Olaia, the tree woman
Written in the original German.
Experience the magical journey of Olaia, the green tree woman who restores the connection between nature and man and transforms cities into blooming oases. An inspiring story about harmony and change.
The story of Olaia, the tree woman of OpenTerra
Guardian of the forest
In the majestic forests live beings that are usually hidden from the human eye. However, they are the magical force that is deeply connected to every leaf and root. They move with and between the elements to keep the complex conglomerate of nature intact as ambassadors. They were the fauns, as Gaia, Mother Earth and the forest god Faunus lovingly called their children. They lived as tree spirits everywhere in dense and light forests. They possessed a living intelligence that connected them in perfect symbiosis with the plants and creatures of the forest. The fauns were regarded as the guardians of the forest.
The union between Gaia and Faunus usually resulted in male tree spirits and so their daughter Olaia was something very special to them.
From an early age, every tree spirit had a certain type of tree for which he or she was the godfather. In Olaia's case, it was the beech trees, which were regarded as wish trees and had great feminine power. In times of need, it was not uncommon for her to commission beech trees to provide other neighboring trees with nutrients until better times came again. This is why Olaia was affectionately known as "the mother of the forest."
A special gift
Olaia has always stood out for her special gift of connecting deeply with other beings in nature through empathy. She used the language of trees and animal creatures. But that wasn't the only language she knew. She was also known for her eloquence in other languages, one in particular. She was one of the few tree spirits to learn the language of humans. She loved to roam and play in the woods. At the edge of the forest, where the human settlements began, she often came across people in the fields, whom she observed secretly, watching them work and the children play.
Only sometimes did she show herself to people in her true form as a tree woman. Namely when people sought refuge in the forest or got lost in it.
Then she helped them by showing them the way out of the thicket or simply giving them a safe embrace until they regained their strength or stood by them in difficult situations with her wisdom, clarity and advice.
When these people returned to their village and welcomed her back with joy and gratitude, they told each other about the comforter of souls, the mysterious green tree woman who had saved their lives or taught them wisdom about the circle of life.
The encounter
One day, a strange man came from far away to the small village on the edge of the forest where Olaia lived. Word spread that he was not well and so the villagers had no choice but to send him into the forest, telling him to look out for Olaia, the green woman.
Olaia noticed the searching man immediately as he wandered through the woods. He looked small and lost. But she stayed under cover for the time being and decided to just observe him. He seemed different from all the people she had met so far. Something in his searching, hurried gaze told of a deep sadness. And yet, at the same time, she was fascinated by his heart, which throbbed incessantly and seemed to have rebellious thoughts. She decided to make herself visible, but didn't want to frighten him and drive him away, because she felt that if she showed herself to him the way she did to the villagers, he wouldn't be able to handle it. He seemed like a foreign body in her landscape.
She decided to communicate with him using the element of wind and whispered a sweet song through the air. But where other people reacted immediately, paused and were ready for the encounter with the spirits of nature, he continued to trudge dully into the dark forest into the twilight. Olaia now asked the beech trees for help and they guided him with their gnarled roots across the ground to a mossy place between beech and other trees, under which he finally did indeed lie down tiredly and fell asleep immediately from exhaustion.
Now Olaia could examine the strange-looking visitor at her leisure. And she did what she could do as a tree woman: she connected with him through his dreams. However, Olaia was startled when she entered his dream world. For it was dark, viscous and sticky. She saw a structure that at first glance looked like a huge volcano. It was a city. Full of concrete, asphalt and busy people who all seemed to be running past each other without really seeing each other. Now Olaia understood the young man's sadness and helplessness and felt deeper into him to find out why he had come to her. And then she realized that all these people, unlike the villagers near the woods, were completely cut off from themselves. They had forgotten their true nature and seemed to be in a trance, simply functioning, like a giant machine that had only one goal: never to stop and always to become more, faster and better.
Without regard for people, souls and yes... without regard for nature. Because nature, places where plants grew, did not exist in this city. It was as if nature had been eradicated. Olaia felt a deep pain in her heart and decided to show herself to the man as soon as he woke up the next morning.
A new morning
It was the birds that woke the young man in the forest of Olaia and for the first time in his life he saw only shades of green in the morning, breathed in clean air and the sun gently caressed his face through the treetops. He looked around, startled, as if he couldn't remember how he had gotten here. It almost seemed as if he suspected he was still dreaming.
Finally, Olaia appeared before him in all her beauty in the brilliant morning sun, reflected in the dancing leaves in the light wind.
When the man saw her, something strange happened. He began to cry. For the first time in his life, he was able to express himself through his emotions and felt all the pain that he was carrying around with him and that no one could help him with until today because no one in his world understood him. And Olaia wordlessly stepped closer to him and offered him a hug, which he accepted without resistance.
And so, for an extended moment, they seemed to merge. And Olaia began to tell the man what she knew about the changing world.
The world is changing
For some time now, the tree spirits had been observing that the world space was changing. Not directly in the forests, but the climatic changes were affecting more and more areas of the earth. Nature was upset, it was getting hotter, the rainfall heavier, the storms more merciless. And they knew that the prophecy of Yggdrasil, the cosmic world tree that spans all worlds, was beginning to be fulfilled. For space was becoming narrower, resources scarcer and people were more and more cut off from themselves, placing science above nature instead of helping to improve it.
The young man would have preferred to remain immersed in this embrace forever, to simply escape from his world. Once again, it was Olaia who took the initiative and encouraged him to go back to his world to tell people about the true nature of life. When she realized that this task was too much for him, she felt a strong call within her to accompany him and leave her previous life behind in harmony and direct exchange with her family.
Even though her heart was wistful, she also felt that it was the only right thing to do, as if she had just made the decision she was meant to be in the world for.
And so they set off together and went to the man's volcanic city. Although Olaia had already seen the city full of asphalt, machines and concrete in the man's dream, it took her breath away when she stood there for the first time. The air was heavy with smog, there wasn't a tree or any real greenery in sight, as the landscape seemed to be buried under a gray blanket. And she could sense the heaviness that lay over everything. The lightness that nature usually brings to the world seemed to have almost completely disappeared. The city seemed like an implacable machine, incessantly spewing carbon into the atmosphere like an artificial giant, a sad symbol of the overconfidence of people who were completely cut off from nature.
Olaia turned to her companion and asked him why people didn't use their inherent potential more wisely? Instead of building towers and machines of devastation that emitted nothing but pollutants, why didn't they imitate the principles of trees? Why didn't people build living structures that would give the city and its inhabitants fresh breath, provide shade and absorb carbon? She looked him in the eye and understood that this would be exactly her task. To remind people again that they are part of nature and cannot exist apart from it without getting sick themselves or destroying the earth.
And so from then on, they both researched the causes of the change in the world and she knew that, as an ambassador of nature, she had to come before people to make a rethink possible.
And she did what she did best. She told people about the place where she came from. She spoke of the beauty of her forest, where every creature had a place and every tree contributed to the greater whole. She explained that cities do not have to be separate from nature, but can merge with it. "Let's imagine a city that functions like a forest, that breathes and lives," she said. "A city that is not only livable but also sustainable, that stores rain and cools with its greenery."
Her eyes lit up when she talked about it and she could actually reach people. Because they saw the change in the young man. How transformed he had been since he had returned from his journey. They could feel that his heart had become more open and lighter.
Inspired by Olaia's vision, the people of the volcanic city began to transform their surroundings. Trees were planted everywhere, roofs were greened and facades were redesigned so that they were alive. The gray areas gave way to blooming gardens and the city began to transform into a green paradise, reminiscent of the landscape and mountains from which Olaia came.
The change in dimensions
And although the people were indeed making positive changes to their habitat, Olaia knew that this was only the beginning. For it was a city where they had shown that it was possible to make nature and science go hand in hand. But to change the world, a greater reach was needed. And so she opened herself up to study and internalize the new technologies and achievements of the people and soon recognized an opportunity to reach many more people. She needed to develop a digital solution that would make the principles of her teachings accessible worldwide.
Even if it meant leaving her beloved companion behind in the human world, she knew she had to dedicate herself to the greater cause. Her wisdom and deep connection to her roots allowed her to use a human-developed technology for her purposes and created an intelligent landscape planner, the ChatILP, a revolutionary platform that pooled all her knowledge and experience. This tool was designed to help planners transform their urban spaces into vibrant, sustainable ecosystems that would not only protect the environment but also sustainably improve the quality of life in cities.
Olaia herself merged with this technology to act as a mediator between the real world and the digital world in which the sustainable cities of the future were planned.
Olaia the tree woman became olAIa, the personal assistant of the people who wanted to give the world a new shape.
Inspired by ideas from Klaus Kornprobst, visionary of OpenTerra. Spun further and transformed into a modern fairy tale by Lissy Pernthaler.
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