Many sentient species throughout Calsin serve as valuable slaves, and are often hunted for their potential value. None of them are worth more on the market than the rootwalkers, animate trees that inhabit the jungles of Sournous. A single member of the species can sell for millions of gold pieces, and in some cases, entire kingdoms have been exchanged in payment.
The rootwalkers are thought to have first appeared in the world around the same time as the avians, though this is hard to prove. Physically, they resemble stumps with a large root system, and are subsequently able to move around on these "roots." Interestingly enough, they actually do take up water and food with these limbs. They have a more or less humanoid face, carved into the stump itself. Despite seemingly being made of wood and often appearing quite ancient, the rootwalkers are among the fastest species in Calsin, able to run many times the speed of a horse, even through dense jungle. The rootwalkers are valued for many reasons. Exotic collectors will try to capture them simply for the sake of having one as a slave, even if it is just placed in a cage, since they're so difficult to take down. Beyond that, governments and large businesses (particularly shipping and trading corporations) value them for their memory. They are perhaps the only species where every single member has a photographic memory, able to recall even minute details from hundreds of years earlier. To top it off, rootwalkers have telepathic abilities, and are able to pull thoughts from the minds of those around them. While they are able to lie, rootwalkers are particularly vulnerable to mental spells, making it easy to pull information from them.
Size: - 4-5 feet when born, up to 30-40 feet tall in their prime.
Unusual Characteristics: - A mass of roots instead of legs
Coloring: - Brown-green
Lifespan: - 1,000-2,000 years
Magic: - Latent telepathic field
Worshiped gods: - None known
Other notes: - Kings will often keep rootwalkers underneath their throne rooms, so that any ambassadors or officials of the court have to walk within range of the physic abilities. This is often used to help prevent assassinations and treason, though there are plenty of ways to bypass the rootwalker system. - Young rootwalkers are born into the world much the same way as those species that do give live birth (i.e they don't sprout or hatch, as one might expect). That said, immediately after birth, the mother will leave the young rootwalkers on their own. The newborns will usually bury their roots in the ground and take on the form of actual stumps, only emerging from the ground years later once they've finished developing.