Juraian Treeships

Juraian Treeships are spaceships that come from the planet Jurai.

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki

Azusa's giant Kirito and the Empress' combined ships Mizuho and Karin

In the OVA, the ships of the Juraian royal family are treeships. The ships house trees which are housed in their cores and are descended from the Choushin Tsunami, who descended to the dimension and became the first of Royal trees. They are sapient and have the ability to generate Light Hawk Wings which are the ultimate defense seen in the series.

There is no standard design or layout for these ships, as they are shaped by their own personalities and the personality of the one they are bonded to.

The outer hulls are made from wood but what many do not know is that this hull is not really the ship, they are limiters created to rein in the power of the royal tree housed in the core of the ship. Without a limiter a Royal Tree could easily destroy planets or entire star systems. Other hulls can be used as well, such as when Yosho hid his ship Funaho inside the frame of a standard starship as a disguise while he attended the Galaxy Academy.

Seto lounging in one of Mizuki's hot springs with The Great Daruma stored inside

The cores of the Treeships house massive areas of subspace within them. The space can equal entire worlds complete with multiple ecosystems, and animal populations. The more powerful the ship, the more subspace it can support. Kiriko's's 2nd Generation Mizuki was able to store a planetary scale ship, The Great Daruma, inside of its subspace.

Although very powerful, later generations of the ships gradually became less powerful as they progress from Tsunami. Fourth Generation Ships and lower do not show the consciousness of earlier generations.

They also lose their 'Will' (that is, their minds and/or soul) if they are rooted on another planet without other trees to support it. Funaho was believed to be an example of this, but the tree did not lose its Will because of the presence of Washu's gems on the hilt of the Tenchi sword, which have the same power as a royal tree. A few more ships are also nearby now and also support Funaho.

At one time before the formation of the Galaxy Federation the Shank Pirate Guild were able to destroy a royal treeship by devising a method to shoot through the center of its Light Hawk Wings. Since this occurrence the ships have learned to defend against it but the method used can still be dangerous if not specifically guarded against.

Even though they have such immense power, the trees themselves do not wish to wield such power, preferring to be peaceful. When outsiders are first given access to a tree ship they are often fearful of entering a ship of such immense power, but when introduced to the trees they discover that they are playful and friendly. When Airi first met Funaho she was ready to meet a god, instead she was greeted with a sensation she described as being enveloped in puppies. Funaho then obliged her fantasy by producing a mass of puppies to greet her.

Long before the founding of Jurai, Tsunami gave a number of seeds to a very early civilization. Those who received these used them differently. Rather than plant them together to have mature seeds supporting each other and full sized ships, they froze their growth and used them as the core of Giant robots. these seeds do not show the usual maturity of a tree, they are like impulsive children and in some ways more powerful because they lack the restraint of those that grew older. Few of these original specimens exist. Zinv, seen first in Dual!, has a first generation seed and is apparently the oldest surviving mecha. A number also survived in The Renza Federation but, except for one, are all 4th or lower generation seeds. Because these ships showed no will, the engineers of these ships also devised a way to reproduce some newer ships by cutting and cloning existing seeds. Juraians consider this barbaric. There is one 2nd Generation Seed Renza mecha, the pirate vessel, HIMC (a version of which also appeared in Dual), but it too has been altered and also shows no evidence of a consciousness. When Zinv, who should be able to command the other ships to stand down, tried to talk to them, he called them "broken."

The version of D that has survived as one of the Cabbits that accompany Seina has knowledge not only of the Great Prehistoric Civilization but of the Precursor Civilization that came before, and shares the knowledge of another ancient "mother" 2nd generation tree known as AHRA that was lost at some point.

Tenchi Universe

The treeships have a different appearance in Tenchi Universe. They do have a standard design (but were separated into two different designs). They acted as more an actual fleet than all powerful god-like ships (due to the fact that in this continuity, they have no affiliation to Tsunami).

Trivia

• A couple of different explanations for the background of Zinv and HIMC exist. In one, it is explained that ZInv was initially a ship and it was transformed into a mecha to serve as an idol to the undeveloped population of the early version of Earth they resided on.