Dryads in Danger!

From: ssunsbw_at_rgh.sa.gov.au
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 16:30:00 -0800 (PST)


Giles asks about wayward dryads.......

IMO dryads *are* found outside a full Aldryami ecology. In the same way as 10% of mundane animals are sapient/awakened (the fish worshippers of Zola Fel etc from ROC? SC?), a proportion of plants and plant spirits should be intelligent. Dryads already seem to be this - the intelligent conscious physical manifestation of plant spirits. In this model there is a chance a dryad will form wherever there is enough vegetation. Not every oasis, sinkhole, watercourse, mountain etc (the places where vegetation is more likely to be permanent in Prax/ROC) will have a dryad but some will. 1 in every 10 seems a pretty good number. The dryads that are born in such conditions will be wilder and more independent than their sisters in an Aldryami ecology. They would probably not have any Aldrya divine magic, but would have access to spirit magic known by the plant spirits of her home area. As a spirit creature, your independent dryad could also gain other magic from battles on the spirit plane. (It would also be pretty nifty if an independent dryad learnt, won or stole divine magic from one of the local worshipped spirits, such as Lightning Boy. Hmmm....look, that Dryad is threatening to kill us if we don't stop chopping these bushes down and leave.....*ZAP* .....we're leaving right now ma'am!)

Places were such dryads could be found include oasis's, along the Zola Fel, at the feet of the Paps etc etc. I can't remember if Gloranthan dryads are purely tree-spirit derived/dependent, but there may be a case for other vegetation giving rise to them. Perhaps several kilometres of rushes along the river provide enough spiritual impetus for a dryad to form. 10 square kilometres of bush/chaparral?

Another option to consider is that an independent dryad, forming far from normal Aldryami society, instinctively knows how to contact her mother and can use the worship of the plant-spirits in her locale to gain access to divine magic. If enough plants are present (and she leads them in worship), she may be able to create a minor temple equivalent.

What's the orthodoxy rating on all that?

Cheers,

Benjamin


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