Nighttime Moss

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Nighttime Moss

(Bryum horanoctis)

The nighttime moss is just one of the sixty thousand species of magical moss that cover the surface of the planet Furioh (the known planet that host the greatest number of bryophytes, namely plants devoid of vascular tissue, in the universe).

This is a moss with a pleasant smell that forms very short plant clusters (1 centimeter or 0.4 inches) colored of an intense blue-green hue, and tiny capsules suspended upon very thin, little stems purple in color, in which are produced and that, once mature, emit spores or store energy.

The lack of a system of conduction for the nutrients hinder the developing in height, hence the nighttime moss keeps quite a small size with an horizontal growth habit, but this doesn't prevent it from expanding on huge extensions of land.

The nighttime moss can reproduce both sexually and by vegetative multiplication.

The main peculiarity of this plant is in its ability to cover kilometers of surface, growing during the night on rocks, wood and ground, killing by suffocation the other mosses: the nighttime could be the only bryophyte species existing on the planet, if it wasn't also the favorite food of a great number of animals, among which there's the voracious romulan woodwormrat, that adequately resize it.

The magic

The nighttime moss is able to collect energy from the diurnal aster through photosytesis and turn it into magical energy, of the dark kind, that it conveys inside some of its capsules assigned to the storage of magic; those are however virtually impossible to distinguish to the naked eye from the capsules that hold the spores.

During the night, the plant uses the energy that it has saved during the day time to grow rapidly and suffocate the other mosses.

A magic user that needs a small stock of dark energy can easily draw it from this plants during the day, before they start transforming it to start their spectacular and rapid nocturnal growth; however, it is tradition that after using the nighttime moss one should gift it something in exchange, like some water, saliva or even (if they have been massively exploited) a couple of droplets of the magic user's blood, to "restore the balance".

In the popular culture

The nighttime moss is commonly used by the populations of Furioh as a furnishing accessory for non-underground houses (and equipped with windows from which sunlight can penetrate) where it's used to cover entire walls, soundproof rooms and perfume rooms thanks to its delicate fragrance known under the name of "azurenight".

The inhabitants of the underground houses that don't have to possibility to cultivate this moss, often buy (or produce, collecting the wild nighttime during the coldest months to distillate the essential oils) the azurenight and spray it in domestic environments: it is traditionally believed that this essence can gift serenity and mental stability.

Other than as pure essence, the azurenight is sometimes used in perfumery to give body to composition, or as an incense mixed with the crystallized sap of the kolra tree.

The inhabitants of the south believe that the nighttime moss grows faster where someone died serenely, while in the north it is more widespread the belief that putting a "patch" (a simple clod) of nighttime on the forehead of a terminally ill person that allows them to leave the mortal plane witouth suffering or regrets: in any case this plant is associated with death in positive terms, other than with long, regenerating sleeps.

Someone even eats the nighttime moss as if it was a salad! Even if this plant has a very intense flavor, acrid even, it possesses relaxing, sedative, tonic and anti-stress proprieties. It also seems that someone likes its strange taste...