(Grass, .... Healing?... or Other...? I've added * to everything that can be linked to another entry. So, what do you think? I hope I nailed most of the angles I needed to cover. Did I miss anything obvious?)
Overview No self respecting fire mage has never tried fire grass and not loved it. These red plants are used for one purpose only, and that is for smoking. It is not to be confused with its very distant cousin the *hobbitweed, or it's relative by-name-only the *fire weed. It has several effects on the inhaler – among them being addictive. This combined with being very expensive and very hard to grow is a problem for several users. At the moment most of the users are magi. This could be blamed on the many rumors about the grass.
Description The fire grass has a distinct red hue, but if cut the inner fibers are a bright yellow coloration. It never grows over two nailbreadths. The grass grows in patches that never reach over a pad times a pad in size. New grass will not grow until some have been removed in any way. When dried the plants' red hue becomes brown, and the yellow becomes gray. The grass has no smell until it is burned. When burned it smells of evergreen, such as *pine or fir. It has none of the stench of its distant *cousin.
Territory Fire grass cannot grow in the wild. This fact has baffled many, since this brings up the question how we ever got our hands on the grass to begin with. The grass can only grow in very controlled circumstances, and then, indoors in specially prepared soil. Therefore the grass itself can be found anywhere, due to it being intentionally grown there. At the moment, the majority of the growers of fire grass are magi, which also results in that the majority of the clientele are magi as well.
Usages The common use of the grass is for smoking through a pipe or through some other means which involve inhaling concentrated amounts of the smoke. To smoke the grass, it needs to be specifically prepared. It needs to be cut or broken and then dried (reversed order compared to it's cousin). When dried it is very flammable, so keep fire away from it unless you intend to smoke it. It is not however flammable to the point of being explosive. But many magi have lost their whole stashes of fire grass due to carelessness with a flame. If a human consume fire grass in its living form it simply passes through their system. The grass contains no form of digestible nourishment. Due to its coloration, no animal would eat the plant unless forced. If eaten while dried the grass causes some slight indigestion. This could be harmful for small children and animals if their fluids are not replenished quickly. Fire grass has a few documented and proven effects, but it also has a plethora more of hearsay ones. The smoke has been documented to induce the inhaler in a state of improved concentration. The smoke seems to have some kind of arousing effect as well, and is therefore also used as an aphrodisiac. Several long time users claim to also experience heightened visual and auditory perceptions. This is not a fact, and might very well be due to one of the negative effects of the smoke. Fire grass is known to have a slight narcotic effect. In rare cases that also involved huge overdosing, this effect might also have induced some kind of hallucinatory state. This in turn might also explain several of the other proposed effects of the fire grass. Indeed, it might even explain the proposed superhuman or heroic feats of several of the known long time users. There was a persistent rumor for a long time that the smoke would destroy the throat and lungs of the inhaler, but that rumor has since been proven false. In actuality the smoke seems to clean the respiratory apparatus. Although, this might also be questioned since the professor presenting this claim was a long time user, and shortly died of heavy coughing after presenting this thesis.
Reproduction The growth and reproduction is a kin to other kinds of grass. An already established field of fire grass regrows naturally in 2 weeks if the soil is unharmed. This single blade plant grows in patches of up to one times one pad. After reaching that spread it simply will not seed, and any seeds introduced artificially will not grow, as the rest of the patch of already grown grass will consume its nourishment. On top of that, fire grass will only grow in soil where fire grass has been grown before. This has been experimented on, and it seems to be about something more than merely a question of rootwork and seeds. The process of replanting and growing fire grass is tedious and complicated. An ambitious farmer needs to transplant a piece of soil from an already established patch of fire grass. The hole in the original field will grow back in a couple of months, and the transplanted piece of soil will simply grow outwards with the same speed. The tedious part about growing fire grass is that the transplanted fire grass usually either never matures, or simply withers.
Lore: The mysteries behind the several unexplainable aspects of the grass have caused several magi to pick up a particular interest in the grass. What some of them whisper about is that the grass in itself possesses some kind of magical property. This might also be why it seems that magi are more fortuitous when it comes to growing the plant. They have even gone so far as to suppose that the fire grass is an artificial magical creation. This rumor has even made several magi experiment with using fire grass as a reagent for spells due to its supposed latent magical property much like the *fireblossom. The grass is indeed consumed when used as a reagent for fire spells. But if this is due to the actual use as a reagent or simply being a reaction for being too close to a flame is unknown. This does not prevent many magi for believing in the grass’ supposed power.
Footnote: It might not also be surprising that the majority of the stoic believers are smokers themselves.
Not at all! I was flattered beyond anything. To be honest, I felt that my article was unworthy of your artwork! I was very surprised when I saw that it even had an art piece attached. Never would have imagined!
I hope I can tend to the entry soon.
I will put together some kind of fantasy portfolio, or at least some kind of showcase for what I can help the dream with.
Greetings to all! I've been here before, but that was ten years ago. A lot of things can change in the years I've been gone. The old account might still exist but the address itself was deleted a long time ago. Also, I used my own name as an account name which wasn’t the smartest thing to do. My real name is Ted, and I actually created a piece for the dream back in 2002 (The red diamond butterfly).
It's been ten years now and I finished my masters in psychology last year. Back then I had no real role-playing experience at all. That has changed as well. Currently I'm also painting semi professionally. Will dig up some decent material to show you what you can expect from me. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I actually just happened upon the Dream again by mistake. I was looking for some inspiration for some painting studies. It only took me a couple of minutes to find my old entry for the butterfly. I choked a bit when I noticed the language I used. The entry is in a dire need of some truly epic surgery! In my defense, I was 13 at the time and did not even understand the concept of overestimation. English isn’t my first language, but pretty much half of my university studies and exams were in English, so I don’t think that will be a problem.
I’m hoping that the Santharian Dream will help me with my overflow of creativity. I only paint digitally, but in turn I can paint almost anything given time. My specialty is portraits, but I’m not bound to anything. But before I do anything of the sort; PLEASE LET ME PUT THAT BUTTERFLY ENTRY OUT OF ITS MISERY!
Snakebearer himself though is a mysterious figure. He will make himself known in the future. For now, he's satisfied with biding his time.
Oh, I almost forgot. Do you even want me? *evil grin*
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