Bentbranch Origins?

[OrinjNanu]

In Bentbranch, everyone knows of the giant root you walk up to get to Sorrel Haven. But has anyone ever considered where the tree is for that root, and the four others in the canyon? Looking around, I don't see anywhere a tree of that size is, or was. Some might say the hole right at the top of the root, but that's only slightly bigger than the root itself. If you're a fan on The Elder Scrolls, then you'll understand this: think almost the size of Grahtwood. Simple knowledge of trees demonstrates that a tree's roots extend to the same radius from the trunk as the branches. But there is no visible evidence of a tree THAT large. Continuity error, or was there something in 1.0 that I'm unaware of?

[Evergrey]

Maybe it's magic. Enlarge a root for an easy way up.

[Seig345]

I agree the hole at the top does not appear to be related to the root, especially since no roots appear to protrude into/from it.

I would probably just chalk it up to the calamity, particularly the severe shifting of aether in the land that lead to the dramatic change in Eorzea's landscapes. Either a tree that size existed and then most of it was destroyed (between the shifting of the aether and the 5 years of time between the calamity and when ARR begins, it would be believable that the land where that tree was could recover), or the calamity caused a tree similar to the surrounding trees near that root to rapidly grow, and then the majority of it was destroyed, etc.

I don't recall any trees of that particular size in the black shroud prior to the calamity, so I'm leaning towards the latter over the former.

[Lucke]

It's close to the tree that one of the WHM quests takes place, you know, the tree at the end of the canyon. Could be a root from that.

[Enkidoh]

This was actually debated ages ago in the Lore forum and from what I remember, there was explanation about the root early on in the Gridanian storyline that the root was previously buried underground until the Calamity revealed it (interestingly it's called the 'Matron's Lethe' and 'Lethe' springs to mind the River Lethe from Greek myth, aka the waters of oblivion, where those who drink from it forget their lives - it makes sense that a giant tree root that was 'forgotten' is now revealed ), and that it now makes a convenient ramp up to Sorrel Haven from Bentbranch.

As for the root's size, the trees in the Black Shroud before the Calamity (in 1.0) really were so enormous - they were so big their branches and foliage created a canopy that pretty much was impenetrable, making the forest's floor dark even during the middle of the day, and especially at night (this is why the forest is called the 'Black Shroud', before the Calamity it really was so dark that it looked like a burial shroud was draped over it!). This image from the opening movie to the Gridanian storyline in 1.0 shows the tree sizes rather clearly:



That is my character dwarfed there, those 'tree trunks' are actually roots that connect to the one actual tree trunk that is towering above - which easily explains the Matron's Lethe's size. Alas most of these giant trees were destroyed in the Calamity - Dalamud's explosion and Bahamut's resulting rampage set the entire forest aflame. You can still see some of these trees around the ARR Black Shroud, although their crowns have been greatly stunted, with new foliage already blossoming out of the branches.

[Belhi]

According to the lore book its just a massive naturally root that was revealed when the Calamity caused the earth to shift. Its a natural tree root. Its not that much of a stretch considering the size of some of the trees in the Twelveswood. Gridanians saw it as a blessing since it allowed travel to the top of the cliff.

[OrinjNanu]

So the sizeable "trees" we see now in Sorrel Haven are really just those roots that have become trees themselves? Thank you for clearing that up, I didn't get into Eorzea until Heavensward was already out, so it was a mystery to me. Is there an explanation for the crater at the top of Matron's Lethe? I was playing catch-up, and I regretted it from the start, but I skipped most of the dialogue so I probably skipped the story for that too...