!Hierarch Asterios: The *Mother Tree* is the origin of life as well as the shelter for the spirits. The rays of heaven shines through the branches and life spreads out though its roots. It is the center of the universe where the sky and earth meet. The Elves can't live without the *Mother Tree*, and neither can the *Mother Tree* live without Elves. If the *Mother Tree* is the the branch, we are its leaves... In other words, we have had a symbiotic relationship with each other from the very beginning... Even when our body dies, our spirits return to the *Mother Tree* and hang around as twinkling lights. By doing so, we participate in its melodies of life even after our deaths. The *Mother Tree*... our origin of life, our shelter for the spirits... is dying. [Quest _218_TestimonyOfLife 30154_4| Ask why the Mother Tree is dying.]