So it seems that Dryads in the Imperishable Universe are a little MORE dangerous than I thought. Plus, there's the issue of anti-magic.

What with there being animals and plants in the universe that generate anti-magic energy, it is logical to assume that a Dryad, being either well traveled among the stars, ancient or fracking lucky, would acquire the genetic material of a plant that generates anti-magic. This would allow her the immediate ability to throw up an anti-magic field that would dampen a magic user's ability to cast spells or buffs; and with enough said energy in the air, it could stop all magic altogether. Although arbitrarily speaking that's going to be many orders of magnitude harder than a fairy male or a human casting the same magic-disruption spell. Still, a Dryad could potentially defend her turf quite well against invading fairies.

Next issue... which way do I want to go with anti-magic?
1) Is anti-magic an energy generated inside a living being, which can be exhausted? Meaning, if you have a football field of anti-magic plants or crystals, they can dampen or wipe out the magic of x fairies; but x+y fairies will overwhelm this energy. Consider this like saying two buckets of water will not stop a roaring forest fire, but a tsunami or sudden blizzard will.

2) Or, anti-magic could be a "fueled" process. In this case, anti-magic is in fact inactive until magic is present in the area; then magic reacts with whatever this negating force is, and the end reaction is there is no magic energy. Throwing more magic at this kind of force will not overwhelm it; it may actually depend on the presence of magic in order to negate magic.

3) There is also the classic absorb-magic scenario, where a magic user is DRAINED of magic - even when they're not casting spells. Imagine a Dryad with this ability. Yeah, deal with this one from orbit, folks, it's the only way to be sure.


Yet another reason why major, tech-savvy fairy nations develop firearms and orbital assault platforms... and why lesser Dryads are so readily EATEN by fairies. These damned things can be DANGEROUS!

Do you ever see fairies and dryads working together to take down a common foe?

You will definitely see that in the next few installments of Ian Scranton. Although their common foe will be another bunch of fairies...