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Dryad
A Dryad is an earth elemental species with a deep connection to nature, especially trees, and has access to terra magic and miraculous healing abilities. A Dryad can be born from other Dryads or turned from a Human.
Dryad
A Dryad is an earth elemental species with a deep connection to nature, especially trees, and has access to terra magic and miraculous healing abilities. A Dryad can be born from other Dryads or turned from a Human.
Dryads are indistinguishable from Humans and can run the gamut of Human appearances in all but one way: their gaia marks.
Dryads wear a visible pattern of their ability to use terra magic on their skin in the form of faint markings. These can be anywhere on the body, and take the appearance of anything. Most commonly they appear as vine patterns on the arms and/or legs.
The gaia marks are faint and can be near invisible to the human eye by default; the more visible can be disguised as tattoos, scars, or unusual birthmarks. But a Dryad's gaia marks can glow faintly when the Dryad is using terra magic.
While Dryads hail from all corners of the globe and all different cultures, they are magically bound to nature. All Dryads feel most at home in the forest or the general wilderness, where their connection to magic and nature are strongest, and it is where most Dryads historically choose to make their homes.
If a Dryad is away from a large source of nature for long periods of time, they will feel weak, as if a part of them is missing, and lose their magic. This does not kill them, but it does make them weak, powerless, and absolutely miserable. A Dryad cannot survive in a typical urban or city environment for very long because there's just not enough nature to sustain them or their magic, or make them feel whole.
The branch of magic that Dryads possess is considered to be as old as the world itself. Terra magic is an ancient and wild form of magic unique to their species, and a close cousin to a Selkie's sea magic or a Phoenix's ash magic.
Terra magic is made up of three primary components: earth elemental magic, plant manipulation and communication, and healing magic. All Dryads have access to all three components, with varying strengths and skill levels.
A Dryad's healing abilities are considered miraculous. It is one of the most potent healing magicks that exist in the world. A Dryad can bring someone back from the very brink, seconds from Death's clutches. They can cure and heal nearly everything, as long as the person they are healing has the will to live.
However, the price to pay for miraculous healing is high for a Dryad. The Dryad absorbs the illness or injury themselves, that is gathered into a black miasma within them and then violently expelled through the mouth a short time later. The injuries or illnesses they absorb can sometimes even be seen on their bodies in a physical form.
This is an extremely painful process and is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting for the Dryad. A Dryad can exhaust themselves so far that they can die from the wounds or illnesses they take from the other person. Thus, Dryads guard against the use of their healing abilities and rarely use them to benefit others.
Dryads can sustain themselves the normal Human way, or through water and sunshine when within a hamadryas.
Nature Attachments
Dryads have a deep, soul-connected attachment to both nature and the earth itself. They have the ability to communicate with all of the world's flora through a weak telepathic link that is always present and always accessible as long as the Dryad has not been cut off from their terra magic.
Dryads can also have a special connection or attachment to a certain species of trees, plants, or flowers. Such as an oak tree, a creeping vine, or a rose, for example.
They are often specifically attuned to the species of their connection and their magic is strongest when used on, with, or near their attached plant life.
A Dryad can also be more narrowly bound to one specific tree, plant, or flower, rather than all living species of that plant type. Whether they are connected to a plant species as a whole or one specific plant is Player Choice.
How their terra magic benefits from this connection, and how it is affected by distance, is Player Choice.
Nature Attachments are optional; Dryads do not have to have special connections for their terra magic to be effective.
Hamadryas
Thanks to their connection with nature and their terra magic, Dryads have the ability to "step into" nature and merge themselves body and mind with a plant's spirit, to enter a sort of hibernation state within that plant to heal, rest, and commune with nature on a spiritual level.
This process is called a hamadryas. It is almost exclusively done with trees, hence the name, but can actually be done with any living plant.
A Dryad performs a hamadryas through contact with the tree they wish to enter. A link is formed between the living tree and the Dryad's terra magic, and they will be allowed entry to merge.
To an outside observer, the Dryad appears to vanish. They have lost their physical form and have now joined with the tree in a spiritual form, and their consciousness joins into a sort of "nature hive mind" that connects all living flora together.
To a Dryad in a hamadryas, the outside world becomes as if a dream. They retain a vague sense of consciousness and identity within this hive mind of nature, but can only have limited interaction through the plant life to the real world.
It is a hibernation state where a Dryad only has a vague sense of reality and the passage of time outside the hamadryas.
A hamadryas is extremely beneficial to a Dryad. It heals all wounds, cures all illnesses, and restores full strength and magic to the Dryad. Nature's embrace with the hamadryas restores, rejuvenates, and even has the ability to reverse aging in a Dryad.
There is no set amount of time a Dryad must remain within a hamadryas, but the longer they stay, the more beneficial it is for them.
A Dryad is functionally defenseless while in this state, however. While the consciousness can travel, the physical form remains merged where the Dryad entered the hamadryas. Lose themselves too deep within nature's hive mind or hibernate for too long, and a Dryad won't be able to 'wake' fast enough to escape a forest fire, or the tree being cut down. If the tree they are in dies, the Dryad dies, too.
To leave the hamadryas, all a Dryad must do is a form of 'waking', and pull back the link between the tree's spirit and the Dryad's terra magic. They will then be able to leave the tree and reappear in the outside world once again.
Dryads are extremely flammable, despite their earth elemental magic. To the same extent, if not worse, than Vampires and Ghouls. Most Dryads have a strong aversion to fire, as a result.
Dryads can live to a maximum lifespan of 6,000 years old.
Dryads have a typical Human lifespan, and age accordingly. However, thanks to their terra magic, the hamadryas, and the possible connection to a specific plant species, it is possible for Dryads to both extend their lifespans and extend their youthful appearances.
A Dryad can even de-age themselves, returning an older or frail body back to its youthful vigor, by spending an extended time within a hamadryas.
As a result, if they choose to do so, and barring any unforeseen complications, a Dryad can live as long as trees can, up to thousands of years old.
Dryads have full access to their terra magic from birth or the moment of their turning, though turned Dryads often have issues early on with control and the connection to nature.
Humans can be turned into Dryads through a soul-bond with terra magic.
A Soul-Bond is formed by the terra magic claiming the soul of a Human who interacts with it. This is most commonly done through the trees, the strongest source of terra magic, but really it can be accomplished by most anything in nature, especially if the Human is surrounded by it.
It's far more common for a Human to turn in the middle of a forest than in the garden center of a city store, for example.
The Human will find themselves inexplicably drawn to the calling source of the terra magic, such as a tree. Once they touch it, a hamadryas immediately occurs where the person is sucked into the soul of the tree and a soul-bond with the terra magic is cemented.
They are stuck in the hamadryas state until they figure their way out. Once they emerge from the hamadryas, they are now newly turned Dryads, with their gaia marks and terra magic permanently in place.
Dryads can only be created by being born a Dryad or turned from a Human. Once someone is born or turned a Dryad, they will always be a Dryad. There is no way to become a Human or another Supernatural creature.
Dryads can have children with the following species besides themselves:
The child of a Dryad and another species will always be the species of one of the parents.
Example: The child of a Dryad and a Shifter will either be a Dryad or a Shifter. There is no such thing as a 'hybrid' species.
Dryads can tell supernaturals apart by their magic signatures. Each species has its own magic signature in addition to a signature that is unique to them. These can be covered or changed through the use of manipulation magic.
