A Naiad demonic Creation battleready with her body as hard wood
N A I A D, Naida Servus
Race: Naiad
Class: Golem
Species: Demonic Creation
Other names: Naiad Demon, Nature Demon, Fountain Demon, Plants, Tree Demon.
Allegiance: Dark Legion of Demons
The Naiads were a type of wood Golem created by the Demonic Dark Legion that fortunately were not utilized to their intended purpose or against the High elves and their allied forces at the concluding phases of the First War of the Power.
Mythological Overview[]
The Naiads were a type of mythical being or legendary creature in Aiers, a form of female spirit or nymph, who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
They were distinct from other mythological creatures as the river, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes.
Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Careids specifically with the Caritz Sea.
They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to the peoples of Aiers. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In some places their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were sometimes as well ritually drowned in such places, and Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.
Naiads however could be dangerous and they were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies.
Description[]
Created by the demons, the Naiads have a demon Soul Shard of Ixis the Nyx, their creator. While other demon creations as the War forged Pixerian were of metal, or the flesh abominations, the Naiads were botanic in nature, made of plants and wood. Normally, they looked quite similar to the Mourlicoun Nymphs, being said that Ixis the Nyx created them as a mock to these creatures, having often a green vegetal "skin", with flowers, leaves and branches growing from them. However in case of battle -as in the illustration- they could grow from their "skin" from soft vegetal tissue to wood and their arms into sharp claws to tear their foes apart.
History and Reasons for Creation[]
In the case of the naiad as a demonic creation, it was one more time the use by demons of existing religious traditions, myths and figures for their own purposes (as example of doing this, is how they adopted themselves the name demon from human Christian traditions, and as well assumed such forms.)
The Naiad Nature Demons or creations were made during the First War of the Power. After the defeat of the Northwestern human kingdoms, the fall of the Empire of Uslen and the sack of Purpurian, it seemed that all the main threats to the hegemony of the Demonic Dark Legion in the continent of Aels had been defeated, and so, the demons decided to proceed with their legions to what were considered until then secondary objectives.
In the great forests of Eastern Aels, Nubla and Bierteno, there was the old high elven city of Lorthen, the last remnant of the high elven kingdoms that once extended over much of Aels. As well, the Wollumis and Mourlicoun who were to be subjected to the Dark Legion, and the Loranor clans of these forests hadn't sworn their allegiance to the Demonic Dark Legion as had the other Loranor clans of Aels.
To put these extensive regions under the dominion of the Dark Legion, a large host marched from Kanovait, while some smaller demonic legion forces marched from the east, from Anutkia, and another crossed the Zaghäl pass: the three armies were to converge on Lorthen, destroying, sacking and conquering everything that opposed them on their path: But these three armies completely disappeared: later historiography will speak of the Lost Battle of the Forests, but no notice was ever known for sure of the destiny of these legions.
This worried the Dark legion, which commanded the demonic princess Ixis the Nyx to prepare a new expedition, but of an army fit to cross the forests of the east, and that could fight in such terrain.
And so, the demonic princess Ixis the Nyx created the Naiad demons. However, these new horrors of the Dark Legion would never be used in the campaign they were created for, as the armies of the Empire of Whide Axis landed in the west, defeating one legion after other. As the human, high elven and dwarven armies of the Whide Axis alliance crossed Olga's Wall in Dargoina's mountain range in the Battle of Montes Cado, Ixis the Nyx will abandon her fortress with part of her forces to Morod, as the Demonic Dark Legion massed their last armies against the seemingly unstoppable enemy forces, while the other servants of Ixis the Nyx dispersed in the wild, to escape from the armies of humans, elves and dwarves.
As the passing armies of the Empire of Whide Axis found the fortress abandoned, they burned it to the ground and continued their march into inner Polforia. But while the fortress was burned to the ground, it didn't burn the extensive underground dungeons... and so, when the fire was down, the armies of the Whide Axis and the Dark Legion fighting away, in the plains of Morod what will be the last battle of the First War of the Power, the demonic naiads will leave for first time the underground greenhouse where they were raised, and will see a world of ashes and destruction for the first time.
As with the end of the war the Dark legion disbanded and the great demonic princes were sealed in the Island of Demonach in Mount Satanmet, the naiads that survived the war and the fall, will wander in Polforia and Nubla, becoming another of the dangers and monsters that lurked in these regions.
Life Cycle[]
But as the flesh abominations rotted and the war forged golems rusted, the wood bodies of the Naiads decayed: when this happened, the Naiad demonic creations will grow a berry, in which when mature, they will place their soul shard, becoming the old naiad body deadwood, and the naiad-berry, a new Naiad.
It is reported that sometimes the Naiads grew more than a single berry, splitting their soul shard in as much pieces as berries she had grown.
However, this further division weakened the Naiad, and in the same time, fusing soul shards made them stronger: reason why these creatures will seek solitude and live away from their own kind: because without their mistress Ixis the Nyx to stop them for doing so, as often when a naiad meet another naiad creation, they will try to tear each other apart, to "eat" the other Naiad and fuse both soul shards into a single, more powerful Naiad.