THE LINDIRI 'SCIENCES' - one of the stranger things, but worth explaining.

When the Lindiri conceived the creation of the Animists, they were looking at the development of the elves themselves, who had little idea of their evolution, if any. Even the Celesti could not truly explain HOW the elves came to be. The Lindiri looked at the vast array of animal species and flora they had to nurture and protect, and swiftly came to the conclusion that they could not possibly provide a level that would satisfy them; the Ildiri had made bonds with the Avatars of the waters and land they were succouring. The Lindiri thought patterns were of a far different temperance, and they wanted 'herders' to help them, as they possessed only the animists such as the Diarnae, or centaurs, who would only exist in certain numbers - besides which, they had the issue of carnivores and hebivores, and the balance that was needed to keep this cycle 'positive' in nature - far harder than the tasks of the Ildiri and Selediri indeed.

Thus they looked at the differences between the Diarnae, the tree spirits they were firends and the animals themselves with and compared the differences between all of them, including in relation with themselves. The conclusion they came to was that each species could be made to care partially for itself. The brain activity of the Lindiri was enormous compared to the others...they used up to 70% of their brains' capacity to affect their body, and then the world beyond it - a wold used very little of it's brain beyond instictive levels. Diarnae themselves only used slightly elevated levels compared to the animals, whereas the spirits were not measurable in the slightest. They conluded that they would need to alter the physical form of the beasts, that they would need to develop more complex vocal systems for speech and that the brain itself must be 'awakened' to use more of it's capacity - to make them sentient; capable of autonomous action as a sentient being.

So, the Lindiri came to the God Tree; the essential being that had provided the world with it's flora in the first place; god-like, it was perhaps the most powerful Avatar of the Dragon. It had severe restrictions placed on it, yet was capable of such power. They had seen it use magic to heal and grow new species of flora, and they had seen it release the spirits of the dying to become a part of the world - in essence, it had actually 'created' new Avatars. The God Tree itself was the greatest duty of the Lindiri - to all intents and purposes, it was immortal - it would never die of age , but they suspected there means to kill it, or that neglect may paralyse it's mental state, as it needed entertaining, much like a child - it may have speech in a telepathic sense - through imagery, but it was childlike in it's needs. They tested many ways to use it's bounty, and fin ally, they asked it for it's sap, which is what it leaked to acheive many of it's ends.

An imprecise science began. After many disasters and lesser acievements, the Lindir began to learn strong, yet imperfect manipulation of the tree sap (it works, in out terms, similarly to stem cells). WHilst they used ley to confine their subjects asnd remoe pain or thought or memory, they used the sap to grow and develop vocal chords of intriciacy. They would then 'evolve' the body to the form they felt was best suited, if needed at all, and then burrowed with ley into the brain itself, using magic to open up areas, awakening deeper intellect, and other less desirable effects at first, creating some abominations they had to 'put down'...but when they learned enough, they could follow the patterns of the elves, and then open some of these in the animals, which became termed as 'Animists'.

Thus, they created wolves that walked as men, could speak when educated to do so, and would watch and guard their charges - the 'normal' wolves of the Dragon. They removed the natural desire to indiscriminately kill, and thus wolf could communicate with prey and they could reach agreements logically between them to reach an equilibrium and punish the creatures that strayed from the 'natural' ways - wolf that were excessively dangerous would be culled, and , should the prey become threatened by the number of hunters, they would reach a way of altering this. In some ways, it was crule and capricious both, yet it worked.

NOTE: When the wars with the dwarves seemed inevitable to the Lindiri, they created other Animists, whose charge was the protection of the Elves themselves, to act as guards and warriors. This where the Oaken Brood and the Horned Sons were developed in such a different mould, a mould that equalled the task that would be theirs. As with all scientists, there were many cases where they did try manipulations that were un-necessary or frivolous, and some which went remarkably wrong; Minotaurs were not well thought through, and the Chitkinnen were a complete disaster, but, on the whole, it was an inspiring success, and the elves as a whole did know when to stop, although some of that was due to the mistakes they had made. Their last experiments were on the Flora rather than Fauna, and these were highly effective, but there was a terrible 'wrongness' in giving plants minds and methods of communication, and it is said the God Tree itself called a halt to this - this was the task of the Spirit-Avatars, not of the plants themselves - most were destroyed, although some were simply 'lost' or forgotten - such as the gods of Cho Tetsu, for instance.