Species: Wildhost

Sentient plants, such a treants & dryads, are a tried and tested concept in modern literature- and even more so in D&D. Where treants first appeared as Ents in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, talking trees have been around for far longer than that- roughly since the 8th century, appearing in the Anglo-Saxon poem Dream of the Rood, the oldest version of which can be found on Ruthwell Cross, named after the town Ruthwell, which at the time of the 8th century was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria (now in Scotland). Dryads have been around much, much longer than that, making regular appearances in ancient Greek mythology, and variants of dryads appearing regularly in different cultures- Ghillie Dhu (Scottish), Kodama (Japanese), Querquetulanea (Roman), or Löfjerskor (Swedish), among others- although dryads as we know them in pop culture nowadays are a little different from their original mythological origins.

History lessons aside, the main reason I made this species (and accompanying lineages) was because I love the concept of living, walking trees & plants, and just how much they can do to create a foreign, uneasy atmosphere- or a very warm, peaceful one- is utterly remarkable. You could have your party wander into a dense forest with gnarled, moss-overgrown trees, not knowing that half of those trees have eyes that watch the group’s every step, or you could have a scene where a treant seems to be talking to themselves, only for the party to find out there’s a family of songbirds living amidst their branches.

You get my point! Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoy! If you’d prefer a different file format to read this homebrew in, no worries- I got you!

Click here to read the Wildhost as a .pdf via Google Drive.
Click here to read the Wildhost on the Homebrewery.

Until next time!

Cheers,
The Goosequill