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...

Floating Hornian lily

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Floating Hornian lily
(Liliumfluitantis horniense)

The Liliumfluitantis horniense, also called floating Hornian lily or runner lily, is a plant of the genus Liliumfluitantis, in the liliaceae family. It is native to the central area of ​​Horn Blu Island, but has subsequently spread throughout the island.
It forms bulbs at ground level, from which grow erect stems covered with oblong and spatulate leaves, from fifty centimeters to one and a half meters high, which subsequently dry up in summer. Flowering happens in spring and the intensely perfumed flowers are saffron yellow in color, with the typical shape of a lily, but their petals widen at the tips forming circular shapes that seem to capture the wind.
The fruits are trilocular capsules full of a large number of seeds that usually ripen in the period of August-September.

The magic of floating

During the flowering period, the floating lily detaches itself from the ground, leaving a certain amount of small bulbils behind, and floats away carried by the wind, so that there's no overcrowding of bulbs in the same piece of ground. This way the plant spreads quickly and grows healthy.
The magic of floating fades and then goes off permanently as the leaves dry up in the summer, and the bulb lands somewhere where it will take root and start its life cycle again, producing new leaves and new bulbils in the winter, to newly float during the next flowering season and move again.
The origin of this phenomenon is unknown, like it's unknown whether it's a spontaneous type of magic or the successful experiment of an experienced magician, but the magic of floating is self-perpetuating and all plants born from the division of the bulbs or seeds of other floating lilies will be able to detach themselves from the ground.
If a part of the plant (for example, petlas or leaves) is detached from the rest during the floating period, it won't be able to float on its own.

In art and heraldry

Often the floating lily is painted together with the dames who have become dragoneers, as a symbol of their freedom acquired by “detaching themselves from the ground” thanks to the wings of their dragon.
In heraldry it represents a faction, a city or a family that are not bound to anyone, but, free as the floating lilies, can decide at any moment to support whatever ideology they wish: it is a "capricious" figure and is in a certain sense dangerous display it on a shield.

In popular culture

These gorgeous magical lilies, of course, have always teased the imagination of people, who have invented a series of superstitions and even games concerning them.
It is said that if a floating lily enters through the open window of a house, a new person who will bring happiness in the household will soon arrive in that house, and it's seen as a particularly auspicious sign by couples seeking to have children, which in spring leave all windows open hoping that these plants will come in.
When a large group of these flying lilies arrive near a village, the children gently pull them down with long reeds and then arrange them all lined up in a low, floating row; each child chooses a lily and stands behind it, then starts walking and blows behind it as quickly as possible to make it move forward. The lily that first arrives beyond the pre-established goal (which can be a fence, or a furrow in the ground or simply a tree) is called "King of the children" and hung with a rope in the center of the village where it will remain floating as a balloon until it loses its seasonal magical properties, to be later planted in a flower bed.
Another game, unassuming and more common, is the "head-down" in which children (and sometimes adults too) try to turn a floating lily upside down and make it stay in this position, without touching it, for ten seconds.

All the drawings in this page (e probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts!