Sylphi

The Sylphi are a race of humanoid plant sapients. They were created by the Tree of Genesis in the late Age of Creation after taking some humans as templates.

## Appearance

They have leaves instead of hair and leaves on their shoulders protecting the sensitive pores that spread their fragrances. Yes, this includes eyebrows and eyelashes, although those leaves are positively tiny. Some of them have a single leaf covering their privates.

Their skin is usually extremely soft and pleasant to the touch but depending on the individual and their Trait this could be different, usually coloured in shades of green or brown but you can also find shades of white, red or orange.

They have big almond shaped eyes with black sclera and vibrant, bioluminescent irises of different colours, usually the same colour that their leaves turn when they are about to wilt and be replaced by new ones.

Due to them getting all the sustenance they need from sunlight, water and the very ocassional cut of meat, obesity is extremely rare, to the point that entire generations of Sylphi could pass and not one would become overweight. In turn their bodies are light and agile, with a male usually weighing 60 kg and a female 40 kg. In average Sylphi are rather pleasant to look at, due to their bodies not being weathered by the usual harsh work a human would do in order to feed himself.

## Reproduction

Sylphi can reproduce through two methods. Since they were created from human templates, they have full access to humanoid sex organs, which they can use to engage in coitus with humans in order to create a halfbreed or other Sylphi in order to create a pure Sylph; or they can reproduce through remaining in another Sylph's presence for an extended amount of time while spreading their pollen or receiving the other's pollen through the pores on their shoulders.

The results are as follow.

- If a Sylphi male and a Sylphi female copulate with each other regardless of method, the female will generate anywhere from 1 to 5 seeds which she will have to give birth to (relatively easy considering they are egg-sized.). Following this, the parents of the seeds will bury them in a safe, acceptably fertile piece of soil and wait. The seeds sprout and become  watermelon-sized pods, which after anywhere from 2 to 3 years bloom to finally give birth to a small Sylphi child, the equivalent of a 2 year old human child in mental capacity.

- If a Sylphi male and a Human female copulate (only coitus works between species), the human female will be impreganted and after 9 months a largely human child will be born. They would likely sport one minor Sylphi characteristic on their bodies, such as their unusual eyes or a few leaves in mixed in with their hair. These characteristics are compounded if this child goes on to copulate with another full Sylphi later on, to the point where actual half-breeds could exist with an even distribution of human and Sylphi characteristics.

- If a Human Male and a Sylphi female copulate, the Sylphi Female's body will treat this as if a Sylphi male had impregnated her, going to to birth the seeds and then plant them. After 2-3 years, a largely Sylphi child is born from the pod, with the most noticeable characteristic could be having a human's eyes, or hair. As with the last example, the characteristics compound, so if this largely Sylphi child goes on to copulate with another human and the cycle repeats several times, the end result could be a full half-breed.

## Culture

Describing Sylphi culture is difficult, since it is very varied depending on which specific settlement we're talking about, so I will focus on the most numerous culture there is; Arborean, those that live in or near the Great City of Arborea, which is the craddle of the Sylphi species itself, where they were created and continue to be created by the Tree of Genesis. (By the way, Arborean culture includes Humans and Goblins, too.)

Arborean culture is peaceful. There are no armies, and crime rates are extremely low. This is mostly due to the way they run their lands, with money being almost inexistent and everyone treating their neighbours as they would family, thanks to the Sylphi's curious Empathy ability, which lets them feel what others are feeling and sometimes share memories.

With that said, crime and danger does exist in Arborean territories, and their answer to that are Guardians and Explorers.

Guardians are elite combative Arboreans who have undergone basic education and can utilise both Mana and their Traits efficiently enough to protect others from criminals, outlaws and dangerous animals and events. There are usually at least two Guardians in every settlement, with larger ones having considerably more. The City of Arborea for example had, at one point, over a thousand Guardians. Nowadays the number has fallen to half that and they sometimes have trouble with being too thinly spread around the city due to its large population, but it is still considerable when one thinks of each individual Guardian's abilities.

Explorers are members of an open group named the Explorers of Arborea. These individuals use their Traits to the fullest, usually spending well over a decade honing their skills and knowledge in Wisteria's Academy of Mana Proficiency (usually called WAMP or Wisteria Academy by the populace) before setting out on their first quest. They travel all over the world, gathering experiences and knowledge from as many places as they can and trying to make the world a better place before returning home to Arborea to recount their stories. Explorers are famous figures in Arborean culture and are well received and loved almost everywhere that Arborean culture has a decent presence.

Arborea is a xenophilic culture, welcoming people from all over the world into their home inside the Tree of Exodus as long as they are not complete freaks and seek to make their lives worse. In such a case the Guardians will step in.

## Religion

The Arborean civilization (and indeed those civilizations that split off the Arborean and became their own over the course of the 2k years) practice not a religion with dogma and a set of rules, but are instead told in their youth the Story of Ilex and Nymphea, of their relationship and tribulations and eventual tragedy at the hands of those who would seek to harm everything out of fear and hatred. The story is lauded as the heart of Arborean Culture and the forms of Ilex and Nymphea have become lesser Gods despite their presumably fictional nature. It teaches the lessons of humility, love for your fellow sapient, and hope and despair in the face of tragedy.

## Technology

The Arboreans have developed a rudimentary spell-shooting device, named ‘Buzzers’. Buzzers allow people that unversed in magic to take advantage of spells by buying sets of cartridges and activator buttons from local buzzer workshops. Buzzers are rather expensive due to the incredible level of expertise involved in making one and its ammunition. Thus only famous figures, well-off merchants, and military officers own them. Essentially, Buzzers are a barrel made of magical wood with a plug on one side that has a button designed to activate a specific spell. The barrel is loaded by popping a cartridge of ground-up ingredients for the desired spell into it. Pressing the activator button then causes the spell cartridge to be expelled, effectively 'shooting' the a spell. Depending on the expertise of the one who made the buzzer, it may last for years or for merely a handful of firings. Of course, the better-made ones are more expensive up-front.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5104622