Tara-lin and the Dryad Kalithalias: Art for Sorceress of the Dryads

I’ve had an idea of doing this scene from Sorceress of the Dryads for a while now. I’m still binging on GIMP, so I made it digitally. This is also the first time I’ve done a (nearly complete) humanoid face (that’s not supposed to belong to something evil) that I’m reasonably satisfied with.

Person with red-orange-pink-gold hair and brown cloak that blend into the tree in front of her with her hand on the tree. Peaking out from behind the tree is a dryad with white skin with flecks of brown, dark emerald hair that covers most of her body like a cloak, and purple eyes. The tree is whitish-tan with lateral brown markings, and many smaller trees like it fill in the background. Ground cover of dark green ferns fills the lower left. The far right foreground is a low-laying bush tree with pale golden bark, branches that shoot primarily up, and oval green leaves. The gorund on the right is covered with a mix of the dark ferns and straight, upright weeds in a lighter shade of green. — Tara-lin and the dryad Kalithalias.

Tara-lin is a half-elf Singer. Her magic comes from the forests and the dryads who live in the trees, and so it most readily takes the form of song, for while dryads do not – or at least need not – sing as humans and elves do, their magic is like song. She has a close connection to the forest and the dryads that live in them, and she is counted Dryad-Friend by the elves: one who does not live as a dryad, but is still counted as one of them. She is also bound by the Pact that binds them, not to harm a human less her magic be corrupted.

Kalithalias is the spokesdryad of the forests of Elethri. She is an older dryad of a fir tree, and for whatever reason, whether she is chosen by the dryads for this, or because her views most clearly reflect their consensus, or because she has some influence, she often presents their understanding, will, or acceptance to Tara-lin, since it is impossible even for a Singer to know and speak to every dryad in the forest personally. The dryads are all connected to each other in a way that is impossible for humans to understand.

Here’s a quote from Sorceress of the Dryads:

Tara-lin dismounted her horse and took the last dozen steps alone. She placed her hands on the old fir and said, “Kalithalias!”

Out from behind the tree flowed and materialized the form of the dryad. Her skin was white, freckled and streaked with flecks of brown, similar to the bark of her tree. Her hair flowed down from her head and covered most of her body like a robe or a cloak. It and her eyebrows were a deep emerald green. Her eyes were amethyst in color. “Hello, Tara-lin,” said Kalithalias.

“Hello, Kalithalas. Usually I seek you out just to learn about the forest from your perspective and sit with you. Today I have something of greater import to bring before you all,” said Tara-lin.

“I might differ with you about the importance of the thing, but tell me, Dryad-Kin.”

Legend of the Singer

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