Arborean

At a glance

Feature	Details
Appearance	Tree-like humanoids with bark-covered bodies and fused-root limbs; genderless or non-binary, and hairless.
Origins and communities	Cantor’s Copse in the Kalydian; the remembered Greenwood is lost.
Culture	Created by Yanai; reverence for Life, the seasons, Death and the protection of saplings.
Racial abilities	Photosynth; Hardy; Enroot

Origins and return

Unique insofar as their lack of shared heritage or history with the other Sapience races, Arboreans have come into a world that has forgotten them. The struggles of such an existence are many, and how these old-come-new-again people will adapt to the travails and pitfalls of Aetolia remains to be seen.

Appearance

Trait	Details
Eyes	brown, black, amber, green, hazel. No blue. Small and shiny.
Ears	boreholes or small divots.
Size	2 – 9 feet / 0.6 – 2.7 metres
Limbs	long and gnarled, bearing a stretched appearance. Their torso is their shortest part.
Gait	Gait is heavy and lumbering, plodding along due to a lack of joints.

Arboreans are genderless or non-binary and hairless, with a thick slab of bark covering their whole body in a wide range of colours, from the ruddy shade of redwood to the dark umber of mahogany and blackwood, to the pale hues and green tones of young oak or excessive chlorophyll. They are bipedal, their arms and limbs made of fused roots, with many distinguishable features.

Living Arboreans can be flower-bearing, fruit-laden, or utilitarian in appearance. The older an Arborean is, the more prevalent some things like lichen, mosses, and fungi are upon their bark. Small ecosystems (as found on typical healthy trees) are welcome and thrive between their inner and outer bark.

Undead Arborean are bereft of the life and foliage that grows in the wood of their living counterparts. Instead, their bodies tend to be more bare, resembling dead or ossified wood with an almost petrified appearance.

Culture and beliefs

Because they are creations of the Elder Goddess of Life and, in many respects, natural wonders in their own right, the Arborean people possess an innate zeal and reverence for life in all its forms.

Children and the young are viewed as sacred – gifts from the Life Mother to be cherished and nurtured above all else. The nurseries of the Arborean are, without exception, heavily guarded and secure, protection of the youth – the future – being of paramount importance.

Respect for the land and for the environment is another native quality – life itself is a gift and taking from the earth is something that should be done with great care and reciprocity. One should never take more than they need and always repay the gift with offerings of their own.

Despite their innate constitution and resilience, Arboreans are slow to anger and slower still to make war, but equally fierce and defensive of anything that would threaten their way of life or the safety of their saplings.

Equal respect is afforded to death – viewed by the Arboreans not as a looming spectre but as a vital part of living, inevitable as winter follows fall. Death is not to be avoided, feared, or forestalled, but accepted, and ageing Arboreans often return to their home to die, that their deadwood may be used by those who yet live in acts of creation and tribute to the fallen.

And yet, despite this inherent zest for life, some Arboreans have struggled to adapt to modern contrivances. Overcome by a feeling of being lost out of time, deprived of memories, and without Elder Life to guide them on their way, some have struck out from their benevolent and pacifistic origins – origins that the modern people cannot wholly relate to, with much of their forebears dead eons before their rebirth – and taken drastic measures to anchor themselves and find a place in the world.

While rare, undead and even vampiric Arboreans are not unheard of, having turned away from respect for the seasons and the inevitability of death. Instead, they dedicate themselves to finding a way of life that is not dictated by fractured history and a heritage they can never truly know or understand.

Settlements

It is claimed that the original home of the Arboreans was in a forest known as the Greenwood. The Elder of the Copse – gifted some minor recollections when brought back into being – has described it as a lush and far-reaching woodland, a sprawling mass of trees and vivacious foliage in which the Goddess Yanai often worked Her wonders of Life. Unfortunately, no region by this name exists today, and further details are lost to memory.

In the modern day, the Arborean people have taken up residence in the Cantor’s Copse. This region of the Kalydian once lay in ruin and desolation until it was healed of its sickness and transformed. The settlement is fashioned wholly from natural resources, lacking the iron and stone of civilisation. The natural spring at the Copse’s centre acts as the heartbeat of the Arboreans’ home.

Racial abilities

Level 1: Photosynth

This ability is passive.

If you are outdoors in sunlight, your natural hunger drain is halved.

Level 31: Hardy

This ability is passive.

Your tough exterior makes it difficult to bruise or pierce with minor blows. As such, any blunt- or cutting-based attack that would deal less than 30 damage is blocked completely.

Level 61: Enroot

Syntax: ENROOT and UPROOT

While in a forested location, you can put down your roots to settle into a low-activity state. This will hide you from view and make you undetectable to heatsight or lifevision – the best place to hide a tree is in the forest, after all. A search will still reveal you, however.

You will not be able to walk again until you uproot, though others may still move you with their abilities, which will end your enrooted state.

Class ideas for roleplay

These are potential starting points for a character’s story and are offered as suggestions only. You can make almost any class or race combination work in Aetolia as your race gives no special advantage with these classes; availability follows the usual class and guild rules.

Shaman

An Arborean Shaman could make the Cycle central to their faith, tending living things and accepting death as part of the seasons.

Sentinel

Defending the forest and working with its creatures gives an Arborean Sentinel a practical way to protect the land and its saplings.

Bard

A Bard might study Yanai’s Eternal Song, preserve the Copse’s memories through performance, or search for music lost with the Greenwood. Furthermore, the Bard’s Song of Oblivion traces its origins back to the Arboreans of the Greenwood.

See also: The Races of Aetolia · The World of Aetolia · Character Classes