Inside a Dryad

That idea was brought up by Vaderaz :


He thought to give dryads a more pitcher plant-like digestive system and remove their inability to regurgitate things which was rather arbitrary looking back at it.

Instead, dryads would have now a very strong control over their esophagus, able to open or close it entirely at will, on top of its normal function.

The idea especially make sense when you look at the fact the fact Dryads are heavy sleepers on top of spending a good part of their time with their mouth open and camouflaged with an illusion, so creatures thinking they are taking shelter in the cranny of a tree are actually walking into their open mouth.

So logically a dryad should be able to eat a prey even in her sleep, hence why their throats would be open during that time. Their stomach would become like a small open ecosystem that the dryad mostly close only when there is a prey trapped inside

That open possibility of small  -perhaps acid-resistant - agile creatures going forth inside and outside of the dryad in a symbiosis of sort. They would use the stomach of the dryad as a shelter, and in the same time clean her insides, remove parasites or perhaps even lure prey into her throat when the dryad is asleep. Perhaps through emitting special pheromones or scent or in the case of humans ,by stealing piece of their equipment and ostensibly fleeing into the "'tunnel"

The Dryads stomach would be mostly safe when open, probably filled with a  bit of water in it's "sleeping" state, , and only start producing acids once a prey has been set inside.

As for regurgitation, the dryad would need it to remove indigestible parts from her stomach


What do you think? personally I think the idea makes sense and while it's mostly a detail, it gives a bit more of a particularity to dryads and a plant feel to them ^^

While we are on the topic of dryads, we could add more precision to the way they camouflage themselves.

I imagine some of them rely entirely on natural camouflages but many of them possess an innate illusion magic that work based on the belief of the onlookers.

The way I see it, basically, as long as you think you're looking at a tree, you will see a tree. However when you start to have doubts, the illusion starts to slowly fade as well. That's what happens when an adventurer walks into a dryad's mouth. They start to have doubts about that strange cave and the illusion unravels progressively, turning that cave into a fleshy mouth. Slowly at first then faster as certainty sets in. If they had the time to shout a cry of alarm to the rest of their group still staying outside before being swallowed, then the illusion would start to unravel for the group as well.

Not instantly though. The way I see it works is :  you look at the dryad spot, warned of her presence, the illusion unravel a little. You still see a tree but you start to distinguish it has an odd shape you continue looking, more and more convinced of her presence, the illusion fades more and so on. Looking at a dryad appearing would look like an optical illusion, almost like a trick your brain is playing on you.

Also I imagine you can have a situation where a person ses a dryad, and someone next to them just sees a tree.

In short, the main idea was to try to reinforce the "plant" aspects of Dryads, and try to dissociate them a bit more to other giant preds, and make them feel more unique.

Since they are creatures than don't move much and have a tendency to sleep a lot, having some wilderness interacting with them seemed like an obvious choice for their theme, as dryads are probably what we could consider the pred "closer" to nature in a certein aspect.
Most of the rest came up naturally trying to compare how pitcher plants and animals interact, and finding compromises.

The possibility to keep their throat open basically is a way to reinforce both their already established strong throats with more control, give them a more open feeling that wouldn't work as well on any other creature, and remove a restriction that didn't really sound apropriate for them. (If by any ways the removal of the "Not being able to throw up" gimmic seems to be a problem, I think it could be a funny idea to keep it in such a way that, it's simply a common tactic dryads agree to say when another pred is annoying them to leave them alone. )

As mentioned before, with that feature, small animals and critters can go in and out without trouble, seeking refuge and helping the dryads with activites she would have trouble dealig on her own, such as cleaning, removal of parasites, and perhaps, tiny objects that she couldn't regugitate alone. (maybe a treasure hunting fairy could be willing to take the job as well, who knows ^^ )

Now, it would be expected that the dryad had has some kind of tolerance to movement in their mouth and throats, and would need a special trigger to unconciously close up. The moste expected one would probably be something heavy entering his way through, of a certein size, and/or probably doing some brusque and fast movements. The system would probably not be completely infailible, as It wouldnt be unexpected for small critters to trigger the effect involuntarely as well, but fortunately for them, the Dryad could potentially control their throat enough in such a way that they could leave an opening wide enough for the small animals to pass, while still being small enough that a bigger prey couldn't go through. The oposite could potentially be true as well, as there is also the possibility that, if completely aware of their situation, a big creature/human could sneak in without triggering the Dryad either, and come out unnoticed, even if those particular situation, are still pretty exclusive, and still rather risky.

Of course, most of these situations are involving the Dryad being asleep, and would be completely more controlled if the Dryad was awaken.

Now, if we go a bit back to their stomach, there is another aspect that hasn't yet been completely established, and that is the extend of their digestive system. Much as pitchers plants, a Dryad would proably be content by simply having a sort of "pouch" stomach, and not really on any aditional organ commonly found on more "animal" based species. The whole process would simply take place in the same spot, the stomach dealing both with the secretion of acid, and , be equiped by a set of minucules tendrils to deal with the absorbtion of nutrients.

The expected shape of said stomach, could perhaps vary from a simple spheric shape, to a more pear like shape, or similar, with the simple idea that it would proably try to fill itself with an acidic subtance , churn a little bit, before simply reabsorbing it all with the nutrients she could get.
The expel of any undigestible item, not being able to be expelled via the normal ways, would be dealt with with the methods mentioned above.

Other than that, there was also the ilusion part I wanted to speak of, but it has already mostly been established on the comment above, so I guess that's mostly it!
I overall feel that, with those extra aspcect, dryads would become more unique and interesting, opening up to a variety of diferent scenarios.

The first topic is pretty solid, though it could be simplified or broken down so it can be more easily understood. Essentially, dryads tend to sleep with their mouths open. The mouth releases a pheromone or sweet scent that attracts prey just like many species of carnivorous plants. When prey enters the dryad's mouth and step on the tongue, it triggers a swallowing reflex. By the sound of it, humans are unaffected by the pheromone, so they have to be more creative when attempting to catch intelligent species. All in all, this could make Faebanes less of a one-dimensional patch to "balance" fairies - their pheromones are adapted to attract fairies, similar to feyweed.

Controlling their stomach acids, on the other hand, I have reservations about that. It seems unnecessary, since I think stomachs for pretty much all species only really start the digesting process once food is inside. Symbiotes and parasites taking advantage of the fact that dryads sleep with their mouth open and swallow on reflex sounds perfect. In fact, seeing a dryad who isn't camouflaged and is actively trying to grab whatever is in reach could be a sign that she has a Gut Worm.

Speaking of camouflage, I feel this one cluse is a bit arbitrary and unnecessary. I'm personally more partial toward dryads using simple mimicry to blend in with their surroundings, but if a particular dryad is adept at using magic, then I don't mind them using illusions to facilitate their disguises. But, instead of the illusion being dispelled if someone so much as doubt that the tree they're seeing is really a tree, I think the disguise should fall off if the dryad makes a sudden or sharp movement. Most adventurers are naturally going to be wary of any tree they see, so by that alone, the clause you propose immediately makes their disguise completely ineffective. The only way this would be an effective camouflage, outside of animals, is against off-worlders who just arrived in Felarya and know nothing of the place, or people who migrated from a region where dryad are either absent or uncommon. The former, you already know my stance on, and the latter seems far too unlikely of a scenario.

Oh, and I'm fine with dryads being able to regurgitate things. Personally, I think this would be more appropriate for centaurs since horses can't normally regurgitate food outside of odd cases.

Vaderaz : I think the idea of just the stomach for their digestive system make sense, although it probably would have to be a bit different in shape like you put it ( in order to be both able to digest and absorb ) perhaps something elongated, with, more tendrils at the bottom?

Shady-knight : For the camouflage, as I see it, simple wariness wouldn't dispel it. I was more thinking along the line of having real doubts and suspicions about the dryad being there. But sharp and sudden movements would certainly contribute to dispel it.

It's still an unnecessary clause that doesn't add or change anything about their camouflage. And given how you could misconstrue disbelief as merely being wary as being able to dispel the illusion, it shows that that idea isn't well thought out. Plus, I can already see hack writers say that their characters always truly believe that every tree they come across is a dryad to justify never falling into the trap. I'd rather not give them an inch of a workaround, lest they take a whole mile.

But, changing subject a bit, I got another idea about dryads and their mouths creating pheromones. Looking back, it feels rather arbitrary that a dryad's saliva can paralyze or heal. And since we're scrapping the idea that dryads can't regurgitate, what if we scrap their magic spit powers and instead replace it with their saliva being a sort of nectar whose scent attracts choice prey, with the prey it's designed to attract differing from region to region. You know, like real carnivorous plants, specifically pitcher plants.

Also, if we're going to give more depths to faebanes, we need to come up with a reason on why they prey on fairies specifically. Carnivorous plants in real life have evolved into what they are today because they grow in places where the soil is too poor in minerals or too acidic to subsist entirely on sunlight and water. For most dryads, they grow to such a height that photosynthesis alone is not enough to keep them fed, so they become carnivorous. For faebanes, the way I see it, they'd need to grow in a place that's poor in magic. The problem, however, is that fairies are unlikely to even live in such places.

I really doubt that just being wary of every tree would be enough to dispel the ilusion/camouflage, as you are basically extending your attention everywhere, and, if brought to an extremme, to the point of paranoia. If you go down that route, the person in question would probably start seeing Dryads everywhere, and most likely in spots where there are not, which at the end of the day ... doens't really help you figuring what is a dryad and what is not.

What would be required to dispel it, would be a more focused attention, and inspection of the tree for hints, that, should make sense to you, and make you truly believe it.

That of course, cannot be done with every single tree, or if it did, would take an excessive amount of time, so , if you are just travelling and passing by, you proably wouln't notice it just like that.

What I mean is that, at the end of the day, it would not be just about thinking or being wary that a tree could be a Dryad, but more about "believing" that this particular tree is a Dryad.

If you start acting like every tree is a Dryad, but keep getting proven wrong, it's bound that deep down, you won't "truly" believe it, whcih could possibly lead you crossing one and not even realize it.

I get the general idea behind it is that your mind makes it real, but the issue here is that having the disguise be based on belief makes it too open for interpretation. And when you start adding paragraphs to make your point clearer, you're just adding complexity that ultimately only bog down the original idea. Just because you understand your own idea doesn't mean others will. That's why it's important that you be able to break it down to its core. At this point, this idea of an illusory disguise based on how much your target believes or doesn't believe the disguise is real is no different than dryads simply standing still and using the environment to their advantage to hide in plain sight. Only, it's unnecessarily fancy.

Due to the dryad's form it would make more sense for them to remain upright while sleeping. Flying creatures could be attracted to its mouth, but unlikely for ground creatures.
For camouflage, there is lots of trees, including the dryads own branches that are going to obscure humans from seeing it. As dryads have lots of plant characteristics on their top half they are going to blend into their surroundings.
I like the idea that dryads have little control over their digestive organs and esophagus, only being able to open and close it.
For indigestible matter it could be buried beneath

Anyhoo, I thought up of a few more ideas on how to flesh out dryads' digestive system.

Dryads have a nectar-like saliva that has a very enticing smell designed to attract specific types of prey. The type of prey it's design to lure largely depends on the species and location of the dryad. Dryad sleep with their mouth open, and when pressure is applied to the tongue, such as when prey enters the mouth, it triggers an automatic swallowing reflex.

Now here are the new-ish ideas I just came up with.

The dryad's stomach is shaped differently from the human stomach, being shaped more like a pitcher-plant, and unlike the human stomach, it does not expand when it detects food entering. Furthermore, rather than secreting gastric juice once food has entered the stomach, the dryad's stomach always a pool of stomach acid at the bottom. A dryad's stomach acid is much more watery than in other species, and the digestive enzymes that will break down food more slowly than other species. If a human were to be swallowed by a dryad and somehow be able to see in the dark, it wouldn't be uncommon to see the half-digested remains of past prey from several days or even weeks ago.

Because their stomach acid is weaker, a dryad can't digest certain substances, mainly metal and bones, and so after prey has been fully digested, they regurgitate their remains like an owl. This also means that dryads can regurgitate almost anything they swallowed at will. This adds another weakness to a dryad's camouflage. If they're not diligent in hiding the bones and other indigestible objects from past preys, other preys will know to avoid a particular tree once they see bleached bones scattered around its roots.

How does that sound?

Ok I took your ideas and rewrote the article : http://www.felarya.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dryads  
Thanks to you for contributing ^^ Anything else you see on that particular topic ?

For now I'm not going to touch on their camouflage but maybe later. it's an interesting subject.

Aside from rewording things to flow better, which we can worry about at a later time, I think it's fine for now. Good to mention mutualistic symbiosis because, and this may sound gross, but I read that another way pitcher plants feed is by hosting mutualistic insect larvea who feed on the bugs the plant as trapped inside, and whose poop serve as nourishment for the plant. I guess we could add what happens when a dryad is infected with a Gut Worm, but we can also save those details for when we rewrite the worm itself.

Now that I think about it, I think stating that dryads can't digest bones is kind of redundant since, barring some exceptions like nagas, I feel like no giant or animal would be able to digest animal or human bone, and they would just end up mixed in their excrement when they defecate. Since dryads are trees, and trees don't poop last I check, I think it would make more sense if we mention instead that dryads don't defecate, and whatever they can't digest, like bones, they have to regurgitate.

Shady Knight wrote:

Aside from rewording things to flow better, which we can worry about at a later time, I think it's fine for now.  Good to mention mutualistic symbiosis because, and this may sound gross, but I read that another way pitcher plants feed is by hosting mutualistic insect larvea who feed on the bugs the plant as trapped inside, and whose poop serve as nourishment for the plant.  I guess we could add what happens when a dryad is infected with a Gut Worm, but we can also save those details for when we rewrite the worm itself.

Now that I think about it, I think stating that dryads can't digest bones is kind of redundant since, barring some exceptions like nagas, I feel like no giant or animal would be able to digest animal or human bone, and they would just end up mixed in their excrement when they defecate.  Since dryads are trees, and trees don't poop last I check, I think it would make more sense if we mention instead that dryads don't defecate, and whatever they can't digest, like bones, they have to regurgitate.

Well, that makes sense, but there's kinda an unwritten rule of Felarya that we don't talk about defecation/scat. Technically it happens, as the assholes of the giantesses is seen many times, but the actual act is now shown (except of course in private roleplays.) Now personally, I would push for natural defecation in universe, (as its natural, and I do like it, though to a lesser extent than vore of course) but I totally understand why people are very much against it, and I respect their wishes.

Though I do wonder, how much of a human prey would be left after going through the entire digestive process of each species?

I like most of the ideas here; they make a lot of sense for dryads. But not the regurgitation of bones. For one thing, it's always been implicit that Felaryan predators can digest bone. It's established in canon that the digestive systems of giant nagas like Crisis can dissolve solid metal, so having dryads who can digest and absorb bone would be consistent.

Secondly, if dryads regularly vomit bones, that would rather blow their camouflage. Most dryads would have at least fragments of bone scattered in front of them, and that would alert sapient prey, as well as naturally scare away non-sapient prey. It just contradicts their hunting habits.

The way I see it, dryads simply have a slow and patient digestive system. It gradually breaks down anything edible, including bone, into absorbable nourishment. We also know they have an intestine, since they can get intestinal parasites. I would say their intestine absorbs most of what they eat, and any non-nourishing residue is filtered down from their body into the ground in very small quantities.

Quote :

It's worth noting that Crisis possesses a very strong and resistant stomach, even for a naga.

Quote :

Both of the naga's stomachs are very strong. Not only can they digest just about anything short of stone and metal, but they're very resistant to damage as well.

Crisis is explicitly stated to have an unusually strong digestive system, and that the average naga can't normally digest metal. Just because Crisis does it doesn't mean every single giant does it.

As for vomiting bones, like I said in a previous post, smart and diligent dryads would dig a hole to bury the remains of their prey. Of course dryads who neglect to do such a thing would get caught. If that happens, that's entirely their fault.

French snack wrote:

I like most of the ideas here; they make a lot of sense for dryads. But not the regurgitation of bones. For one thing, it's always been implicit that Felaryan predators can digest bone. It's established in canon that the digestive systems of giant nagas like Crisis can dissolve solid metal, so having dryads who can digest and absorb bone would be consistent.

Secondly, if dryads regularly vomit bones, that would rather blow their camouflage. Most dryads would have at least fragments of bone scattered in front of them, and that would alert sapient prey, as well as naturally scare away non-sapient prey. It just contradicts their hunting habits.

The way I see it, dryads simply have a slow and patient digestive system. It gradually breaks down anything edible, including bone, into absorbable nourishment. We also know they have an intestine, since they can get intestinal parasites. I would say their intestine absorbs most of what they eat, and any non-nourishing residue is filtered down from their body into the ground in very small quantities.

Alright let's go for the slow and steady digestive system. I agree that in term of camouflage it would start to become a problem otherwise

For intestines though I feel it would make more sense if they don't have any ( the Gurt worm is actually supposed to be in their stomach, otherwise  it wouldn't be really worth mentioning outside of a health issue for Dryads since if you would encounter one, you would be already pretty much digested ). When you look at it, dryads are really a very unique case in term of anatomy and that fusion between a "traditional" human digestive system and a pitcher plant makes sense in  their case I think ^^

I still disagree. If dryads don't have intestines and a rear end to defecate, then it makes sense that they would need to regurgitate whatever they can't digest. And it's not unreasonable to think that they would dig a hole in the ground for that very purpose. Having to regurgitate the bones of their past prey doesn't hinder their camouflage in the slightest if they're smart about it.

Shady Knight wrote:

If dryads don't have intestines and a rear end to defecate, then it makes sense that they would need to regurgitate whatever they can't digest.

Not if their body dissolves it so much that it can then filter down from within them into the ground. We can also assume that they absorb most of what they eat (after all, they rarely eat), and that there isn't much residue.

Again, if they cannot digest it, they have to have a way to get it out of their system. If their digestive enzyme is so strong that it can break down rock and steel, then it's not going to slowly digest anything over a long period of time. That's not how biology works. If it digests things slowly over a long period of time, then it's because their enzyme is much weaker than that of other species, meaning that there are more things they just can't break down and digest.

Shady Knight wrote:

Again, if they cannot digest it, they have to have a way to get it out of their system.

Which is specifically what I provided. They dissolve it, and filter it down out of their body. A bit like roots working in reverse, if you like. From an evolutionary standpoint (survival), it makes more sense than something that would make them vulnerable (regurgitation of identifiable remains).

As to your other point, we can assume they dissolve their food fairly fast but absorb the nourishment only quite slowly, due to them not eating very often. Or maybe they do indeed absorb it fast, and stock it as reserves.

And what about items left behind by the victims? Weapons, supplies, and other miscellany that the dryad isn't going to eat? Are you saying people wouldn't be able to recognize that a dryad is nearby when they see backpacks and other man-made equipment strewn about around the roots of a tree? Or that a dryad wouldn't think to hide those?

Shady Knight wrote:

And what about items left behind by the victims?  Weapons, supplies, and other miscellany that the dryad isn't going to eat?  Are you saying people wouldn't be able to recognize that a dryad is nearby when they see backpacks and other man-made equipment strewn about around the roots of a tree?  Or that a dryad wouldn't think to hide those?

Given the avarage IQ of a felaryan adventurer they will most likely be lured over to a huge pile of suspiciously piled loot in the middle of bloody nowhere.

I find it astounding you are still treating the Felarya setting as a legit setting and not a joke.

DarkOne wrote:

I find it astounding you are still treating the Felarya setting as a legit setting and not a joke.

If you believe that, and if you don't have anything constructive and useful to contribute, there's not much sense in you still posting on this forum, is there?

French snack wrote:

If you believe that, and if you don't have anything constructive and useful to contribute, there's not much sense in you still posting on this forum, is there?

Of course not, I never pretended otherwise.

My constructive and useful contributions were three years ago, you ignored me and allowed this forum to become the way it is now. My role in the last few years was to be the guy who said "I told you so."

And still you refuse to listen.


It's okay to disagree with me, although that kinda requires you to actually understand my postion, which you obviously don't because you never listened to me.

Ok calm down.

Darkone: This is not needed and not helpful.. If you're not here to contribute to the discussion but just to throw accusations and "I told you so" around, please refrain from it. We had enough of that already in others threads.

As for dryads, thinking more about it I think regurgitating the remains like bones would be a problem indeed. even if they would bury them, there's a limit to what they could hide if you think about all the creatures a dryad consumes in her long life. The key point is they are mostly static so having their environment clean would really be important for them. So yes I think having a more thorough digestion, including bones would make more sense here. there would still be some remains they would have to regurgitate from time to time but a lot less significant I think.