Eldacil's Vine

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In last year of the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE), the Covenant general Melrith battled Juiblex in the caverns beneath the High Wood Country. Juiblex was the last of the Abyssal Hegemony still hanging around. The rest of his stature were either dead or in retreat back to the Abyss.

In the battle between the two, Melrith wielded a powerful staff called Eldacil's Vine. This weapon and a twig blight regiment, willing to throw themselves into certain death without a thought, are the only things that saved Melrith. It was not her style of fight. She didn't want to get close to something with a spittle so caustic that few metals can resist it. Yet for her plan to work, she had to get up close and personal. In a great cave that would become known as the Lightless Cyst, she defeated Juiblex. With her staff inside the demon lord's oozing mass, she backed away. She hoped the staff would do its work of converting all her foe's energies into Dark Nature Energy. In this the staff almost succeeded, all of Juiblex's waning energies were converted except for his Psychic Energy. This part of him, his conscious, was drawn back to the Abyss where it rejoined one of his mindless buddings. Melrith was never able to recover the staff. Juiblex's slowly decaying body continued to be a hazard for centuries after. When Melrith departed Bal-Kriav in the Angelic Departure (9494 GE - 9500 GE), the staff was left pulsating inside a dark corrosive mound.

In the next age, the Lith-Crillion Era, the staff and mound grew to be one. Using Juiblex's stolen energies, nearly all converted to dark nature energy, the staff went to work spreading a vast root system outward. This slowly corrupted many subterranean fey and the plant-life around. Myconids, shriekers, and any others had their nature energy replaced with its antithesis.

A century into the Horgon Era, a treant named Var'lotrius went looking for Melrith's fabled staff. He had heard of the problems it was causing down below. Var'lotrius was quick to learn that the sentient staff was powerful, but not too bright; or so he thought. Var'lotrius requested an audience. He hoped to get close enough to pull the staff free. By the time, he was within sight of the pulsating mound, the size of a large hill covered in black vines, Var'lotrius was no longer a treant. His link to Nature had been lost, becoming a thing of Dark Nature, the realm's first orcwort. Var'lotrius and the sentient staff stayed in touch. Var'lotrius went on to become a necromancer. In the Vaharmane forest, he used the staff's Energy Conversion power to create undead treants which still roam Emeldimir's three blighted forests.

Eldacil's Vine is topped with a large gem. This precious stone has as many heads as there are energy types. It also has an empty socket which is used to dump the staff's energy into the environment around it. The Lightless Cyst is one of the results of dumping energy.