The Forest have not appeared again in the TV series, but have returned in a couple of stories in the audio anthology Tales of New Earth (which reveals "Cheem" to be the name of a planet to which they were transplanted), and occasionally in the comics.
Description and Biology
We’re told that the Forest are descendants of tropical trees on Earth, shaped by five billion years of evolution into a humanoid form. Since it’s hard to imagine trees naturally evolving into anything even remotely human-like – they’re still basically tree-like after 350 million years of real-world evolution – this likely involved at least some deliberate genetic alteration. Although, admittedly, the staggeringly huge timespan may have helped. Exactly what tropical tree(s) were involved is not stated and makes little difference, given the huge biological changes they would have to have undergone.
From the perspective of real-world science, it’s hard to see how this could actually work. Animals and plants are different for a reason, and I’ve discussed some of the biological challenges here, in a post where “it’s magic” is a viable answer. Sufficiently advanced technology, and all that but, if we’re being realistic, it’s a stretch. But let’s pretend otherwise.
We know that the Trees are made primarily of wood; the eyes may be an exception here. This must be significantly modified at the cellular level to imitate muscles, nerve cells, and all the rest, since none of these are things that wood naturally does. They seem to breathe carbon dioxide although they don’t appear photosynthetic, which is what real plants use the carbon dioxide for. That would presumably mean that they have to eat, although this could be minerals of some kind, rather than anything organic. In which case, the carbon dioxide would be providing the carbon atoms that they need to compose the wood at a molecular level. (Wood is basically carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, so carbon and water will do the trick, and whether or not they eat, they surely drink).
They can propagate by cuttings but likely have other means of reproduction as well. This is because they appear to have distinct males and females – while many plants are hermaphroditic from an animal-biased perspective, this is by no means true of all of them and some, such as teak, do indeed have separate sexes. There’s no reason to assume that they have humanoid reproductive organs, however, and something involving seeds and flowers seems more likely. The females have what certainly look like mammary glands; they could be merely decorative, part of their imitation of the human form, but you never know, and perhaps they provide sap-like sustenance to their saplings.
Game Attributes
The basic attributes of members of the Forest are likely fairly similar to those of a typical human. They do not seem especially strong and they are not more intelligent than humans. One might expect a slightly lower agility, since wood isn’t very flexible in the real world, but there’s little evidence of this being the case. However, the wood likely provides a tough hide equivalent to thick leather and they may be quite physically resilient. Since they can propagate from cuttings, it seems plausible that they can regrow lost body parts – but this would be very slow (weeks or months), and not have any effect in combat.
Where the game deals with such issues, they may be able to survive on a smaller amount of food than an equivalently sized human – there’s no biological reason why this ought to be so, but it does seem to fit with what we know. Their botanical biochemistry would mean that they would be immune to many poisons that affect members of the animal kingdom, but there are others that would affect them disproportionately (glyphosate, say) so this should cancel out. We also know, of course, that they are particularly vulnerable to fire.
If the Forest has any warriors, we don’t see them, so a “typical” member of the species does not have high combat skills. Indeed, they seem peaceful overall, as one might expect, given that they are not even partially carnivorous. The version I’ll stat up here is basically a gardener, tending the plant life around them and mostly harmless.
The only special ability they possess is the “liana”, a long tentacular vine that can reach out and grab things, but is probably not effective as a weapon.
5E - Tree of Cheem
Medium plant, neutral good
Armour Class: 12 (natural)
Hit Points: 22 (4d8+4)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 10 (+0) | WIS 10 (+0) | CHA 10 (+0) |
Skills: Nature +2
Damage Resistances: piercing
Damage Vulnerabilities: fire
Senses: Passive Perception 10
Liana: As an action, the Tree can extend a
liana giving them an extended reach of 30 ft. but only to reach out and grab an
object.
Challenge: 0 (10 XP)
BRP - Tree of Cheem
STR 3D6 (10-11) | CON 2D6+6 (13) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 13 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: 0 |
Armour: 2-point natural bark
Skills: Bargain 50%, Botany 60%, Etiquette 50%
Liana: By extending a liana, a Tree can reach
an object up to 10 metres away and pull it towards them or grab on to it.
GURPS - Tree of Cheem
ST 10 | DX 10 | IQ 10 | HT 12 |
Thrust: 1d-2 | Swing: 1d | ||
Speed: 5.5 | Move: 5 |
Advantages: Damage Resistance 2, Green Thumb, Injury
Tolerance (no vitals), Reduced Consumption 2 (food only), Regrowth, Sanitised
Metabolism, Stretching 4 (liana only)
Disadvantages: Vulnerability (fire)
Skills: Biology (botany)-10/TL10, Gardening-13,
Merchant-12, Naturalist-11, Savoir-Faire-11
Savage Worlds - Tree of Cheem
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 | Spirit: d6 |
Strength: d6 | Vigour: d8 |
Skills: Survival d6
Edges: Hard to Kill, Woodsman
Special Abilities: Environmental Weakness (fire),
Reach +3
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 8 (2) Size: 0
STA - Tree of Cheem
Control: 8 | Fitness: 9 | Presence: 8 |
Daring: 8 | Insight: 8 | Reason: 8 |
Command: 1 | Security: 0 | Science: 1 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 9 | Resistance: 1 |
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