Iteracian Tree

In the throes of my vision I beheld a Tree of Light hidden in Darkness, vast and unknowable. It's tendrils spread through uncountable infinities, and I spent an eternity just following their winding trails of pulsing light, taking awe in the beauty of its unbound splendor.

Description

The Iteracian Tree is a void to the senses, defying all attempts to touch, see, smell, or otherwise perceive it. It maintains this effect even secondhand, such that the data produced by sensors, magical or otherwise, is an unknowable blank for those who try to read it.

Despite this lack of a distinct description, everyone who interacts with it or its fruit gets the immediate sense that they're interacting with a tree of some kind.

Fruit

The Iteracian Tree produces fruit, though gathering it can be a fairly random process. It is not entirely clear whether the fruit gets knocked off of the Tree randomly during testing, whether it falls off when sufficiently ripe, or if there is some other process that causes the fruit to detach from the Tree. Either way, once the fruit has been separated for a time (how long isn't entirely clear), it will lose the Tree's sensory protection and become knowable to the senses.

The fruit itself is roughly the size of an oversized mango, and is a mottled purple and green color.

It can be eaten raw, but has also been cooked into dishes and even distilled into spirits. The potency of its effects are diminished by cooking, but are amplified by distillation.

When consumed, the fruit provides a minor enhancement to spiritual awareness and physical senses. It will fade after approximately an hour, but the effects become stronger and last longer as more fruit is subsequently eaten. This occurs regardless of the length of time since the last time some of the fruit was consumed. Eventually, the enhancement will become permanent, and with training (or more fruit) can be grown and improved.

This enhancement does come with a noticeable spiritual drain while active. Additionally, those who have consumed the fruit of the Tree unerringly know if someone they meet has also eaten the Tree's fruit.

This enhancement is not without risks, however. In addition to the spiritual drain, those who partake of the fruit of the Tree will receive hallucinatory visions and can also experience personality shifts, both temporary and permanent.

Hidden Details

Long did I ponder the Tree in rapture, but rapture turned to dread when finally I traced the tendril that led to myself, pulsing in time with every beat of my heart.

The Iteracian Tree is a soulvore originating from the Hell of Primal Shadows. It is a spiritually-fractal creature, and grows throughout the multiverse via its fruit and those that consume it.

Consuming the fruit connects someone to the Tree, allowing it to absorb some of the spiritual energy their soul produces. The process of this siphoning is what produces the expanded awareness and senses in the subject. The more fruit that the subject consumes, the stronger the connection to the Tree becomes, until eventually it is permanent. As the connection grows stronger, the Tree is able to siphon off more and more spiritual energy from the subject, embedding its metaphysical tendrils into their very essence.

The end stage of this process is that the soul becomes permanently ensnared by the Tree, the physical body wearing down and detaching from the soul like a husk. The soul will remain entombed by the Tree, forever producing spiritual energy to nourish the Tree and further its growth.

The fruit itself grows using some of the absorbed spiritual energy, and this spiritual bleedover is what causes the hallucinations and personality intrusions. They are literally cross-over effects from consuming the spiritual energy of others, taking in their partial memories and personality traits.