The Metoaks are a humanoid race that (usually) look like normal humans except for their hair, which changes depending on the season: Bright green for Spring, a dull darker green during the summer, various shades of yellow, orange, red, and brown during autumn, and during the winter, their hair not only matches the color of snow, but much of it falls out. They are on average taller and thinner than humans, but still within a human range. Their skin has the same various shades as humans, and they can all turn their arms from the shoulder or elbow down into branches, and their feet from the knee down into roots. For most of their lives they have full control over what kind of branches or roots they have, as well as how they grow, allowing all sorts of different shapes at any moment.
Aside from appearance, Metoaks also have a personality change during the seasons. Aside from winter, the personality changes during the seasons don't affect every Metoak the same way. Their core personality will still be there, these are just some generalizations. They are bright and cheerful and up beat in Spring, a bit more mellowed out but generally still pretty nice in the summer, and during the fall they tend to get more serious, territorial, and some will get more cynical. Winter has a very negative affect on Metoaks, and so when fall begins to end they have a year's end feast before going into a deep sleep. They generally stay like this during all of winter if possible, but they still require energy while they sleep, and sometimes there isn't enough food for everyone to run off of between the fall feast and spring, and sometimes people intrude or a noise will wake them up.
Metoaks lose almost all sense or reason during the winter, and are often referred to by others as Feral Metoaks during this time. When they are awake during winter, they feel like they are starving and freezing at all times, and have a constant desire to eat as well as an attraction to non-fire heat sources. They are likely to kill any humans or animals nearby, unless they consider their target too dangerous to attack. What they do with their prey after an attack is rather gruesome: They rip open the body of whatever they killed, eat most of the insides and remove the skeleton, and then proceed to wear the corpse for warmth until the corpse completely loses heat, at which point they eat that as well. Feral Metoaks don't talk, though they will scream/roar/growl at people. They also don't attack each other, and actually form a sort of mob mentality with other Feral Metoaks. Their dramatic change during the winter is the reason for their feast during the end of fall, as well as their more serious and cynical attitude as winder approaches.
During the fall feast, children are given a much higher priority than adults, and no other Metoak will begin eating until the children have finished. The children are then hidden in the deepest part of the Metoak village while they sleep, to ensure they won't be woken up during the winter. Metoak children are kept ignorant of their winter transformation til they turn eight, at which point they will be given very light version of what happens, and will from then on assist with gathering food and supplies for the feast. More details about winter's affects on them are explained every year from then on, and once a Metoak reaches the age of 16, they will be considered an adult and no longer given such a large priority over other Metoaks. After the children, the next priorities are the elderly, followed by those who have only recently become adults. They do not eat separate from everyone else like the children, but will be placed closest to the food.
Almost all Metoaks live in forests, and while they still cut down trees and hunt animals, they are still respectful towards nature and try not to waste anything they take. Their shelter in the forests are rather sparse, just enough to protect them from storms and store food or materials. They don't mind sleeping on the ground, and some even prefer it to using a bed. They can also eat things raw so they don't need to cook their food. They prefer cooked food, but due to their dislike of fire, most of them would rather settle for raw food than risking setting themselves on fire, and the few Metoaks willing to cook are usually admired for their courage. Their clothes are usually made of cloth and are often shades of green, yellow, orange, brown, or red, and sometimes made of various different colored cloths stitched together. The leader of a tribe will wear a wooden crown, but otherwise there is no symbol of rank or leadership within a tribe aside from what the leader decides to give. Metoaks don't have a last name under most circumstances, but if two or more Metoak tribes are allied long enough, the leaders will all decide on a name to represent their unified tribes, and that name becomes the last name of every Metoak in those tribes, as well as the name of the clan the tribes have just created, until the pact is broken. Metoak clans don't differ much from normal tribes except in size, and every tribe can continue to do as they please so long as they don't hurt or steal from any other tribes in the clan, and their feasts are much larger events.
