On 13 November, 2008, Blizzard released Wow Wrath of the Lich King including Northrend and the city of Dalaran. Below Dalaran there are two trees.
On 25 January 25, 2011, Tera was released in South Korea. On the Island of Dawn, the starting area for all characters is this tree at Tower Base.
The tree is hard to photograph since you can’t fly in the game. Here is the official wallpaper:
There is a distinct similarity to these trees, it seems to me. The broken bases, and the color. Although there are two trees in Wow.
Is there some precursor to both of these ideas? Like Naga – the Hindu Snake God – appears in many video games.
na·ga ˈnäɡə/ noun: naga; plural noun: nagas (in Indian mythology) a member of a semidivine race, part human and part cobra in form, associated with water and sometimes with mystical initiation.
I’m not aware of any particular reference that would lead to white or brightly colored trees with broken bases. Of course trees in general are often references to life and connection with origins, or ancestry. But the broken base is not a reference that I’m familiar with.
Later in the Fate of Arun expansion, the tree on the Lost Isle does not have a broken base and looks quite different.
At this point, in a recent update where the Island of Dawn has become a questing area at level 65, the tree has been burned and the Tower Base destroyed. Perhaps this is how the Tera designers have taken care of their reference to the trees of World of Warcraft.
Who knows.
:ww
