Syke (Age: 2)

An androdryad—that is, a masculine spirit of the forest and trees—Syke is the psychic and life force of a young fig sapling, which can project itself into (and interact with) the material world in the form of a young man. Rather than the pastoral and gentle gynodryads of legend, Syke is an angry young man who seeks to assert his masculinity and worth at every turn. Initially apprenticed to the foul antiquarian and pawnbroker Whelk, Syke is capable of moving only a limited distance from his fig sapling—a problem he takes in stride by bearing it on a specially constructed backpack.

Syke’s mother, the gynodryad Teenah, was a 1000-year-old tree who had not borne fruit in nearly 900 years; having been raised for her fruit, none of her saplings had germinated. Despondent over her lack of descendants, she made a deal with dark powers to allow her to bear and germinate a single fruit with a single seed within it—Syke—in exchange for her living heartwood. Whelk, called upon to carry out the deed by the selfsame dark powers, cut Teenah’s heartwood from her as the newly-sprouted Syke watched and fashioned it into a box that he then sold before reneging on the bargain and taking the young sapling hostage to force it to work in his shop.