Aspen Dryad

Aspen dryads are a variety of dryad that belongs in the Green Hell, a largely uncharted zone north of Deeper Felarya. This information was acquired, however, from other dryads: Aspen dryads leave few survivors, and the Green Hell deals with them swiftly.

Aspen dryads are generally rather small for dryads, but that's only because few of them live to a long age. The maximum size for an aspen dryad is no smaller than the usual for any other kind of dryad.

This variety of dryad has the particularity of living in large colonies of clones of a single central dryad. These dryads actually have a hivemind within their own colony, and form no links to other beings. They can reach out into the network, but their attempts to meet other people are generally met with silence. Aspen dryads are extremely assertive, rash, and selfish, qualities which they believe are rightfully justified. In short they're all a bit crazy...

As a consequence of living in colonies with hiveminds, Aspen dryads are unique among other dryads in that they have the opportunity to be cannibalistic, in which they indulge freely on their younger stalks, plucking them out when they feel like it. Note, however, that once one stalk is plucked, it gains complete independence from the hive mind, and knows it's going to be eaten just like any prey; Aspen dryads are aware of this fact and revel on it. The indifference they have to their own pain has as a direct consequence that it's close to impossible to befriend an aspen dryad: if they don't really care if THEY are eaten, why would they care if YOU are?

Aspen dryads are pretty cool guys and doesn't afraid of anything. Fire doesn't bother them in the least, unlike other dryads. Even burning them completely will only make them laugh and thrash around while they still can; their root systems can regenerate their entire bodies in a relatively short time, as they grow extremely quickly.

But all of those characteristics are only secondary to the paramount characteristic of Aspen dryads. They are ambush predators like other dryads, only that by the time you notice one, you're not snatched; you're surrounded by the entire colony, its feeding instinct, and its indifference. Smaller dryads within the colony who are not yet large enough to gulp you down will still grab you and shove you towards their bigger siblings: this makes an aspen colony an overkill hunter. Note that, if they're hungry enough, the bigger siblings will rip their smaller clone (who's holding you) off their roots instead of taking you from their arms just to keep you from squishing in their grasp. Having the person who caught you as a last friend in the stomach may be a little ironic mercy for those who were caught by an Aspen.

Those sound pretty frightening^^; How do they look though? I mean are you using the quaking aspen, or the bigtooth aspen? I mean they are both aspen trees, but they both look very different. Or is their appearance based off a different tree?

An aspen forest that every tree is your enemy, who even laugh at you if they're on fire, who don't hesitate about eating their own kind -> Sound cool and insane to me XD

NIGHTMARE FUEL

I think they could use a little bit more to make their rarity more believable considering their abilities- if they can grow extremely fast, and can regenerate from only the remaining root system, it would seem that they would be spreading across the jungle like kudzu, beyond the Green Hell.

That's scary... Ad a good idea.
But yes, I agree with fish, if the grow like that then they would spread like wildfire.

I had an idea similar to this (1 root system, multiple dryads), except that the dryads weren't tree-humanoid taurs, but mushroom-humanoid. This makes slightly more sense context of multiple 'trunks' because that's what a lot of mushrooms do. When you see a mushroom, you're actually just seeing the part above the soil. There's a much bigger fungi living under the ground with multiple "fruitbodies" (the part above-ground).

The ability *Spawning* of Aspen Dryad needs some restraint XD

I used to have a same idea about root system and swarm, but it is Bamboo Dryad (but I didn't develop it at all as I just think it as a joke on the chat box). In a bamboo forest, bamboo groves connect their roots to each other, creating a very large network of roots, so you can say a bamboo can be a represent for the entire forest ^^

A funny fact is... bamboos will die if they bear flower, and they only do that if they feel their existence is threatened by the environment (a last resort of reproduction, I guess). Due to the network of roots, all of the bamboo will bear their flowers at the same time, then die together XD

Hmm, you're right, guys... this needs some work.

@nightgolem: Actually I've never seen an aspen in my life . Can I count on you to make that choice?

@Fish: I run on nightmare fuel. (Also I was working on the Green Hell, for Sokkiz, one of my characters who's more inconsistently overpowered than Mary Sue and Gary Stu's lovechild AND has a backstory full of nightmare fuel, so I need gallons of it simply to maintain the atmosphere, and NEED MOAR to barely keep things interesting. I could just depower him, but then I wouldn't get ideas like this). You should see what I did with the landworms... however, I wanted to keep their spread in check through other predators who go through them like candy until they finally deplete the root system and starve it. Nevertheless, by extremely fast I meant "extremely fast for a dryad", as in, they grow to man-eating size in less than a decade.

@AnimeJunkie: I considered something like that, but I planned on doing something else with the mushy. Something that's not appropriate for people with heart conditions.

@tkh1304: You know, bamboo dryads sound like an excellent idea too. Maybe you should work on them? I just hope we don't start a trend towards hiveminded dryads.

Well the aspen dryad is your idea not mine, so shouldn't you be the one designing the aspen dryads appearance, and not me? No, I wont do that for you. You need to do it yourself. Looking up information on trees are east. Finding out how they look is easy. I'll show you.
Bigtooth Aspen tree
Bigtooth Aspen trunk up close
bigtooth aspen leaf up close

Quaking Aspen Tree
Quaking Aspen trunk up close
Quaking Aspen leaf up close

Eurasian Aspen leafs up close
Japanese Aspen
Korean Aspen
Chinese tallow tree/Florida Aspen

These photos should help you in figuring out how the two trees look- if you are basing your dryads looks off an aspen then these photo links should come in handy. Now I am done looking up aspem types, looking up aspen pictures.. if you want more examples find them yourself x_x

Oh, my bad, nightgolem. I just thought you knew more about aspens than I did... the thing is that trees all look the same to me.

But you did an effort and that honor-binds me to do the same. I'll be back with an answer.

Stabs wrote:

Nevertheless, by extremely fast I meant "extremely fast for a dryad", as in, they grow to man-eating size in less than a decade.

Makes sense. Especially since they uproot their "siblings." Might wanna make it a bit longer though, maybe around a decade instead of less than.

Stabs wrote:

I considered something like that, but I planned on doing something else with the mushy. Something that's not appropriate for people with heart conditions.

Excellent... I look forward to seeing that.

Stabs wrote:

I just hope we don't start a trend towards hiveminded dryads.

Agreed. 1 or 2 hiveminded dryad species is enough.
Although I'm not sure 'hivemind' is the right word for what we're describing.

I really like this idea.




How hivemind like would the dryads be? Literally one organism, or just all faintly connected or somewhere in between.

Reminds me of this Pando world's largest living organism.