Dryad reproduction

Archmage_Bael wrote:

No really, I know that the reason why eunichs have high voices is because they are people who've been neutered. I also am pretty sure that a guy without testicles will not grow masculine hair, or develop the testosterone for building muscles. The groin is actually a VERY important part of the body and not just used for sexual reasons I'm sure.

I believe Catholic Choir boys in the ancient times were eunichs to keep their singing voices, but as adults there bodies grow strange because the lack of testosterone.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

No really, I know that the reason why eunichs have high voices is because they are people who've been neutered. I also am pretty sure that a guy without testicles will not grow masculine hair, or develop the testosterone for building muscles. The groin is actually a VERY important part of the body and not just used for sexual reasons I'm sure.

Yes, but the organs that control that are the testicles and the ovaries, respectively. I'm not aware of any other organs in the lower half of the body that are important produces of growth or sexual development hormones; mostly that stuff occurs in the brain.

Sean Okotami wrote:

So far it seems to be going to be the second solution: Dryads capture pollen which they use to fertilize their own seed. If we go by Oldman that their breast hold a certain liquid for later use, kinda like how camel humps work, that only leave the crotch unemployed.

So would that mean then the Dryad chooses when she wants to fertilize the seeds or is that something she has no control over?

Oh, man. I don't want to get tangled up in paragraphs and paragraphs of discussion, and I admit I skipped three pages, but...

Perhaps all dryads have the ability to release something (probably spores) into the air containing their DNA. In other words, to act as males as well as females.
These spores might be taken in by the vaginas (ideally of others, but cloning could occur this way), giving them a purpose, and used to form seeds. Seeds and spores would probably be released via the same system.
Breasts are likely vestigial (it does seem that all Felaryan species were originally simple giants), but natural selection hasn't worked against dryads with them. In fact, they undoubtedly lure in a significant quantity of prey over a lifetime.

...I seem to agree with Sean a lot.

You missed it in the 3 page skip Dante, but this is a far better option than what you suggested:

rcs619 wrote:

2: Dryad seeds take advantage of the natural pollenization process and are fertillized by pollen from regular plants. In this case, the Dryad could collect the pollen of other plants as it travels on the wind, and use it to fertillize her own seeds before releasing them. They would be fertillized before they leave their mother, and be ready to begin growing and sprouting once they land somewhere where the terrain is right. This could potentially explain the huge variety in Dryads, since they would take some of their physical traits from their mother, and some of their traits from whatever plant's pollen was used to fertilize her seed.

One other option is that they could be a kind of race of elemental, essentially going back to the Greek souse. They would then be some kind of feminine spirit that bonds (all be it in a permanent fashion) with a plant seed, usually a tree and changes the plant into a dryad. In this sense a dryad is born out of collective mind of the dryads kind of like budding and all dryads are female and have because human like features because that's what the spirits that they are born out of are like in essence. Unlike normal elemental though, they permanently bond to the original seed they inhabit and die with the plant.

The advantage of this idea is you could have your 20 kinds of dryads, but in truth they are still just one race expressed in a myriad of ways, trees would be the most common because that's what the spirits have the greatest affinity for, but you could still have flower dryads and cactus dryads.

That's a good point. Going back to roots when figuring out ideas for fantasy creatures is not a bad option. It may seem dull some times, but in the perspective of details, (especially for Dryads in this case) the origin is specific, but also is very malleable to various ideas.

Trying to clinically explain something like a Dryad would be nigh impossible with our level off knowledge (both medically and scientifically).

Granted, I think Cliff's explanation is a good one, I still think asaenvolk's is a better one.

I like aesonvolk's idea, but I think it's missing something. We know that dryads can share their link with ONE individual in their entire lifetime. This strikes me as a very important feature, especially if we go with the spiritual method. Thus the individual who shared this bond can leave an imprint with the dryad affecting the characteristics of her daughters. That's not to say that the dryad must share this bond to reproduce, but it can have an effect of sorts if she does.

you may have a point there, the bond might indeed be a trigger of sort, or part of the reproduction cycle. Perhaps a bit of the bonded persons essence goes into making the new spirit that will become a dryad in the future.

There's another problem with that one. What does the spirit look like? Personally, I prefer the seed idea since it doesn't rely on a spirit needing to bond with a seed, and actually feel like reproduction.

There incorporeal and just a spirit is has no true from or appearance, as for reproduction, budding is a way several plants reproduce, and if the link Grave is referring too then think of it as a sort of sexual reproduction then.

Why do people envision a spirit as some sort of ghost that has to have a physical form and look like something?

I see it more like the "essence" of life from the dryad network and possibly the individual sharing the bond with the dryad.

As far as having to have everything explained well I think that's just crap. To me as long as something is explained enough that it does not prohibit writers from effectively writing it's been explained enough. Yes having zero information on how dryads reproduce prohibits story telling. That doesn't mean it has to be scientifically analyzed down to nothing though.

Yeah Grave, you have a good point. It could be that the dryads are seeds that were "mutated" by the magic soil, like maybe it had a sudden surge of magic, or like wild magic, and the human half happens to be the result of that. Then, the seeds a dryad produce contain a fragment of that magic, which makes them more likely to receive that magic boost to complete the transformation.

ok working on that question, now that I have a bit more time on my hands ^^

So basically I think the two ideas that have the most merits to them are Cliff's and Asaenvolk's. I'm not totally sure which to pick, I think both have their good points. I would tend to go more for Cliff's as it's a good way to explain their diversity and differences from one to another, and why a Dryad would look like the local fauna.
As for explaining boobs and vaginas, nah we'll pass on it honnestly.. explaining stuff is nice but attempting to explain everything in a world like Felarya just lead nowhere ^^;

So what is your opinion people ?

honestly Karbo, I would tend to shy away from explaining it, leave it a mystery. A few poorly understood things is never a bad bad idea.

Yeah I kind of agree with Cliff's idea more, for Ace's idea possesses a major flaw. And that concept is Domesticated Dryads. Domestic Dryads are bred in captivity and potted to cut them off from the network, Which means they were never connected to the network in the first place, so how could they bond with a seed though the network if the seed is never in soil connected to the network in the first place? If they don't need connection to the network to sprout though, the problem lies in the mithos of nature spirits themselves, since nature spirits have been rather... free spirited. Since they bond with planted seeds, why would they willingly let themselves be born into captivity? I doesn't make much sense does it?

This this is related to this topic (and this topic is alive again), I figured I'd cross-post this from the discussion that was had in the "size of pred babies" thread.

> Dryads:

- Reproduce by combining their seeds with pollen captured from the air around them. Seeds are released into their air when the conditions are right, and can travel great distances before settling down and sprouting.

- The seeds probably have some kind of mechanism, or internal thermostat that can sense the area around where it lands. It it lands in an unsuitable location, the seed never moves onto the next step and goes inert. In all likelyhood, Dryads probably release a great many seeds into the air, and only a few actually land somewhere that matches the criteria for the seed to sprout and begin the process of developing the baby Dryad.

- Baby Dryads, at first, appear to just be normal plants until they reach a certain size (3 to 5 feet tall for the giant ones). When that size is reached, their outer casing will fall off, revealing a humanoid torso that is developmentally similar to the hatchlings of an egg laying predator, like Nagas, Mermaids, etc).

- Their now consious minds then connect to the Dryad network, where the other Dryads will teach and comfort them mentally, as well as helping to nourish their young minds.

- Baby Dryads have an abundance of photosynthetic cells, allowing then to survive solely off light and water until they grow larger. As a Dryad grows, the amount of photosynthetic cells does not increase proportionately, which necissitates the introduction of prey animals into the Dryad's diet to compensate. A full-grown Dryad will still get some energy from photosynthesis, but it will also need to catch and eat prey animals to survive (Although, because of their photosynthetic capabilities, and largely inactive lifestyles, Dryads need to eat far less than other predator species).

- Young Dryads have an unconsious camoflauge/illusion reflex that allows them to hide from would-be threats and predators. As the young Dryad grows, she gains more and more consious control over her illusions.

- Dryads also grow slowly, and grow for far longer than other giant species, allowing them to reach great heights. (Full-sized at 60 years, maybe?)

Not really, it just changes HOW one gets a Domestic Dryad, and actually this brings up a point of problem for a genetic cause. With a dryad being a bound female plant spirit a newly born one that has not yet been bound to a tree is could be summoned and forced to bond to a prepared sapling. Much like any summoning, this probably takes an advanced magi to be able to do it, the spirit is probably bolstered by the dryad network and it would have to be ripped out of that too summon it. Also keep in mind that there wouldn't be an unbound dryad spirit around to summon all that often.

The problem with fertilization is that pollen is everywhere, and it takes only a single pollen/sperm to fertilize a fruit. That means ever seed, in every fruit is a potential dryad that could be born! That makes for the possibility of too rapid a reproduction rate to be maintainable.

Quote :

The problem with fertilization is that pollen is everywhere, and it takes only a single pollen/sperm to fertilize a fruit. That means ever seed, in every fruit is a potential dryad that could be born! That makes for the possibility of too rapid a reproduction rate to be maintainable.

Actually the number is limited to the number of Dryads. The mother contains the female half of the reproductive process, and the pollen she gathers from the air provides the male part.

The male genetic material would be stored seperately until the season/conditions are right for reproduction. It isn't like Dryads are reproducing constantly. The mother would just fertilize and release the seeds into their air when the weather conditions are right.

Keep in mind, not every seed sprouts. A Dryad seed will only begin the development process of a baby Dryad if it lands in a suitable location. If it lands in a bad place, the seed just goes inert. Only a small portion of seeds released would actually land somewhere where growth and development is possible.

Even if a seed sprouts, there are more than enough threats to keep the population in check. Herbivorous creatures would probably be the main threat until the outer covering of the baby dryad falls away, they gain consiousness and their camoflauge reflex comes online. Up until that point, they just look like a plant. Even after they can camofluage themselves, its still pretty dangerous. That camoflauge reflex is literally all they have. A baby Dryad never has an adult protector around like other pred species.

Well kinda, a "very good" place for a seed is where ever it lands, otherwise the conditions becomes arbitrary, the problems is: can it survive where it starts to grow. That the baby dryad is so vulnerable and that there would have to be so many of them for one to reach adult hood sounds a bit cruel, but they this is Felarya I guess.

One of the things that my idea has going for it is that it grants the special bond that a dryad forms with another entity a place in their reproduction, as that person's spirit act as a kind of fertilization unit.

I like rcs619's idea as it seems to be the best of both worlds with all the ideas here. I am really paying attention to this because Ishaaya's a Dryad and I'd like to develop her character more.

I'm more for the idea of the seed too, personally. No offense Ace, but the idea of spirits inhabiting a tree sounds bland to me. I really prefer that the seeds sprout. Although, in Cypress' story, she did mention that she used to be much smaller than John and that he took care of her. If they are using illusions unconsciously, how did he figure out she wasn't an ordinary sprout?

Sean Okotami wrote:

I'm more for the idea of the seed too, personally. No offense Ace, but the idea of spirits inhabiting a tree sounds bland to me. I really prefer that the seeds sprout. Although, in Cypress' story, she did mention that she used to be much smaller than John and that he took care of her. If they are using illusions unconsciously, how did he figure out she wasn't an ordinary sprout?

Really two ways to go with that:

1: Cypress' outer coating came off a little sooner than average... and/or the height range I gave was just an estimate and indivuduals may vary.

2: It is to protect them against threats, and she did not feel threatened by him, which dropped her illusion.

Good thread here, but overall I think I lean towards rcs619's theory. Simple, elegant and effective, traits which are way harder to get going together than one might think.

Also, I can easily explain why dryad's possess female characteristics: for the awesomeness! *high five*