At the heart of every Tree Kin resides the soul of a dead Wood Elves, though this is not the fate of all. Only the strongest and most driven souls retain enough individuality to become such a creature. Most, eager to renounce the identity and struggles that shaped their mortal lives, pass into the Weave of the forest. Though their families and friends might occasionally fancy that they can hear their loved one’s voice upon the wind, it is but an echo of a life long abandoned. However, those souls that become Tree Kin are unable to completely abandon their grip on their former lives, and they forge themselves a new body out of dead timber so that they might continue to defend in death that which they loved in life.[1a]