Homebrew Eldryn Species Details

Eldryns are half-elves, but unlike the well-known, prolific half-elves whose progenitors are Human and Elf, eldryns are the seed of dryads and elves, resulting in a race with pronounced fey characteristics. The origin of the eldryns began as a love story between a Dryad and an elf. Long ago, the dryad archdruid Sythia was torn between her innate connection to her tree and the flame she kindled for her elven lover. Feeling that the creator of the fey had short-changed the dryad race by limiting their wanderings to the immediate location of their tree-bond, Sythia vowed to find a way to keep her tree-bond and gain the freedom to wander the forest freely. After years of research into obscure magics and ancient lore, Sythia finally devised a druidic ritual that would allow her to merge the essence of her tree with herself, allowing her to travel any distance while maintaining the connection to it. The ritual relied on the presence of a blood moon, a specific alignment of the planets, and the power of an archdruid. To Sythia’s knowledge, these circumstances would occur only once in a millennium.

Overjoyed at the freedom this transformation would impart, Sythia invited her sisters to undergo the ceremony with her. Because this magic was unlikely to be performed again, the offer was a valuable gift indeed. To Sythia’s delight, five sister dryads, each bonded to a different type of tree, accepted the invitation. On the eve of the ceremony, each dryad was instructed to collect seeds from every variety of tree that was similar in nature to their own.

Between Sythia and the other five dryads, six distinct tree-bonds were represented. Sythia’s bond represented the smaller variety of trees well-loved for the flowers they produced including forsythia, jacaranda, magnolia, rhododendron, and wisteria. To represent the food-bearing trees, seeds were collected from a wide variety, from apple trees to walnut trees. Representation of essential oil producing trees included seeds from the cedarwood, eucalyptus, frankincense, myrrh, and sandalwood. Spice trees, including cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg were collected. Chona collected medicinal seeds from the quinine producing cinchona tree, the flu battling elderberry tree, the gout and fever fighting silver birch, and the scurvy detering needle bearing trees of fir, spruce, and pine. The last tree-bond represented included a plethora of hardwood trees valued by crafters for furniture making, boat building, and musical instruments such as oak, teak, and ebony to name just a few.

After the successful ritual, all six dryads were able to leave the vicinity of their tree without suffering sickness of heart or body. Sythia began a life of adventure and travel with her elven lover and the others basked in the joy of unfettered freedom to roam wherever their whims took them. The magically altered dryads were soon to discover, however, that their fertility had been altered in the ritual. They were unable to conceive unless mating with an elf. All other attempts to create progeny with any other race proved fruitless. The dryads proudly referred to their “half-elven” children, born from their unions with their individual elven mates, as the “unrooted” because this generation would be free to travel while literally carrying the heart of the forest within themselves. In the Sylvan tongue, unrooted translates as eldryn, which is the name by which the race is known to this day. The fate of the altered dryads to mate solely with elves has been passed down through the generations to their children; two mating eldryns cannot even produce offspring. Eldryns are only born when an eldryn and a full-blooded elf mate.

Nature’s Beauties

Barely indistinguishable from elves, eldryns exhibit an other-worldly beauty. They are graceful and slight of stature, reaching heights from 4 to 6 feet, and weighing slightly less than a typical elf at 90 to 140 pounds. Females stand 1-1½ feet shorter than the males and are significantly lighter, topping out at 100 pounds. Eldryns have delicate, alluring facial features, pointed ears, and a variety of skin tones ranging from pale yellow to black depending upon their dryad ancestor’s tree-bond. For example, pine tree-bonds produce lighter colored skin tones, cherry tree-bonds result in red-brown tones, and ebony tree-bonds produce black-skin tones. Regardless of its hue, all eldryns’ skin has a faint, barely visible pattern of swirls and rings, vaguely resembling the pattern of knots and rings of a tree’s trunk. This peculiarity of skin pigmentation is the only hint that eldryns are not fully elves. Eldryn skin is also tougher than elven skin, providing better protection against cuts and scrapes. An eldryn’s hair comes in a rainbow of colors, representing the shades of autumn leaves, bark, or flower blossoms. The most unusual features of an eldryn’s anatomy are the two small splinterwood glands that sit on either side of the back of the throat where an elf’s tonsils would normally be found. These glands act as a defensive mechanism, producing tiny slivers of splinter-sharp wood which an eldryn can expel in a deadly spray of skin piercing missiles.

Unrooted

As children, eldryns are constantly reminded that they have something their Dryad ancestors did not—mobility and choice. For this reason, eldryns delight in personal freedoms, preferring limited oversight by societal authorities. Eldryns enjoy travel, adventure, and excitement, favoring the surprises chaos has to offer over the restrictions law can impose. As descendants of elves and dryads, eldryns are innately connected to nature, delighting in its vast array of unique flora and fauna. Eldryns venerate the same gods of nature that elves do, though eldryn clerics are a varied lot, representing a variety of different deities. The veneration of evil deities is a rarity.

Green guardians

Eldryns typically live in the elven communities of their elven parents and are brought up following typical elven customs. An eldryn’s love for nature is amplified by their fey heritage. Whether they inhabit temperate, tropical, or boreal forests, eldryns are fierce protectors of the trees in the area. Woe to a greedy merchant overharvesting a grove for profit for they shall experience the full force of an eldryn’s ire! Being raised in elvish society, eldryns receive the same training with bows as the elven children, but rather than focus on swordplay, they learn to use the battleaxe. Because the axe is the implement used to fell trees by many humanoid races, eldryns have chosen it as their symbolic weapon to inflict punishment upon creatures they deem to have transgressed against nature.

Wanderlust

Eldryns inherit the desire to explore for exploration’s sake from both their elf and dryad parents. They love meeting different races, seeing unique sights, learning new songs, eating novel foods, and experiencing all of the diversity life has to offer. On their one-hundredth birthday, eldryns leave their home to spend one hundred years abroad in honor of their dryad ancestors’ ingenuity and bravery. During this time, they explore as many natural biomes as possible. After this period, some eldryns continue to adventure, hoping to add to their repertoire of vast knowledge, and others choose to return to their elven community. As creatures with fey blood running through their veins, eldryns naturally gravitate to the life of a druid or ranger. As children of elves, eldryns appreciate artistry and beauty, gifting the world with many fine bards as well.

Eldryn Names

When born, eldryn infants are given a name by their eldryn parent representing the area where their dryad predecessor was tree-bonded. Eldryns use their elf parent’s family name. Male Names: Alder, Asher, Hawk, Larch, Rain, Thorn.

Female Names: Amber, Blossom, Hazel, Honey, Hyacinth, Magnolia, Petal.

Relations with Other Races

An elf’s ability to find the good in others is amplified in the personality of an eldryn. Eldryns focus on the strengths of others, and when they realize they have caused disharmony in some way, they are quick to seek forgiveness.

Dwarves

Eldryns respect dwarven dedication to clan. Eldryn parents sing their children to sleep with the lullaby which details the hurdles their ancestors overcame to be with a loved one, literally carrying what was dear to their hearts within them. Eldryns are also impressed by dwarven combat proficiency with axes and have been known to seek out the most skilled warriors as personal instructors.

Elves

Eldryns hold elves dear to their hearts. Eldryns are, after all, of elven blood themselves and can only mate with elves. Eldryns share the elves’ love of nature and their interest in the acquisition of knowledge. Eldryns are attracted to the physical beauty of elves and the flowing cadence of the elvish language. Craft-bonded eldryns have a special appreciation for the beautiful works of art produced by the elves.

Halflings

Eldryns appreciate how halflings live in the moment, constantly seeking joy and spreading enthusiasm for life. Eldryns appreciate the non-combative nature of halflings and recognize that once halflings give their hand in friendship, their loyalty is unmeasurable.

Humans

The human race’s defining characteristic of stubborn determination is the quality that eldryns empathize with most. Above all else, eldryns are taught from childhood to value their freedom and to never give up striving to reach a goal that is important to them, no matter the time or cost involved.

Eldryn Traits

Your Eldryn character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of Eldryn refinement.

Protective Skin

Though not as bark-like as your dryad ancestor’s skin, your skin is tougher than typical, providing greater protection against injury. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your thickened skin to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your thickened skin.

Eldryn Weapon Training

You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, longbow, and shortbow.

Breath Weapon

You can use your action to exhale a spray of splinters in a 15 ft. cone. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a Dexterity saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 piercing damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level.

After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.

Craft-bonded

Fiery Performer. Hardwood trees are naturally more fire resistant compared to their softwood counterparts and their wood makes excellent musical instruments. You have proficiency in the Performance skill when using a musical instrument, and you have advantage on saving throws against fire.

Ability Score Increase

Your Wisdom score increases by 2.

Age

Although Eldryns reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An Eldryn typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Size

Eldryn's range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Trance

Eldryn's don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish and Sylvan.