Lore
Sylvia is currently working on a big lore project, the below lore will become out of date, but you can still enjoy it while it's here!
Overveiw
A grand weeping cherry blossom tree stood almost three times taller than any of the other trees in the forest, under the canopy of this ancient tree laid open grass, the rest of the forest surrounded the tree as it was the center point. The woodland critters roamed the forest, with the primary being deer, and for the most part the forest remained untouched from humans, so the spirits of the plant life remained as they were only ever slightly growing with time.
The only exception was the shrine built at the base of the grand weeping cherry blossom. Humans would come into the forest occasionally, and through the tricks of the younger spirits get helplessly lost. With the rest of the forest without any distinct difference, the grand tree became the focus. Lost humans would pray to the shrine built at the base of the tree, and the ancient redbud tree spirit would then guide them home and out of the forest.
As the years went on, with the energy the humans gave to the grand weeping cherry blossom tree spirit, they became more powerful, more conscious. The spirit began to admire the grace and elegance of the deer that roamed throughout the forest, and envied the freedom to explore the world that humans had. They still carried on with helping humans get out of the forest, and found that after a while, some humans had wandered into the forest solely to pray at their shrine.
The weeping cherry blossom spirit was given the name Sylvia, and became known as such by the humans. The spirit embraced the name, and started to guide the smaller spirits of the forest, trying to teach them to not mess with the humans as much. Some of the smaller spirits came to follow Sylvia around like little ducklings, and from their actions it seemed to Sylvia that they also wanted to help. The little spirits were used as lights to guide the way during the nights, and those who caused too much chaos were locked in Sylvia's spirit lantern for a time out.
Eventually, one day Sylvia was able to manifest a physical form outside their spiritual one, and she took on that of a mix between a deer and a human, the two beings she loved the most. Even with her new found freedom, as a physical form allowed Sylvia to be able to leave the forest, she still had a caring nature. She would continue to care for those around her, and came to think of humans as her little budlings, precious beings that she wanted to take care of. She started to wander and learn more about the world, and the history of humans, she found that not all humans were good- but that there were still plenty of good ones, which she would care for. After a while she decided to try something new, playing video games. Since humans really like watching others play games, she thought this would be a fun way to meet lots of humans and make many friends.
The Beginning
A warmth as refreshing as the moon yet also as warm as the sun enveloped the ground by the will of the nature goddess of Eos, Fleur, to give birth to the first tree sapling of their world. Fleur created the sapling with her lovers, Niamh the sun goddess, and Keyara the moon goddess in mind- as an expression of her love for them to be imprinted onto the world. With this creation the first tree spirit was born.
The little spirit was created with thoughts of love, and naturally had a caring personality because of that. The little spirit dared not to bother the gods, with their great importance, and instead spent her time growing what little plants around herself she could. It was quite lonely being the only spirit around, let alone the only tree.
As time passed the little spirit grew, not just with their tree growing, but with her abilities as well. The once vast land of grass had become the home of the first forest on Eos. Other forests had been made, but this one was specially created by the little spirit. It wasn’t to help the growth of the world like other forests of the planet were made for, this forest was full of love, wonder, and the hope for friends. The soft bright pink petals of the now grown little spirit, her cherry blossoms welcomed a happy future.
Time wasn’t a concept for the now oldest spirit of the forest, since she had created more trees, it wouldn’t be quite proper to refer to her as ‘little spirit’ anymore. The first tree spirit spent her time with the other spirits without a worry in the world. It wasn’t long, for the spirits, for the forest to be fully established.
Then, some humans encountered the forest. A new type of being that the spirits of the forest hadn’t encountered before. They sought resources from the forest, but were promptly caused away by younger spirits, as humans don’t have much magic, even the might of a weaker spirit can be dangerous. Unbeknownst to those in the forest, a reputation of a deadly forest began to spread. When those who entered without trying to take anything from the forest were left unharmed the rumors shifted to simply the spirits there being tricksters. It didn’t help that younger spirits actually played tricks on humans, and the occasional beastman that entered.
People are naturally curious, so despite the younger spirits' tricks, people would still venture into the forest, most getting helplessly lost and injured during the night because of it.
One day there was a human child who had wandered into the forest, and got so deeply lost when night came, they were about to cry, until they felt a gentle breeze, just a little further into the forest they went, to find the first tree. A massive weeping cherry blossom, its petals scattering around like snow. The tree itself felt like the moon was beckoning them. The child rested at the first tree, unknowing of its significance to the world- for at the moment they simply needed a place to rest.
The now grown tree spirit watched over the peaceful child as they slept, keeping away any younger spirits who would play pranks on them.
The following morning, the child awoke to being surrounded by flowers, as the tree spirit wanted to make their rest more comfortable. As a small ball of light, the first tree spirit led the child out of the forest. When the child asked what their name was, the spirit simply answered that they were from the forest without a name. “Sylvia, it means from the forest, I’ll call you that!” the child exclaimed, and the tree spirit laughed.
Sylvia, the now named tree spirit, like how happy the child was to have been helped out of the forest, so she decided to keep helping lost people, most of which were humans, Sylvia also liked meeting beastmen of different kinds, Conies, a seemingly part human and part rabbit person, she found adorable. Sylvia wondered if she could interact better with people, but in a spirit form of pure aura, that can be difficult at times.
As time went by, the first child Sylvia had led out of the forest returned to it as an adult, with their own kids now. Sylvia found them adorable, and allowed them in and out of the forest as they pleased. As this was allowed, a makeshift shrine was made by the people, as they saw Sylvia as a lesser god rather than a simple spirit. As the shrine was made without hurting the forest, and with whatever magical abilities the people had, she allowed it.
It became a legend, that should you get lost in the forest to pray to the shrine at the grand tree of the center of the forest, and you would be guided on your way home. Sylvia, of course, loved helping those who she could. As more people prayed, and time went by, Sylvia helped lost people, and watched the deer of her forest. She hadn’t created deer, but she loved to watch their elegance. She wondered why there weren't deer type beast men as they were so cute.
Sylvia had been teaching the younger spirits to not mess with people too much, as it can be mean, some as children do, pouted and continued on their way, while others followed Sylvia around like ducklings. Sylvia’s tree was constantly surrounded by lesser spirits, giving a magical scenery to those who found her tree, and shrine.
One day a hurt human went to Sylvia’s tree, she could not help them in the way she wanted to, maybe though, now she could have enough power to change that. She knew beastmen were a thing, so she decided she would take on the form of one of them, though not one that actually existed. Sylvia created a physical form for herself, as a deer girl, and was able to help the human. With her new found capabilities, Sylvia interacted with people more, and while the forest itself was off limits to the creations of people, traveling within it was not. Sylvia had grown a family of friends of not just spirits, but a nearby town had settled with Sylvia and the forest being of great importance to their community, and they were important to Sylvia as well.