Dryads
A beautiful and serene dryad. Picture by Nekochank from her Deviantart gallery
There are several kinds of dryads in Felarya but they all share a common trait: they are half plant, half women.
Their size varies between species, but they can easily grow past the 100 feet tall, and in the very deep regions of Felarya some are rumored to reach even greater heights. Dryads generally have a trunk in place of their legs so they spend most of their time rooted in one spot. Unlike most other rooted "plants", dryads can actually uproot and move themselves, although this slow process happens rarely. Some dryads have legs, though, and can roam freely.
Dryads share a sort of spiritual link between them, which means that they can communicate at a distance, share sensations (sight, smell, hearing and taste), and be informed on the many things that happens in the forest. A dryad can also shut down this link if she wishes for some true alone time. Once in her long life a dryad can share a version of this link with another being, regardless of that person's race. This special link connects that person to the dryad alone, and not to the greater dryad network.
In spite of their immobility, Dryads pose a serious threat to adventurers. They are mostly carnivorous, and their arms are incredibly strong, enough so that they can crack a vehicle in half as easily as we can crack a nut. Despite their apparent bulkiness, dryads are limber, agile, and flexible, which makes their capture range a lot larger than it looks like at first glance. They are also experts at mimetism and camouflage, sometimes using magic illusions to improve it. Even if you *know* that is a dryad there, if she wishes to remain hidden you will have a hard time distinguishing her from the background. They capture their prey by staying perfectly still and quickly snatching it unawares when it is close enough.
If nagas are known for their strong stomachs, then dryads are known for their irresistible throats: they can swallow absolutely anything that is the right size. It's a one way road though, as dryads are unable to throw up anything they have swallowed. Dryads can impart special properties to their saliva, such as making it numb whatever it touches, heal injuries, or induce sleepiness. Dryads are not as voracious as some other predators though, and can also rely also on photosynthesis to feed.
Dryads are usually sweet, pleasant, and wise beings and they get along very well with the other races (those who are not prey that is). This is especially true with fairies, nagas and deerataurs.
All dryads have a common weakness: fire. Once they start burning it is hard to put out, and so they are very afraid of it. Most dryads will completely hide from a fire based or fire using threat, but some (such as Drayla) have found some good defenses against it.
Contents
Known Dryads
Bramble Dryads
This species of dryad has dark brown skin (or red if they live in the jungle of perils) and hair of the same color. Their tree part is covered by thorns, as is their human part, though to a much lesser extent. Each thorn is coated by a powerful liquid sleeping agent that can knock out a kensha beast in mere minutes. Although their thorns make them very dangerous to give surprise hugs to, a bramble dryad can retract their thorns instantly, and they usually do so when their friends are around. To do so indicates that the dryad both trusts and respects you.
They are extremely dangerous for adventurers, being able to use their roots as weapons, ripping them from the ground with great speed in even at a distance from the dryad. These roots have more than enough strength to crack a vehicle in two, and enough precision to flick your cigarette out of your mouth without touching your face. This precision comes in handy when catching running prey.
Bramble dryads share the same mental network as other dryads but tend to not use it very much, being more solitary and secretive than other species.
Shadow Dryads
These dryads lives in very dark places such as Evernight forest. Their skin is dark blue or black and their eyes are a beautiful glowing purple. They have small patches of soft lights on their body which create beautiful patterns, which they can control.
The popular belief that shadow dryads have dark, evil personality because they live in perpetual darkness is entirely false. Like most inhabitants of that zone, shadow dryads possess perfect night vision and so what they see is not a perpetual night but rather a normal forest, full of life and activity. Thus, shadow dryads have no more sinister personalities than other dryads. This is little known among regular dryads because the regular network that most dryads are on does not reach to where the shadow dryads are, and so they developed their own network.
Shadow dryads are roughly as dangerous as other dryads, except that their mouths and throats are stretchier, allowing them to swallow much larger prey than normal.
Swamp Dryads
These dryads are usually taller than their land based counterparts, with a light brown or orange skin. They can blow a cloud of incapacitating spores which fogs the vision of their foes and makes them cough uncontrollably. Some swamp dryads have sharp leaves on their heads which can be thrown like razor blades.
In the great marshes they are particularly hard to spot because the human part is very high above the ground and is often lost in the fog that covers the swamps. Only the occasional loud noises from their stomach will give them away. While an unlucky adventurer might not be able to see the dryad through the fog, they posses piercing eyesight that allows them to see through smoke or fog without any problems.
Swamps dryads have developed a link with some of the other creatures like the harpies and the saurotaurans.
Known Swamp Dryads
Draytha
Mycodryads
Mycodryads are very rare and only found in some particular places that have plenty of fungus and lichen around. Mycoria forest happens to be one such place.
Mycodryads are symbiotic lifeforms, dryads living in harmony with the ambient fungus. Because of this they have an incredible ability to regenerate. Their plant part is not made of bark like other dryads, but is instead made of mushroom, and thus is a lot softer and easier to pierce or tear. However, should you hurt a mycodryad, her wounds will close almost instantly, and even if you cut off one of her limbs it would regenerate in mere seconds. This rapid regeneration combined with their inability to feel pain has led to the rumor that mycodryads are invincible. This is incorrect, but only if you use some very powerful magic.
Mycodryads are very friendly with fungoïds. Because these creatures can't speak and have a scary appearance, everyone considers them as little more than monsters. This couldn't be further from the truth, as fungoïds are actually an intelligent race, wise and philosophical.
Cactus Dryads
Like one could figure, cactus dryads are found in desert zones and wastelands, mostly in the Akaptor desert.
They are rare and rather small compared to most dryads, only reaching heights of 70 to 80 feet, due to the lack of water. Their plant half is that of a giant cactus, and ranges from light green to dark green or brown in color. They can store vast amounts of nutrients and water for very long periods of time in their lower halves.
Their human part is usually a dark tan color and is covered in a thick carpet of cactus needles, thicker than a bramble dryad's thorns. Like bramble dryads, cactus dryads can retract these spines in the presence of friends, but can also launch them towards an enemy or attacker at a great speed. For some reason, the time magic of Akaptor desert is weaker around a cactus dryad, and some mages have theorized that the dryads are able to drain it to a certain extent.
Cactus dryads are extremely voracious because of the lack of food and water in the desert, and will rarely let prey escape. They hunt by creating very realistic mirages and unless you are familiar with the zone and know that there is no oasis there, it is highly probable that you will be fooled by the illusion. There are exceptions though, and Akaptor nomads are said to have managed to befriend some of these dryads.
Alguanes
aquatic dryads - far cousins
Snow Dryads
Snow dryads live mainly on snowy mountains and plateaus. Their trunks and skin are white, they have evergreen foliage, and are generally smaller than most dryads, growing to between 70 and 100 feet tall.
However, they make up for their short height with their powerful lungs. They use them mostly to suck in prey from a distance, but can also blow an enemy right off an edge, or even freeze them. They are obviously very resistant to any cold-based magic and some of them master a powerful blizzard spell that works very well when combined with their powerful air blasts.
Snow dryads mostly feed on animals, but will eat humans at the first chance they get, seeing them as a rare and sweet delicacy. Very few people ever manage to talk to a snow dryad, as it's usually impossible to even approach one without being vacuumed up and swallowed.
Domesticated Dryads
- under construction
'Domesticated' Dryads are a bit of a rarity on Felarya - in no small part due to the difficulty in acquiring such. Through magic, selective breeding, or nutrient depravation, these Dryads are rarely capable growing taller than an average human - some mutant breeds or poorer quality products able to top out barely beyond the twenty foot mark - and are of the "lacking legs" variety. Furthermore, whether through magic, breeding, or learned behavior, these Dryads are much less voracious than their Giant(ess) kin. Being small in stature these Dryads are rather limited in their dieting options - and being bred immobile, are similarly limited in protective options.
Because of this, 'Domesticated' Dryads are often reliant on an owner to both provide for and protect them. More often than not, the smaller of these individuals will be denied a link to the Dryad community by being placed in potted soil until their loyalty / subservience to their owner is established. This works to further limit the physical size of a Dryad, stunting their growth as they lack the necessary nutrients during their age of development.
'Domesticated' Dryads are often "content" with their life at this point, not recognizing that they might have any other type of lifestyle. This is why an owner must be careful before planting a 'Domesticated' Dryad, especially if it bears any magical talent. Furthermore, it is for this reason that owners will often "spoil" a Dryad before the planting stage - the less likely the "Domesticated" Dryad is to rebel when connected to the Network, the less likely it is that it will revolt at a later time.
Due to various combinations of such practices, a 'Domesticated' Dryad will stop growing much earlier than a regular Dryad. This allows the 'Domesticated' version to be interacted with much more freely than a 'Wild' Dryad - it's hard for a Dryad to eat first and talk later when you're the same size. It is also for this reason that 'Domesticated' Dryads are feared if they grow beyond the ten foot mark: Though it may be 'Domesticated', no such creature may become fully domestic unless it chooses to be so. There is at least one instance of an arrogant noble being eaten by his pet Dryad, and several other mysterious disappearances within expansive gardens can be linked to such a fate.
The relationship a 'Domesticated' Dryad builds with its owner is never a sure thing. Some loathe their "masters" and secretly plot their removal once capable of becoming self efficient, others feel them to be best of friends (perhaps even more than that!) that gave them a life without fear of their own predators or hunger.
The diet of a 'Domesticated' Dryad is limited only by both what the owner can possibly feed it and what they choose to feed it. Some Domesticated Dryads of the smallest sizes are sustained solely via photosynthesis and soil nutrients, while others are fed gourmet meals fit for royalty, and others yet are fed somewhere between the outliers. Living food is sometimes given to a 'Domestic' Dryad, but rarely in large quantities lest it develop a taste for things still moving. Still, with their expensive cost and amount of time necessary to develop, some nobles may "look the other way" if a gardener or three go missing every now and then. After all: Commoners are cheap, Domestic Dryads are not.
Speaking of cost, a 'Domestic' Dryad is a very expensive purchase - one could buy a row of houses in Negav for a comparable cost to a 'Domestic' Dryad, and spend just as much feeding the thing throughout its life. Rarely will a 'Domestic' Dryad be owned by anyone other than a breeder or nobility, and in such cases either the quality will often be lacking or cries of "thief" are soon to follow.
A 'Domestic' Dryad's functionality is not limited to simply garden decor or display. A Dryad can provide the owner with extraordinary pieces of information that only a Dryad can acquire without the risk of approaching a wild counterpart. Furthermore, few are willing to risk sneaking through a garden known to carry such a being: While the owner may insist the thing to be safe, people will always remain cautious on Felarya of something that can eat them or has connections with another being who could. Lastly, they make terrific members on a debate team or for when making plans: A single 'Domestic' Dryad can function as a proxy for a near limitless number of other Dryads.
Credits goes to Mangamastermind for the idea of snow dryads, to Malahite and Silent-Eric for domesticated dryads, to Pendragon for the Algua dryads, and to melancholy-melody13 and Icalasari for Cactus dryads.
