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Character information
Jun. 16th, 2018 01:49 amCanon: OC/Dungeons and Dragons
Character: Melanthieae
About: Melanthieae - or Mela, to those less flexible with the sylvan tongue - was born of a tree in the then-peaceful and vibrant Slumbering Woods, on the edge of a small human city. She spent the better portion of a century living the normal life of a dryad; helping the forest thrive, basking in the warm sun, occasionally aiding or teasing a lost adventurer, and honing her skills in the druidic arts. But as decades passed, the human city grew larger, and over time, the care they used to take regarding their neighboring glen was cast aside. Fewer trees they cut down for lumber were being replanted, animals hunted in dangerous amounts, and as industry grew, the air, water, and soil were slowly infested with pollutants, and the forest began to rot and die. Melanthieae fell gravely ill, and was forced to flee before the toxins took her life too. Finally finding clean air and water nursed her back to health, but they couldn't cleanse her of the toxins that had already seeped deep into her roots.
Life as a polluted dryad isn't easy, and outside of her homeland, Melanthieae found herself an outcast in almost every way - other dryads were repulsed by her disease and didn't permit her passage in their own forests, and most human habitations were too dense and smokey for her to stay long. With time, she became a nomad, traveling the world in the name of finding and cleansing the toxins that polluted it, so that nothing and no one else suffer the same fate as the Slumbering Woods.
Melanthieae is amiable and polite, and her calm demeanor is almost unshakeable. She reads people frighteningly well, and unless she feels there is a reason not to trust you, she will show you the utmost kindness. She is a firm believer in equivalent exchange and being true to her word; if she makes a promise, she will be guaranteed to keep it, and if she is given anything, she will find a way to repay the giver, regardless of whether she's expected to return the favor. She might not call out distrust or lies openly, but play along to keep her enemies as close as her friends, with pointed words to pierce through the deceit subtly.
But if her trust is broken, if she is forced into combat or she faces one who hurts the delicate balance of nature, her wrath is swift and merciless. Sometimes she loses herself in the violence, going further than is necessary to end the conflict. While she forgave humanity for what they did to her home, she never forgot, and her practice of forgiveness and grace sometimes slips in the heat of battle.
As a nomad who spent most of her life in the forest, she doesn't always understand human technology or societal norms, but she is always curious, if sometimes oblivious. Sometimes a mischievous mood might hit her, and she won't be afraid to stoop to petty pranks for small slights against her.
Melanthieae's illness is not a natural disease, nor was it born of the pollution from the Slumber Woods disaster. It is a chronic condition that she was, somehow, born with. Her body naturally absorbs toxins and pollutants from her surroundings, leaving cleaner earth and water in her wake - which unfortunately is more work than a single tree nymph can handle. She is constantly in some degree of pain, and heavily polluted areas make her violently ill, causing her to wither and grey, black veins - particularly visible on her wrists and arms - to darken and thicken through her body, and in extreme cases, she may cough up smoke, vomit sludge or cry oily tears, or even develop a fever. She can soothe her symptoms with clean air or flushing out her system with clean water, or purge excess toxins through her Poison Spray cantrip, but she has never found a true cure for her condition.
Character: Melanthieae
About: Melanthieae - or Mela, to those less flexible with the sylvan tongue - was born of a tree in the then-peaceful and vibrant Slumbering Woods, on the edge of a small human city. She spent the better portion of a century living the normal life of a dryad; helping the forest thrive, basking in the warm sun, occasionally aiding or teasing a lost adventurer, and honing her skills in the druidic arts. But as decades passed, the human city grew larger, and over time, the care they used to take regarding their neighboring glen was cast aside. Fewer trees they cut down for lumber were being replanted, animals hunted in dangerous amounts, and as industry grew, the air, water, and soil were slowly infested with pollutants, and the forest began to rot and die. Melanthieae fell gravely ill, and was forced to flee before the toxins took her life too. Finally finding clean air and water nursed her back to health, but they couldn't cleanse her of the toxins that had already seeped deep into her roots.
Life as a polluted dryad isn't easy, and outside of her homeland, Melanthieae found herself an outcast in almost every way - other dryads were repulsed by her disease and didn't permit her passage in their own forests, and most human habitations were too dense and smokey for her to stay long. With time, she became a nomad, traveling the world in the name of finding and cleansing the toxins that polluted it, so that nothing and no one else suffer the same fate as the Slumbering Woods.
Melanthieae is amiable and polite, and her calm demeanor is almost unshakeable. She reads people frighteningly well, and unless she feels there is a reason not to trust you, she will show you the utmost kindness. She is a firm believer in equivalent exchange and being true to her word; if she makes a promise, she will be guaranteed to keep it, and if she is given anything, she will find a way to repay the giver, regardless of whether she's expected to return the favor. She might not call out distrust or lies openly, but play along to keep her enemies as close as her friends, with pointed words to pierce through the deceit subtly.
But if her trust is broken, if she is forced into combat or she faces one who hurts the delicate balance of nature, her wrath is swift and merciless. Sometimes she loses herself in the violence, going further than is necessary to end the conflict. While she forgave humanity for what they did to her home, she never forgot, and her practice of forgiveness and grace sometimes slips in the heat of battle.
As a nomad who spent most of her life in the forest, she doesn't always understand human technology or societal norms, but she is always curious, if sometimes oblivious. Sometimes a mischievous mood might hit her, and she won't be afraid to stoop to petty pranks for small slights against her.
Melanthieae's illness is not a natural disease, nor was it born of the pollution from the Slumber Woods disaster. It is a chronic condition that she was, somehow, born with. Her body naturally absorbs toxins and pollutants from her surroundings, leaving cleaner earth and water in her wake - which unfortunately is more work than a single tree nymph can handle. She is constantly in some degree of pain, and heavily polluted areas make her violently ill, causing her to wither and grey, black veins - particularly visible on her wrists and arms - to darken and thicken through her body, and in extreme cases, she may cough up smoke, vomit sludge or cry oily tears, or even develop a fever. She can soothe her symptoms with clean air or flushing out her system with clean water, or purge excess toxins through her Poison Spray cantrip, but she has never found a true cure for her condition.
