Nymphs

A forest nymph waiting to talk to woodland travelers.

Nymphs are one with the environment, a race full of beings who steward their surroundings and carefully guard its treasures.

Overview and Origins

Nymphs are a race still shrouded in mystery, having only been discovered in the last century or so scampering around the countryside of Galudon. Originally thought to be a concoction of the Elven race, Nymphs are slender, pastel colored humanoid beings of either gender who take on the appearance of their wild and natural abodes surrounding them. They can be either male or female and are noted to be able to metamorphose into stationary foliage, plant life or aquatic animals from their home habitat when threatened or frightened. There are three known classifications of Nymphs; water, forest, stone Nymphs, with the latter being the least well documented.

Physical Appearance and Biology

Nymphs are not gender defined, allowing them to be either male, female or a presenting other. Their skin is always a color found in the natural world or pastel colored, with parts of their bodies and their clothing being made up of natural substances, animal hide, or foliage from the habitat they came from. Forest and water nymphs are slender, never quite able to build muscle and have a variety of different eye and natural hair colors. Stone nymphs can be quite large, with muscles and limbs that seem to made from the rock they mimic. They are humanoid, although their skin, limb, and adornment patterns certainly cause someone to take a second glance.

• Forest Nymphs come in a variety of shades; such as brown, grey, green, pink, orange, or yellow. Their skin may be patterned like tree barks, leaves, flowers, or agricultural growings. Their eye colors can be brown, green, yellow, blue, or silver, and their hair comes in any natural shades that you can find in Pannotia. They may have greenery or vegetation from their native habitats adorning their skin. Forest Nymphs also possess the power to manifest vegetation on their bodies. Most forest nymphs are slender and long-limbed as tall as 6’5, but a few can also be short and squat, as little as 4’0.

• Water Nymphs are, on sight, recognizable as water based beings with skin in shades of white, grey, blue, green, or brown. Patterns on the skin can include scales, swirls, ombre, or iridesence. Their eye colors are found in shades of brown, green, blue, silvers, or black and have hair in shades of blue, green, grey, white, black, or blondes. Water Nymphs can have oceanic greenery as a part of them, such as seaweed or coral, as well as having webbed feet and hands that allow them to swim quickly through water. They are slender and long limbed, never shorter than 5’10.

• Stone Nymphs are the largest species of Nymph, growing up to nine feet tall and having pronounced musculature. Their skin colors are white, grey, brown, green, pink, blue, bronze or black, and can have patterns of marble, jade, granite, or pocked stone. Their eye colors are black, brown, grey, or white, and have a natural film over the top that allows them to see better in dark caverns. Their hair shades mimic their skin or compliment it to provide natural camouflage for their home habitats. Their skin also hardens into rock when frightened, causing the Nymph to become immobile for ten minutes.

Society and Culture

Nymphs have no set culture aside from honoring and staying true to the aesthetics of their home habitats. They remain stalwartly in defiance of the destruction of wildlife, plant or otherwise, and often metamorphosize parts of their body to take on the appearance of nature, plant, or wildlife as part of their aesthetic, though some can and do adopt the clothing styles of the other races; based on their particular preference. They have a natural affinity for steam power, finding it an oddity worth investigating with some seeking to adopt the machines powered by heated water for use in saving the natural world.

Clothing

Nymphs tend to wear whatever clothing they personally fancy, as their whims take them. Some may wear a scanty covering of leaves and flowers, while others wear the finest silks that remind the viewer of water sliding over rocks. Some adopt the clothing styles of the cultures around them, while others eschew it completely. Therefore it is not unusual to see a Wood Nymph wearing only leaves, walking hand in hand with a Stone Nymph who is wearing the full dresses of the high Ironhurst society. Yet this pair may opt for vines and aprons the week after. The most important part of the nymph’s appearance is the art of their own expression - meaning that their whimsical fancies should be presented as their outer garments.

Cuisine

Most nymphs are vegetarians, the one exception is that of sea nymphs, who eat raw fish as readily as seaweed. Natural foragers, nymphs thrive on vegetables and fruit, only occasionally eating breads and sweets. The very taste of meat appalls them, and it is considered a rank insult to place it down on the table where they are dining.

Arts

Nymphs usually live as one with the land they share their affinity with. Nymph groves are famously beautiful, and deep within forests you may find a collection of nymphs living together in harmony with nature. Trees canopies function as their ceilings, and thick, old trees their walls. Stone Nymphs often live on mountaintops, purchasing or creating small wind chimes by the hundreds, so that their music can be heard by travelers for miles. Sea Nymphs often live in oceanic coves and underwater grottoes.

Nymphic art is created in their home environments utilizing items from their natural habitats. You may stumble upon a glade filled with dangling bits of seaglass, or flowers cultivated to form pleasing patterns in a meadow. Sandcastles and sandcities on a beach are favorite forms of art by sea nymphs, and wood nymphs use tree sap and floral dyes to paint colorful scenes on trees.

Mentality and Creed

Not much is known about how Nymphs think or their values, only that they are playful and generally friendly beings with an affinity for attempting to make people sing, laugh and have a penchant for wanting to help revitalize downtrodden or naturally destitute places. They’re noted to have an preternatural affinity with nature, even more so than the Elven race, being drawn to places where people’s moods are low and nature is in disarray. Groups of Nymphs are often referred to as a ‘grove’, but never number more than five in any specific area, preferring to spread out. This is why it is not too uncommon to cross paths with one, two or a full grove of Nymphs on your travels, as they are rarely ever stationary for too long and prefer to travel in a group or set out alone, drawn to areas where they believe they can rejuvenate natural resources. They also have naturally beautiful singing voices, forest nymphs singing is accompanied by the rustling of leaves, the river nymphs voices carry over waterways and in fog, and stone nymph’s carry on mountaintop winds.

Religion

Nymphs do not follow any set religion, instead choosing to value nature and nature’s wellbeing over any particular deity or faith. They do however have a mutual belief with the Ferox of Pannotia that life, plant and creature, must be protected and worshiped for what it is. As such, despite not having a set ‘deity’, they pay homage and show worship to Pannotia as a whole and seek to protect its environment as best as they possibly can.

Trivia

• Nymphs are natural musicians, always ready to perform but rarely for money. Nymphs create music to enchant the listener and receive material goods instead.
• Forest nymphs are especially prone to be pranksters, but always in a tasteful and friendly manner, never for nefarious purposes.
• Nymphs are also often taken as slaves to work gardens, sing for children and as sideshow attractions.
• Stone and water nymphs are often subjugated with steampowered collars, shocking them and forcing them to clean Galudonian canals, waterways and watermills by the Human Government.