Dryad

Dryad belongs to spirit in the Landorya bestiary. Its usual habitat is Dryads inhabit only the oldest trees of the Eldris Forest, trees that have been growing for at least several centuries and have developed sufficient complexity of root network and canopy to support a dryadic consciousness. They are most commonly encountered in Deeproot Grove and in the oldest sections of Heartwood's peripheral forest, where the tree density and age provide the necessary conditions.. Dryads serve as custodians and living consciousnesses of the oldest trees in the Eldris Forest, maintaining the health of their host trees and the surrounding root networks and of… Key abilities include Complete physical integration with their host tree, allowing them to withdraw from visible manifestation at will, Knowledge of the entire root network surrounding their host tree, extending their awareness across the forest floor for considerable distances, and The ability to accelerate or inhibit plant growth in their immediate environment.

Dryads manifest as tall, slender humanoid forms whose skin has the texture and color of smooth bark — silver-white for birch-dryads, deep reddish-brown for oak-dryads, pale green-grey for beech-dryads — and whose hair flows like trailing moss or hanging lichen. Their eyes are uniformly the deep amber-green of sunlight through forest canopy in summer. They are perceptibly inhuman despite their humanoid shape: their movement is not entirely consistent with physical mechanics, they can be perfectly still for periods that would be impossible for a biological organism, and they interact with the trees they inhabit through what appears to be direct physical merging rather than proximity.

Dryads are ancient, deliberate, and deeply territorial in the sense that their identity is inseparable from their host tree and its immediate surroundings. They are not hostile to Sylvan Elves — indeed, the relationship between the people and the dryads predates any memory — but they are not tolerant of casual approach or disrespect. Those Greenspeakers who have developed ongoing relationships with specific dryads describe them as possessing enormous patience, profound ecological intelligence, and a form of dry humor that manifests in their tendency to share information at precisely the pace required and no faster.

Lyriana Wildheart's relationship with the dryad known as Willow — a birch-dryad in the eastern section of the Eldris Forest — is the most publicly known example of the practitioner-dryad knowledge exchange that the Greenspeaker tradition has cultivated across generations. Willow has shared botanical knowledge with Wildheart over decades of patient exchange that could not have been obtained through any other means, including information about plant species and ecological relationships not yet formally documented. The dryads' awareness of the forest's history extends far deeper than any bark-scroll archive, and the Lorekeeper's Circle periodically consults with them — through appropriate Greenspeaker intermediaries — on questions of historical significance.

Dryads serve as custodians and living consciousnesses of the oldest trees in the Eldris Forest, maintaining the health of their host trees and the surrounding root networks and offering botanical and ecological knowledge to Greenspeakers who approach with proper protocol and genuine purpose.