Hamadryad

Basic Information

Anatomy

Born of the power of nature, all hamadryads are female, and they present themselves in two aspects.
In their nymph form, these granddaughters of the seasons and the skies are idyllic paragons of fey perfection and physical beauty. Their hair and eyes match the colors of autumn leaves, from green to russet, gold, orange, red, and brown. Autumn leaves and acorns might dangle from a hamadryad's hair, and her eyes are clear orbs of green, white, or gold.
The dryad aspect of a hamadryad is not dissimilar. However, when a hamadryad draws on her dryad strength, her features take on the appearance of skillfully carved wood, the patterns of the grain manifesting across her form like ripples on the surface of a pond.

Genetics and Reproduction

Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree.

Growth Rate & Stages

Hamadryads are born fully matured as they split from their parent tree.
As the spirits of the autumn oak, most hamadryads live as long as the trees to which they are bound. Some have short lives at one or two hundred years. Others have been known to live for millennia.

Ecology and Habitats

They dwell happily in the woodlands of the world and the Feywild, frolicking with others of their kind.
Inside their forest homes, hamadryads walk unclothed in their dryad aspect, blending easily into the background of bark and foliage.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Hamadryads resist the effects of starvation, thirst, or suffocation, and they can survive for twice the normal time period other species do. They do not require sleep, but Hamadryads must meditate at least four hours each day to absorb light (even from as small a source as a candle), soak in water, or connect with the earth beneath your feet.

Biological Cycle

When a Hamadryad reaches the end of her natural life she dwells in isolation, planting her feet against the earth and setting down roots that delve deep into the soil. As her body becomes a tree, it grows tall and strong even as it retains a semblance of her nymph's form. Other fey creatures are attracted to the hamadryad's place of solitude, and pixies and gnomes are prone to make their homes in the vicinity.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Hamadryads live a lonely existence. In their youth, they dwelled happily in the woodlands of the world and the Feywild, frolicking with others of their kind. The choice to seek a life in the wider world means that a hamadryad loses the fellowship of her sisters. When a hamadryad adventurer leaves her tree and ventures off into the world, she walks alone. As beautiful as they are, hamadryads naturally attract the attention of other humanoids-some who seek to serve that beauty, and others who hope to take advantage of a hamadryad's inexperience with the world. Hamadryads quickly learn to congregate where other fey are found, and they are typically welcomed among gnomes, pixies, eladrin, elves, and satyrs. Some fey communities go so far as to treat hamadryads as honored guests or royalty leading some hamadryads to expect this sort of deference at all times. This expectation, combined with a hamadryad's inability to adjust to the social norms of other cultures, can cause a hamadryad to come off as haughty or graceless in the eyes of those around her.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Forest of the Feywild

Average Intelligence

Generally high intellect

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Names with a enchanting or graceful rings to them Example: Aileia, Celindara, Eilonwy, lrinea, Lyrindel, Rhiana

Major Organizations

The Clan Oolacile

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Sylvan

Common Taboos

destruction of plant-life

History

At the beginning of time, the world had four daughters more beautiful in form than any creature and more wild. They were called Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring, and they chased one another around the world while the primordials and the gods looked on. In their play, they frolicked with the brothers of the wind, and from this union the first nymphs were born. They were named Summer Ash, Autumn Oak, Winter Fir, and Spring Flower, and they were the spirits of the first trees that grew in the world.
The capricious nymphs played their own wild games in the forests of the dawning world for time out of mind. But they were not all to dwell in such bliss forever. With the rise of mortals, certain autumn nymphs, the wisest and most pensive of the tree sisters withdrew from their games when they began to perceive the state of natural life in decline. Woodlands were burned, dryads' groves cut down, and great swaths of the world left lifeless by the wars and the avarice of reckless mortals.
To protect their homes, these autumn nymphs embraced their wild natures entirely. They gave up their carefree fey immortality and began the slow transformation into the wild tree maidens known as dryads. In these forms, they would protect their forests from harm with mighty branch and crushing limb, using their wisdom to understand the minds and motives of mortal creatures.
Hamadryads stand at an intermediate state between playful nymph and fierce dryad. Bound to a living tree, a hamadryad ardently protects the forests of which she is a part. She calls on the mighty strength of the wood to smash her enemies, summoning the spellbinding beauty of her majestic fey heritage to bewitch and charm mortals and thereby alter their destructive behavior.

Scientific Name

Mulier Lignum

Origin/Ancestry

Feywild

Lifespan

300 Year

Average Height

5'6"-6'2"

Average Weight

130-180 lb.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

When a hamadryad draws on her dryad strength, her features take on the appearance of skillfully carved wood, the patterns of the grain manifesting across her form like ripples on the surface of a pond.