Blooded in winter, verdant in spring, bleached bones in between.

The Elderin Tree is the foundation of all technology on Rotaka and, as such, is a tightly controlled resource. Growing, harvesting, or even owning a Elderin without a permit is considered a capital offense, with very few exceptions. Groves are owned by Royal families that operate under strict protocols that govern everything from how the trees are to be grown to how they are harvested. Even the groves themselves must be hidden from sight, so that the average Rotakan citizen has never seen one. Those Royal families who own a grove inevitably become rich. Wars are frequently fought over them.

Every part of the tree is useful. The leaves can be turned into a kind of hemp that is often woven into a virtually indestructible fabric. The bark can be turned into tinctures that are known to increase a person's ability to output graescence. The outer wood, often called 'Structural Elderin', is valued for its incredible strength, most commonly as support structures for buildings.

And, finally, there's the core. Every Elderin has one, stretching through the very center of the trunk and every branch. A single 'thread' of elderin core has the potential to conduct almost a limitless current of graescence almost without any loss. As such, Elderin core is the very foundation of every piece of graetech and, as such, is the most valuable part of the Elderin tree.

The only problem, the Elderin tree is extremely slow to grow. It can take years for an Elderin to grow only a couple fingers (a finger is, roughly, ¾ an inch—no seriously, that's the average width of a finger. At least, that's what Google says). To make matters worse, cores don't develop as large in groves as they do in the wild, though no one knows why. This is a big part of what makes it so valuable.

Finally, the processing of Elderin is an incredibly intensive process due to the fact that the Elderin tree is virtually indestructible. The very process is a closely guarded secret, one that the empire would (and has) killed to keep it that way.

The Elderin tree is virtually indestructible, which makes it dangerous. People have died accidentally impaling themselves on little more than twig they didn't see. The process of "trimming" the tree to get at the branch cores is a difficult process that requires very specialized graescent tools, along with time, patience, and skill.

The tree itself is the only known instance of an everleaf, a tree that never sheds its leaves. Through an unknown process, the leaves turn brilliant (some say blood) red for several weeks at the beginning of winter, before turning white for winter. Once springs arrives, the leaves turn a brilliant neon green before darkening for summer. While they never shed, they can be cut off if you have the correct graescent tool. When cut off, the tree will eventually regrow the leaves it lost, though it generally takes a full year. Cut too many, though, and the tree will die. Because of this, there is a strict rotation and maximum percent of leaves that can be cut from an Elderin tree, as decreed by the empire.

The bark of the tree is bone white, almost pristine without blemish. No knife can mar it. Even dirt has a way of flaking off. This makes the tree appear surreal, as though it doesn't quite fit in the environment in which it grows, too perfect for its surroundings. This has led some older cultures to venerate the tree as divine, though those cultures have long since gone extinct under the empire.

While the Elderin is a tightly controlled resource, there is one place a 'normal' citizen may encounter an Elderin: The Elderin Preserve, also known as the Whitewood forest. Located between the Santonian and Teres provinces, it contains not only the largest concentration of wild Elderin trees, but also the largest concentration of extremely dangerous monsters guarding said trees, or so it is said. Every year, dozens of expeditions venture into the Elderin Preserve for a chance to cut down a wild Elderin tree and sell it for enough money (Rocs) to set everyone in the expedition up for life. Occasionally, one makes it back.