The Dryads are not the simple Treespirits the Kithain of the modern day know. They are not Inanimae, not exactly, and they can look very much like the Sidhe, I suppose.

Perhaps it's best if I explain it this way, the Dryads are strongly linked to nature. As there are some species of plants that breed in a two generational cycle, so do the Dryads. In the pure-blooded strain, a Dryadtree produces pods. In these pods are infant Dryads, of male and female, who are then raised by adult Dryads. When a male and a female Dryad join, the result is a seed, grown in the body of the female that, when planted, grows into a Dryadtree that, when mature, produces pods of its own.

The Dryads are very interesting for one major reason, one of their number, a female, fell in love with a human during the early years of the Shattering. She bore two children to him and then was forced to leave before Banality destroyed her. Those children, a son and a daughter, were raised by their father. The son was more human then Fae, and so the Faerie blood is weak in his line, very rarely blooming into a Faerie, though Faeries can be reborn into his line, if necessary. It is the daughter who was born a balance between Faerie and human, a true Hybrid, unlike her brother, and it was Joiya who was able to find the Faeries and her mother's Heritage. All of Joiya's descendants bear the Faerie blood strongly, and it almost always breeds true. They are the Treespeakers.

Joiya allied with House Revier, the Dreamersuns, and many of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are among their numbers.

As of this time, there are no true Dryad trees left on the Earth. There are also very few true Dryads left, and none of them, so far, are close enough to each other to produce a true Tree, but the Treespeaker descendants of Joiya, with human blood in their veins, protect some dozen trees who descend from Joiya's union with a Dryad. The Treespeakers also seek out any and all true Dryads left on Earth, to protect them from the ravages of the world.

It seems that the only way for any Faeries to survive is to throw their lot in with the humans, and that is what the Treespeakers have done, also embracing many other heritages in their lines.

The Dryad Treespeakers presently seem to be seeking out both Faerie and Garou allies. Perhaps they will be able to help the Garou survive the Apocalypse, and help the Faeries to survive the Winter. Perhaps.

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