druss elves

Druss elves, also called dryads are humanoid tree people. They are true mortals with full mortal souls, one of the only plant creatures to have mortal souls. They are roughly as large as elves and have similar facial features and ears to regular elves. While it is not proven, many believe that druss elves were somehow evolved or mutated out of normal elves.
Their woody skin makes druss elves more resilient against physical attacks. They are a little bit less agile than elves, but they have the full range of movement and manual dexterity that humans have. Druss elves are highly resistant to most poisons that afflict most mortals but they are vulnerable to certain herbicidal poisons though keep in mind that herbicides are much rarer on Scarterran than real world Earth.
Druss elves can more or less choose to quit sleeping for long periods of time or they can enter periods of short hibernation. Sleep is healthy. Druss elves that sleep the bare minimum tend to die in their early twenties while druss elves that regularly hibernate can at the extreme end enter their forties. Common wisdom is that druss elves do not age at all when they are asleep. There are unsubstantiated legends of ancient druss elves sleeping for centuries in hidden groves.
Druss have short life spans on the whole. They are not suicidal by any means but they knowing they don't have a lot of time in the world, they are likely to take risks and seek new experiences. When faced with something that does not interest them, they may try to electively sleep through it if they can do so safely. A lot of them live passionately a cause that they are willing to die for.
Just about every animal is vulnerable when they are asleep. While they are plants, not animals, druss elves are very vulnerable when they sleep. They sleep like the dead. Most mortals wake up pretty quick when they hear a loud noise, but a loud noise is not always sufficient to wake up a dryad by itself. When druss elves wake up on their own, they are usually instantly alert, but when woken up unexpected, they usually stagger around like a drunk elf for at least a minute, maybe a few hours if they were hibernating.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Druss elves grow up fast. Seedlings (aka children) grow from infancy to adulthood in less than five years. Not only do they grow fast they learn fast. Druss seedlings are effectively super geniuses, able to learn new skills and languages more quickly than any other mortal. Their super genius brains fade away as they grow older but even adult druss elves are pretty fast learners.
This accelerated growth rate comes at a high cost. Most druss elves die of old age in their late twenties. Druss elves don't really have age like mortals do. Once they reach adult hood they are physically in their prime until they start aging really fast and typically die within a month or two of showing the first signs of aging. In their case their leaves change colors than fall out. Then they physically wither.
Most druss elves are okay with this. They find the slow aging that other mortals undergo to be terrifying and are happy to get it done all at once with just enough time to set their affairs in order.

Dietary Needs and Habits

When a druss elves sleeps, they are also eating. Druss elves feet and legs literally root into the ground. While sleeping they are drawing nutrients from the soil. This process takes about four hours in a moist tropical jungle nine or ten hours if the land is both cold and dry.
Druss elves that get plenty of "sleep" do not have to eat anything at all and they barely need to drink any water. However, a druss elf can choose not to sleep, in which case they do need to eat. Roughly half again what a normal elf in a day.
When they choose to eat druss elves don't eat fertilizer, druss elves eat normal food. They usually have the same dietary preferences of elves. They are no more or less likely to prefer meat over grains and vegetables than elves are. Their systems can handle rotted or tainted food any better than a human.
Some druss elves like eating food, others find it tedious. A dryad that goes more than three days without sleep gets a little bit cranky. After about two weeks, druss elves start to be physically impaired after about a month. Supposedly prolonged time without sleep can leave to madness, especially hallucinations, but few druss elves push the envelope like this.
Most druss elves can also hibernate. Hibernation for a druss elve is triggered by meditation that most druss elves practice and some practice extensively. Many choose to sleep through the winter. With proper meditative training, druss elves can hibernate almost whenever they want, up to about four months. With meditative training, a druss elf can also choose to sleep a little bit and eat a little bit. Without the training and practice, a druss elf can choose to either sleep a lot or eat a lot, but not split the difference.
Druss elves, like ordinary plants are photosynthetic, but their photosynthesis is a bit weaker than real plants.  They can survive without sunlight at all (though they find doing so irksome).  A druss elf that gets lots of sun can get by on little bit less food and sleep and a druss elf that gets very little sun can survive by sleeping and eating a bit more.

Civilization and Culture

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Most druss elves speak Elven as their mother tongue, but a great many druss elves are multi-lingual as druss seedlings can learn languages very easily.  Most druss elves can speak with no trace of accent if they choose.

History

Drus elves were originally bred as a slave race. Historical records do not indicate who created the first drus elves or when. However the "why" is clear. During the Second Age, drus elves were primarily as expendable shock troops and occasionally as workers in dangerous situations. Considering they have short natural life spans, it didn't seem like a huge loss if they died young.  Druss elves grow up and die fast by human standards.  To elves, they are practically may flies.
By the end of the Second Age at east half of the elven nations had druss elves among them. By all accounts, the drus elves either did not know or care they were being exploited in this matter. They seemed to hold their elven masters in high regard and appreciate what they were given, viewing their dangerous assignments as being more than fair recompense for giving them fertile lands to live on.
During the Second Unmaking, most druss elves died. Since most druss elves were unquestioning slave soldiers, it was easy for elf lords and ladies to throw their legends of druss elves at the demon hordes in order to protect themselves. While the elf princes did not want their druss elves to die, when choosing whether to sacrifice an elf or a druss elves, they would choose to lose a drus elf every time.
Eventually a few druss elves started to question their orders. Others got separated from the communication chain of command and lost their orders through no decision of their own. A lot of druss elves tried to eke out the Second Unmaking by themselves in small mobile groves of independent druss elves.
Most of these independent groves died fighting Void Demons. Towards the end of the Second Unmaking, when the demons were less numerous but more practiced at hunting mortals and aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Druss elves can survive almost anywhere but they are extremely vulnerable when they sleep and because he winters were longer and harsher during the Second Unmaking. A lot of Void Demons were able to suss out where groves of druss elves were sleeping and stage surprise attacks.
A few independent groves of druss elves managed to survive into the Third Age. The vast majority of the druss elves that survived the Second Unmaking allied with the ancestors of modern wood elves. The wood elves claimed that none of their ancestors never enslaved druss elves (a dubious claim) but at least during the Unmaking, they treated the druss elves as allies and not as expendable minions. In exchange for the druss elves' aid in battle the proto-wood elves worked hard to guard the druss elves while they slept. In the Third Age, the druss elves are a valued part of the nation of Codenya.

Lifespan

28 years is the average, 47 is the all time record.