Homebrew Woaden Species Details

General

The woaden are a race of humanoid-like plants that dwell in Titan’s Wood along the southern coast of the continent Orim. Their origins are a hotly debated topic among scholars in the Western Reach and Arkronost, because written records claim that before the Plains War there was no forest in that area at all. The forest appeared seemingly from nowhere, and with it Titan (the common name for the massive tree that gives the forest its name) and the woaden.

Woaden are “born” from the fruit of Titan. The fruit grows on the tree’s branches with the seed of what will one day be a fully grown woaden inside. The seed uses the nutrients in the fruit to grow larger until it is ready, in which case it drops to the ground and out of it rises a fully formed and grown woaden. Because of this, woaden have no concept of “growing up” or adolescence. This all takes place at roughly the same time every year. The fruit begins to grow in the spring, and mostly ripens and falls in the mid to late summer, although some will hang on even into early fall. As a result, this time of year holds great significance in woaden culture. 

Woaden life revolves around a small set of particular activities. Woaden revere Titan as their creator and source of life. Most woaden see tending to Titan and the forest around it as an act of spiritual obligation and fulfillment. The trees within Titan’s Wood are all tended to and pruned carefully, with trees exhibiting signs of disease or other serious abnormality removed quickly. Most woaden spend their entire lives simply attending to these duties without complaint or resentment. They view it the same way humans view caring for an elderly parent and complete their work with a sense of duty and honor. The care of Titan and the forest also serves to bring the woaden together, creating an incredibly communal and collectivist society that has no equal on the face of Selmyron.

Woaden are incredibly protective of their forest home. They suffer absolutely no logging or hostile human intrusion into the forest. This leads to a lot of conflict since the trees of Titan’s Wood produce some of the best lumber found anywhere in Selmyron. At this point, most humans know not to bother with attempting to work these trees for fear of the forest itself coming to seek revenge. However, the foolish or greedy like to try from time to time, with failure as the unavoidable outcome.

Since appearing in Selmyron, the woaden haven’t made much of an effort to explore the world. Indeed, most woaden never leave their forest home. Because of their close bond to the natural world, there have always been rogue woaden who desired to leave their forest to experience the full breadth of nature’s glory. These individuals are exceedingly rare, however, usually numbering in the low single digits per harvest.

Society

Woaden society focuses on harmony with nature and a strong sense of community. The experience of tending to Titan together almost everyday serves to create strong bonds between them, and they grow to see each other as small parts in the much larger system that is nature as a whole. 

As a result, little thought is given to individual needs and desires, and most woaden grow to see their personal goals as being irrelevant compared to the importance of tending to their societal duties. The majority of woaden don’t even think about this, and just see it as a part of everyday life. Occasionally, a woaden will arise whose personality runs counter to these urges. These woaden usually end up leaving Titan’s Wood to pursue their own paths independent of their brethren. 

The extreme focus on their sacred duty to care for their progenitor and the emphasis on harmony and community, strong displays of emotion are unusual. Woaden social interaction is highly formal and ritualized, with specific guidelines dictating proper greetings and gestures for specific circumstances. The few outsiders who have had a chance to witness these interactions in person have described them as “bizarre” “polite to the point of ridiculousness” and “wholly unnecessary.” Woaden don’t expect outsiders to understand these rituals, and make no attempt to explain themselves. 

One bit of individualism that does manage to work its way into the woaden way of life is the elaborate body art that most woaden perform on themselves. Using berries or other natural substances gathered from Titan’s Wood, woaden will create paint-like pastes of various colors and draw designs on their body. Each woaden draws their own designs, and it’s considered highly taboo to copy or duplicate the designs of another. These designs usually contain a lot of natural motifs, but there are no rules governing this practice. All woaden are free to mark themselves in whatever way they choose, and the designs usually grow in depth and complexity to reflect the individual’s experiences and history. For woaden, these designs are an expression of the unique spark of life that has settled inside them; a celebration of existence and life in general. For outsiders, these designs serve a useful function in helping to tell apart members of a race that otherwise look incredibly similar.

Woaden also lack traditional holidays for the most part. The single exception to this is what the woaden themselves refer to as “Fohmhar,” or in common simply “The Harvest.” This is the yearly event that takes place in mid-summer to early fall in which that year’s batch of fruit drops from the branches of Titan and the new woaden are welcomed into the community. The celebration generally starts on the summer solstice and continues as long as it needs to until the last fruit has fallen.

Although the early part of the celebration is highly ritualized as the preparations are made for the merriment to come, once the fruit starts to drop and the new woaden emerge the normal polite facade of woaden culture drops. In this time, woaden gleefully welcome the newcomers into the world with dancing, chanting, and joyous reveling. 

Relations

Because the woaden don’t commonly leave their forest, they don’t have many opinions of the other races occupying Selmyron. Most woaden don’t even know the bylons exist, and the strange are equally a mystery to them. 

The one race woaden do have some measure of contact with are humans, but the relationship between them is a rocky one. While a handful of humans have come to Titan’s Wood to study and learn about the woaden and their home, most humans come to Titan’s Wood seeking to get rich quickly. This usually means plundering the woaden’s villages for relics of Titan or attempting to log the trees on the edge of the forest for profit. As a result, woaden inside of Titan’s Wood tend to have a negative opinion of humans in general. 

Humans caught obviously trying to hurt the forest or woaden are instantly met with wrath and vengeance. Humans not immediately maliciously damaging the forest are met with suspicion and watched closely, but allowed to carry on. If a human consistently proves their goodwill over time, the woaden come to welcome them with the same regard and warmth they reserve for each other.

Woaden traveling outside of Titan’s Wood learn quickly that humans are a diverse bunch and generally attempt to be as accepting as possible of the good and bad around them. This isn’t easy for them, and their rigidity (especially when witnessing the natural world being abused) can often be a point of contention among them and their companions of other races.

Appearance

Woaden are humanoid in shape and generally taller than humans, standing on average just over 6ft tall. In place of skin, their bodies are covered in bark not unlike that of a tree. The texture and coloration of the bark varies just like that of all the species of trees found the wild. This bark is truly a part of them, and any attempt to peel or pull it off is incredibly painful to them. As they grow older and larger, the bark flakes off in small pieces similar to the molting patterns of some animals. It’s considered bad form among woaden to use the molting of other woaden for practical utility purposes such as making tools or starting fires. The one exception to this rule is tending to Titan. Volunteering shed skin to fertilize the soil around Titan is considered an honorable and almost holy act.

They lack hair completely, but along the back of their heads and shoulders they have branch-like protrusions that grow out in all directions. These branches flower and sprout in all manner of ways, again mirroring the appearance of all manner of trees found in nature. Woaden will often decorate their branches with a variety of things. Many use objects found in the forest around them such as pine cones, animal bones, and vines woven into various shapes. Some with the ability to use magic will shape small ornaments from the wood of fallen tree branches or logs. 

Their faces are flat, round, and relatively featureless. They have no noses, eyebrows, or external ears. Their eyes are white and pupilless, able to see color but in a somewhat muted manner.

Woaden Traits

As a woaden, you are a creature of nature with a mystical connection to Titan, the great tree.

Ability Score Increase

First, increase one ability score by 2 and then a different ability score by 1.

Natural Armor

When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier. You can use your natural armor 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 natural armor.

Forest Expert

You gain advantage on Nature checks regarding forests and Stealth checks when in forested areas.

Treespeech

You have the ability to communicate with plants. When you talk to them, they can understand the meaning of your words although you only have an empathic understanding of them in return.

Plant Resistances

A woaden's plant-like physiology allows them to better resist the effects of magical sleep and paralysis effects. They have advantage on all saving throws against these types of effects.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Woaden. Woaden is an airy language full of whistles, breathy sounds, and sighs. The few non-woaden who have heard the language spoken compare it to the sound of wind blowing through trees. Woaden traveling outside of the Titan'swood are usually very patient with non-native speakers of the language, and usually instead prefer to learn the local languages in order to facilitate communication.

Proficiency with the woaden language must be added to your character sheet manually after character creation.