Dryads

[Cheka Man]

OOC-I am not just putting my own ideas into this post, but I've decided to use some of the ideas of others as well.

IC-The Dryad is thought be many of those who have never seen one to be a beautiful & often friendly maiden, but whilst there is a grain of truth in this, there is far more to it.

Dryads are "made" in several ways. Some are the souls of those honest Rangers and Druids who die a violent death in the forest in the act of defending it against lumberjacks and others who would destroy it. The body, after being buried, is reanimated as a Dryad by the earth surrounding it, which then opens to allow the new Dryad out.

There are those few who are "turned" by another Dryad as an act of deep love.Indeed, it can only be done as a genuine love act, when the Dryad loves a human so much that she wishes to spend her whole life with that person. The Dryad bites the person in the throat,kills him or her, and then uses her love and the magic in the forest to change the person into a Dryad like herself.

All Dryads are female regardless of the fact that many,perhaps most, used to be male.As they remember their former lives, lesbianism is common amongst them because if they as males were romanticly intrested in women, this does not change just because they are now female.

There are rumours of Druids using powerful magic to turn themselves into Dryads,and even of a type of tree that can enslave a person, but neither rumour has so far been proved.

How muscular a Dryad is depends on her life span. A newly created Dryad will be as weak as a small child for a few days, before gaining the strength of a young woman for her first century. Every century a Dryad lives for the first thousand years, she grows stronger. So a thousand-year-old Dryad would be very strong indeed.Few are anywhere near that age,although there are some with the strength of men.

A Dryad can move through the earth and through living trees, but not through brick or dead wood or carved stone.A pavement would keep them out, but a forest path or a mountian would not.They can step out of the trees or the ground, but only for an hour at a time or they feel sick.And every two days they must return to the tree where their bodies *died* or they will die. So whilst not trapped inside their trees, they are tied to the  area of them. If their tree is destroyed by axe or fire or by wind, they die within minites. Therefore they are very protective of their trees and of the forest in general, and will kill to protect their home tree.

If the home tree is damaged by iron (eg an axe) the Dryad is trapped inside until the wound in the bark heals, so most sleep near their trees instead of inside them.A Dryad *locked out* of her tree will not die but will become sicker and sicker and weaker and weaker until she can renter it.

They are few in number,too few to protect themselves against a sustained attack from a large number of attackers. They have wooden weapons such as spears with fungus tips that infect any wound given, wooden spikes and clubs, but their most common tactic in battle is to pull a person's hands and head into solid wood or rock and let them die of blood loss and suffocation.There are Dryads who have become tainted by evil magic and have killed any human who enters their section of forest but most Dryads only kill if they feel that they have to.

[EchoMirage]

Good excuse to sneak chick-on-chick action into a game, Cheka

Now, what good would all that sex be for (except for the dryads to enjoy themselves...) ? Perhaps the hair of dryads contains pollen, and in engaging love, they allow their dryad sister to give brith to lesser nature spirits.
Their mating could be a fertility ritual for the forest, infusing it with life energy.

As for the other points - I'd say that a body does not have to be buried, but that the roots drag it underground.
Also, becoming a dryad voluntarily should not be that difficult - if you love nature deeply enough, you might just take your life in an enchanted forest, hoping to rise.

Adryad's shape could depend on what tree she dwells in - an apple tree could house a dryad sweet with red cheeks, while a willow could be chosen for a dwelling by a dryad who's good to talk to, and has long straight hair that's almost impossible to comb. Aneucalyptus dryad would have fresh breath. Always  

[Cheka Man]

Dryads are few because otherwise much of the continent would be forest and it would require major military campagins to cut trees down and make way for new towns and roads.

[ScorpionJinx]

From what I have read a dryad's life tree tends to be a type of oak. Her nature and appearance not  subject to the characteristics of her life tree. Though it does seem rational that unnatural (not originally a dryad) ones would bear certain similarities between themselves and their tree.
I think the further from her tree she gets, a dryad would begin to show signs of withering. AE drying of the skin. Patches of discolorations. Body would gradually become more dried out and husk like. But she would have a safe radius of say 1/2 mile all the way around her tree. Else all dryads would seem to be collected in one place.

Ok, you given the way for a dryad to turn a human into a dryad. But is there a way to turn a dryad into a human or elf?
And if the dryad being turned human or whatever is an unnatural one, would it be possible say for the dryad to become a man once more?
Just out of curiosity.

[Kinslayer]

Given that the nature of creating more dryads involves slaying the original human, it would seem that any means to undo this would simply result in a human corpse.  

As an alternative, the character's form & lifeforce can be separated from the enchantment.  This would result in the loss of all specific dryad abilities, but also would not have any of the penalties.  This would result in what would essentially be a normal human woman, albeit one perhaps with an odd dryad-like appearance.  

Yet another option is to have the process always readily and finally reversible. That is, the dryad returns to her original form upon death.  

Of course, this all assumes that someone wants to become a human.  Cheka Man mentioned them retaining the memories of their former lives, but their personalities are altered by the change.  This could either result in a dryad who is willing to try anything to return to humanity, or one who now prefers her current state:  "I understand how you must feel, and I would have felt the same way, back in my previous life, but I really like being a dryad now; no other life would be worth living after this."