OOC General Flora Compendium

[Vicissitude]

Ælheim plays host to many plants one might find in places like temperate rainforests, conifer forests, subalpine forest, boreal forests, oak woodlands, and pinyon-juniper woodlands. In addition, there is a large concentration of flora that thrives in the moonlight as well as flora possessing both natural or magical biofluorescence.

Write-ups for specific, notable plant life can be found here.

 

[Vicissitude]

A general guide for composing a flora write-up can be found below, though it should be noted that there is no requirement for the precise level of detail.

ATTACH-IMAGE​

NAME​

Challenge Rating 1-6​

Created by: [your name]​

Description:
TEXT

Cultural Significance:
TEXT

Habitat:
TEXT

Size:
TEXT

Biome Role:
TEXT

Life Cycle:
TEXT

Resources:
TEXT


Notable Features:

• NAME
  TEXT
  
• NAME
  TEXT

Gramarye:​

TEXT

Minor Merit
Yes/No

100 XP - Minor Ability
TEXT

250 XP - Major Ability
TEXT

[style=margin: 20px auto 20px auto; max-width: 700px; padding: 5px 30px 10px 30px; border-top: double 6px #cda0f2; border-right: double 6px #c29a4a; border-bottom: double 6px #c2784a; border-left: double 6px #674a96; border-radius: 3px][style2=margin: auto; max-width: 600px; padding: 35px 0px 30px 0px; color: #eee3ff; text-align: left; font-family: "Cutive Mono"; font-size: 108%][CENTER]ATTACH-IMAGE[/CENTER] [CENTER][SIZE=7][B]NAME[/B][/SIZE][/CENTER] [CENTER][SIZE=6]Challenge Rating 1-6[/SIZE][/CENTER] [CENTER][SIZE=5]Created by: [your name][/SIZE][/CENTER] [SIZE=5][B]Description:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Cultural Significance:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Habitat:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Size:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Biome Role:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Life Cycle:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Resources:[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B]Notable Features:[/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][SIZE=4]NAME[/SIZE] TEXT [*][SIZE=4]NAME[/SIZE] TEXT [/LIST] [SIZE=8][CENTER][B]Beast Magic:[/B][/CENTER][/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [size=6]Minor Merit[/size] Yes/No [SIZE=6]100 XP - Minor Ability[/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [SIZE=6]250 XP - Major Ability[/SIZE] [SIZE=4]TEXT[/SIZE] [/style2][/style]

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Ætumetal​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Ætumetal is incredibly rare with only a few dozen of them existing naturally in the entirety of Ælheim. These trees are native to the area and are bioluminescent, although one could expect at least one to be present in any large forest. Varieties found outside of Ælheim are not bioluminescent.

Size:
These trees grow fairly rapidly, reaching their maximum height of 20' within a few years. The maturity of the tree is typically determined by the thickness, up to several yards

Biome Role:
The tree's mere presence can fortify other trees in the area by sharing nutrients. Ætumetals are usually one of the last trees to die in a natural disaster and usually end up surviving them unscathed. After disasters they naturally share their stored nutrients with the surrounding plant life which helps restore the ecosystem.

Life Cycle:
If the tree can survive being chopped down or harvested, it can conceivably live for thousands of years, as evidenced by the ones in Ælheim. Nobody has been able to grow the tree from its seeds and it's unknown what the exact mechanism is that triggers them to eventually sprout. Trees that are created by druids never bear fruit.

Cultural Significance:
Outside of Ælheim, the locations of these trees are carefully guarded secrets by druids who often go through quite an effort to keep them hidden from those who might look to turn a quick profit. In Ælheim, it's forbidden to cause harm to these trees or harvest them in any way. It is a useful tree for druids to fashion weaponry and armor out of using Floramancy and is often one of the first trees a combat-minded druid binds with.

Description:
Standing 20' high and up to several yards thick, these trees look and even feel metallic. Its leaves do not rustle in the wind and often do not move at all unless the heat of a summer sun causes them to sag ever so slightly. The exact color of the tree often coincides with the minerals of the area, though that doesn't affect the tree's properties; it's common to see them in varieties of silver.

Harvesting:
Felling the tree is not something a lumberjack could achieve without the use of magic. Typically explosives or extreme heat is used to bring the tree down. There is little point in using harvesting this tree as it loses its useful properties soon after it dies.


Notable Features:

• CR3 - Can be processed with carpentry to create items/tools equivalent to Iron, or Steel for the Ælheim variety
• Druids utilizing Floramancy need experience in carpentry to make usable items.
• Things crafted from this tree rapidly fade in quality after several hours, ultimately degrading within a day. This process can be slowed if a druid feeds the material their Saol

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Ædorian​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Ædorian is often seen as an invasive species that clings to other plant life, slowly sucking the life force out of its surroundings. It is a hardy plant that can grow pretty much anywhere there's soil and sunlight. There is no place that its presence is welcome and it is fairly difficult to eradicate completely. It can be found all around the world.

Size:
This plant's size is dependent on the amount of plant life around it. It will grow until it has no other source of Saol to sap from then maintain its size by taking nutrients from the ground.

Biome Role:
Ædorian is seen as a destroyer of biomes, but there is some balance to this. It is an incredibly tasty snack for small creatures and insects, so it is possible for it to be held at bay by local wildlife. Often times if it grows too large it simply cannot sustain itself with the nutrients in the ground and slowly dies off.

Life Cycle:
Ædorian are odd in the sense that they only produce seeds once there is little life force for them to sap from the surrounding plant life. The process takes about a year, after which its seeds are carried by the wind to take root elsewhere.

Cultural Significance:
Not many even know about this plant's name, outside of Druids and the botanically inclined. They are difficult to visibly distinguish from similar, non-harmful plants. It's rumored that this plant was once used as a form of torture where the branches would be wrapped around a victim to die a slow death.

Description:
This plant has long, tendril-like roots and branches. They extend as far as its nutrition source allows it to and can grow as thick as vines. They are green in color and sprout leaves along the length of the branches.

Harvesting:
There is nothing to harvest.

Notable Features:

• CR0 in most instances due to how easy it would be to avoid. CR3 is the most one might expect to encounter in the wild under the worst circumstances.
• Roots and vines can be used to drain the life force of anything they touch. The speed of the drain is correlated to its thickness. Druids making use of this effect can siphon the drained life force into their own bodies, so long as they are physically touching the plant.

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Green Ration​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Grows naturally in forests. Can be grown elsewhere but it needs fertile soil.

Size:
This plant grows a couple feet high and produces bean pods several inches in length.

Biome Role:
This bean seeps life force from the nutrients in the ground and is consumed by animals. Some animals have even associated it with the healing properties it provides.

Life Cycle:
It grows naturally in the springtime and takes about sixty days from seed to harvest. Several beans grow per pod, often yielding a couple dozen beans per plant, per season.

Cultural Significance:
These plants are not too difficult to grow and are often planted by people who are away from proper medical care or are too poor to afford it.

Description:
Standing at a couple feet tall, this unassuming bean plant is not all that impressive on its own. Eating several dozen of its fruits is enough to cure extremely minor maladies such as a common cold or can be processed into a paste to help heal scrapes.

Harvesting:
CR1 to properly grow and harvest. The beans don't preserve well so they're useless only a week after harvest

Notable Features:

• Can heal minor wounds/illnesses if used/eaten in large quantities. The side effect being constipation, so it's a trade-off.
• CR 1-5:
  Druids may infuse saol into a bean, if they have bound to the plant. The limit is based on the skill level of the druid, soft capped at expert, but one could expend SP for a CR5 encounter to increase this to master. Infusing saol is inefficient, costing double of what they want to store in the bean. Beans infused like this can last a season and release all of their saol immediately once crushed. The saol spreads out from the bean in a 1 meter radius, healing any injuries and poisons encountered along the way. It's a brute-force kind of healing which can have drawbacks, such as excessive scarring or broken bones being mended at odd angles. Additionally, only one can be used per day per person.
  

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Death's Kiss​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Grows naturally in extremely dangerous areas of jungles and forests. It is an incredibly rare plant with bioluminescent varieties in Ælheim.

Size:
The plant itself is a vine that snakes its way up trees around it with seemingly limitless length. It produces fruit that is about an inch in diameter.

Biome Role:
Death's Kiss wraps its vines around surrounding plant life and slowly drains them of their life force. It does not completely kill its hosts, keeping them alive but preventing them from growing further.

Life Cycle:
The vines grow slowly over the course of years. It only bears fruit after it's absorbed enough life force, typically once every year or so.

Cultural Significance:
It used to be a common tool used by renowned assassins, but it is only used sparingly in current times. Most people know what this fruit looks like based on descriptions of it alone and that if they see black mist coming out of their food they shouldn't eat it.

Description:
The plant itself is a vine, though it's really known for its uniquely shaped black fruit. Death's Kiss is a highly deadly fruit that emits a black mist even if it's cooked/processed. It causes organic matter to decay rapidly on contact. Even so, it smells delightful and tastes divine, by all accounts. Legendary chefs have managed to extract the flavor of the fruit and add it to their foods without ill effect.

Harvesting:
CR5 to properly grow, harvest, process, and use

Notable Features:

• The fruit emits black mist, signifying danger no matter how it's processed.
• Incredibly tasty.
• The fruit is incredibly deadly to consume, often resulting in death in minutes to hours, depending on one's resistance skill. It can be made into a paste that causes organic matter to decay with even slight exposure.
• Druids still need appropriate medical skill to appropriately put this fruit to use without harming themselves.

Wild Magic Name: Death's Mist

Drawbacks
Name: The fruit already requires Master medical skill to use properly. Druids are granted natural resistance to the plant's effects, but since this is creating such a high concentration of mist they must have sufficient resistance skill to prevent poisoning oneself. The resistance skill is not required if the user has full mastery of the ability.

Abilities
Minor – Laced Mist: The druid can intertwine the mist's effects into their floramancy, such as creating a wooden dagger who's edge is poisoned and gives off a black mist (see below for effects).
Major – Mist Breath: The druid cultivates a concentration of black mist in their lungs and expels it from their mouth. The mist is emitted in a cone 25' long and wide. Those who inhale the mist or have it touch an open wound would suffer the same effects as someone who'd consumed the Death's Kiss fruit. The severity is dependent on the victim(s)' resistance stat:

Novice: Death within 30 seconds as their insides rapidly decay.
Apprentice: Organ failure within ten minutes.
Journeyman: Rotting that spreads over the course of a day. Deadly if not treated.
Expert: Rotting that spreads over the course of a week. Deadly if not treated.
Master: Some rotting at the wound site / lungs, nothing life threatening.
Grandmaster: No effect

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Fertilitæ​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Only grows in Ælheim.

Size:
A gossamer, mossy plant that barely covers the surface it grows on.

Biome Role:
Creatures that consume it experience boosted fertility rates, allowing for easier reproduction.

Life Cycle:
The moss grows year round so long as conditions are right.

Cultural Significance:
Grown by the Æld'Norai in a bid to help with their numbers, it is not a tasty plant at all, but it does have a statistically significant effect on fertility. Druids have found that simply binding to the moss makes them more fertile, making it a common choice for the ælven denizens of Ælheim - many of which are pressured into binding with it.

Description:
This bioluminescent moss can be found all around Alefheim and boosts fertility rate.

Harvesting:
CR0

Notable Features:

• Increases fertility rate by 25%

 

[Vicissitude]

​

Fæntasy​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Only grows in Ælheim

Size:
A four foot tall stocky plant that with bioluminescent leaves.

Biome Role:
None.

Life Cycle:
It grows like a weed, typically reaching full height in a matter of weeks.

Cultural Significance:
Inside of Ælheim, this drug is not commonly used even though it has virtually no harmful side effects. It's mainly used by small circles of drug enthusiasts and sometimes as a therapy tool. Use outside of Ælheim is near non-existent.

Description:
This plant has been bred for thousands of years for the sole purpose of creating a highly enjoyable high with no harmful side effects in ælves. Other races may consume it to achieve a similar high but they will experience similar downsides to opium and can easily overdose.

The high that's achieved makes one's mind go completely blank and they experience pure bliss. They seem to enjoy anything that's going on around them, even if they're being actively harmed – so it's essential to be in a safe place when consuming this drug and only around those they trust. Memory loss typically sets in after the high is finished, causing users to forget what happened during the high and a short time before the drug was consumed – for this reason the drug is not addictive.

Harvesting:
CR4 if not an ælf. CR2 medicine to harvest/use as an ælf

Notable Features:

• Consuming the leaves can produce an incredibly potent high
• Could conceivably use for nefarious purposes due to its memory loss effect
• Druids with appropriate medicine skill can micro-dose to fine tune the effects of the drug

 

[Vicissitude]

Cættle Wreath​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Only found in Ælheim's forests, typically near human settlements. It can only grow around other bioluminescent plants.

Size:
This plant grows like a vine that snakes along the trunks of trees. It is as long as the tree allows it to grow with flowers that grow 2-4 inches in diameter

Biome Role:
This plant offers no benefit / downside to the biome.

Life Cycle:
The vine will snake its way up a tree over the course of a season. It grows at all times of the year and produces flowers every few weeks. It is a hardy plant that is easy to grow around other bioluminescent plants.

Cultural Significance:
This plant is fashioned into half-wreaths, flower crowns, necklaces, bracelets, and other accoutrements which some humans in Ælheim are told to wear, or they wear them on their own simply because they are pleasing to the eye. The effects of the plant are useful for keeping the Fælnir happy. Not many of them know what these plants do, exactly, but they have positive feelings about them.

Description:
This vine is a useful plant that was bred to be one of many methods of keeping Ælheim's humans under control. It was named for its ability to keep humans happy and content, like cows waiting to be slaughtered.

Harvesting:
CR0

Notable Features:

• When fashioned into a full sized wreath, the pleasantly perfumed scent it gives off is enough to have something of a soothing effect upon those in close proximity.
• When fashioned into headwear (typically a half-wreath), the flowers affect the psyche and cause the wearer to feel mildly happy and content. The headwear can last up to a season before a new one would need to be made. Lesser effects can be achieved by being in proximity of the flowers.

Flora Magic
Blue Bliss​

Minor Merit: Yes

Challenge Rating: CR5

Abilities

50/250 XP Minor – Charismatic: The effects of the flora become passively laced into what the druid says and does. Their words and actions seem more agreeable or justified.

100/250 XP Minor - Bliss: For a cast, the druid can touch a target to flood them with intense happiness or contentment. This doesn't force the target to do anything, but it certainly makes them susceptible to being manipulated.

250/250 XP Major – Dazed: The druid expends a cast upon touching someone's head for ten seconds, growing a marvelous blue flower that stays attached to the victim. The target is flooded with such concentrated happiness that they are effectively paralyzed in a state of bliss. The feeling is described as a state of pure ecstasy with those having less than expert meditation being unable to focus their thoughts or do much of anything. Those with expert meditation could think and react but sluggishly. Masters of meditation could enjoy the bliss without being hindered at all. The effects can last for hours, though they are most potent for the first ten minutes or so. Removal of the flower immediately stops the effects.

 

[Vicissitude]

Ælheim Sequoia​

Submitted by Cælum​

Habitat:
Only found in Ælheim's forests, typically near areas at the edges of forests that have hot, dry summers. Although, many have been grown inside the basin with the help of druids.

Size:
This tree is one of the largest in the world, capable of growing a few hundred meters high and dozens of meters thick. Unlike normal sequoia, this variation has branches and leaves that extend quite far from the trunk, providing ample shade.

Biome Role:
This tree is incredibly massive and provides ample shade for life that grows in the shade it provides. Lots of wildlife uses the tree as a home as well.

Life Cycle:
These trees tend to live for centuries, if not forever unless a disease claims them or they are cut down. They only produce seeds every decade or so and the seeds tend to stay dormant in the ground until the conditions are just right.

Cultural Significance:
This tree is the choice for dense housing if living in a forest. Its massive size and incredible structural integrity allows for most of the insides of the tree to be hollowed out on top of having housing built outside of it. When used optimally, this tree can be used as a veritable woodland skyscraper. It is a popular tree for an ælf to bind to simply because it allows for one to make modifications to their living space as desired.

Description:
This massive bioluminescent tree has become a staple for housing in the Ælheim forests.

Harvesting:
CR5 to safely fell

Notable Features:

• The tree is invaluable as a crafting resource – wood from it can last a lifetime without degrading
• Armor, shields, barriers, etc created from this tree are particularly effective at defending against non-magical attacks.
• The roots are incredibly sharp-tipped and strong, an ideal choice for a druid looking for a piercing weapon

​