☿ MAGNOLIA ☿

The Dryad Recluse

Magnolia Yma Oshosi-Rayhuana is a female dryad/epiphyte curently living on the isle of Almaris in relative seclusion. Currently, she is in her later years of life at four hundred to six hundred years old, a very very vague range of time due to Magnolia's many centuries away from civilisation without care for marking the days. The initial inspiration for Magnolia was the character Maggie from the webcomic 'Ava's Demon' though she has changed far too much to be all too similar to this original character. She is afro latina coded, specifically Yoruba and Quechua, with her last names being gods tied to nature from both cultures.

Born Marsilina Yma to Ige Oshosi, a hunter, and Yanaymi Rayhuana, a healer, with many brothers and sisters upon a farm within the wildlands of Arcas. Before she was born, her mother was cursed by a mystic for her next child to be born "a slave to mother nature, marked for all the world to see". Thus, Magnolia was born with coily green hair. It was unknown at that point how she would be a "slave to mother nature." As a middle child of 9 siblings she felt little pressure to perform yet without the affection afforded to her younger siblings, in turn Magnolia grew to be a very independent. She spent her youth wandering the forests of their home, hunting, foraging, and making her mother teach her medicine. The years grew long and boring and Maggie would often breach the lines of the forest she knows for the sake of an adventurer's high. In these adventures she came across another person, someone she had never seen before. A stranger, a hunter, a man. He was like something out of this world to her; he had pale skin and dark straight hair, strong sharp features, and reached a height a head or two above her own, so different from her soft, short, dark skinned and curly haired family. He introduced himself as Tyr and she as Magnolia, the fake name which she would one day take up forever, named after her favourite blossoming tree. He was an outsider and so incredibly interesting to the sheltered young woman. They spent hours talking and would arrange to meet again in that very spot at the peculiar magnolia tree with glowing flowers and a hollow twisting trunk. For years they chatted, even going on walks and hunting together. Eventually they would fall in love. Tyr would one day ask her to come with him to his home as his wife, and so she did.

With her parent's blessing the two set off together to a seperate settlement within the wildlands, a quaint village of hunters and farmers and shepherds, the houses thatched and painted a welcoming white. Nature was much less prevalent in the daily lives of these people especially in comparison to the ways of Magnolia's family. After their wedding, she would make sure that their new home together would be closest to the forest surrounding as possible. It would even have a willow tree and a pond in the back, providing shade to the newlyweds when they sat outside together. It was a simple life; wake up, make breakfast, paint outside, sew and knit, clean the house, watch the herd, milk the cow or shave the sheep or gather eggs, cook dinner, sleep, and start again. Just like it was with her family... Magnolia is an independent adventurous type so it was expected that she would soon grow bored of the life of a kept woman. It wasn't long before she began wandering in the forests again. But Tyr wasn't appreciative of her nature and begged her to stay within the villag where it was safe. As expected, she did not listen. When next this conversation was brought up was the day Tyr had to search for his wife within the woods after she didn't come home, and he found her passed out covered in blood. She had been attacked by a pack of wolves and survived by the skin of her teeth and the good graces of a doctor who happened to visit that week. It's no wonder Tyr became much more strict about her activities in response. He practically guarded her as she recovered and stayed home most of the time to keep her from sneaking off. Some days he would go with her to the woods but even then he was strict on where they went. Within these months Magnolia grew fearful and resentful of her husband. She was practically a prisoner in her own home! Something must be done..

One day, while Tyr was out shopping, Magnolia packed all of her belongings and the essential items for travel, dressed in her old leathers and furs and left with her dogs. Her only goal was to find somewhere new. And so, travelling east, the huntress went in search of a home. Soon enough Magnolia came across a road which she would follow, and it brought her to a sign, which brought her to a place called 'Urguan.' The introduction of this place was a massive entrance carved into the side of the very mountains, its opening leading down into the caverns; into the home of the Dwarves. But Magnolia was not interested in that place. Instead, she continued on the road towards 'Hefrumm,' the home of the forest dwarves. Luminated by glimmering sunrays peeking through the lush canopy of the forest, the quaint village brought Magnolia back to her childhood. She ventured forth and took up space at the constantly burning central bonfire so she may rest for a while, though she need not look for others as one came to her. A dwarven man by the name of Bjor Cottonwood, a tall-for-a-dwarf young man with tanned olive skin, curly ginger hair, and kind green eyes. He spoke so politely yet so friendly and joyful. Offering her a drink and a tour, the two conversed for hours on their interests as likeminded hunters. He offered her a bed in the village he was the chieftain of and told her of an upcoming hunt the whole town would partake in, and she readily accepted, earger to find her place in the community. Days passed, Maggie got to meet each and every face in Hefrumm and formed individual connections with each of them. The day of the hunt came and the huntress was as eager as can be, but it was a tough fight. Upon climbing on the back of a Morko bear, she would be slammed against a tree - losing her eye and scaring her face. Evenstill, Maggie healed quickly, and continued to bond with Bjor. It wasn't long before they were married. She built them a home with a spare room and only a few months later she was pregnant. A baby boy she named Tyr, after her first husband (a bit weird), a dusky red head with jade eyes and pink cheeks. But it wasn't all perfect for Maggie. She fell into a post-partum depression which robbed her of an emotional connection to her only child, which in turn made a lasting scar on her marriage. As her son grew with her husband at his side, the huntress made way to leave for a while, a 'small break' to get herself together.

She wandered too far, however, as if on auto-pilot she tredged towards the one place she could always call 'home,' the magnolia tree where she met Tyr again and again. He was not there, as she expected, but the tree was. It looked the exact same even after all these years. Softly glowing white petals illuminated the shady area, the sounds of running water and singing birds filling the air, and the smell as comforting as a mother to a baby. Without even unpacking Maggie sat down to rest at the base of the towering tree, curling up against its coiling roots and grooved trunk... Unbeknownst to her, this was no ordinary tree. It originates from the mystical realm of the Fae; a Fae plant, a living piece of an otherworldly magical realm which somehow made its way to Terra. It is also a Fae plant without a host- a protector and upkeeper. And so, the woman sleeping at its base was chosen. The roots of the tree slowly reached up to gently push Maggie into a now open green pocket which has formed behind her, all the while a flower aimed to fall upon her head, releasing pollen which would keep her sleeping and numb to the planned process. Once sealed within the pocket, the soul of Maggie was extracted and held as her body was melted down and rebuilt from plant matter. All imperfections were removed; her skin became the soft beginnings of bark akin to a young tree, her hair now coiling vines baring growing leaves and flowerbuds, her organs now green and oily with sap like the inside of a flower's stem, and her eyes were now totally green, shimmering, and bare totally white, glowing, pupils. Once her vessel was complete, her soul reentered her body though now altered by the magic of the Fae realm so she may have an intimate connection of mind and body with the plant which chose her. The mystic's age-old curse shone true, she is now a 'slave' of nature, magically bound to protect this Fae tree with her life and tend to it for the rest of her days.

Birthed anew from nature itself, Magnolia awoke to find her life altered forever. She looked different, yes, but the biggest change was her priorities. This tree is the most important thing in her life, her husband now feels a stranger, and she almost despises her son for the pain his birth caused her. It took all her willpower to leave the tree to speak to her old loved ones and say a final goodbye, and she instantly returned to the tree she named Tuls. Beside it she lived as a dryad, a woman of the forest, a myth or legend spoken of in hushed tones by the villages surrounding her forest when her figure was spotted in passing or spied caring for the plants and animals under her domain. Tuls would move the ground beneath itself and carved and concaved its own form to create a simple home down there, a safe place for the dryad which treated it so well. There she lived for years in relative seclusion.