A congregation of spirits was gathered in the mountains of Ibinia. It was the only place in the country to have such a massive forest, the kind that could lend strength to nature spirits and help them channel their powers most effectively.

Most mortals couldn’t perceive the luminous. They existed on two different planes. But on this night, this special night, with so many dryads, nymphs, sprites, and even stronger spirits all in one spot, maybe even a human could see their supernatural impression.

“Alright, alright, shush, all of you” an old tree spirit, leader of the Wild Council, called for silence from the crowd. “Let’s get this done quickly. It takes a lot of power to project myself here from my ecosystem, and I’m sure we all want to get back to make sure they’re safe.”

Another leader of the Wild Council was next to speak. “May the dryad the spirits of Ibinia have chosen for this task step forward.”

A small spirit emerged from the crowd.

“What do they call you?”

“Thorn.”

“Thorn is a proper name. Why were you chosen for this task, dryad?”

“My ecosystem can survive without me for a while. I am a desert dryad. My form is that of a cactus. The plants I watch over can survive long without supervision. Still, other dryads have offered to look over my territory while I am on this most important mission.”

“Thinking of your ecosystem ahead of all else, that is important for a dryad. But do you have the temperament of a fighter?”

“Yes!” A gaggle of giggling spirits called out from the crowd. They were the other dryads of Ibinia. “Thorn has temperament in spades!”

If a spirit could blush, Thorn would.

“I take my job seriously. More seriously than most dryads. I would take the job of a fighter very seriously too.”

“All is well, then.”

The members of the Wild Council formed a circle around Thorn. The other spirits moved in close, ready to lend their power.

“Before we start the process. Would you like your human body to be a man or a woman?”

“Does either provide a tactical advantage?”

“They say men are physically stronger. But you won’t be fighting with your hands.”

“I suppose it does not matter then. I would like to be a woman, I suppose.”

“Why?” One of the Wild Council leaders asked. “Surely you should have that strength just in case.”

“I want to be a woman! Does it matter why?!”

“Sharp. Talking back to a leader of the Wild Council. It is fitting you are a cactus.”

The truth of the matter was just that: Thorn was a cactus. Other dryads all got to be beautiful plants, like trees or flowers. Thorn had been stuck with the form of a cactus. All nature was beautiful to them, but bloated stumpy pointy cactuses tested their love of the wild.

Thorn hated humans. Most nature spirits did. But they had seen many, and over their long lifespan they had decided that women were more beautiful than men. If Thorn was going to be stuck as one of those self-important overgrown chimps, they might as well be a pretty one.

“You shall be a woman. Now, let us begin.”

Chants filled the air as the eldest spirits began to summon the wild magics. The lower spirits joined in, their voices coming together to form an otherworldly chorus. Every dryad, nymph, and sprite pooled their strength together.

Ribbons of warm green light began to form in the air, weaving towards Thorn and wrapping the dryad up like a cocoon. As the chanting grew louder, the mystical chrysalis floated several feet into the air. It glowed brighter and brighter until the entire woods was alight with a pulsing green shine.

Finally, the chanting came to an end. The supernatural lights began to fade away. The cocoon split down the middle and vanished, and in its place was a nude human woman, brown-skinned and green-haired. Sitting up from a prone position she looked at herself in shock.

“Did one of you mess that up? I don’t think humans are supposed to have hair that color.”

“It doesn’t matter. Listen, Thorn. Part of the spell put the language of men in your head. Try to speak.”

“Ahh… Ouuhh… Ehhh…” The woman - Thorn - tried to form words with her mouth, playing with the sounds she could make. Spirits communicated mentally, not with throats and tongues. “Ehhh…. Aye…. I th-thinnnkkk, aye-I thinnnkk I aaam geeetting a-a-ahold of thisss…”

“Practice more. Now, try to walk.”

Still trying to form words, Thorn rose to her new feet and tried to walk with her new legs.  Humans made it look so easy. She stumbled and fell over a few times, but eventually made everything work. Being able to fly as a spirit was so much more convenient, but this could do.

“Okay, I think that is all you’ll need. Your magic will require a bit more time to develop. For now, search out the Nova Ordo and offer them your skills. If they refuse you, insist on yourself.”

“Un-un-un-understood!”

“Hold on. There is one last thing. Humans get nervous if they see one another without clothing. You will need to cover yourself.”

“Ouhhh-oookay.”

Thorn focused, reaching out to the wild. If the spell to turn her human worked, this should work too.

Leafy vines and flowers sprouted from the ground around her. They grew around her feet, trailing up her legs and covering her body. In a few more seconds, she had formed a piece of makeshift clothing, though it didn’t cover much except the bare essentials.

“Excellent! Your magic is growing faster than anticipated. You understand your mission, so we shall leave you to it. This meeting of the Wild Council is dismissed. All spirits, return to your ecosystems.”

“Fuh-fuh-farewell!”

One by one, the luminous figures began to fade away, leaving Thorn alone in the woods. She practiced being human for a bit longer, walking in circles and talking to herself. Then she decided to see what she looked like.

Finding a pond not too far away, she kneeled down and stared at her reflection. A human stared back at her. The face was attractive, but something was vile to her sensibilities.

“A human,” she thought. “I am a human! A disgusting, polluting creature! If this mission wasn’t so important…”

She grabbed a rock and threw it at the surface of the water. The image bent and vanished, shattered by ripples.

“Whatever. I should just get this over with. Time to find the Nova Ordo.”

 

 

 

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Character Overview

Name: Thorn

Author: Throwaway115

Allegiance: Nova Ordo

Age: 300

Gender: Technically genderless as a dryad, became female when given a mortal form

Race: Dryad (given a mortal form)

Bio:

Dryads are nature spirits and the most minor of minor deities. They exist to defend and upkeep Arant’s ecosystems. Every forest, grove, or field in the world has at least one dryad defender assigned to protect it. Dryads are normally invisible and intangible to mortal perception, existing on a separate plane, and can affect the world in incredibly subtle ways to keep their forests from being polluted. They can turn from their spiritual form into a physical piece of plantlife, usually a tree, which is how they “sleep.”

Thorn isn’t your average dryad. While most dryads work in highly vegetated areas, she was assigned to protect the vast Ibinian desert and its scattered brush and cactuses. Her physical form is a stumpy, spiky cactus. This unique form and her prickly personality earned her the name “Thorn.”

While her position is less than glamorous, the other dryads in Ibinia respect her and answer to her command, even the ones in the heavily wooded mountains or grassy steppes. At an annual meeting of the Ibinian dryads, several revealed that they had heard travelers speaking of a possible firemoth silk trade route being created by the Arc Trading Company, in collaboration with the mountain dragons.

Every dryad reviled the thought. A new trade route meant new infrastructure, and that meant trees being cut down for lumber and plants being uprooted or burned away to make room for new paths. Even worse, it could mean increased immigration, expansion, and human activity in Ibinia, threatening the landscape even further. Given that it was an international trade route, the scope would be much larger than just Ibinia as well.

When they eventually learned of the tournament to decide on whether or not the trade deal would go through, the dryads decided that they wanted to send an envoy to the Nova Ordo to fight in the tournament. They saw it as their responsibility to protect the ecosystem, even indirectly.

But there was a problem. Dryads weren’t fighters. They couldn’t even interact in the mortal plane outside of promoting plant growth, nudging sunbeams, or guiding animals. In order to produce a suitable fighter, they called on the help of the intercontinental Wild Council, the “government” of nature spirits. Pouring their wild magics together, the highest ranking spirits could create a powerful mortal form for one dryad to use to compete in the tournament.

Thorn volunteered for the job, and was granted a mortal form, the first dryad in years to ever take on such a state. She sought out and offered her skills to Nova Ordo, impressing them with a display of her magical powers.

Personality: “Take away the prey, the ecosystem suffers. Take away the predators, the ecosystem suffers. Take away any animal, the ecosystem suffers. There is only one exception to the rule. Take away the humans, and the ecosystem thrives. Consider that.”

Most dryads are serene and playful, but Thorn is the exact opposite: surly, intimidating, and focused on her goal. It’s fitting, as while most dryads get to be tall, beautiful trees, she’s stuck as a stumpy, pointy, bloated cactus, something she resents. She’s a real drill sergeant when it comes to ordering the other dryads around and getting the plant life in order. The vegetation in the desert might be scant, but she takes her job in keeping it in shape very seriously.

She despises all humans and human-like races, wishing they never evolved past the point of apes, but can grudgingly work with them and acknowledge when they do things right. That hasn’t stopped her from pitching a “human extermination plan” to the Wild Council in the past. Seeing herself as a human for the first time nearly made her vomit in revulsion, but she understands the importance of this mission.

Adjusting to a mortal form has been hard for Thorn. As ethereal beings, dryads lack many of the requirements humans do. Thirst, hunger, sleep, exhaustion, sweat, sexual urges, the need to go to the bathroom - all of these are new to her and she’s still learning day by day the realities of being human.

Abilities:

• Cactus Spines: Owing to her nature as a cactus dryad, Thorn can generate and launch poisoned needles from her body. They shoot out from beneath her skin but leave no hole. These can be either used as projectiles or a form of defense, popping from her skin and staying in place like porcupine quills. The poison causes numbing and in very high amounts minor hallucinations.

• Phytomancy: Normally, dryads can influence the growth of plants to a limited degree. In her enhanced mortal form, Thorn can make plants grow on command, even ones foreign or unsuited to the ecosystem they belong in, or at giant scale. She can grow them from any kind of soil, including sand, and control them as they grow. She can also increase their size to massive proportions. Lashing vines, walls of thorns, cactuses with poison spines, oak trees that burst from the ground at battering ram speed, massive flowers that release stunning pollen, or even Venus flytraps that can chomp down on and digest foes with acid - the ability is as versatile as it is deadly.

• Heliomancy: Normally, dryads can team up to push sunbeams to either give individual plants more light, drain invasive plants of their food source, or even start small wildfires to give way for new plants if an area gets too cluttered. In her enhanced mortal form, Thorn can directly control the sun’s rays in battle through wild magics incomprehensible to most humans. She can charge up sunbeams and direct them around as highly damaging lasers. She can control up to five sunbeam lasers at once. This ability only works while the sun is out, however, and drains Thorn’s mana reserves more than any other power, so she uses it sparingly.

• Animal Connection: Normally, dryads can guide simple beings like animals to different parts of their territory. In her enhanced mortal form, Thorn can call on surrounding wildlife to battle for her. Of course, this is limited by her surroundings. If she’s in the desert and there’s only vultures around, she can only call on vultures.

• Flight: Dryads are intangible beings, so they can float through the air without issue. This ability has carried over to Thorn’s human form, though it is now powered by wild magics and thus drains mana to use.

• Supernatural Perception: Owing to her original status as a dryad, Thorn can still perceive and interact with other dryads and similarly intangible supernatural beings, despite being a mortal. This ability extends to give her resistance to psychic powers and illusions: she’s not immune, but will notice something’s off more quickly than usual.

• Weaknesses: Counterbalancing her powerful magic, Thorn is physically frail. Just a few direct hits from an opponent can take her down. She has to play keep-away using her powerful offense to avoid getting damaged, and she’s especially weak to elemental damage like fire, electricity, and ice that can burn or wither her plants. She’s also not any stronger than a normal human physically. Consider her a glass cannon, with emphasis on both the “glass” and the “cannon.”

Appearance: Her hair is shoulder-length: round, curly, bouncy, and bizarrely green. Her skin is a light, dusty brown shade the color of tree bark. She has a stern expression, matching her demeanor. Like her associated plant, the cactus, she’s short and sturdy, with wide hips, thick arms, and thicker legs.

She doesn’t wear clothing. Instead, her body is wrapped in bright green vines, stems, leaves, and vibrant flowers controlled by her Phytomancy that come together to make up something of a tight leotard. It’s something most women would ever dare to wear in public. Thorn however doesn’t have a great understanding of human modesty, clashing with her tough and prickly personality.

How they got recruited: After being granted a mortal form by the Wild Council, Thorn sought out Nova Ordo and defeated a few other candidates in order to show off her wild magics. Suitably impressed by her performance, they brought her on. She doesn’t actually know about the existence of the Sages and is only in the tournament to get the trade deal shut down.