#treeness

How can humans perform treeness?

They usually can't, but the human students were given a treeness token, which allows them to perform treeness. It was invented by Dr sc for this very purpose

What does treeness do?

It has several levels. Each new level takes more energy and has a higher skill cap. The most powerful trees are the ones with the most energy and the most efficient use of it

Level 0: Photosynthesis

this is the most basic thing way of performing Treeness. It's so basic, even other plants (whom trees consider primitive) can do it. 99% of trees can only do photosynthesis, but that's mostly because trees aren't very active beings and don't feel like learning anything else. My tree OCs are all "activists" (meaning they do activities) and know up to level 6-8

Level 1: Destruction

Trees use this to gain energy. They have to input a little bit of energy to completely destroy something (as in, poof it from existence) and the resulting energy gets is transferred to them (mass is converted into energy via E = mc²)

Level 2: Information

This is a pillar of Treeness. Firstly, you can ask any question and it will be answered via the Informaticon. More subjective questions take more energy because the Informaticon needs to figure out what you even mean. Also, it's not recommended to use it to see the future because the fact that you now know the future will change it and then the informaticon's answer will start rapidly changing and taking up all of your energy, basically. It's okay for things like "When will the bus come?" because you have no control over that, but not for things you can actually influence. Every tree (and everyone with the capability of treeness) has their own internal informaticon, but more on that later

Level 3: Creation

The opposite of destruction. You can now create things. Your energy is converted into mass using E = mc²

Level 4: Illusion

For trees, creation and illusion are swapped since all you're creating is photons and they're not really real, but illusion is just more difficult to comprehend for humans. Also, it takes a lot of photons, so it can take more energy than creation for beginners, whether they're humans or trees

Level 5: control

Ability to control an illusion or object. It's also possible to control conscious beings, but not recommended as it can be deemed unethical (more about that later) and also takes up a lot more energy. Again, technically takes up less energy than creation if done efficiently, but takes a lot of skill and concentration

Level 6: Lineart

This is all that Treeness used to be when I was 6. It's very versatile and takes up far less energy than creation in some cases, but there's a lot of it to learn and it requires precision and concentration. It's not an individual skill, but a whole discipline/way of performing treeness where you visualize lines that do the things you want them to do. While it's an easier and more efficient way for skilled trees to perform Treeness, it's difficult to learn, let alone master. This is the highest level Arecacew Date (the weakest tree OC) has reached

Level 7: Tokens

They only look like tokens in the human adjusted version. Trees call them attributes/attributed traits. Basically, they're tokens with little drawings on them and they basically function like programming. They're less universal than lineart, so you can basically make a token do whatever you qant with whichever little drawing long as you know the meaning. However, more complex tokens require more energy and combining simple tokens actually saves energy. They also require ongoing n+energy to function. They're used to make the human treeness school run smoothly, like to create food when it runs out and make sure the existing food doesn't spoil. This is the highest level Ebony and Onoma have reached

Bonus level: Space-time warp

This is a very specific, very useful token. It creates a giant space that one can enter by tapping the token (which is small). Some say the space is infinite. Time can also function differently inside this space. For example, one year in the outside world might be one second in the space-time warp (depends on the other tokens). This is used for the human school of treeness, which lasts 15 weeks, but appears as though it lasts 15 seconds. It takes a lot of energy to create and only very few trees have that ability. Even Dr sc has to give it ability to harvest sun energy in order to keep it running cause she can't do so via her own energy. Dr sc is the only one of my tree OCs to have reached that level

Limitations

Drainage

If a human or tree uses treeness too much, they'll run out of energy. Trees look very dried up and can potentially lose the ability to photosynthesize and die. Humans will feel extremely fatigued as all humans do have treeness energy, they just can't consciously use it, but it does power the body. No human in history has experienced it given that my OCs are the first humans to learn treeness ever. One of my human OCs will get drainage and the other will figure out the cure.

It's important not to give one's own energy to a drainage patient in any way (directly, by creating food or energy tokens for them...) as that will likely result in the giver getting drainage themself. It's instead recommended to give them water (if they're a tree) and/or lots of leafy greens (if they're a human) as well as make them rest.

The tree version of jail

If a tree does something, their internal informaticon will evaluate that decision with all trees (the evaluation happens subconsciously). If over 75% of trees are strongly against them being able to do that, they will lose their powers and go to a special space-time warp, away from the other trees. It's just like the Earth except it contains all the trees who have lost their treeness. They don't have to perform photosynthesis since the air is full of oxygen (just enough so that fires don't start) and the ground is full of constantly recreated nutrients. Trees aren't social beings so it really isn't that bad.

It's evaluated on a case by case basis, but currently, you'd have to try to intentionally cause unjust harm or suffering to a being with a similar amount of consciousness as a tree (eg a human). This is because trees believe that if you're willing to harm another conscious being, you'd akso be willing to harm them. Genuine accidents done out of ignorance that are unlikely to be repeated don't land anyone in the tree jail, just malice

It's important to note that the rules used to be a lot stricter cca 1000 years ago. Trees were afraid of the human concept of "God" and thought that it was an actual tree that wreaked destruction and erased itself even from the informaticon system (and that's why nobody could find anything about him on the informaticon). Therefore, back then, even things like revealing your powers to humans were seen as risk behaviours that you were a "god".

Nowadays, that fear has heavily died down and those trees are free again (because now, 75% of trees are no longer so against those actions)