Calling the Children of Autumn!

Grianadhmad

Artisan
A few scenarios for comparison for all of us who play dryads :)
  1. I have a lot of fun with this first one - people inevitably make comments about how Grin is "a walking tree" and I like to sigh dramatically and roll my eyes and explain that we aren't actually trees, we too are flesh-and-blood sentients that merely bear organic plant cuticles and appendages in addition to our standard hair and skin⁽¹⁾. Do you ever come across this?

  2. I like to call other adventurers by however they were first introduced me because dryads are bewildered by someone needing several names to describe themselves⁽²⁾, leading to consistently and uncontrollably calling someone "Lady Ahlana" even when she asks me to stop calling her "Lady," or how I received a missive from an elf that introduced himself as "Pyke of the Brotherhood" so rest assured when I meet him the first time, I'll be using that entire nomenclature.

    Does anyone do this differently, like including racial identifiers the way the examples in the race packet do?

  3. Someone asked me at the last market day how dryads reproduced, and I totally BS'd it. :D Basically said something about how dryads, like plants, have both the parts to pollinate and the parts to be pollinated, so two dryads do their thing ("I won't go into detail because it's not something we discuss in public") and the pollinated dryad produces a large seed, which sleeps through the winter and sprouts (hatches) in the spring. Was then asked, "Then why do you celebrate The Birth in autumn?" and answered "Because that's when Fortannis brought our entire race forth"⁽³⁾.

    Is there an official line on this? Or, has anyone come up with another way to explain/BS it?

  4. Related to the above, although it hasn't come up at all in the roleplay yet, I will be playing Grin as agender and pan. How do others portray gender and sexuality? (Watch graphicity please of course.)

  5. I play Barkskins as being somewhat prejudiced against Spores. Or, to be more accurate, I play myself as being somewhat prejudiced against Spores. Anyone else play differences between the four subtypes?

  6. I didn't change my costume to reflect leaves changing to fall colours⁽⁴⁾ this year, but I'm planning to do so next year and have some costume pieces picked out to indicate the change. My question is, does anybody else who plays a Barkskin or Thorn act differently as the seasons change? I haven't decided whether to go that route or not so I'm looking for some opinions.
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(1) Dryad National Race Packet, "Physiology," par. 3
(2) Ibid, "Society and Relations," par. 7
(3) Ibid, "Lore," par. 3
(4) Ibid, "Physiology", par. 2
 
Re: 3)

I knew this guy who played a Spore dryad, and he explained that his people spread spores onto corpses, and from these corpses spawn new spore Dryads.

In fact, later on, a new Dryad arrived using this explanation, and was "birthed" from the corpse of a permanently dead Biata....and had a serious allergy to Celestial magic as a result of it. It was pretty great.
 
^ This. This is why Grin has problems with Spores. xDD
 
Hello Grianadhmad

  1. I have had this situation happen to me many times. Sometimes I just ignore it as I like trees and I am proud be treelike. I did however sometimes tell people that we are alike I just have a few plant aspects.
  2. Bota is very awkward wit all of those several names as well. So he tries to show the respect and say the right name as much as he can. It just seems people have way too many names.
  3. Reproduction is a bit of a mystery to my character. People tend to try to keep him from the subject because it is very awkward to discuss it. Another player explained my character may be asexual.
  4. My character is I guess asexual. Does not quite understand that kind of things.
  5. Hedoes not really have anything against races or people in general. He tends to like everyone.
  6. I have grapes growing on my PC so as the months go I usually have less. I just dropped the last one in October. I mostly NPC so I roleplay that I leave for a trip to rest with my friend in the winter.
 
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  1. Phalaenopsis tends to treat it like the joke he thinks it is and to go along with it; he talks about having sap instead of blood and plays along when people ask if burning wood is like putting family in the oven. It doesn't bother him.

  2. Phalaenopsis calls people whatever they ask to be called, and if that changes over time then he's fine with that; Phal is also unconcerned with what other people call him, so long as he knows they're referring to him. Given his name is both long and hard to remember if you don't commit to it, he lets people shorten it to whatever they like (Phal being most common), and invites nicknames (such as Waldo); he also makes up his own nicknames for groups of people as opposed to individuals.

  3. No official line that I've seen, although Phalaenopsis tends to avoid the question of Dryad birth in general. He does (by my own cannon, even if I don't ever actually rep it) have fluff-type seeds like dandelions and poplars, and goes suitably white and fuzzy in early autumn before losing all of his leaves sometime between September and November, though they don't actually germinate and it happens regardless of his activity over the year or whether he grew flowers at all. He does go along with the joke that Dryads "mate" by pollinating each other, though the one Spore Dryad that used to come to our chapter was rather adamant that sneezing released spores that spawned new Spore Dryads and he treated that as a joke, as well.

  4. Phalaenopsis is male, but aromantic and asexual (this makes Love less fun to play for me, given that it has basically no effect on him other than acting as an immediate "happy drink"). He's also rather sex-repulsed, though he has no problem with talking and joking about it, and is also not worried about being nude if he's comfortable enough with someone. Just don't touch him in the butt or crotch in a sexual way, even in jest, or he gets upset and you may take a bunch of gas to the face. (ETA: It should be noted that I, personally, have no problem with people touching me in those places in that way if that's what they'd like to do, and my reaction is purely an in-character one, and I make it very clear to other players of the distinction.)

  5. Other than feeling a bit sad for Spores given how (relatively) short their lives are, Phalaenopsis has no strong feelings one way or the other about any other type of Dryad.

  6. In general, Phalaenopsis is more energetic in Spring and Summer than Fall and Winter, although that tends to be because I as a player am more energetic when its warm than when its cold.
 
Very pleased to "meet" two other dryad players. Hello Phil/Bota and Tyler/Phal!

Phal is also unconcerned with what other people call him, so long as he knows they're referring to him. Given his name is both long and hard to remember if you don't commit to it, he lets people shorten it to whatever they like (Phal being most common)

Same. I didn't come up with my character's own nickname but I've gotten rather fond of it. Grianadhmad (which means "sun branch") kept trying to introduce himself properly to the adventurers in Ardic (Traverse City), but nobody except a few elves could pronounce it, so someone finally said "...yeah I'm just going to call you Grin" and it just kind of stuck.
 
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I'm curious how Grianadhmad is pronounced? Given the shortening to Grin, my guess is close to "Grih-nahd-ah-mahd"?

Side note, I found your blog. :p
 
I'm curious how Grianadhmad is pronounced? Given the shortening to Grin, my guess is close to "Grih-nahd-ah-mahd"?

Side note, I found your blog. :p

Oh right I removed the pronunciation key from my signature. You're not far off. The closest you can get in English is "gree-in-uhᵍ-mahd." Barely sound the "g" between "uh" and "mahd".

If you read proper IPA, the pronunciation is /ɡɾiən̪ əiˠ mad̪/
 
...why did that face follow the "I found your blog"? o_O
 
...why did that face follow the "I found your blog"? o_O
I use the "tongue out" face to indicate that whatever preceded it is... Not necessarily a joke? But more something not to be taken too seriously. Some people are very private about stuff like that, so in this particular case it was really more of asking permission to read it before I overstepped a boundary.
 
I use the "tongue out" face to indicate that whatever preceded it is... Not necessarily a joke? But more something not to be taken too seriously. Some people are very private about stuff like that, so in this particular case it was really more of asking permission to read it before I overstepped a boundary.

OH! Absolutely fine then. I wouldn't have included it in my signature if it was more private. It's basically so I don't forget all the things I did as the character (like how I haven't done any entries for our October event and I'm already having trouble recalling the mods), but it's definitely an open read.
 
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