Amaley Manytrees

Fanart of Amaley Manytrees by manicatsinamerica/sosaidtheartblock https://sosaidtheartblock.tumblr.com/post/175686269332/been-drawing-again-i-have-to-credit-the-design

## General details

### Relatives

* Imshiel Manytrees (husband, deceased)
* Im Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Shiel Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Chert Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Ela Manytrees (daughter, deceased)
* Leaf Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Himshi Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Mallem Manytrees (son, deceased)
* Chaley Manytrees (daughter, deceased)
* Mosk Manytrees (son)

### Roles or Vocation

* Mothertree of the Aur forest
* Mamatree

## Physical description

### Hair color

Brown

**Amaley Manytrees** was an Unseelie Aur dryad and the primary caretaker of the Aur forest, as well as the mamatree of the Manytrees family. She was killed by Olphix when he burned her family to death.

## Appearance

#### Alignment

Unseelie (since she consumes the sap of her trees)

In *The Court of Five Thrones*, Amaley is described as having 'oak leaves growing from either side of her head and arranged to neatly fall alongside her brown hair.' She has golden eyes. Bark grows along the backs of her hands. Her voice is described as, 'holding hints of forest'.

During the Masque, she wears, 'boots . . . made of leather cut leaves, pointed and shining in bright, grass green.'

## Personality

She is often supportive and comforting to Mosk Manytrees, but also helps form many of his insecurities and mental health problems by isolating him and forbidding him from doing many things, as well as not supporting him when he needs her most. She finds it hard for Mosk to leave the Manytrees home.

She has Court manners. Amaley is a true pacifist. She supports inter-alignment cooperation.

## Life

Amaley is the Mothertree of the former Aur forest, and its primary caretaker. Amaley once says that the 'Aur forest has always been . . . we remember no time before it. There was the Aur forest, and there were the Aur dryads, and we came together, and we have always been. For as long as there have been enough trees to make a forest.' She partners with Imshiel Manytrees, and bears Im Manytrees and Shiel Manytrees. Both children are difficult to bear.

At some point, Gille Dubh is down on his luck and runs into the Aur forest, and Amaley finds him and nurses him back to health, which he is incredibly grateful for.

Olphix and Davix want 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 we could sunder and use.' So, Olphix poisons the Aur Forest. The Aur dryads try everything to heal the forest: they, 'burned off sections of the forest, thinking it might be some strange fungus. [They] tried isolating the worst trees. [They] tried [their] own magic, and [they] tried the magic of healers. [They] sought potions to pour into the soil by the gallon. [They] worked tirelessly for years, but nothing helped.' They finally seek out aid from the School of the Staff (not knowing Olphix poisoned the forest to start with), and the School sends Olphix to help. He offers to heal the forest in exchange for the Aur dryads' then-non-existent seventh son of a seventh son. Amaley and Imshiel only had two children at the time, and assumed they would have no more, so they agreed, thinking the promise would never be fulfilled. When they continue having children, they use magic to try to only have girls, which isn't that successful: of their seven children born after Shiel, only two were girls. They try to stop after Chaley Manytrees, their second daughter, but go to a party, and conceive Mosk.

Initially, the family supports Mosk attempting to escape his fate. Since Mosk had not made the debt, this would not break it. Amaley gives him a bow and arrows to train with, so that he can fight Olphix when the time comes. He is still forbidden from leaving the Aur Forest or having any friends or connections. Over time, the family grows despondent, and thinks it best that he simply accept his fate. Amaley forbids him from practicing the bow, and doesn't know that he continues to practice in secret.

Amaley visits the Unseelie Court during Gwyn ap Nudd's debut, and offers her support, particularly for inter-alignment cooperation. Amaley and Gwyn talk about her children, and Gwyn expresses an interest in meeting Mosk, as he is a seventh son of a seventh son.

Amaley later brings Mosk to the Masque at the Unseelie Court, hoping to give him some freedom. She even directs Gwyn to go speak with him.

Olphix murders Amaley, along with the other Manytrees family members, save Mosk, when Olphix comes to collect Mosk. Mosk hears all of his family screaming as they burn 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 that have 'died' and live out the rest of their life as a tree.

Amaley can distill, 'saps into syrups over a magical heat that wouldn’t hurt the wood, turning them into confectionary that melted sweet and thick over their tongues.'

Amaley can flower-walk, though she is the only one in her corner of the Aur forest who can, until Mosk.

## Relationships

### Gwyn ap Nudd

Amaley is polite to Gwyn when she meets him, and supportive of his plans for inter-alignment cooperation.

### Imshiel Manytrees

It seems that Amaley and Imshiel love each other, and enjoy going on outings together.

### Mallem Manytrees

Although Mosk's parents don't do much to curb Mallem's cruelty, Amaley did once interrupt one of Mallem's diatribes, cowing Mallem into brief silence.

### Mosk Manytrees

Mosk loves his mamatree, and she teaches him much about the deal his parents struck to save the Aur forest, but she also eventually despairs over what they would have to do when the debt is called in, so she attempts to harden her heart against the loss while Mosk was yet with them, which hurts Mosk greatly.

### The Oak King

Amaley 'had spoken of [the Oak King] fondly even though Aur dryads and Seelie dryads didn’t often have much to do with each other.'

### The Raven Prince

The Raven Prince called Amaley, 'a marvel of an ally', and notes that he'd always liked Aur dryads.

## Quotations

* To Gwyn: 'There are some of us who cared very much about your speeches regarding inter-alignment cooperation, no matter what your motives. All these war folk.’ She looked around, then stepped back into the shadows. ‘And you, a War General who talked so often of peace. Does it cut you, to be this way? You are like a grafted tree. You may have been taught to bear the fruits of our cousins across the river; but the rootstock always wins out.’

## Trivia

* Aur dryads 'work in concert with the Seelie to keep [the Aur forest] in accord'.

## 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.'

## Image Gallery

Fanart of Amaley Manytrees by manicatsinamerica/sosaidtheartblock https://sosaidtheartblock.tumblr.com/post/175686269332/been-drawing-again-i-have-to-credit-the-design
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 29 August 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/4865985. Chapter 7: Debut.
2. ↑ 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.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 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. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 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.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 2 March 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/31845930. Chapter 16: Leave Be.
6. ↑ 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.
7. ↑ 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.
8. ↑ 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.
9. ↑ 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 it Better?
10. ↑ 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.
11. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 8 October 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/65621236. Chapter 4: Esgrettio.
12. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 16 September 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/84324043. Chapter 15: The Enemy of My Enemy.
13. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 5 July 2019. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/46372144. Chapter 9: Lies of Omission.
14. ↑ "Dryad". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad. Accessed 7 May 2021.