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...

The Lilyar System

The Lilyar System
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The Lilyar System is a planetary system composed of celestial bodies that are attracted and kept in orbit by the gravitational force of the star Lily.
The Lilyar System has a diameter of about 180-200 UA (i.e. astronomical units, equal to the average distance between Sun and Earth), making it a little more compact than our solar system, which instead presents itself with 240-260 Astronomical Units.
It is located in the constellation of Gemini, at a distance that measures around 34 light years from our Earth.
It consists of Lily, six planets (four internal rocky planets, three of which in the habitable zone, and two external gaseous planets), their respective natural satellites and many other minor bodies. The latter category includes comets, interplanetary dust and meteoroids (i.e. rocky and/or metallic fragments of sizes varying from a grain of sand to a boulder), residues of the condensation of the nebula from which the Lilyar System was originated.
In order from closest to farthest from Lily, the six planets are: Solton, Wyrm's Lair, Furioh and Mimmum, Ditto, and Letigo; the planetary system has no dwarf planets.

History
The Lilyar System was formed as a result of the compaction of the beautiful Gecko Head nebula, around 3.7 billion years ago.
This planetary system is full of small anomalies. 
Once the number of planets that gravitated around Lily amounted to at least eight, but two of these planets have been "lost": one destroyed or devoured by the creature that dwells in the Wyrm's Lair, the other expelled from its planetary system and become an orphan interstellar planet.
It is speculated that it was an unfortunate play of gravitational forces that projected that now orphan planet out of its orbit; it may have been driven out by the second gas giant Euryphaessa - the other lost planet, which was later destroyed by the Wyrm - and thrown away by the disposition of the other celestial bodies, which has morphed into completely different orbits than those that they were settling in during the formation of the Lilyar System, an event apparently inexplicable by scientific observation alone. The sentient races of Furioh and Mimmum unanimously give the "merit" of what happened to the creature that inhabits Wyrm's Lair.
The majority of the system's minor celestial bodies (interstellar dust, meteoroids and comets) are concentrated in a band just beyond Letigo, where comets remain in a stable situation due to very low temperatures, without "invading" the interstellar medium of the rest of the system; it thus forms an external ring to the planetary system that delimits it called the Belt of Enzadus.
Another rather obvious anomaly can be found in the twin planets Furioh and Mimmum, which are actually less similar than they seem: although the two share the same orbit and roughly the same size, Furioh could be the oldest celestial body of the whole planetary system.

Structure and celestial bodies

· Lily – Center
Mother star of the Lilyar System, it is a larger and brighter yellow dwarf than the Solar System's Sun, albeit not much.

· Solton – First orbit
Ferrous planet, the closest to Lily. It has almost reached its end, demolished by the attraction force of its star.

· Wyrm's Lair – Second orbit
Mysterious planet in the habitable zone. Its rocky surface appears barren and pitted, lined with huge furrows and cavities. It is said that the Wyrm lives inside it and that unimaginable wealth is found there.

· Furioh – Third orbit
Rocky planet in the habitable zone, "twin" of Mimmum. Organic life and various sentient species developed on it. Most of its surface is covered in water.

· Mimmum – Third orbit
Rocky planet in the habitable zone, "twin" of Furioh. Organic life developed on it, including only one sentient species, but the rest of the creatures that inhabit it are pretty coloured and varied.

· Ditto – Fourth orbit
Gas giant, big about four times the size of the Earth. The rings of dust surrounding it were destroyed by an external force.

· Letigo – Fifth orbit
Frozen planet on the outer orbit of the system, it appears a magnificent streaked blue from the outside. Its surface consists mainly of methane, ethane and nitrogen.