Nature spirit, possibly a dryad, who has been living in the Oatman Canyon region since before it had that name
- Gender
- female
- Eyes
- pale green with brownish specks
- Hair
- bright green in the wet season, brassy in the dry season
- Skin Tone/Pigmentation
- reddish-brown ropy bark
Strictly speaking, Yiara is a dryad. She might have been born of, or closely associated with, a bald cypress tree: she has that reddish-brown ropy appearance to her skin and the scar marks on her upper areas where moss once rooted. Her hair is bright green in the wet season, brassy in the dry season. Her eyes are the pale green of cypress balls with brownish specks.
If she is a creature of the swamp trees, then Yiara is a long way from her birthplace indeed!
In Purgatory Gulch, Yiara is known to be "the naiad of Arjory Pond". Her existence is not casually broached to outsiders. On rare occasions, one of the older residents speculates that Yiara might be a "lost demigod" whose temple still lies deep in the spring. She might even be the source of the spring, faded in power from the days when she embodied an entire lake and river through the canyon, the true reason why this area is fertile at all.
If the history-keepers and spiritual leaders of KaraKorum know Yiara's history, they do not speak of it ... and, in fact, are somewhat insulted at being asked such a question.
Yiara speaks Kayam when she speaks at all. Her communication is more likely to take the form of a stare, a glare, a menacing slow approach, and then a drowning. She might understand Common -- the local people in Oatman Canyon use it when trying to communicate with her -- but she has never spoken it nor written any message.
Druids and rangers charming enough to draw Yiara into conversation might pick up a fleck here or there of a much more southern accent.
All citizens of Purgatory Gulch are careful to stand at the shore to say, clearly and precisely, how much water they wish to take -- for what purpose -- and what repayment they offer before they dip a ladle in Arjory Pond to fill their skein or bucket.
(Yiara secretly likes the people of Purgatory Gulch and Oatman Canyon, including most of the farmers and ranchers and a few of the "miners". Her menacing behavior is about sixty percent a dramatization for tradition's sake. She has been known to show up at the occasional funeral, if someone thought to tell her of it.)
Social