Majestic Creatures Profile
Dryad
Dryad Statistics
Diet: Herbivore
Rated Danger Level: 1
The Beast Tamer: These creatures are very shy.
Real World Dryad Mythology
It is often found that their life force is connected to the tree they reside in, and were usually found in sacred groves of the gods. They were to be considered very shy creatures with exception around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.
Types of Dryads
Daphnaie
A nymph of the laurel tree. They are named after Daphne (’Laurel’) who is one of the naiads that was plagued with unwanted sexual advances until she cried to Gaia for help. The Earth Mother then took pity on her and turned Daphne into a laurel tree.
Epimelides
The Epimelides, Epimeliads, Meliades or Maliades are dryad nymps that care for apples or other fruit trees as well as sheep and goats. The homonymic names for an epimelias relates to both fruit trees and flock animals giving them a dual role.The appearance of one of these dryads can be seen with white hair, like apple blossoms or undyed wool. Similar to other dryads, they can shape-shift from trees to humans.
Hamadryad
Hamadryad like all other nymphs, are tied to their homes. However, they are such an integral part of their tree, that if the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it also died. For these reasons, dryads and the Greek gods punished any mortal who harmed trees without appeasing the tree nymphs first.
Meliae
The dryads for the ash tree were called Meliae. The Meliae sisters tended the infant Zeus in Rhea’s Cretan cave. Gaea gave birth to them after being made fertile by the blood of the castrated Uranus. The Caryatids were associated with walnut trees.
Dryad Mythology in World of Legends
In the past, on World of Legends, Dryads have seemed to have taken much more similarity to a Hamadryad. As in, their entire life force is tied to their tree, once the tree dies, so do they.
Though they are known to be herbivores and are considered to be very shy. Found in the forests of Eldathren, they can live a great many years if their tree remains unharmed.
An Evolution of Dryads?
Nowadays, Dryads may be more commonly known on World of Legends as Tree Sprites. Which are common in the deeper parts of the forest of Eldathren in the Grove of the Fallen.
"They are thought of as the original druids and tend to the forests carefully with some form of innate magical ability. They can be shy due to a long history of being captured and sold unwillingly as a pet, they tend to only communicate with druids or those who show a care for the forest.
Sprites do, however, enjoy a playful existence with one another and are known to be more welcoming to children who they can still wow with their rudimentary magical ability. They can fly some but seemed to prefer climbing up and down the length of their tree home. Sprites tend to become attached to a single tree or small patch of trees that they see as their area to protect. Primarily they ward off harmful insects or mammals that try burrowing into the bark.
Multiple sprites can injure people who try hurting their trees but don’t offer any real threat and can be easily slain. Doing so is considered an affront to the forest and criminal but it is still done to sprites considered troublesome when too close to homes or work areas. Generally sprites are left alone to tend happily to their trees and can be found if you just search hard enough on particularly ancient trees."
(Excerpt taken from Eyes of the Wilds: Book One (Eldathren)
The Change from Dryads to Tree Sprites
It is unknown if the change from Dryads to Tree Sprites is accurate at all, however, it is something to take into consideration. As the times change in the lands of Isilendor, the knowledge does too. They could potentially be mere coincidences, or that Dryads had actually died out and evolved into Tree Spirits.
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