The Dryads and Their Customs

The Dryads and Their Customs is a book in .
==Contents==
The Dryads and their Customs
Most of this book tells of things you are already familiar with: how the Dryads live, how they fight, what they eat. The prologue, however, tells you much that you did not know.
The Dryads were born in the south of Aranna, in what are now the dusty Kalrathian wastelands. Many races' destinies were shaped by the great cataclysm known as Turmanar, but the Dryads owe to it their very beginning—for when the Shield of Azunai broke, its power was released in a deadly wave which swept across the land, scorching great trees to their roots, tumbling mountains, and shaking the very foundations of the earth. It swept across the battlefields, turning the surviving soldiers to ash in their boots.";
But when the wave of power reached the mighty eastern forests, something very strange happened: in the midst of this turmoil, when the land itself lay dying, tiny seeds began to appear in the shrieking skies. They fell to the ground in the shadows of the blasted trees, and lay there for many months as the forests crumbled to dust and the few survivors of Turmanar found shelter from the furious storms.
One year later, the Dryads were born.
Nothing like them has been seen in Aranna before or since; they had the appearance of women, but sap ran in their veins and leaves covered their heads. They could speak the language of men, but fought with the fury of wild beasts. They were filled with restlessness, and for many years they wandered the land, searching for the forests that had birthed them, until they reached the western sea.
Their hearts were filled with sorrow; they had no way of knowing that the only forest left in Aranna was Vai'lutra, far to the north.
For thirty days and thirty nights, they stood along the western cliffs, looking out across the water, singing of green shadows and of loss. But on the thirty-first day, a terrible storm struck them. The winds buffeted the Dryads as they stood along the cliff, and one by one they fell into the waves. The wind continued to blow for many days, until it blew them ashore on the island of Greilyn, where the Sea-Elves once lived. The island had not been reached by Turmanar—its forests were still green and full of life. There the Dryads settled, and there they have lived since. Greilyn's jungles have nurtured them for a thousand years, and they have long forgotten their mainland heritage. The island is the only home most of them know.
==Appearances==
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Category:Books