Dryad

Introduction

Staunch protectors of the forest, and consummate huntresses, the all-female Dryad are Faefolk Druids with the lower body of a doe from the Plane of Ælphyne. You receive a Free Racial Merit for the Draoidh of a Dryad when playing as one.

Fast Facts

• Population: 1,200,000+
• Lifespan: Indefinite
• Height: Between 5 ft and 7 ft.
• Weight: Between 120 lbs and 600 lbs.
• Racial Merit: Dryad receive a Free Racial Merit for Draoidh.

Racial Abilities:

Sylvan

Dryad possess a pseudo-Glamour within them that forbids their bodies and Arcana from harming plants, nor will they cause the dirt beneath their hooves to compress and leave obvious tracks. Their hooves will cause grass to bend and shift, compressing unharmed beneath their weight. Branches and needles will seem to hover just above their skin, as if repelled by a magnetic force. Only the Floramancy of Draoidh will cause the forest to harm them, the only excusable way in which a plant being damaged might be looked over. Dryad are thus vexingly difficult to track by traditional means.

Draoidh

All Dryad are born with the Glamour of Draoidh fully Incited, gifted seemingly at random one of the Bound Flora of their parent at birth. They bind flora to themselves which they use to fashion mock antlers or decorate their bodies in other ways.

As A People

Biology

With the upper body of a wingless Sidhe, and the lower body of a doe, Dryad are beautiful women with wide-ranging complexions ranging from pale or fair, to dark, and even blues or purples. The lower halves of their body look like all manner of deer, with spotted white-tail deer being the most common. Many are buxom and womanly, heavily built from a society of excess, while still more are lithe and graceful.

The fur of a Dryad will turn snow-white in a cold climate, or seasonally in places with cold winters. Some are stuck this way. Others forego fur for bark, becoming as synonymous as possible with the plants they themselves wield.

Dryad are omnivorous with two stomachs; one for processing meat is in their upper stomach, and the other in their doe belly for consuming all manner of plant material.

Aging & Reproduction

Dryad are immortal. Once they reach maturity, their aging will cease entirely, achieving adolescence at 10-12 years old, and maturity at 18 years. Once they are seen as mature, the other Dryad will levy them with the same expectations as any adult, treating them as equals. Dryad are one twelfth as fertile as a human. Newborn Dryad struggle to control their Draoidh as they are born with it Incited, and many of them suffer its Mageburn through accidental overuse. Nearly four-fifths of Dryad children will not make it to maturity, either burning themselves out or violating the Spring Concordat and being subjected to the Wild Hunt.

If the father of a Dryad is an Inari, it will be born as a Transfigured Inari without the gift of Sylvan. Dryad will Saolbind such Inari children into irreversibly becoming Dryad with Sylvan themselves, wasting away the Crux of their Seeming and trading it for Draoidh. They will also have the Spring Court Boggarts Transfigure other Fae who ask to be Dryad, but those other races without Glamour to trade for Draoidh would not survive the process.

Sex & Gender

Dryad are universally female. They mate with the males of other Fae and always produce Dryad offspring. This is done rather spuriously, nigh on a whim. They place little weight upon mating in their society, but unlike other Fae they do feel a sense of natural responsibility to see to it that their young are nurtured.

Psychology

Verdant Huntresses

Dryad feel a deep connection with nature, and with Saol. They will universally feel harmed by the loss of flora, feeling psychological harm to themselves when they see plants being stepped on, chopped down, or burned. Further, they see themselves as predators of the greater ecosystem, and have strong instincts to hunt. If they do not hunt, many Dryad will become depressed or mentally unstable.

Like most Fae, Dryad feel little empathy towards others, and even their own kind. They chase emotional highs and stimulation, and they feel the inverse of ridicule to its extreme. Dryad do not take well to slights or insults, and may easily turn on another over the most flimsy of criticisms.

Dodecagonic Days

The Dryad are rarely in a rush to do anything at all, and when they sleep it can feel to mortals as if they are sleeping for days at a time; the Dryad by consequence see their mortal friends taking little naps throughout the day. This warped sense of time means that they tend to get stuck on a subject for far longer than a mortal might - even the most shy of Fae have a habit of droning on about inconsequential things without end, as this is a normal aspect of their society.

History

Overview

Origin

Society

Spring Concordat

A set of rules all Dryad are compelled to live by through the Saolbinding woven into their soul, the Spring Concordat is a convention that states all live within the natural world. All may hunt, consume, and lay to rest one-another for any reason, and all must hold sacred every tree, every blade of grass, and the very soil of the earth. It must not be disturbed, only fostered. Those observed to violate the Concordat in any way are expressly hunted and eaten, even if by accident, except for when Floramancy might cause vines and roots to snap during a contest between Draoidh.

The Wild Hunt

Common to the Fae of Ælphyne is the practice of the Wild Hunt. This is when sacrifices are chosen to be hunted, and they are raised to be strong, or fat before being sent out into the forests with some manner of head start - usually a day or two - before they are hunted like prey and descended upon by thousands of Fae. Preferably, they will be caught alive, and then eaten like a delicacy. If they put up a challenge, then a trophy will be taken from their body. To survive the Wild Hunt, the participant must slay one of the Fae hunting them, and they will be granted a totem made of their corpse that will allow them safe passage through Ælphyne for as long as they possess it, even if they are subtly violating the Spring Concordat as any animal of the forest might.

Fleeing the Wild Hunt is challenging once it has begun, as many Fae possess Animal Familiars; the birds of Ælphyne will snitch with your whereabouts.

Technology

Dryad of the Spring Concordat will not utilize anything that isn't made with animal products such as bone and leather, or Floramancy or Terra. To them, so much as scooping the clay from a riverbank or snapping a single branch off a tree is grounds for violating its terms. Those not beholden to the Spring Concordat will still be reluctant to use anything from plants.

Language

Dryad speak Eudaimonic, a language that is written in spiraling glyphs where statements are written without picking up the brush. The length of the swoops in a given symbol indicates its emotionality, with longer curves indicating a yell, and short or small symbols reading as quiet and observational, like footnotes. Spoken, the words are poetic and flowing with rolled 'R's and trills. Songs sung in Eudaimonic are utterly serene, their raw emotionality carrying the meaning even when someone does not understand the words. Eudaimonic is the root of most languages on Antarok, as the fae invented language long before humanity ever existed.

The Dryad also speak in Sylphic, a language which involves communicating through rustled plants and leaves. Dryad often shake their leaves to signal their Animal Familiars with tasks, or canting Metaphor.

Naming Convention & Titles

Dryad names are typically some manner of plant name, with a verb evoking that plant in a situation as the surname.

Examples:

Azalea Flowers-In-The-Rain

Rose Blooms-At-Dawn

Cactus Needles-Your-Eyes

• Common Plant Names: Azalea, Aster, Daisy, Lily, Rose, Heather, Dahlia, Camellia, Sequoia, Pine, Cactus

Castes

Meliai

The Meliai are daughters of Elphame, akin to nobility. They are each permitted their own grove surrounded by hers. Such reserves of forest close to Sylvain are hotly contested, with Hamadryads competing and challenging their right to own even a few acres of this territory traded by the Meliai for their caught trophies in the Wild Hunt. Often the Meliai will in turn hunt those they've awarded land to reclaim the territory with their death, celebrating with a feast of venison.

Hamadryads

Consummate verdant protectors, Hamadryads are any Dryad who undergoes a vow that puts every living thing in the forest above themselves. They will learn to wield spears and bows together with Draoidh, ensnaring and striking down those who would harm or trespass the sacred grove of Elphame or her Meliai.

Epimeliad

Epimeliad produce food from their own bodies as Dryad are not allowed to harvest the fruit from their Groves, competing to grow fruits and vegetables of fantastic qualities and tantalizing, even magical Florabound hybrids. Some are so fanatical about the nature of food that they will crave being hunted, sacrificing themselves as prey in the Wild Hunt. It's a game, to them, even as they draw their last breath.

Redcap

Sentenced to the Ur'Duun for crimes unrelated to the Spring Concordat, the Redcaps have been Saolbound such that their Sylvan power works with Fungi and not Plants. They become Myceli'i, their Draoidh shifting to Sloan. These underground Dryad hunt and fell without mercy the dragons, kobold, and Vokhai who dare cross the Ur'Duun to Ælphyne. Redcaps struggle resisting the urge to hunt, and must bathe in the blood of every kill or they will grow ill.

Daphnaie

Those who leave the Spring Court for the Summer Court are the Daphnaie, often creative fellows with strange personalities who form obsessions to collect curiosities other than plants in their greenspun homes. They are not a part of the Spring Concordat, but they still risk running afoul of its rules. They judge each other's worth by the completeness of one's collection. Someone who collects tails will do anything to attain a tail of every kind of animal, from each of its seasonal coats and variants. To do so, they will kill, manipulate, steal, and seduce.

Oreiades

Oreiades live among the Sidhe of Elysian. The cold clime turns their fur snow white, their skin pale. Many of them are Galsterei and Ensorcellers who care little for the Spring Concordat. Their personalities are cold, obsessive, and wroth, much like Elphame herself.

Napaiai

The Napaiai are Dryad of the Fall Court. They seek joyous reverence, fun and parties. They will drink ale made from their own Bound Flora, else the bartered fruits of Epimeliad who can tolerate their silly nature. They are boisterous, as large as life, and loud. Many of them are fat and red-faced, their lives dedicated to revelry.

Hemidryad

Common to fringe bloodlines far removed from Elphame, there are Dryad who have been born with a humanoid or bipedal faun-like lower body. They serve as spies and diplomats for those with aims and ambitions, for they are often mistaken as Sidhe or Satyr, and have an easier time moving through societies favorable to them. The further one's bloodline is removed from Elphame, the more likely they are to be born with this quirk; there are no Hemidryad Meliai. Dryad do not feel Hemidryad are any different from the rest, and they are thus a subcaste of the other castes.

Notable Settlements

Sylvain

The city of Sylvain sits at the center of the greater Ælphynian continent as the origin point of Elphame's Grove. It is less so a place of boisterous buildings and private structures, but rather a series of courtyards and trails with beautiful arrangements of flora. Here, Draoidh teach and are taught, and platforms of stone are laid bare for visitors to live their lives upon, fed and fattened by Epimeliad, and trained by the Hamadryad to defend themselves before being sent out as prey for the Wild Hunt. They will keep any child this way, and will not feel disappointed should they escape to Antarok - it is their right to flee the natural order of Ælphyne.

Some who curry favor with the Dryad such as past winners of the Wild Hunt exploit their culture by leaving their children with them, and then come back for them a year or two before the Wild Hunt is to be carried out. As time moves eight times faster in Ælphyne than in Antarok, this is a way to see to it that one's heir is given a chance to live when others would see them dead.

Related Articles

• Dryad
• Faefolk
• Draoidh
• Sloan
• Glamour
• Ælphyne

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