Wood woad

Wood woads were powerful humanoid-shaped guardian plants. Each wood woad contained the soul of a creature that (willingly or otherwise) gave up its life in order to eternally perform a given duty.

Description
Wood woads appeared to be humanoid in shape, of heavy and muscular build, but were covered in thick bark with a crown of stubby branches on the head and small, deep-set black eyes. Their "hands" were gnarled branches and their "feet" were masses of black roots.

Behavior
Wood woads were usually interested only in carrying out their assigned duty, but some became fierce guardians of their resident forests and sought vengeance for each tree slain by axes.

Ecology
Wood woads dwelled in temperate forests, where they guarded certain territories in their forest or druidic sites of importance. As plants, they "ate" only nutrients from the soil, clean water and air, and sunlight. Their ability to meld into living wood lead some scholars to theorize they were male dryads, but in truth wood woads were true plants. They reproduced via seeds, though certain primitive druidic circles knew how to create wood woads with bloody rituals.

Wood woads were known to ally with treants, druids, dryads, centaurs, gnomes, and eladrin in defense of their forests.

Salts of tree bark were extracted from wood woad bark chunks. These salts were combined with a special type of alchemical suspension to brew elixirs of barkskin.

Ritual Creation
The ritual that created a wood woad consisted of removing the heart of a living person, planting a seed into it and placing it inside a cavity in a tree. The sacrificed creature's body was buried in the vicinity, and the tree was then bathed with the sacrifice's blood. After three days, a wood woad would sprout from the ground nearby, ready to receive its orders, which it would then follow forever or until otherwise relieved. If such ritual-created wood woads were released from their duties, they would find a new place or persons to protect.