Canon vs. Fanon

[have_wanderlust]

Presenting: Canon vs. Fanon, or The Woes of Being a Secondary Character.

I should have done this earlier. But I need to separate what is actually stated in canon from what I’ve made up due to lack of background. Also, I need to actually remember what I've made up for him so I can keep my stories straight.

Filif
Canon

Comes from the planet Demisiv, and is called a Demisiv

TREE WIZARD. Appearance is “a small Christmas tree” with dozens of red berries as eyes, but he’s able to come between Dairine and Roshaun so they both get a faceful of greenery and Roshaun is pretty darn tall. Hence why I chose 6’6” as his height.

He likes his soil slightly acidic.

He also likes decorations. Brightly colored decorations, as evidenced by the failed Mall Crawling Adventure.

His power levels are never explicitly stated, but since he pretty much single-handedly powered the Sun Rescue Mission, he’s not to be underestimated.

Offensive spells are never stated.

Berries glow in the dark.

Creative; made the mochteroof.

Speaks formally.

His version of the ‘manual’ is a mist that clings to his branches. So far, there isn’t any particular name for it (unlike, say, Roshaun and his Aethyrs).

Roots are always covered in a decency field, which manifests as a mist that hides his roots.

Fanon/Camp

Can possibly ingest human-type food if it’s squished into the ground (ex. Lee’s cookies).

Has acquired knowledge of some slang, and some human customs.

Despite the translator ability of camp, is always speaking the Speech.

Equipped laptop with a voice-input spell because tapping on keys is hard with fronds.

Demisiv
Canon

The planet (Demisiv) is one great migratory forest. No seas!

Their version of the Lone Power is called the Kindler of Wildfires. The Champion is the "Great Tree, the Star-Reacher, that first caught the Wind in its branches and shared the sound of it with us. [...] Before that, the Wind was just another noise. After that, it became the sound of words and wizardry, the power to change our world…" (WaW hardback 148)

”Yes, that’s how my people became sentient, they think… They learned to run from the fire. They evolved mobility and, later, the beginnings of intelligence. And then the darkness of the Fire’s heart spoke to us and said, ‘You can be safe from Me, if you pay the price. Instead of burning terribly, and dying in it, without warning and in awful pain… you’ll burn just a little. But all the time, all your lives. At least you’ll know what’s coming, instead of having to always live with the unexpected…’” (WH paperback 312)

Not many of them are wizards.

Demisiv move through the ground by ‘wading’; however, Filif uses a levitation spell in order to get around on solid ground (concrete, floors, linoleum, etc.). Their roots are pretty sturdy, though; Filif mentions climbing up cliffs once, so once he roots in place he’s not going to move.

They can lose their eye-berries without too much worry! High Wizardry has Dairine startle a few aliens shaped like holly trees so badly that they dropped their berries. Although Filif's people are described as looking like Christmas trees, I think this was the early version of the Demisiv.

Errantry Concordance: "The planet has no oceans, only many chains of lakes left over from some earlier glaciation. Over this huge and only sparsely-interrupted landmass, the Demisiv people, who could easily be mistaken for conifer-like trees, roam in vast mobile forests. They have very long lifespans -- routinely hundreds of (Earth) years long -- and also a very long latency period, so that wizards of that species spend very long periods at surprisingly high power levels."
... I was about to wonder where they got this info, until I saw from History that DianeDuane edited the article. O SO.

The sentient trees are the dominant species on the planet. But are they the only species? (Am not making up an ecosystem.)

Fanon lolololol

Demisiv most likely have their own … language. That includes rustling.

HOW THE HELL DO THEY TALK so anyway. What I’ve decided is that it’s a kind of manipulation of the air through their fronds. Canon is incredibly vague on this, and by ‘incredibly vague’ I mean it flat-out tells us there is no explanation. Filif is also able to speak mentally, although this should be noted that not only does he talk to Mr. Callahan in this manner - a nonwizard - but Dairine is able to overhear it. So what I’m guessing is that it… is not telepathy precisely, but perhaps a form of the Speech that isn’t heard through the ears. Or else a kind of open telepathy. I really don’t know.

Demsiv don’t have ‘families’; the seeds are planted, grow, and eventually the saplings either create their own forest or join another, pre-established one. Thus Filif doesn’t have ‘parents’ but this doesn’t bother him! In fact, the family relationships of humans sort of bemuses him, because it’s so very different from his own.

The berries are their eyes, not something for reproduction. They pollinate, when they need to. O-only in CFUD would I have made up fanon for this orz. Filif cannot cross-pollinate with Earth plants.

Physiology! Is a tree, in every aspect possible. Has roots, has a trunk, converts sunlight to energy and breathes carbon dioxide to make oxygen... Probably bleeds sap. Slow to regenerate, which is why I try not to get him too injured. Despite being sentient, and mobile, he does not have a brain, not does he have any other body systems the way humans do. The mystery of exactly how he does think and move is much too complicated for me to think up right now.

... are the sentient trees called Demisiv if that's the name of the planet too? Rirhath = Rirhait, Wellakh = Wellakhit, Demisiv = ... god I don't know. RE: ERRANTRY CONCORDANCE: "The seventh and only inhabited planet of the star 16 Aurigae, a golden-orange K-type star 95 times more luminous than the Sun, and 21 times its diameter. Also used to denote a member of the dominant species of 16 Aur VII."

Will most likely be updated when I remember I forgot something! Or if I realize there's concrete info somewhere else!