World Tree

The world tree is something I invented for the game. The story of Tane separating his parents tells us that the trees are the pillars which hold up the sky.

I needed a central place for Tawhiri to attack, so I supposed and imagined that there was a primary tree, larger than the rest, that would cause the sky to fall if it were broken.

The actual tallest tree in New Zealand is a Kauri tree called Tane Mahuta (after the god). That tree stands 168 feet tall, and its trunk is about 14.5 feet in diameter.

For the world tree, I researched a couple things. First, I looked into how tall the world’s largest tsunami was (over 1700 feet tall), because Tawhiri will be attacking the tree with a tsunami of legendary proportions.

I then looked into the limits of human engineering as a clue about how big a theoretical tree could be without violating the laws of physics. The world’s tallest building will be over 2000 feet when it is complete.

If I make the world tree 2000 feet tall, and it’s proportioned like the actual Tane Mahuta, it will have a trunk that is 170.5 feet wide and 535.7 feet around.

A world tree this size would be visible on a clear day from up to 56 miles away on flat ground.

If Mt. Aoraki (aka Mount Cook) were positioned correctly relative to this tree, a person standing on the summit of that mountain could see the tree from 148 miles away, assuming weather permitted.

Here’s a picture I made that’s based on the McKiney Kauri tree. Its modified to make the trunk a little wider than the real tree.

To give a sense of scale, I put a drawing of the Empire State Building next to the tree. If you look at the larger version of the picture, you may notice a tiny red dot above the point of the building, floating in the blue sky. That is the size of a 6 foot human being!