Tree Kin

The Tree Kin are the elder spirits of Athel Loren, greater by far than the Dryads and but a single step below the mighty Treemen: hulking beings of ancient timber that lumber to war on limbs like knotted trunks. Slower than their lithe Dryad cousins but immensely more powerful, they wade into the enemy and lay about them with crushing, sweeping blows, splintering shields, caving in armour, and hurling warriors through the air like so much kindling. Their bark-thick hides shrug off blades and arrows that would kill a lesser creature, and it takes fire or the heaviest of blows to bring one down. Tree Kin are old and slow to rouse, but once woken to wrath they are implacable, grinding forward with the patient inevitability of the forest reclaiming a ruin. They stand as the heavy shock-troops of the woodland host, anchoring the Wood Elves' fragile lines and smashing apart whatever the swift archers and cavalry cannot. To the enemy caught in their path, it is as though the trees themselves have grown arms and set out to kill.