Chert Manytrees

### Relatives

Amaley Manytrees (mamatree, deceased); Imshiel Manytrees (papatree, deceased); Im Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Shiel Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Ela Manytrees (sistertree, deceased); Leaf Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Himshi Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Chaley Manytrees (sistertree, deceased); Mallem Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Mosk Manytrees (brothertree)

### Roles or Vocation

Checking the sentinel trees of the Aur forest and making sure they're happy

## Physical description

### Hair color

Dark green (almost black)

"*Chert wasn’t so bad, you know. Well, he wasn’t that great, either.*"
―Mosk Manytrees[[The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague, Chapter 22: Just For Us]]
**Chert Manytrees** was an Unseelie Aur dryad, the third child and son of Amaley and Imshiel Manytrees, and the first child born to them after Olphix healed the Aur forest. He was one of Mosk's older brothers.

## Appearance

Mosk said that Chert was 'so handsome [he'd] had fae of all kinds on the doorstep asking for [him]. Chert . . . [had] golden eyes and spruce needles and cones in his hair so dark green it was nearly black' at night. He had a 'beautiful, angular face . . . [and] princely profile'. Mosk noted that Chert was even handsomer than Im Manytrees. He was so beautiful he was 'propositioned not only by other Aur dryads, but by almost any fae who saw [him].'

## Personality

Chert thought he was more mature than Shiel Manytrees, and wanted the responsibilities that Shiel had (maintaining the Aur forest borderlands), which led to them arguing often. Mosk said that Chert was regal and aloof.

'Chert had loved spruce trees, all of them, he could always be found in the spruce forests.'

Some of Mosk's siblings lived separate from the main home when they found their Aur tree, but would come home sometimes. It's unclear where Chert fell on that spectrum. Chaley Manytrees and some of Mosk's other siblings worried about Mosk living away from home before he'd started a family of his own, since Aur dryads are supposed to live at home until that point. It's unclear if Chert worried, as well.

## Life

Olphix and Davix wanted to know if they could create a seventh son of a seventh son themselves, rather than accidentally stumbling upon one, in order to 'augment it, tune the world towards a species and there, grant a son [they] could sunder and use.' So Olphix poisoned the Aur forest. The Aur dryads failed to heal it themselves, and finally sought aid from the School of the Staff (not knowing Olphix had poisoned the forest to start with), and the School sent Olphix to help. He offered to strike a bargain with them for healing the forest: the Aur dryads would give him their seventh son of a seventh son in exchange for the healing. Amaley and Imshiel only had two children at the time - Im and Shiel - and assumed they would have no more, so they agreed, thinking the promise would never be fulfilled. When they continued having children, starting with Chert, they used magic to try to only have girls, which wasn't that successful: of their seven children born after Shiel, only two were girls. They tried to stop having children entirely after Chaley, but went to a party, and conceived Mosk.

As third child, Chert was responsible for checking 'the sentinel trees and mak[ing] sure they're happy.' Chert bonded with a larch spruce.

Olphix murdered Chert along with the other Manytrees family members when Olphix came to collect Mosk. Mosk heard all of his family screaming as they burned to death.

## Skills

All Aur dryads possess an ability to communicate with all trees, even without touching them, and they have a unique ability to process the voices of thousands of trees in a forest at the same time. This allows them to automatically know where water is, as well as pathways, other fae, other homes, animals and sources of danger.

Aur dryads can tell the health of a tree directly from its sap, including its age, whether it's sick, whether it's large or small, and the species.

Aur dryads have an ability to grow plants, as well as grow them faster than is normal. They also have an ability to heal plants.

Aur dryads can turn into their Aur tree when they change into true-form, however, they cannot change back into a human or hybrid-form after this, due to the fact that they lose all knowledge of themselves. As a result, turning into a tree is considered an end-of-life form of death, with a few trees in the Aur forest being Aur dryads that have 'died' and live out the rest of their life as a tree.

Mosk said that Chert 'could look at the trees like he was seeing all the wisdom in the world. I don’t know what he heard from them, but it always felt like he heard something different to me in their songs and whispers.’

## Relationships

#### Imshiel Manytrees

Mosk noted that Chert (and Im Manytrees) got along best with Imshiel.

#### Mosk Manytrees

Mosk was impressed with Chert's abilities and thought he was beautiful. Mosk also noted that 'Chert wasn’t so bad, you know. Well, he wasn’t that great, either.' Over time, Mosk's family, save Chaley, accepted that they would have to give Mosk up to Olphix, and so tried to distance themselves from caring for him. They did not stand up for him, and were often cruel to him. It's unclear where some of his siblings fell on the spectrum of supporting or being cruel to him, though Mosk said his brothers were particularly cruel. Mosk said that he 'had a falling out with half of' his family, which implies that of his eight siblings and two parents, he still got along somewhat with five of them, four of whom would not have been Chaley, Mallem Manytrees, or likely Leaf Manytrees, and two of which at least would not have been his parents. Mosk still misses Chert.

#### Shiel Manytrees

Shiel and Chert often sniped at each other verbally, to the point that Chaley would ask Mosk if they'd ever have a real fight.

## Trivia

* Mosk noted that none of his siblings saw the sea before they died.
* As Mosk is around 200 years old at the start of *The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Forest of Fire*, and the youngest of his siblings, it is implied that Chert was more than 200 years old.

## Folklore/Mythology

'A dryad (Greek: Δρυάδες, *sing*.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. *Drys* signifies "oak" in Greek, and dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, but the term has come to be used for tree nymphs in general, or human-tree hybrids in fantasy. They were normally considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.'

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 30 April 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/57536779. Chapter 31: Whatever It Takes.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 29 June 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/34995836. Chapter 23: The Arrow's Path.
3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 23 December 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/89500210. Chapter 22: Just For Us.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 March 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/55596259. Chapter 28: Farewell.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 January 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/30758403. Chapter 13: Captured.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 7 January 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/30419052. Chapter 12: Empty Whispers.
7. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 15 August 2019. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/48027538. Chapter 12: A Liar and the Truth.
8. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 16 February 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/31475208. Chapter 15: Isn't This Better?
9. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 October 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/38607599. Chapter 32: Somewhere Safe.
10. ↑ "Dryad". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad. Accessed 7 May 2021.