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Onekki Garden

So I've just been wandering around a little more, and the place I'm in now is a lot more quiet and deserted. Check out this neat garden I found, though!

It's mostly just an empty field with the same kind of tree over and over again though...and for some reason they're always in these really tall... stone planter things?

Then again, I guess everything on this planet's built for tall people. Good thing I can be tall too!

I wonder what kind of trees these are, anyway. I've never seen anything like them, and each of these planter dealies says something completely different even though the trees all look similar. That one over there said it was an "Arkexx Inthil", but then this one right here says its a "Kenjal Barinis."

Maybe it's just super specific supspecies or something? Gardening terms for gardening nerds?

The trees in this vicinity are all of the [Onekki] variety, with no notable differences between them.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Wah?! Who's there?

Oh hey, it's just Meteo!

She's my cool goth friend I run into sometimes. I'm not sure what she is, I think she's kinda dead and kinda not? She's the only person I know who has a flaming halo over her head, anyway.

In a sense you were right - this is a garden. But the Kinncillians who built this place think of it more as a graveyard. And these aren't planters, but caskets for the deceased.

Wait so there's people buried under all these trees?

So I was just reading the names of a bunch of dead guys!

Yes, exactly that! Beneath each one of these Onekki trees lies a dearly departed Kinncillian. It's a pattern as old as the species itself: whereever a Kinncillian falls, an Onekki rises.

Each Kinncillian is born with a seed inside their body, which will only germinate when its host's flesh begins to rot. The seed consumes the body and grows into an Onekki tree, the final evidence of its host's time on this mortal coil.

It's commonly believed that the Kinncillian's soul lives on within their Onekki tree, so the care and maintenance of these plants is sometimes considered a sacred tradition.

Being both a ghost and a necromancer myself, I can state with certainty that these plants do not generally act as a viable anchor for the soul...

Still. It's not my place to interfere with the grieving process.

Aw, that's so sad... What's the point of turning into a tree when you die if you don't even get to be some kind of cool Ghost Tree?

Well it has certainly served a purpose in the survival of the species as a whole. In a sense, the Onekki represents the dying breath of a Kinncillian. Each one gives off a unique scent that can tell other Kinncillians about who the individual was and even how they died.

You could think of it like the "black boxes" you mortals place on board your transport crafts. Every Kinncillian that dies leaves behind a warning to the rest of its kind, allowing others to avoid the same fate.

This place may seem peaceful to you and I, but to a Kinncillian... the mixed scents from this many Onekki Trees being congregated in one place is tantamount to hearing the dying wails of a hundred tortured souls at once. It's common for them to wear special masks in order to block out the scent of death when visiting.

Woah, I would've never even noticed! I guess in this case NOT having a nose is like a superpower too.