Spriggan

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### **General Overview**

Ponderous and typically slow-moving, Spriggans tend to think before they speak and speak before they act. Spriggans come in all varieties of temperament and alignment, often depending upon their proximity to other intelligent creatures, and whether those experiences have been positive or negative.

Spriggans are normally solitary creatures, however, it is common to find Spriggans moving through humanoid communities seeking out music.

### **Race Alignment**

Most Spriggan’s tend towards neutrality between law and chaos.

### **Appearance**

Spriggans resemble walking trees. Their torso resembles a tree trunk, stumpy legs and root-like appendages for toes; long boughs for arms and long branch-like fingers, a torso resembling a tree trunk, very little neck, and a face framed by thin, leaf-filled branches instead of hair. Each Spriggan's leaves and bark strongly resembles a specific kind of tree, such as birch, elm, oak, pine, etc. Spriggans breathe and can eat or drink, though most Spriggans absorb nutrients by taking root at night. Depending on the type of tree they resemble, the leaves that make up their hair may change colour or even fall off with the changing of the seasons.

Spriggans are at least 6 feet but can grow to be nearly ten feet tall. They usually do not wear clothing, but can fashion belts and such to hold their possessions. Non-Spriggans usually cannot tell male Spriggans from females.

### **Natural Race Abilities**

#### *Barkskin*

Spriggans cannot wear armour, but their bark-like skin provides them with some natural protection. It is the equivalent of metal armour for a human.

#### *Take Root*

Spriggans does not sleep, but they must put down roots each night and enter a semi-conscious dormant state for at least 6 hours. Spriggans can take root in sand, dirt, mud, loose gravel or similar material; but not worked stone or bare rock.

#### *Flammable*

Spriggans have a vulnerability to fire damage, taking double damage and they burn easily.

### **Languages**

Spriggans can speak, read, and write Sylvan and Common. Spriggans can also communicate with any tree of their own type.

### History

Angra, Lord of Loathin

g. Before becoming the Lord of Loathing he was the God of Life and health. As such he dedicated a lot of his time to the creation of unique races without making them enveloped and spread them across all of Aether. So they had their own spaces to develop. One such creation was his magnum opus the Nithusants, but they weren’t his only creation hidden away from the other gods.

The Sylvan once called the heralds of life were created by Angra. Sylvan encompasses a range of different creatures first created when Angra planted seeds in the Realm of Sillia before the Great Awakening. Since then they had multiplied, their descendants eventually spreading to Aether.

Angra spent some time in Silia way before the Great Awakening when the other Gods ascended. During this time Angra wandered alone for a very long time, exploring it. Desiring no companions Angra found solace in nature alone and began nurturing life as he went along. But eventually, he grew tired of his solitude and sowed his most treasured artefact, seeds.

These seeds gave birth to the first of the Sylvan, growing into different creatures depending on the condition of the sowing. Under his guidance, these nature spirits grew to maturity. After their creation, Angra returned to Aether. This area of Silia that Angra personally cultivated came to be known as the Garden of Grisha.

During the ascension and corruption of the divine, this area of Silia was subject to the most change outside of Aether. When Angra transitioned into the now Lord of Loathing, so to did his Garden of Grisha. The Garden became tainted and the abundant life of the garden began to rot. To save Sillia the remaining Divine banished the Garden to Vessix, along with Angra’s Sylvan creations.

The Sylvans were divided, some among them had been corrupted demons of Vessix. Creations of Angra they desired his energy and sought out the remaining Sylvans. This resulted in war between the Sylvans of the daemons of Vessix, death on an unimaginable scale for both sides. This war raged on for centuries on the plane of Vessix, with no one on Aether aware of such a titanic clash all except one.

That one was Elissar, the recently appointed God of Nature. Being so attuned to nature he alone could feel the pain and sorrow felt by the Sylvans in Vessix. Deeply disturbed by their plight he who eats the sun had to do something about these nature spirits. Gathering his power, Elissar managed to pull on the souls of all Sylvans abandoned in Vessix to Aether.

Leaving behind their bodies these spirits rushed to Aether. These spirits took different forms all across Aether but some took root in trees and twigs, creating what we now know as Spriggans. Unlike there other Sylvan the Spriggans were fully aware of their transition to Aether, thankful to Elissar for his intervention, they did their best to live their own lives. Branching out across the Aether finding homes in many places on  Aether, no longer required to fight for their lives. Spriggans can be found in forests living as hermits, in any of the major cities and among the Fae in their steddings.

All of Angra’s Slyvans are connected by the spirit song, a magical melody of unifying energies that bound them to the Garden of Grisha and other Sylvans. Regardless of distance since the moment they were born, this meant that all Sylvans were united through it, living and fighting as one. It was emotion, metaphor and harmony, in one and very few parts of it, the barest edges of this phenomenon, can be expressed vocally. This song flew through their thoughts and bodies echoing in the roots of the Garden. When the Slyvans were close to one another the stronger the Spirit Song became. They drew comfort and strength from this magical bond and the greatest fear of their kind was to become a lonely voice.

Since the Sylvans were brought to Aether through Ellisars will, they have forgotten these songs. The Spriggans remember how these songs felt and what it means to sing them, but they cannot recall the notes nor melodies. This causes many of the Spriggan race to find comfort in the songs of other races and seek out music in the hopes of remembering the spirit song.