Noun of Noun and Adjective

Prologue ~ Trees Grow Tall & Then They Fall ~

The World Tree, larger than some planets, but smaller than others, spins gently in the depths of space. And around the Trunk, halfway between Roots and Canopy, the Trunkworld: a doughnut-shaped planet, with the World Tree rising through the hole in its granite and basalt lithosphere, which is permeated by geostabilising rhizomic networks, or wood and dirt and rocks in layman's terms.

The Trunk itself is ringed by an inhospitable mountain range. The land flows out and down from there, eventually heading to the Great Rim Sea, which falls endlessly over the edge of the world. The falling water is sucked up by the great Roots and then nutrients such as salt, fish, and unfortunate sailors, are separated out to nourish the Tree. Eventually the sea water, made fresh by its passage through the Trunk, seeps out of the leaves and falls as rain, filling the rivers to return to the seas in a never-ending cycle. The liquid fire of magic that flows through the World Tree in a similar cycle is the flames of life that binds world and tree together, the lifeblood of existence on a planet that should not exist.

But trees grow tall, and then they fall, and as the noted Trunkworld philosopher George Cloyne once asked: "if a tree falls in space, where there is no down, would anyone even notice?"

Yes, George, people would definitely notice an apocalypse.*

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* From here on, I'll restrict my observations to footnotes.