THE
WATERSTAR
("BAVERAS'
GIFT") |
The
Waterstar is a water plant, often named "Baveras' Gift" due to its medical
usage, its fruits are known as Starberries. Elves refer to the Waterstar as
Már'miés'efér (Styrásh
Már'miés'efér).
This lovely waterplant with its white petals growing just over the surface and
small green under water leaves is very common. It grows in big numbers in sweet
water in rivers and lakes, in a slight variation in saltwater as well. Very huge
patches are found on the open sea, looking like an island from afar when
flowering. The Waterstar is dedicated to the
Goddess of Water, Baveras, and seen as her favourite flower. A few medical
usages, all connected with the water in
some way, is reason for the other name it is known for, Baveras Gift. In rare
cases it can be mistaken from a distance for the tyrscaru.
From its berries, called Waterstar Berries or short Starberries, a very delicate,
healthy, but expensive fruit paste is made.
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Appearance. This
lovely plant has a bloom flowering just above the water surface, about half a
handspan or less. The six petals are of a pure white, with a transparent
quality, and about half a nailsbreath long. They
evolve out of one base and are placed symmetrically around a small light green
middle with a lot of very tiny pink filaments, surrounding three to nine anthers
and a small pistil. Around this middle six little green leaves are placed
symmetrically, matching the outer ones. They stay with the berry when the white
petals are gone. This gives them a starlike appearance.
The blooms sit on dark green stalks which have a wreath of six dark green lance-like
leaves every handspan, the top one of these circles lying on the surface of the
water. These stalks are up to about three peds long, depending on the depth of
the water they are floating
in. The variety growing in the open sea may have stalks up to ten peds long.
From one main stem several smaller derive, each one dividing itself after a
certain length. The stalks of the different stems tend to grow into each other,
thus forming a bunch of green underwater leaves, which
can't be divided anymore. This provides shelter for a
lot of smaller water animals, but makes harvesting of the evolving berries
difficult. The leaves have tiny openings to take in the nutrients transported
past them.
The plant has sometimes roots, but they have the only purpose of holding it into
a certain place in fast streaming young rivers. The size of the plants, its
petals and leaves and the number of individuals vary strongly due to the
availability of nutrients in the water the plant is living from. So in fast
flowing rivers which have only poor nutrients, the flower's
leaves are smaller than in places with an abundance of
nutrients, where they can cover an area of several furlongs in every direction
or more. The seawater variety is in general a bit bigger and rougher than the
sweetwater one. When the waterstar starts growing
roots and how this is triggered is not yet know.
Territory.
The Waterstar can be found mainly in
Sarvonia, smaller patches are reported from
Nybelmar and other islands and continents
as well. However, the plant seems
to be native in Sarvonia
and was only recently spread with ships travelling from continent to
continent from here to the other places.
The Waterstar doesn't grow
well in very extreme conditions, though one is often surprised in which
locations it can survive. It is found in every streaming river and in lakes with
water currents. However, the Waterstar doesn't
like still standing water. Therefore it is widespread where the
Cylian River joins the Ancythrian Sea, but
there are none at its southern tip. There the
transport of valuable nutrients past the intaking openings seems not strong
enough. The salt water variety is found mostly all around the
Sarvonian continent, for which no
explanations are found yet apart that is has its
origin here. But one would expect that a plant growing in the open sea for a
long time should be found elsewhere, transported by water currents and
winds. Some people believe the Waterstar
grows only well in the neighbourhood of people believing in
Baveras. This is seen as reason for their
great abundance in the Cyon Sola Bay, where the
Sanhorrhim Elves go fishing and
near the temples of Baveras
like the one around Cap Strata, where this magnificent temple
represents the most southern building on the
Sarvonian continent. However, the plant is
found in Northern Sarvonia as
well, though not so widespread as elsewhere.
Usages.
The Waterstar is valuable to the people mainly as a
medical herb. All its parts are used and have special effects on the body. In
general they are good for illnesses of the
water system of the body. There is no difference between the salt- and fresh
water varieties, though the saltwater ones have to be washed thoroughly first to
remove the salt.
The
Leaves
The leaves, freshly harvested and eaten as salad have a purifying effect on the
whole body, not only that of the blood, and are able
to remove any poisonous substances out of the body.
Raw it has the best effect and regulates the digestion, is laxative and good
against worms. A tea out of the leaves helps against diarrhoea and obstipation,
depending on its strength.
Pressed to get the juice they are less effective, but can be used in moderate
quantities without any side effect. The dried leaves are still useful, if no
fresh leaves are available, though not as effective as the fresh ones. A powder
of ground dried leaves is sometimes added to other food to make
the Waterstar more digestible.
The
Stalks
The stalks of the plant have a slightly different use.
They are diuretic, sudatory and are therefore draining the water out of the
body. This helps with heart problems, is good for thick legs due to fluid
retention in old years or in the pregnancy. It helps by inflamed kidney and
bladder and against incontingency.
The
Blooms
The blooms themselves are collected as well sometimes and serve as a fresh tea
with a taste so delicate that it is hard to describe. (If somebody wants to
express, that something is very difficult to describe, he may say:
"It is easier to describe the taste of the
Waterstar bloom than this.")
Some pregnant women
eat the blooms itself - in secrecy - for though it is normally not held for
true, some people believe, that eating Waterstar blooms
favours the birth of a daughter instead of a son. If however a mother has
given birth to an extremely beautiful son, or just wants
to praise the child, people tease the parents asking: "Hey,
have you eaten too many waterstar blooms?"
The
Berries
The berries, called shortly Starberries, have a
medical use as well, for they are known to improve the health of ill and weak
persons, to keep healthy persons healthy and especially are good for pregnant
women to stay away from any illness and get vivid babies. But their main usage
has exceeded that of a common medical plant.
The Starberries are not easy to harvest. They stay
only for at least three days visible at the
water surface until they drop down into
the water floating
there till a new plant evolves. These berries have lost their fine taste and
their medical use is controversial. When touched or shattered they easily drop
to the water and are lost. So harvesting requires a special skill and
carefulness. It is often done by a Baveras
Aider who swims through the Waterstar,
a difficult task, and collects the berries in a tiny boat, called the
Starberries boat.
But once sampled they are the main ingredient for the
one of the most delicate fruit paste known. The white
fleshed berries mix with the purple seed and the colour of this paste ranges
from a soft rose to deep purple, depending how many seeds were added - or
extracted beforehand, for the seeds itself are very valuable.
This fruit paste is of course scarce and therefore very expensive, but due to
its healthiness it is used especially for pregnant woman. Each husband or future
grandparent spare no effort to provide the expectant mother with this fruit
paste.
It is not know, when the use of the Waterstar paste as
a nutrient for mothers to be has first served as a means
for husbands to tell their beloved wife their wish for a child without the need
of using words. But nowadays it is common throughout
Santharia and beyond its borders, by
humans and elves
alike (which is very rarely seen) that a husband gives
a small jar of the Waterstar fruit paste to his wife
as a sign of love - and his wish for a child, be it the first one or a later
one. In the last decade the custom has even gone farer. So some shy men who don't
dare to propose a marriage donate to their beloved ones, whom they wish to
marry, a jar of this paste; this time it is recommended to take the dark purple
variety.
Other Usages
There are other usages
of the waterstar without medical purpose as well:
The juice of the leaves is, with some honey, harvested
from a summer meadow, fermented. This gives a white vine with a light green
shimmer, a very fine, but strong taste, though the liquid itself is fairly
thick. This is the common Waterstar wine. Out of this
wine, a spirit is distilled called Baveras L, with a green colour and quite a
strong taste. Some people drinking this spirit say they do it only to maintain
their health, because the original ingredients are so healthy, but due to the
high content of alcohol this is very questionable.
The Starberry wine however is made from the berries only without the seeds and
is very delicate with its fragrant taste, light, pure,
clear, without any colour, but reflecting and breaking any light falling into.
It is very seldom and expensive. And it is drunk at only one occasion: When two
lovers try to fulfil what they started with donating and accepting the Starberry
fruit paste.
Now a last usage has to be mentioned, though knowledge about it is little and
not ensured. The seeds are, so people tell each other in secret, used by all
Baveras Aids to get into contact with
their Goddess and to do other things normal people are
not able to. For this purpose they are fermented and used in combination with
another drug, maybe arv, to
produce a hallucinogen.
Not only
humans or elves
like these little waterflowers. For the
rivermaids it is an essential
part of their life - they use it to decorate themselves, binding skillfully
wreaths out of it for their heads, necks or ankles. When tired of their
adornments they just take it and eat it up. The Waterstar with all its parts is
probably the rivermaids' most
consumed food apart from fish and other wateranimals.
Reproduction.
The blooms of the Waterstar are developing all year round, where weather
conditions allow it. They evolve finally, fertilised by the
wind, into small, white berries with purple
seeds in it, called Waterstar Berries or short Starberries. These berries can be
seen for a short time at the surface of the
water. Those not eaten and distributed by birds or fish drop into the water,
floating within the underwater green. In regions with cold winters and ice these
berries sink to the ground. The purple seeds seem to have a kind of
anti-freezing liquid in them, so they are able to start a new plant again, when
the water gets warmer.
Myth/Lore.
The Waterstar is firmly connected to
Baveras. The myth says, that
Grothar wanted to give a flower to
Baveras, with whom he had fallen in love,
but all the waterplants were just green without any blooms. So he asked
Jeyriall for
some flowers with blooms, but she wasn't very happy
for she had some differences with Baveras
and feared for Grothar, that he
might be hurt through Baveras
wild, untamed nature. But he laughed only at
her words, replying, that this was what attracted him, and that he was of the
same kind sometimes. Finally she gave him an armful of the loveliest white
flowers she had ever made, suitable to grow in water, the blooms with a starlike
appearance, with the words: "For your love, who is
like the stars: Always moving, impossible to hold tight, better to look at only
from afar." Thus the
Waterstar was born.
Why the blooms sit near the surface of the water has
two explanations. In Southern Sarvonia the elders tell their children, that as
Baveras got the flowers, she was so
happy, that she wanted to share her happiness with the whole world. She gave the
flowers all the healing qualities they have now. And she didn't
want to hide the lovely blooms in the depth of her
waters. Therefore she held them to the
surface of the water and does this till
today, so that all people are able to admire the gift
Grothar gave
her.
The Northern Sarvonian variety
says, that Jeyriall
had designed the flower this way to help
Grothar. He should be able to see his
love when she admired the flowers. Baveras
herself didn't see the purpose behind this but
was so delighted and pleased, that she gave the plant its healing properties.
So the Waterstar is called "Baveras'
Gift" as well, but it is not clear if the gift refers
to her giving it to the people or to Grothar
giving a gift to her.
Information provided by
Talia Sturmwind
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