree of Souls and under other home trees. As with a matter of greed, the humans, in the process of mining the Unobtanium, threatens the life and habitat of Omaticaya and Tipani, Na’vi clan which lives on these massive trees called Hometrees. The Tree of Souls, as portrayed in the movie Avatar,

Whomping Willow Whomping Willow doesn’t like anybody to roam in its space if encountered, it makes it ferocious. The Whomping Willow tree is one of the most popular fantasy trees of Modern literature. It came into view in the second book of the Harry Potter series, TheHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as a large tree on the fields of Hogwarts. The book reveals an unwanted facet of Whomping Willow when Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley while arriving in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, got their car accidentally crashed on a Whomping Willow tree. The Whomping Willow then reverts back by attacking and doing a serious damage to the car. Both boys get nearly killed but somehow manage to escape safely from the attacks. Talking further, what you read above was just one side of the story. The Whomping Willow holds an unexpected secret which is revealed in the third book i.e. The Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in an incident where Ron Weasley g

Gnarled tree The Gnarled tree is a popular fantasy tree known to dwell on the swampy grounds of Dagobah, a planet in the outer systems in galaxy. Gnarls are non-sentient, unusually giant trees with large twisted roots. The earliest idea about Gnarled tree was conceived by Ralph McQuarrie who thought to imitate Banyan trees with a little fantasy touch. He even correlated the swampy habitats of Gnarled tree with the Banyan tree, which mostly grow in the swampy regions of earth. But the most unusual thing about Gnarled tree was its weird, detachable root called the knobby giant spider that was able to move after separating from the parent tree. The spider later starts gaining nutrition by preying on other living creatures till the moment it gives out eight sharp legs which later forms the roots of another new Gnarled tree. The second featuring in the Star Wars Trilogy i.e. Star Wars: (Episode V) The Empire Strikes Back is where the Gnarled trees madea debut. Jedi Grand Maste

Mallorn tree Mallorn tree (Mellyrn in plural) is a mythical tree known to inhabit the fields of Middle Earth. Mellyrn were believed to be tall and strong trees found on Tol Eressea, Lothlórien, Numenor, and the western lands of Middle-earth. Elves brought Mallorn tree from Tol Eressea with an intention of spreading their culture on lands of Middle Earth. A short description about Mallorn tree from The Fellowship of the Ring is given below: “There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey.” A sight of a Mallorn tree was truly an elegant experience. It's smooth and silvery grey barks, which used to give a magical glow in nights, with leaves green from top and silvery

Old Man Willow Old Man Willow is a giant tree known to exist in the old forests' of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. It is believed to be an Ent turned into a tree or is possibly a Huorn, though Huorns differed from Old Man Willow in the sense that they were able to uproot themselves and can move when compared to Old Man Willow whose roots were deep and firm into the ground. Old Man Willow was a much frustrated, evil-being known to spread his hatred across the forest against the beings that walked into the forest. He resided deep into the forest and had powers to divert the paths towards him. Old Man Willow has a trait of spell-binding the passer-by through singing. Once spell-bound, the victim gets diverted towards him. Once it discovers the victim in its vicinity it captures them with his moving roots and squeezes them to death. The Hobbits namely Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin once fall prey of Old Man Willow's evil intentions. The incide

Hangman tree   If you are wandering into a temperate forest, then there is a good reason to make yourself aware of the presence of some deadly creatures known to exist in such regions, one of them is Hangman tree, named by a kind of appearance it exhibits. Thank-god you’re wandering doesn’t cost for your life as Hangman tree is just a fantasy tree popular in the literature of Dungeons and Dragons. Hangman tree resembles deciduous oak-tree and is known to inhabit mainly in the temperate regions but existence can include sub-tropical areas as well. Their noose-like vines drooping from their branches appears much like a hanging rope. Hangman trees are believed to be intelligent, extremely patient and conscious creatures. They feed on humans and probably on other large creatures to supplement their high protein diet. In order to do so, they show a unique adaptation. They give out a strong hallucinatory perfume like odor which attracts the nearby humans. The victim then misint