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Wenin
Senior Scribe
585 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Sep 2016 : 14:46:50
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Reading the 5e Monster Manual for the Dryad it discusses the creation of dryads.
"Powerful fey will sometimes bind lesser fey spirits to trees, transforming them into dryads. This is sometimes done as a punishment when the fey spirit falls in love with a mortal and that love is forbidden."
I have also found that Silvanites perform a yearly ceremony on the 30th of Flamerule called Dryad Dance. The description of the ceremony in the 3.5 Faiths & Pantheons seems to be a contradiction of sorts.
"... a wild revitalizing ritual of piping and dancing that calls dryads out of the woods to wander, even far from their trees, to mate with humans."
- Searching the previous edition Monster Manuals they didn't offer creation stories, though there are clearly some differences between sources.
-- Dryads had their image changed between versions. In 3.5 and 5e they could be mistaken as women, but from an image I found for 4e (don't own the 4e monster manual, the edition barely exists in my reality)
-- In 2e and 3.5e Dryads couldn't venture further than 360' from their home tree. This is in direct contradiction to the ceremony, which apparently gathers Dryads "far from their tree". Since both sources are the same edition, this would indicate that the ceremony grants dryads the freedom that they don't normally have in that edition.
Back to the original "contradiction"
- Mating does not require love. I've read some sources that indicate that the humans are the ones conducting the ritual. So is the ceremony charming the dryads to "mate" with the humans? Or are the dryads willing participants?
- If they are being charmed, than this is an act of rape right? so the performance of the ritual has a dark aspect.
- If the dryads are willing participants, and combining the creation story from 5e, then these fey having been "punished" for loving mortals are essentially playing with fire... not having learned from their lesson.
Also, what are your thoughts on the "powerful fey" that are issuing the "punishment". Are they possibly in opposition to Silvanites? Silvanites have a ritual that results in dryads and humans "mating", which really seems very counter to "thou shall not love mortals" that the powerful fey have as a conviction.
A way to make these two things meet is to take portions of each as "Lore" rather than "fact".
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Session Reports posted at RPG Geek.
Stem the Tide Takes place in Mistledale.
Dark Curtains - Takes place in the Savage North, starting in Nesmé. I wrapped my campaign into the Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but it takes place in 1372 DR. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2016 : 16:06:15
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| The easiest fix would be to say the 5E Monster Manual dryads are core, and that the Realms ones are different -- much like core elves and dwarves are different from sun elves, moon elves, gold dwarves, and shield dwarves. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2016 : 00:49:02
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One of the third-party fairy lore books (back in 3e) had it where all fey need some sort of physical anchor to the real world (I forget why - perhaps because in truth, they are merely 'spirits'). I forget what they called those anchors*, but I really fell in love with the concept.
Dryads are the most obvious case, but if you really study fey-lore you'll see all of them are bound to something. In the case of 'Fey Courts', the fairy troupe is bound to the Queen (or king), who in-turn is bound to the Court (place) itself. This is reflected in FR in the way Queen Amlaruil is bound to Evermeet (giving her - and other'Fey Queens' - Domain-like powers over their demesne, much like how it is in Ravenloft).
Thus, it seems strange to me that Dryads are being 'punished'. To me, this is a contradiction in lore, much like how they changed the background of driders. When I come across things like this, I assume one version is just plain wrong - it is 'hearsay' - some rumor started by someone at one point, and now folks are just accepting it as 'fact'. If we go with FR's original premise - that everything we read is 'uncertain third party', then this take fits the setting perfectly (another built-in self-corrector on Ed's part).
Now, if it were me, I would mesh the two - I would say that they aren't being punished, but rather, some other fey have taken exception to their behavior, especially in regards to that ritual by Silvanus' clergy. maybe the satyr started that story, to get even with the dryads for not paying enough attention to them. As to how they can wander further away - thats an easy one. first off, they can always wander further off, its just unsafe to do so. They become 'diminished', and run the risk of disappearing (dying) forever; they just get weaker and weaker. The other thing is, if a deity has chosen to give its blessing to a ceremony, then the bonds of the tree to the dryad are strengthened, and the radius (aura?) is increased (and increasing the 'spiritual strength' of a tree sounds like its right up Sylvanus' alley). If you think of it as (life) 'radiation', then its akin to enriching uranium.
As to the weird changing of them in 4e (and BTW, you seem to have not completed your thought in that sentence, but I got the gist), I assume they are always able to take a more battle-ready continence. Under normal conditions, they want to appear more pleasing to the eye. However, being spirits (as all fey truly are), they can take other forms, tied to their 'anchor' (in the case of dryads, their tree). Thus, a 'frost fey' could take on a shape making it look more like an ice monster (they become more like the thing they are associated with, drawing strength from its 'physicality'). So Dryads can always look like very angry tree-people - just don't piss them off.
*The book I was thinking of was The Complete guide to Fey, by Goodman Games, and I highly recommend it. They call their anchor-concept a 'Cynosure'. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 07 Sep 2016 00:55:06 |
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BenN
Senior Scribe
Japan
382 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2016 : 01:50:45
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According to the FR wiki page on Tel-quessir (which cites Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves),
quote:
Female Tel-quessir can also choose to transform themselves into either a dryad or a nymph when they die through a ritual. These reincarnated Tel-quessir are then tied forever to the place where the ritual was performed.
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Edited by - BenN on 07 Sep 2016 01:51:11 |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 07 Sep 2016 : 02:21:19
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| The Dance of the Dryads is not as much a ritual as it is a religious hedonistic holiday of sorts. BOTH parties are WILLING participants. The way I explain it in my FR world is that dryads are ONLY FEMALE, so this ritual is necessary to perpetuate the race, though obviously one can become a dryad by other means (such as BenN describes). Also, since dryads cannot leave their tree, this was Silvanus' way of ensuring that dryads have a means to reproduce without the endless binding of spirits or transformations of female deceased elves. |
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Wenin
Senior Scribe
585 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2016 : 14:56:15
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Love all the answers. Great feedback. I'll be looking to get that Guide book. Thanks
Yeah, I meant to continue my thought that 4e Dryads look like "monsters" of no particular sex. I like the idea that dryads form can change given situations. Perhaps a more endangered forest the dryads take on a more hardened form.
Thanks again! |
Session Reports posted at RPG Geek.
Stem the Tide Takes place in Mistledale.
Dark Curtains - Takes place in the Savage North, starting in Nesmé. I wrapped my campaign into the Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but it takes place in 1372 DR. |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2016 : 15:15:39
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| I always thought that satyrs helped make little dryads. Wouldn't dryad children begat with mortals be half-fey? I know that the sylph depend upon men and elves (what about orcs? hmm.) to procreate, but I've never been sure if they are fey or elemental. Maybe they just drop acorns. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2016 : 17:45:00
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quote:
Originally posted by Fellfire
I always thought that satyrs helped make little dryads. Wouldn't dryad children begat with mortals be half-fey? I know that the sylph depend upon men and elves (what about orcs? hmm.) to procreate, but I've never been sure if they are fey or elemental. Maybe they just drop acorns.
I would personally say that a dryad and a mortal would produce a half-fae (I like the ones in Faeries, by Bastion Press), but a dryad and another fae would produce a dryad. Or maybe a dryad and a mortal would have a chance of producing a half-fae, and a chance of producing a dryad. Maybe it's dependent on the gender of the offspring... Or maybe the offspring is born a half-fae and can later choose to be a dryad. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 09 Sep 2016 : 19:18:30
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I also use the Bastion press Faeries book as well. Lots and lots of great ideas floating around out there in the fantasy/RPG universe - there is no reason to shackle yourselves to just one set of ideas, or system. Highly recommend that one as well (because I LOVE fairy lore - I had once been the person who was designing the Fairy lorebook for FGU... until the company moved to the other side of the country).
And yes, satyrs ARE the ones who are usually making 'little dryads' LOL. Mostly just because they tend to hangout in the same type of forests (so, a matter of convenience). I guess you can say, "when it comes to dryads, satyrs really get their goat".
And I can go on here that I would agree with Wooly, because it works within my 'theory of everything' - two fey-types WILL be much more likely to create another fey, rather then a half-fey. There are, however, exceptions. So much blood (DNA) has been mixed over the course of thousands upon thousands of years that just about every group has some blood of another, and you can always get a 'throw back' to an earlier ancestor. I think that's how Elves came about - they will never admit it, but they are already mostly 'half-elf' - they aren't true fey anymore because of all the dilution of bloodlines over the countess centuries. And you can still get an (almost) pure 'fey' from an elf - just look at Amlaruil's daughter, Ilyrana (if she's not fey, I don't know what is).
quote:
Originally posted by Wenin
Love all the answers. Great feedback. I'll be looking to get that Guide book. Thanks
Yeah, I meant to continue my thought that 4e Dryads look like "monsters" of no particular sex. I like the idea that dryads form can change given situations. Perhaps a more endangered forest the dryads take on a more hardened form.
I think that someone official (possibly even the 4e sourcebooks themselves) said that the dryads had two, possibly three forms, very similar to lycanthropes. I may be mis-remembering, however.
Either way, its a great way to spin them - beautiful maiden, 'woody looking woman-thing', and full-blown 'tree monster'. So basically, you are also giving them the hybrid forms, just like other shape-changers. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 09 Sep 2016 19:22:10 |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2016 : 04:41:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Fellfire
I always thought that satyrs helped make little dryads. Wouldn't dryad children begat with mortals be half-fey? I know that the sylph depend upon men and elves (what about orcs? hmm.) to procreate, but I've never been sure if they are fey or elemental. Maybe they just drop acorns.
I would personally say that a dryad and a mortal would produce a half-fae (I like the ones in Faeries, by Bastion Press), but a dryad and another fae would produce a dryad. Or maybe a dryad and a mortal would have a chance of producing a half-fae, and a chance of producing a dryad. Maybe it's dependent on the gender of the offspring... Or maybe the offspring is born a half-fae and can later choose to be a dryad.
Dryads only give birth to females and they are always full-blooded fey dryads. That's how I explain it. Why? Because magic/fey.
We try to put dryads in a box and assume that there are two genders. They are Fey, and there has always been only one gender. So there really is no argument for any half-fey offspring as there are ONLY female dryads, and their offspring are only female. |
Edited by - Cards77 on 14 Sep 2016 17:27:37 |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 14 Sep 2016 : 15:29:30
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There have been ways to temporarily lift the tether of a dryad, so a new oak tree could be found. It used to require the exorcism spell cast on the woodnymph so that her link to her oaks 'tree soul' was severed, and then the dryad needed to find a new oak within seven days or she would waste away in mere hours. As dryads cannot cast this spell themselves this is severely limited in use and I can see the benefit for them to choose to participate in similar rituals that allow them to leave their oak.
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5e Creation of Dryad & Silvanus' Dryad Dance
