Sumpwoods


the Sumpwood Stands

Sumpwoods were trees found in the Deepwoods. Their wood was twice as buoyant as air, and was used to create floating furniture and skycraft[1][2]. They were also used to make backpacks, which, if filled with even the heaviest contents, were almost weightless and would float on their own[3][4]. Sumpwood trees were quite rare until the discovery of the Sumpwood Stands, near the Midwood Decks[5].

General

These curious trees grew in swampy ground, and the Sumpwood Stands was a great place for them, with all of its rain. The sumpwood tree itself consisted of a leafy canopy, a swollen, practically round trunk, and the immense roots which were partially above the surface and reached far down to the ground. The wood in the trunk was ten times more buoyant than the roots. The trees could take about five hundred years to reach their full size.[6]

Rootweevils would attack the roots of the sumpwood, eventually killing them. However, hammelbill birds would keep the population of the red worm-like bugs in check.[6]

When just the branches and boll were cut down, the tree would eventually grow back, but damage to the roots could prove fatal for the tree. Free Timbersmiths always made sure to leave the roots intact, but the more greedy Pro-Hivers would often chop the tree at the roots, permanently destroying the sumpwoods. Some of the creatures of the Sumpwood Stands, such as the Ghost Quarm and the Lanternjaw, were not found anywhere else in the Edgeworld.[6]

Blatch Helmstoft discovered seven previously unknown sub-species of sumpwood at the Farrow Ridges and used them for building his mansion.[7]

Use

The floating sumpwood lecterns of the Great Storm Chamber Library.

Sumpwood could be treated with a varnish created by Tweezel that stabilized its natural buoyancy, sealing in the warmth but allowing the wood to breath, thus making it possible to create skycraft.[8][5]

Even before the invention of the varnish, sumpwood was used for lecterns in the Great Storm Chamber Library[1] and benches in the Hall of High Cloud of the Knights Academy[9]. Amberfuce had a floating chair made from sumpwood[10][11].

References

  1. 1 2 The Last of the Sky Pirates, Chapter 1: The Great Storm Chamber Library
  2. ↑ The Last of the Sky Pirates, Chapter 11: Stormhornet
  3. ↑ The Immortals, Chapter 58
  4. ↑ The Immortals, Chapter 64
  5. 1 2 The Immortals, Chapter 43
  6. 1 2 3 The Immortals, Chapter 44
  7. ↑ The Nameless One, Chapter 26
  8. ↑ The Slaughterer's Quest, Chapter 5: The Silver Pastures
  9. ↑ The Winter Knights, Chapter 11: The Hall of High Cloud
  10. ↑ Vox, Chapter 6: Hestera Spikesap
  11. ↑ Vox, Chapter 9: The Two Most High Academes
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