Plants, Trees, Grasses
There is a tremendous variety of plant life on Aereth, as varied as the topographies that support it. Several varieties of grasses, each adapted to their own habitat be it an alpine valley or grassy plain, flourish as well. This is true for almost all types of vegetation. There are great forests of hardwoods, including giant redwoods and massive old pines, mosses, and lichens that grow on the rocks and trees, even in the highest meadows. Some tough, drought-resistant grasses and plants such as cacti thrive in the desert wastes.
The various species have domesticated certain plants. There are numerous varieties of apple trees that have been cultivated and nurtured. There are also several types of wild grape that now graces the dinner tables in the form of wines, jams, and jellies. Hardy winter wheat has been turned into a yearly crop by numerous farmers. Along with these items, there are potato-like tubers that grow quite well underground, even in the harshest winters.
Several varieties of coffee and teas are grown and traded as well, although, to date, only the western regions of A’elnore produce the fine coffees as well as a one or two of the stronger varieties of black tea.
Merasha
Also known as Blood Tips, merasha is a fleshy tubular plant native to the tropical regions of Aereth. It can be cultivated in hothouses, but it is not easy to keep it alive under artificial conditions.
Merasha has long been used as a medicinal plant because of its opiate type of sedative properties. It is the most powerful painkiller known on Aereth for humans and Travelers! For Drakeri and Ddraig, it has other properties that can be mild to deadly. Compounded and administered correctly, merasha can affect those with arcane abilities to varying degrees.
The oil in the plant’s leaves is at its most powerful when the tips of each tube turn dark red. Piercing the red tip and gently squeezing the oil out is the best method of extraction. Cutting the leaf and draining the oil diminishes its effectiveness. Extracted before the tips redden and the oil is useless.
Drops of the sweet-tasting oil can be added to various solutions such as tea, wine, or water for ingesting as a painkiller or as a nefarious way to get merasha into the system of an unsuspecting person. It can also be added to food without losing its potency. Adding it to creams or rubbing a bit of the oil directly on the skin makes it an effective topical anesthetic but it will be absorbed by the skin, thus still rendering it effects on some magic users.
Many people use a compound of merasha and black lotus as a recreational narcotic. Prepared properly and combined with other ingredients, it also works as a form of birth control.
Effects and Uses
Humans and Travelers: painkiller, topical anesthetic, sedative; no severe side effects. A large enough dose of the pure oil will kill.
- Uses: dull or eliminate pain, put a patient to sleep for surgery or other medical procedures.
Drakeri and Ddraig: hallucinogen, magic inhibitor, poison, birth control. The magical abilities of both Ddraig and Drakeri are disrupted for a specific period based on the dosage. It can also cause severe hallucinations. People that use it as a recreational narcotic call its effects Dream Tripping.
- Uses: poison, power inhibitor, disorient, birth control (must be combined with other ingredients). An infinitesimally small amount goes a long way. A needle dipped in merasha is all it takes to cause at least mild disorientation.
During a Sídhe's arcane training, they are exposed to merasha and its effects so they can recognize it and, to a small degree, cope with its effects. No Sídhe, Drakeri or Ddraig can totally withstand the effects of merasha.
- Uses: painkiller
Graysteel Oak
Graysteel Oak
The Graysteel oak is a large tree, native to the lands of Tír Ceilte of the Sidhe. It is distinguished by its evergreen foliage and its spreading tangle of limbs and branches. Once the bark is stripped, the wood of the tree is a dull gray color but can be polished to a metal-like silvery sheen. It also holds a razor-sharp edge.
Many of the very traditional Sidhe and even Drakeri, prefer to carry bladed weapons made from the wood of the Graysteel. The wood is too hard to be used for bows although archers prize arrows with graysteel shafts.
Chee-Chimer Trees
Found nowhere else than the Elderwood of Tír Ceilte, the Chee-Chimer trees are a beautiful deciduous hardwood with flamboyant multi-colored bark. They also grow small, hard nuts that drop to the ground along with the leaves each fall where they germinate and produce new saplings in the spring. During the spring, summer, and early fall, the Chee-Chimer trees play bell-like music when the winds blow. This is the result of the odd, almost metallic seeds inside the hard outer shell of the nut.
No one understands why, but cutting one tree down in a grove results in the death of the entire grove. This might be why the Chee-Chimers now only grow in Tír Ceilte.