The Dryad and similar creatures appear in legends originating all over the place, and have become popular species in various roleplaying games. While there are some local variations in behaviour, tree species and appearance, the common features seem to be these:
Bound to their tree, but can ambulate away from it quite some distance
Kind of pretty, kind of tree-y, mostly feminine appearance
Associated with freshwater
Appreciate sacrifices, originally meaty ones, and subsequently monetary ones.
The whole ‘half animal half plant’ concept is fascinating, but also a challenge because I’m very much on the ‘animal’ side of the science side of tumblr, but why not? Creatures that exist part way along the animal-plant spectrum exist in nature, we can tweak the features we see in such hybrids to develop a biologically plausible dryad. I’m sure this isn’t the only way to do it, but it’s the direction I’d take.
But to do so, I need to borrow some ideas from the carnivorous plants, orchids, lichen and redwoods.
Now, to start with, the most consistent feature of Dryad mythology, and the most interesting, is their complete dependence up on their home tree. If the tree dies, the dryad dies. If the dryad strays too far from its tree, it also dies. This would suggest to me that it’s not the dryad walking around which is the primary organism, but the tree itself. After all, I haven’t come across any tales of the tree dying if the dryad is slain.
So if the dryad is the accessory organism, then what, really, are they?
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