Shiel Manytrees

### Relatives

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

### Roles or Vocation

Maintains the borderlands of the Aur forest

## Introduction

Shiel was the second-born child of the Unseelie Aur dryad Manytrees family.

## Personality

According to Mosk Manytrees, Shiel was charming and aloof. 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 Shiel 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 Shiel worried, as well.

## Life

Shiel bonded with an alder. He was the second child and second son of Amaley and Imshiel Manytrees, and named for his papatree, along with his older brothertree, Im Manytrees. As the second child, he 'maintains the borderlands'. At the time of the Aur forest sickness, he was the youngest Aur dryad. Shiel and Im's births were difficult, and Amaley and Imshiel assumed they'd have no more children after the two.

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.' Olphix poisoned the Aur Forest. Amaley and Imshiel 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 dryads would give him their seventh son of a seventh son. Amaley and Imshiel agreed, thinking the promise would never be fulfilled, since they'd have no more children. When they instead 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.

Olphix murdered Shiel 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.

## 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.

## Relationships

#### Chert Manytrees

According to Mosk, Shiel and Chert often fought verbally.

#### Im Manytrees

According to Mosk, Shiel and Im were inseparable.

#### Mosk Manytrees

Over time, Shiel, 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. They did not stand up for him, and were often cruel to him. 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 which would not have been Chaley, Mallem Manytrees, or likely Leaf Manytrees. Mosk still misses his family.

## 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*, and the youngest of his siblings, it is implied that Shiel 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 1.2 *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 32: Somewhere Safe. Accessed 23 March 2021.
2. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 13: Captured. Accessed 01 May 2021.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas*, Chapter 28: Farewell. Accessed 01 May 2021.
4. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 10: The World Tree. Accessed 13 March 2021.
5. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas*, Chapter 31: Whatever It Takes. Accessed 30 April 2021.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 23: The Arrow's Path. Accessed 26 March 2021.
7. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 12: Empty Whispers. Accessed 26 May 2021.
8. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas*, Chapter 12: A Liar and the Truth. Accessed 26 May 2021.
9. ↑ *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, Chapter 15: Isn't This Better? Accessed 26 May 2021.
10. ↑ "Dryad". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad. Accessed 07 May 2021.