Divine servants that inhabit unspoiled corners of the world, nymphs protect places of natural power and infuse their surroundings with the magic of Nyx. Some are benevolent and aid those who live off the land, while others embody violent aspects of nature. In either case, nymphs generally avoid other sapient creatures, preferring to mind the cycles of nature, the daily interplay of wild animals, or other cosmic forces. Occasionally, though, groups of the same kind of nymphs congregate in a place of natural power or beauty. In times of special need, deities tied to facets of nature might employ nymphs as messengers, guardians, or scouts.
Immortal Nature. A nymph doesn’t require food, drink, or sleep.
Alseid
Touched with the golden light of the sun, alseids inhabit meadows, plains, and lands of cultivated natural beauty. Many live in closer proximity to human civilization than other nymphs. Farmers are grateful for the presence of alseids on their lands and often leave them offerings of mead, honey, flowers, and dates in return for protecting their flocks and making their crops more abundant.
Dryad
Travelers entering a forest might catch a glimpse of a feminine form flitting through the trees. Warm laughter hangs on the air, drawing those who hear it deeper into the emerald shadows.
Treebound. Powerful fey will sometimes bind lesser fey spirits to trees, transforming them into dryads. This is sometimes done as a punishment when the fey spirit falls in love with a mortal and that love is forbidden.
A dryad can emerge from the tree and travel the lands around it, but the tree remains her home and roots her to the world. As long as the tree remains healthy and unharmed, the dryad stays forever youthful and alluring. If the tree is harmed, she suffers. If the tree is ever destroyed, the dryad descends into madness.
Reclusive Fey. Dryads act as guardians of their woodland demesnes. Shy and reclusive, they watch interlopers from the trees. A dryad struck by the beauty of a stranger might investigate more closely, perhaps even try to lure the individual away to be charmed.
Dryads work with other sylvan creatures to defend their forests. Unicorns, treants, and satyrs live alongside them, in addition to druids that share the dryads’ devotion to the woods they call home.
Woodland Magic. Dryads can speak with plants and animals. They can teleport from one tree to another, luring interlopers away from their groves. If pressed, a dryad can beguile humanoids with her enchantments, turning enemies into friends. They also know a handful of useful spells.
Lampad
Lampads guard the shadowed paths of the world, depths typically trod by souls destined for the Underworld. These rarely seen nymphs assist Athreos in guiding the dead, moving among the spirits that collect along the Tartyx River and reclaiming wayward souls that try to slip back to the mortal world. This means lampads are most often spotted in graveyards, crumbling crypts, and tunnels that bore deep into the earth, and near portals to the Underworld.
Naiad
Naiads live in and near water. They might be spotted among rivers and lakes, on isolated shores, or amid coral labyrinths and deep sea fumaroles. Wherever rivers and seas show their variety and force, naiads gather to revel in nature’s might. Individual naiads often grow fixated with a single type or body of water, potentially preferring a deep sea trench, coastline, or river system above all others. Over time, such a resident nymph often becomes connected with their aquatic home through sightings and stories, becoming a guardian of the place and, in effect, a manifestation of its personality.
Aquatic Collectors. Curious by nature, naiads often seek out what the seas and rivers claim. As a result, they might be found among sunken ruins and shipwrecks, sifting through the remains for whatever catches their eye. Living creatures aren’t exempt from this curiosity, either. Naiads are known to befriend aquatic creatures, or even to keep modest menageries. The occasional star-crossed castaway has even been known to become part of such collections.
Secret Routes of the Sea. Sailors across the world claim that naiads know all the secret aquatic routes of Theros. Using this hidden system of currents and arteries, a ship might reach any destination in record time, be it across the sea or along a river a hundred miles inland. Naiads do nothing to dissuade sailors from this belief, and certainly numerous reports tell of charmed nymphs leading lost seafarers home. Yet, if tales of naiad-led galleys appearing amid the headwaters of mountain rivers are true, only the nymphs know for sure.
Oread
Aggressive oreads number among the most dangerous nymphs, as they embody the wild might of flames, volcanism, and the hidden forces of the earth. These creatures typically dwell in remote mountain crags and near volcanoes, where they caper among the forces of dissolution and rebirth. During avalanches and volcanic eruptions, groups of oreads might race ahead of the destruction, dancing, singing, and doing what they can to maximize the impending devastation.
Honor Among Fey. Hearkening back to some ages-old conflict, oreads refuse to knowingly destroy any land inhabited by another nymph. While they won’t work to alter the natural course of destruction, neither will they make another nymph’s home part of any calamity they encourage. As a result, part of what makes an alseid’s field or a dryad’s grove seem so blessed is that oreads go out of their way to leave such sites alone.
Tales of Fire. The followers of Purphoros regard oreads with special reverence, as myths tell of cagey smiths befriending these nymphs and convincing them to aid in creating phenomenal works. In some tales, a smith finds an oread and allows it to relish in the destruction of a novel or remarkable item. In recompense, the oread provides the smith with materials drawn from the burning heart of the world, allowing the smith to create an even greater wonder. In more tales, though, a smith pursues an oread, then later the mortal’s associates find familiar tools and a heap of ashes.
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