This is a new idea I have recently had for adding some flavour to my game world. I stole the ideas from Kevin J. Anderson's novels with the Virdani, a world-spanning forest that is intelligent and bonds with certain humans telepathicly, as well as Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy, where living ships are carved from a special "wood" found only in a certain magic-polluted area of the world. Combining these two ideas, I've gotten this...
Ages ago, the Eldar Race spanned the world. They made many wonders, some of which survived the cataclysmic war which ended both their reign and their race. One of these things the Elves found and came to revere. It was the Eldar's Grove, a species of intelligent, telepathic trees that lived deep in the center of the forest the Elves called home. Although the Elves revered the trees and cared for them carefully and tenderly, the trees were slowly dying. Until by chance the Grove were introduced to humans. Some of the Eldar blood lived on in these humans, for the trees found what they had been missing for centuries; companionship. They found that they could "bond" with humans, as they had with the Eldar Race in times long past, which sparked some long-buried need in the Grove. The Grove began to recover, and yet it needed more, something more that had also lay lost for centuries. Through their new-found allies, the Grove Preists, they allied with a band of shipbuilders on the coast nearby to complete the cycle, the purpose for which the trees yearned. They were made to become ships. Once the wood was harvested from willing trees, shaped and molded into beautiful ships by loving hands, they were then sailed to a ruined city of the Eldar for the "awakening." It was a journey fraught with perils, as not all ships that set out for awakening returned, the ruins being haunted with creatures both living and dead. An ancient shipyard in this city still contained enough magic to awaken the ships back to their full sentience. Combining the natural sentience of the wood with a spirit of a sailor summoned back to be the ship's figurehead, the ships became alive. These ships, once awakened, were worth the danger and the sacrifice. They had full awareness, personality and control over their "body." A crew was still needed to assist the ship in sailing, but such a ship never rotted or required hull cleaning, as nothing could attach to the hull. The ship could "feel" it's surroundings, making it an excellent guide in treacherous waters, being able to locate currents, sandbars, shallows and monsters in it's area with ease. The ships also, coming as they did from the Grove, maintained a link and an empathy for the trees that gave them existance. While they lost the telepathy, they could feel the trees and could share thier feelings in return, even some thoughts, nuturing in the trees the next wandering spirit willing to make the sacrifice and transformation into a Eldarship.
This is the background. Please, feel free to use this in your own campaigns. All I ask is that you post back here with reports on how the concept was received and any memorable game experiences that resulted. I have not yet created stat blocks for the Eldar Grove, Grove Priests or Eldarships, but I plan on doing it soon and will post it when I do. Any assistance in this area would be appreciated, for although I enjoy coming up with the big ideas, I hate dealing with the details. Also, any and all feedback would be welcome. In the meantime, enjoy! I hope you have as good a time using it as I did creating it.