Dryad Race Packet
“Harmony with nature brings harmony in life.”
Dryads are so deeply connected to the natural world that their bodies have taken up plant or fungus-like features. They are one of the oldest races, having walked the forests of Fortannis before the time of Elves and Biata. For reasons lost to history and memory, the Dryads merged with the very trees themselves as part of something known as “The Great Slumber,” and it has only been within the last generation that they have awoken from their selfimposed exile. Dryads now find themselves in an unfamiliar world, seeking to find a new balance with nature or returning it to the primal form it once had.
Make-Up, Prosthetics, and Role Play
All Dryads must incorporate plants, vegetation or fungus into their hair, face, or skin to the point where it can be easily recognized at a distance. This can be done through prosthetics with optional make-up.
There are four common themes of make-up and prosthetics that Dryad characters may be based on. These themes represent collections of nature and the environment as opposed to individual fruits, vegetables, or mushrooms/mold.
Thorn: Flowers and leafy plants found near grasslands and fields
Barkskin: Trees and other large plants found in forests and heavily wooded areas
Reed: Plants found near swamps, ocean shores, and rivers
Spore: Fungus and mold commonly found in caves and underground areas
Dryad racial make up may be adjusted in color and type between games to reflect the changing of seasons. Regardless of adjustments, all racial makeup must still remain recognizable at a distance.
Racial Benefits
Dryads have the ability to purchase the Resist Binding skill. Nature grows wild and is difficult to contain. Dryads with effort can draw upon their connection to nature to defend against being contained by physical or magical means.
Dryads may purchase the Alchemy skill at reduced cost. Their affinity for the natural world allows Dryads to understand the properties of plant and animal materials and how to best combine them.
Racial Drawbacks
Processed metal of any type generates discord within Dryads and they will avoid the use of metal weapons and armor. The manipulation of metals through heating, melting and forging throws off its “energy.” This dissonance has a negative effect on any Dryad who is near it.
Coins in a pouch or metal rivets in leather will not bother them, but a metal bracer wrapped around the forearm would feel extremely, distractingly uncomfortable. The level of discord becomes unmanageable when the quantity of metal is large enough to serve as a weapon or armor. This prevents dryads from using metal or silvered weapons as well as wearing armor that is primarily composed of metal.
Lifespan and Family
Dryads have a lifespan slightly longer than humans, living close to a century on average. A solitary life spent surrounded by nature increases their lifespan considerably, while physical proximity to pollution and manufactured metal leads to earlier than normal signs of aging. Dryads tend to organize along family lines. Sometimes several families will band together to care for a particular section of nature led by the eldest member of the collective families
In addition to being born, Dryads can “awaken” from a large tree or patch of plant life, mold, or mushrooms. These Dryads are of adult age and represent those who lived within First Forest and were made dormant as part of the “Great Slumber”. To Dryads, those who have awakened are simply considered long lost family members and are treated warmly, much to the confusion and curiosity of outsiders and onlookers.
The First Forest and the Great Slumber
The First Forest is a source of primal nature. Some say it is the place where life once began, others believe it is a plane of existence that closely borders the Material Plane of Fortannis and connects all nature.
While its origin and reason for existence is lost to the ages, it is certain that in the distant past all Dryads claimed the First Forest as their home. Due to some unknowable calamity, The Dryads of the First Forest used ancient magic to put themselves to sleep, to awaken after the danger had passed.
All forests and pockets of nature are claimed to be connected to the First Forest, with many ancient and untouched places thought to be manifestations of the First Forest in that part of Fortannis. Dryads have a connection to the First Forest, but how it manifests varies depending on where in Fortannis they are, if at all.
Those Dryads who attempt to recall their time before the Great Slumber remember it as a blurred, but pleasant, dream. Memories of family members, training, and simple pleasures are clearer to recall, but any actual historical facts are impossible to glean.
Necromancy, Blight, and the Malwoken
Necromancy and Pollution, often referred to by Dryads simply as “blight”, are detested for their destructive effects against nature, to the point where Dryads consider the destruction of nature and casting of necromancy to be equally as heinous. This hatred of blight is for good reason. Dryads who awaken alone in an area of intense blight emerge as cursed beings with twisted minds intent on spreading necromancy and destruction. These “Malwoken” are permanently afflicted with no known cure to return them to their former Dryad selves. It is for that reason that Dryads actively seek to destroy sources of blight to prevent their brethren from awakening in these modern times sick and corrupted.
