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KEY FINDINGS:

Everstar Grove provides definitive proof of the Eldan's skill at manipulating the primal foundations of life. Aurin matrias believe the sentient tree designated Elderoot to be but one of many such creations.

Elderoot also showed considerable technological modification, which may account for the ancient tree's ability to communicate with great versatility.

Considerable evidence indicated Elderoot's nanobiotic implants may not have been complete at the time of the Eldan's disappearance.

CONCLUSIONS:

The very foundations of life were playthings to the Eldan, and living technology the stuff of toys. They manipulated technology and primal forces as easily as a Granok brews a Gnoxian bitter. To find such clear evidence of the Eldan's skills still functioning, even thriving, confirms the Eldan were all they were rumored to be. They understood the fundamental components of the universe and could manipulate them in ways galactic culture was only beginning to understand. However, it is also clear the Eldan did not intend to suddenly depart the Everstar Grove, let alone the planet Nexus. Elderoot was either left incomplete on purpose, or was simply an experiment never meant to live as long as he has.

The evidence for Elderoot being an incomplete experiment is largely circumstantial, but the strongest is the rampant infestation of parasitic creatures allowed to infest the weakened tree before we discovered him. If the Eldan's nanobiotic additions were meant to strengthen or protect Elderoot from such problems, they failed to do so.

There is another possibility: the Eldan's technological additions were meant to weaken Elderoot's natural defenses. This would seem a cruel experiment to perform on a being they themselves had granted sentience, but nothing we have found in Everstar Grove points to the Eldan as a kind or beneficent species.

As to the question of the Eldan's sudden disappearance so long ago, Everstar Grove offers sparse answers and even more questions. The Eldan were prodigious manipulators of life, but exactly how was Elderoot created - and why? Furthermore, did the old tree truly know the Eldan's secrets? Can such a vast repository of living historical knowledge ever be replaced? Dr. Lazarin believes it may be possible, but many years will be required before we know for certain.

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ADDITIONAL

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Dr. Lazarin and his team shall take the utmost care with and show the utmost respect for the remains, if any, of the late primal cybernetic organism known as Elderoot. They shall especially endeavor to keep anything particularly gruesome or horrifying to Aurin civilians out of view of the public until they have completed their work. Otherwise, Dr. Lazarin will need to fill out many more injury liability reports, and we are certain he doesn't want to do that AGAIN.