In this world, there are many tools one may use to direct magic. One of the most well known of these is the wand. Of course it is a common saying that "The wand chooses the wizard", with all wands having a degree of awareness with which they select...
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Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as pockholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America and have been an important export crop to Europe since the beginning of the 16th century and can also be found in Florida.
Said, like English Oak, to be the wood of Merlin's wand, Lignum Vitae is a heavy, dense, and powerful wand wood, which rarely chooses a wizard or witch. The lore which claims that Merlin's wand was from Lignum Vitae claims that Vikings who traveled to America returned with the wood which became Merlin's wand. Interestingly Lignum Vitae wands do not do well in the hands of Slytherins (as Merlin was reputed to be) and with Horned Serpents at Ilvermorny as the wood prizes loyalty and hard work before ambition and cunning. Indeed it is believed that it is this loyalty that makes Lignum Vitae wands – which are unable to be cast in or near water – able to perform one of the most incredible pieces of magic. Lignum Vitae wands, when given a core of Thestral hair (or hair from another Omen Horse) are capable of briefly putting a soul back into a body, for one day. The making of such wands is incredibly rare, even rarer than the making of Lignum Vitae wands, and the incantation is so long lost this story is believed to be naught but a myth. It is also worth noting that wands or Lignum Vitae "die" completely with their wizard, and cannot be re-cored and passed on unless the wand is passed on willingly in the witch's and wizards lifetime.
