The sylvan world and the sorcerers stand in direct opposition at the most fundamental level: the former whose creed is pledged to safeguard the woodlands and indeed all growing things attracts the latter whose destructive lusts delight in the ruination of all things blessed by the tender loving care of the altruistic Animists.

The need to keep the trees safe - in particular - with the effort devoted to their nurture - from vulnerable seed to awoken maturity - is the very breath of life to the sylvan folk but for that very reason, the natural target for rapacious sorcerers. These defoliating invaders justify their destruction of the woodland locations and all growing life bound within by citing the mature tree, full-roused to ent stature as their own 'natural enemy' and indeed the formidable shepherd of the forest is precisely that. It is a matter argued by successive generations of sylvan and sorcerer protagonists.

Here is the concept design for the sylvan sorcerer battlefield - and do figure you have a mandate to involve divine intervention if you observe cheating or exploitation of some loophole to circumvent the fair contest as it is intended to be:

1. Trees are planted and become growing seedlings. The first year they become tiny vulnerable saplings and by the start of the second mature into full sapling stage. All trees have four states after sapling: mature youth, full-grown adult, old adult and finally ancient separation. Trees are fertile from mature youth and usually become infertile (no more fruit, seed or nut) when old. Trees attract dryads during old age but lose touch with these wood-spirits if ancient and vulnerable to natural death.

2. Trees can be roused once mature and there are four levels of awakening: slumbering, touched by first contact, woken to self-awareness and finally roused fully to become an ent. It may be taken from first AWAKEN to readiness for ent-state (which comes at the moment of sunrise) with at least SEVEN iterations of the awakening/rousing commands. The command can only be done once per Avalon day to a specific tree.

[to be continued!]