Ela Manytrees

### Relatives

Amaley Manytrees (mamatree, deceased); Imshiel Manytrees (papatree, deceased); Im Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Shiel Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Chert Manytrees (brother, deceased); Leaf Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Himshi Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Mallem Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Chaley Manytrees (sister, deceased); Mosk Manytrees (brothertree)

## Physical description

### Hair color

Green

**Ela Manytrees** was an Unseelie Aur dryad and the fourth child and eldest daughter of the Manytrees family. She was the child of Amaley Manytrees and Imshiel Manytrees, and sister to Im Manytrees, Shiel Manytrees, Chert Manytrees, Leaf Manytrees, Himshi Manytrees, Mallem Manytrees, Chaley Manytrees, and Mosk Manytrees. She was murdered by Olphix.

## Personality

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 Ela fell on that spectrum. Chaley and some of Mosk's other siblings worried about him 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 Ela worried, as well.

Mosk said that Ela liked crowds and/or parties.

## 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 heal the forest in exchange for the Aur dryads' then-non-existent seventh son. 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, 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.

Ela was the fourth child and first daughter of Amaley and Imshiel. Notably, when Mosk listed off the roles designated for the children in Aur dryad families (which stops after the seventh child), Mosk skipped the fourth child, so it's unclear what Ela was responsible for. She bonded with a chokecherry.

Ela would often 'sit in the central circle [of the Manytrees family home] and embroider cushions or the edges of blankets. Sometimes they’d wake to a new spray of leaves laid down in delicate thread art.' Mosk found the sound of her working comforting.

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

## Special Abilities

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 who 'died' and live out the rest of their life as a tree.

## Relationships

#### Mosk Manytrees

Over time, Ela, along with the other members of 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. Mosk noted that his brothertrees were cruelest towards him, but that some of his siblings supported him, so it's unclear where Ela fell on that spectrum. Mosk said that he 'had a falling out with half of them', which implies that of his eight siblings and two parents, he still got along somewhat with five of them, four of which would not have been Chaley, Mallem Manytrees, or likely Leaf Manytrees. Mosk still misses his family. Eran noted that only Chaley, Amaley, and sometimes Mosk's brothers ever touched him before Olphix and Davix, implying that Ela and Imshiel in particular never touched him.

## Trivia

* Mosk noted that none of his siblings saw the sea before they died.
* Since Amaley and Imshiel used magic to try to only have girls after making the deal with Olphix to exchange their then-unborn seventh son of a seventh son for healing the Aur Forest, and had only Im and Shiel at the time, it's possible that Ela's birth was affected by the spell, though the magic didn't work very well.
* As Mosk is around 200 years old at the start of *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, and the youngest of his siblings, it is implied that Ela 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. ↑ 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.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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.
3. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 5 June 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/9186013. Chapter 46: Masque.
4. ↑ 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.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 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.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 9 December 2017. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/29615421. Chapter 10: The World Forest.
7. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 November 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/67599242. Chapter 7: Bad Habits.
8. ↑ 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.
9. ↑ 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.
10. ↑ 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?
11. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 10 May 2019. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/44564854. Chapter 5: Unexpected Guests.
12. ↑ 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.
13. ↑ "Dryad". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad. Accessed 7 May 2021.