Dryads
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Dryads are one of the Races of Innworld.
Physiology
Appearance
Dryads look humanoid, but made of wood and plants. Flowers sometimes grew in their 'hair', which could fall off naturally.[1]
Physical Qualities
They are beings of nature, with wooden bodies. They are connected to a Great Tree. If their tree dies, their body will petrify into stone,[2] and survival afterwards is slim.[3] They take a long time to age.
There are also Lesser Dryads, also called Sapborns, who are half-conscious manifestations of lesser tree and are hundreds of years old at most. But they still age more quickly than the true Dryads.[4][5]
Reproduction
Dryads are born from seeds from thousand-year old magical trees in Great Forests.[3] They must be germinated in a great forest. An undersea kelp forest counts as a possible place. A Treant could grow a seed, before they became a part of the ocean.[6]
Lesser Dryads may become the basis for a true Dryad after centuries.[5]
Magical Qualities
Special Abilities
Weaknesses
They are vulnerable to parasites.[7]
Behavior and Culture
Lesser Dryads are not intelligent and are incapable of speech, unlike their greatwood kin.
Some of the true Dryads were not kind, and have caused great bloodshed and sacrificed innocents upon their groves.[5]
History
Fithea was the last of the true Dryads, surviving long past the destruction of her forrest. She taught Rhisveri magic, and later was the first immortal to join his kingdom of Ailendamus with the promise that she could create a great forest someday.
Kasigna promised to bring her people back if she murdered Ryoka. This forced Ryoka to kill her in self-defense, making the species extinct on Innworld. Rhisveri charged Ryoka with finding a new Dryad within ten years to replace Fithea's loss.[7]
The Ironwood Wand recovered from the Ruins of Albez by the the Horns of Hammerad contained the seed of a Dryad. It was given to Hedault, who used it to make a fortune creating Lifewood items. When Ryoka explained the wand's true nature, he returned it.
Known Dryads
- Fithea sor Kerwenas (Deceased)
Trivia
- "Stonefriend" and "metal-minded" are insults used among themselves.[4]