There’s a tree outside the temple.

It sounds simple, but anything included in a book likely has a deeper meaning than just a tree. Olgar, true priest of ReckNor and blessed with considerable power, often falls asleep leaning against that tree. It’s sufficiently important, that I added it to the map of Watford.

Krell comments directly about how much he loves that tree. How it gives him a feeling of comfort and safety. It’s familiar, a landmark that tells him where his home is. Most other characters in the book to one degree or another – particularly Verbena – interact with that tree.

This is a reflection of my childhood, more than anything else. It’s imperative to acknowledge the benefits I had as a child – great parents, a stable household, and unlimited educational opportunities. Particularly when I was born, my mom took several years off work to be there for me every day.

And whenever the weather was nice, we’d often have lunch in our backyard beneath the enormous maple tree that grew there.

It was huge – a towering giant of a tree, standing alone by itself. It had no branches anywhere close to the ground. You would have needed an extension ladder to reach the lowest one, which was more than fifteen feet up. Not to say that I didn’t climb a lot of trees – I did – but those were in the nearby forest or in the front yard, where branches were low enough for a young Bryan to grab onto.

That tree in the backyard though… that tree was special. It was nothing but happy memories and safety. It wasn’t my mom orchestrating these memories; it was me asking if we could go outside and picnic beneath the tree and my mother responding in kind. Collecting leaves in the autumn and saving them. We’d routinely get more than thirty bags of leaves when we raked them up! It made for amazing piles to leap into for a child.
Speaking of leaves, I inadvertently sidestepped that issue in A Paladin’s Journey. Watford is in a sub-tropical climate. There are two seasons — wet and dry. Near the end of book two, Krell is speaking with another character (no spoilers) and the topic of snow comes up. Krell has no clue what that is. The low hills and forests along the southern coast of the kingdom of Baltorc don’t have any high peaks nearby. All this is to say that the tree outside the temple of ReckNor in Watford never sheds its leaves.

Which means it’s always there. Whenever Olgar — or later, Krell — needs to take a nap outside when the weather is nice.

I still think about that tree in my backyard growing up. I hope it’s still standing, and whoever lives in my childhood home also picnics with their children beneath it.