On Lifesculpting (book)

On Lifesculpting

by Moonshadow Palantiri

As is well known among the learned, many Mountain and Forest Elves possess to a greater or lesser degree the talent called Lifesculpting.

Little practiced now in these adventure-seeking times, it has become a quaint relic of a quieter and more peaceful time when folk had the time and energy for such pursuits.

As practiced, an Elf skilled in this power would spend many hours and even days and weeks meditating before a tree or vine or shrub that he or she wished to shape.

In the course of growth, the living plant absorbed the mental force and imagery and, by its own internal processes, began to alter its growth into the shape desired.

Naturally, a large growth like a tree could take years if not decades to change from a natural form into something artistically pleasing. But Elves, having such time at their hands, seemed to have once delighted in such work.

The finest artisans would devote what other might consider a lifetime to shaping one large elaborate tree into a graceful series of curves and loops satisfying their sense of esthetics.

The more practically minded could form platforms and even large protrusions that could be hollowed out for dwelling places within the living tree.

A very rare few, it was said, could work this art upon the living rock as well as plants, though this must assuredly have been extremely rare.

Few rock formations lent themselves to such shaping and it took incredible force of mind and will to even begin such a task.

The story is told that much of the ceremonial arch at Asemath Academy may have been formed by this art but the records of a century past are now vague and scattered.

In any event, the skill has fallen into disuse and few practitioners may now be found with any skill at all. Such are the times, when raw survival must come before aesthetics and when the search for treasure and fame eclipses the search for harmony and cogitation.

I will close this essay with one last tale, told of an entire village of highly-skilled Elves, who set out to form a masterpiece of their art. They spent half a hundred years working their will upon a forest and the surrounding hills. In time, they wrought a place of such exquisite beauty and artful construction that many travelled for years to glimpse it.

In time, word became so widespread that the peace and tranquility of their village was threatened. So, in one last, ultimate expression, they changed the very hills to hide the path to their valley.

None could find a way thither and in time, the memory of the place faded and is now no longer even known to be true.

The only clue to the location of this place is that it lies high in a mountainous but forested region where an incredible series of waterfalls marks the outflow of the river that ran in the valley. The falls, it is said, were the first efforts of the masters, the opening notes as it were, in the living symphony they shaped.