There are two major minor erdtrees in Altus. The western one in Bower of Bounty, the northern one past the graveyard.
These trees have no avatar, but do have guardians.
The sunflowers in the Bower face the minor tree. The flowers around the northern minor tree face away. The Bower tree is thriving. The Graveyard tree is dying.
The Tree Guardians don't get talked about enough. It seems to me like they have a shared heritage with the Flame Guardians, based on the elder Flame Guards in Whiteridge. They seem to have split into the tree and flame factions as a result of Marika's takeover.
I saw a theory, I don't remember where, that the Wormfaces are Guardians under the effect of Deathblight.
I think this is because they're eating the deathblight.
Normal deathblight infections (Rogier, the marginally less gross D, probably Yura) is signaled by an infestation of worms, which probably infect the host's bloodstream directly (via injuries and possibly intercourse), rather than by being inhaled or injested.
I think if one were to eat the larval worms they wouldn't be able to travel around the body and would get stuck in the soft tissue around the eater's mouth.
This is why the Bower tree is healthy, why F Azula hasn't completely succumbed to Deathblight (although the Azula Wormfaces may be concerned with stopping the spread to the world below, as they seem primarily concerned with the lake near the cliff.
One thing Wormfaces will do that makes sense if they're Tree Guardians: they'll randombly beat the fuck out of a gold tree while patrolling.
The Guardians seem to believe that if they're good boys and say their prayers and eat their vitamins they'll be reincarnated as trees, possibly even erdtree avatars, and possibly they're correct to believe this. This is why they have trees strapped to their back. The trees take root in the Guardian to avoid absorbing any impurities from the soil around the parent tree.
The Guardians hanging out around the Erdtree are hosting what are clearly Aeonia saplings. This tells us that, unless something drastic happens, the Leyndell Guardians - those who continue to support the Golden Order - are falling under the influence of Rot and will eventually find their way to the Haligtree. Alternately, it could be an indication that the Erdtree is beginning to succumb to Rot.
There's one spot in the Bower, near the souther ruined bridge, where Leyndell soldiers ambush a patrolling Wormface.
I think this may be a very, very important event, lorewise.
The Golden Order fundamentalists - people like D - think that killing the people keeping the Bower tree healthy is a good thing.
The Shadow of the Erdtree screenshot, that big field the torrent and miquella lookalikes are in? That's gotta be the central lake before the landmass sank. They make the crucible out like it's a big felled tree that survived and threw up a bunch of shoots. Around the edge. In kind of a circle.
I'll update the pic above when I cut back the juniper that was hiding it
Hey, update
