Hamadryad
Name: Arianna Oakleaf
Nickname: Ari
Age:  24, though likely much older.  24 is what she remembers.

Member of House Ashby: Yes.  Since her tree is there, she is considered part of the household.  She is a benevolent creature.

How long has the character known Archer/been a member of his family:  Since she was a little girl.  Or at least since she became aware.



Supernatural Abnormality: She is a Hamadryad, and is the physical representation of the Oak Tree that is her home.  Her hair has a green tint, and she likes clothing with a leafy theme.  In reality, she can call to growing things to help her, she is friendly with tree-dwelling creatures, and is generally friendly to those who are friendly to her.  In time of need, she can grow leafy wings and fly short distances.

Weakness: She is deathly afraid of fire, and is terrified of people who cut down trees or harm vegetation.  It is almost pathalogical how she reacts to things like that.  She will, if threatened, protect her tree at all cost, for it is her life and she will die if the tree dies.

Theme song: Summertime

Faceclaim: (working on this – a greenhaired girl is not common)

Physical Description:  She is petite, standing 5’1” and a mere 95 lbs.  She is thin, but very pretty, though a bit unusual.  Her eyes are green and a bit larger than normal.

Distinguishing Features:  Her blonde hair has a green tint, and her makeup is green, including lip gloss.  Her finger and toenails are also painted green.
Personality Description:  She has a shy but bubbly personality, and generally looks to make friends until someone shows they are not nice.  She is the original tree hugger, and is a strict vegetarian.  She only fights when she is threatened, and is loving to all others, especially children.

Likes and dislikes: She loves children and young creatures of all kinds.  She loves animals, birds and kind people.  Is is a bit distrustful of enclosed places, and is afraid of going underground.  Fire terrifies her. Places of just stone, no life there, so that is scary

While she is a young woman, she is likely as old as her tree.  Periodically, especially if the tree branches or shoots off other trunks, a new personality will result.  Arianna only knows what she knows from coming into consciousness 24 years ago.  Very old residents who know her tree might have seen an older version of her, but she has no memory of that.  Still, she loves jazz and blues.  That is an old memory, and she has no clue why, but she goes to clubs and sings sometimes.  Generally, she is quite naive, and curious.

History: She came alive and went out as many young people do.  She didn’t know about the city, but seemed to instinctively know it’s history.  She didn’t hold a job, but she did not need to.  She had no parents, and assumed that other girls were the same.  Or at least, Hamadryads like her who had no parents.  Or family.  But the Family treated her nice, and she loved the property, and the city.  She has managed to avoid most of the ugliness, but she knows it is there, from drunken men trying to pick her up, to thieves trying to rob her and others.  She is always sunny in the day, a little gloomy at night, which is probably why blues appeal to her.

While she is 24 in thought, she is very naïve, and often has only the understanding of one much younger.  She wants to learn about people, about things that matter to them.  Imagine Ariel the Mermaid trying to understand the people on land, that is her.  And she would love a child of her own, but she is not sure that she can have a child with a mortal, and while she wants one, the thought of birthing one frightens her.  She has seen it on television, and it looks painful.  But she loves children; human, animal bird, fish.  So beautiful, so pure.

In the reality of those with powers, she is truly an innocent herself.  She is of a very old race, back to ancient Greece.  The Dryads were the minor goddesses, inhabiting the woods and forests. The Hamadryads were tied to the trees themselves.  So Dryads were patrons of the forest, Hamadryads were the ones that actually inhabited the tree.  This persisted through time, coming to the City of New Orleans, where the very oldest of oak trees in the United States live.  Where old trees live, sometimes so do Hamadryads.  In many ways, they are as ageless that their homes, but also as innocent of the world as a child newborn.

It is this age that likely attracted the first Hamadryad to this tree, and it was the age of Archer that made him adopt that tree and protect it.  No mortal knows how old that tree is, but it is likely as old as the Anseman and McDonogh Oaks that live in City Park, which are 750-900 years old, long before any white settler came to the region.  The old religions celebrated them, and it is rumored that even the Fae are awed by the age of the trees, and the combined age of the ones who live in them and protect them.

Arianna does not know of much of this, only knowing that should her tree die, so would she.  And according to legend, if someone were to destroy her and the tree, then both Dryads and the Gods themselves would punish those who committed the crime.  But to little Arianna, she honestly could not imagine someone destroying her tree and her.  In her mind, no one would ever be so cruel.  If she only knew...