Grand Holt

The Grand Holt is a massive fig tree, its main trunk being more than 20 feet in diameter, that supposedly predates the city of Absalom. According to myth, when Aroden rested the first day after raising the Isle of Kortos, he took shade and nourishment from the only plant to arise with the island, the Grand Holt. It has never been pruned, and when it grows into homes or streets, the Grand Council pays to have the homes moved and new roads built. The Grand Holt is now a collection of 17 distinct trunks, intertwined and twisting about one another, with a floor of solid root that covers an area the size of a city block. However, not even mythic figures are allowed to sit idle in Absalom, and the Grand Holt serves as home to dozens of residents. It is controlled by the Circle of Stones, a small druidic order dedicated to this single tree, and anyone proving respect for nature and the Holt itself may be allowed to stay within it. The tree is never cut, but its twisting trunks and branches have been encouraged to grow into various rough, rounded rooms and corridors. Hollowed branches bring water to the residents, and cunning chutes allow the tree to have waste removal and fertilizer as a single function. Many visiting worshipers of the forces of nature will stay nowhere else when visiting the city, and it has been declared a holy site by numerous Mwangi spirit-women. Though there is no formal arrangement for it, older residents of the Grand Holt often sit on its outer roots and teach any youngster who wishes to listen about the forces of the woods and nature, and how they interact.