The Consortium's Dissertations on the Nature of Charon

Location: Found in Zeinav Desert, namely in the White Sand Sea, near the Oasis

A quaint pink flower found in the silt of the White Sand Sea, in the places not far from the Oasis. They are pale, solemn pink in color, almost desaturated, with fewer petals than a traditional lotus, with a dusty gold patterning across the edges of the petals. They tend to be small, and only ever grow alone, one blossom at a time-- you will never see two grow in a cluster. It is not unheard of for two to bloom side by side, but never from the same seed. They bloom from ash-bound seeds buried within the sand.

On its own, the Khet Lotus has very little medicinal merit; it is a flower born of death, and it would be... frowned upon to actually use it in medicine, at least as an outsider to the Tribe of the Lotus. Those within it are privy to a procedure capable of processing the petals properly to create a rejuvenating potion; it is a delicate process, but worth it when successful. I am not keen on sharing this with many.

Toxicity: Mild-- not lethal, but may provoke some illness if consumed by mouth. Don't eat it. Ever. It's rude.

Additional Notes: Sacred to the nomadic Tribe of the Lotus that traverses the White Sand Sea, and a byproduct of their funeral rites.

Location: Found in the Moonglade, namely in the titular Lantern Light Wood (how aptly named)

Lantern Lights are a plant of great renown for good reason; they are unfathomably beautiful. They are the product of a type of pale pink flower that grows in the trees of the woods– the flowers are of substantial size, have around six petals, and close during the daylight or in moments of particularly bright light. When they open, they show off the glowing rose gold bulb blooming at the center, which produces a very bright light source.

These bulbs have a lot of uses– they’re edible to a variety of creatures, they’re useful in illuminating home spaces (as well as the entire Wood), and they have quite a bit of use in potions. They’re a bit difficult to make use of for medicine, but when processed in a particular way, they’re prized for light resistance potions, for potions that can provide a controlled source of light, so on, so forth. They’re a component in my own Pride of Solaria Elixir, in fact– they have a great deal of natural magic energy, so they’re very prized for their potency as an alchemical component. Shame about those Slaads, though…

Toxicity: They aren’t necessarily toxic, but they have very little nutritional value for most species– some find them valuable as snacks, but most won’t gain anything from eating them, and I doubt they taste very good to mammalian taste buds, at least. They might make you sick, but they won’t kill you.

Additional Notes: As with most plants from the Moonglade, Lantern Lights are heavily prized for their value in magical elixirs due to the raw concentration of arcane power found within them. They’re phenomenal decorations, too– really, they’re just fantastic for a lot of things, a real multipurpose plant. Obtaining them can just be a hassle.

Location: Found in the Ash Lands, particularly at the base of and higher platforms of Mount Drakolt

A volcanic flower resembling a classic lily; the petals are a dark crimson in color, a scorched-red, though this is not the key noteworthy characteristic. The pistils are luminescent, glimmering gold, emitting a pollen that shines like embers and emits a mild heat, and the leaves are ink-black and appear to be withered, curling around the rest of the plant. They can be difficult to see against the background of the volcano, but the pollen is a key giveaway.

Its key uses are in combating temperature-related wounds; the petals themselves radiate a natural heat and when ground down are a useful medicinal component for warming potions and other such things, even being useful in the treatment of burns in tandem with other components in poultices, but the key merit lies in the pollen. The pollen is remarkably potent and serves as an amplifier for certain potions, aiding in empowering their effects.

Toxicity: None, though it lacks any nutritional value when consumed as is.

Additional Notes: For a volcanic flower, they're surprisingly mild and make good decorations. They have a surprising bit of aesthetic merit, if you're willing to brave the volcano for them.

Location: Found growing beneath the earth in various parts of Charon, wherever the soil is moist and temperate enough– it cannot flourish in places like Zeinav, the Ash Lands, or the Frost Gale, so it is typically found in the southern half of the continent.

Moleapples gain their name from the fact that they’re an underground-growing fruit— they’re indicated by an above-ground sprig with teardrop-shaped red leaves, where the fruit is produced at the roots. The apples themselves are large, auburn fruits with a pale gold-orange interior— significantly larger than the traditional apple, but not quite, say, melon-sized.

This fruit is most commonly harvested for culinary purposes— it’s a versatile fruit with varying flavor notes, and it can be prepared in countless ways. Fried, dried, salted or sugared, so on, so forth— one especially common one I’ve seen is when they’re baked, split, and served with butter and cinnamon. Beyond their edibility, they’re quite useful in digestive regulation— I use them in medication to treat digestive-based illnesses. I’ve been testing their merit as a component in medication for circulatory health, too, with shining results. All in all, quite a healthy fruit.

Toxicity: The fruit itself is non-toxic— the leaves on the sprig it grows from are a different story. In order to ward off creatures looking for a snack, the leaves not only taste incredibly bad but can cause extreme nausea if consumed. The fruit is fine, though— I doubt any sentient creature is going to try and eat those leaves, anyway.

Additional notes: This is one of the more interesting and difficult-to-categorize plants out there— it has qualities of both tubers and a proper fruit, most comparable to a traditional potato and the apple it takes its name from. Admittedly, it’s kind of a botanical wonder.

Location: Found in the Frost Gale, primarily in the Coldwood at the base of the trees that grow there

Nihililacs would ordinarily be a bit of an easy flower to miss in a place like the Frost Gale due to their stark white color– they’re a series of small, pale blossoms growing from one thick, pale blue stalk, making them blend in well with the snow they thrive in. However, what spares them from being missable would be the mist they produce, which serves as a deterrent for potential predators, and an excellent beacon to their location.

This is quite the… unique plant, to be truthful: they are eerily cold no matter where you’ve taken them, making them quite useful in a variety of ice-based potions and remedies, but that mist is their key attraction no other flower can replicate. Nihililacs have a property that makes them capable of shifting the properties of liquids, preserving their qualities and converting them into a gaseous state, making them excellent diffusers. However, this plant most famously is used in the Miasmic Catalyst potion devised by fellow Consortium member, Lady Gwendolyn Mystwud– a potion capable of amplifying and spreading the effects of other potions.

Toxicity: Mild: they’re quite bitter and are likely to make you sick if you try to eat one, with nausea and extreme dizziness or disorientation manifesting as primary symptoms of consumption.

Additional notes: Again, they can be used as excellent diffusers, but they thrive best in cold environments– shame, I’d love to use one with some lavender powder or something to make the Desert Rose smell a little nicer. It mostly smells like medicine.

Location: Found underwater in the Luna Sea, namely in shallower depths-- tends to flourish in milder temperatures, further from Frost Gale

An underwater-growing flower found all across Charon, in the shallower areas of the Luna Sea. The petals are a deep royal blue in color, a perfect spiral around a silvery, specialized salt deposit resembling a crystal from which they derive their name. They bloom in solitary blossoms, seldom ever popping up in clusters, but the stems that anchor them down are very thick, with tiny, wiry protrusions that absorb salinity from the water around them, sustaining the plant.

At a glance, they're merely an excellent means of absorbing and condensing salt-- however, the petals of the flower are very useful in certain potions. They're best used for water-resistance potions, or strangely, when consuming a dried petal, they can provide ease in regulating breathing. I'm intrigued to see if there's anything I could do to use them for a water-breathing potion...

Toxicity: The stem and salt core will definitely make you sick, considering how much salt they contain, but the petals are harmless.

Additional Notes: The name is derived from a sailor's myth that the first flowers bloomed from Salina's own tears, shed from her own grief over some great storm. This is obviously bullshit, but it's an interesting bit of folklore.

Location: Found in the mountains of the Frost Gale, where the snow falls at its heaviest and coldest

Seithr's Bane is a rather beautiful flower that grows in clusters; each blossom is a pale blue with five petals exactly, often with dark blue veins spread across them and a pale purple gradient at the edges of the petals. They have multiple stamens that curl inward, each of them a dark and brilliant blue, and these tend to be the most likely thing to catch your eye, as they poke out above the snow and stand out against the white. They reflect a blue shadow upon the skin, interestingly, no matter what your complexion is, and they have an eerily pleasant scent.

These flowers have no medicinal or edible worth whatsoever, nor are they especially useful in any form of craft; they're extraordinarily difficult to find and are very, very poisonous. Their key use comes in alchemy, really; they serve as a powerful toxin, and can be very useful in a variety of poisons and detrimental potions. They can be difficult to handle in crafting, however; they are extremely resistant to heat and seem to stave it off with their deep coldness, and require very thorough and careful handling. They aren't poisonous to the touch, at least-- but you might get frostbite handling them.

Toxicity: Extreme; in fact, I would not be surprised if this ranks as one of the most poisonous flowers within Charon. When consumed, you... really do not have very long to live afterward, unless you have someone capable of cleansing the poison from your body on standby. The toxins present within this flower effectively shut down your respiratory system bit by bit, and... I will refrain from going on, but it is not a pleasant way to go. Don't eat the flower.

Additional Notes: Their name is derived from a folk story about a fire giant named-- you guessed it-- Seithr, who sought immortality. They say this plant was his downfall; he consumed it, believing it might grant him strength and eternal life because of its rarity, but it instead quenched the fire within him and slowly drained him of his power. Of course, it has many colloquial names as well: Frostbiter, Slushcups, Frost Devil's Star, so on, so forth.

Shrike Leaf wood is very dense, shock resistant, and commonly used in the timber industry, particularly where it grows most abundantly. It is native to Dragon's Cradle and the coast of Zeinav, but there are multiple cultivars across Charon. The durable wood is often used for fence posts, rail ties, pallets, tool handles, cabinets, and fuel, given that it can be easily split and is rot-resistant, making it very accessible for general carpentry use.

The tree gets its name from the long woody thorns that erupt from the tree's trunk and its branches and grow without abandon, piercing the trees of neighboring plants and grafting them into its root system. Shrike Leaf trees are highly adaptable to different environments, and the species has been introduced all over Charon due to its growth speed and construction qualities. Outside its natural range, however, Shrike Leaf can be an aggressive, damaging invasive species.

Location: Found in the Marsh Flats, usually in the Hauntwood and Black Bog

A dark black moss that clings to the damp trees and stones of the swamps of the Marsh Flats– it’s rather ominous-looking, with thick, black strands clinging together in a spiderwebby mass, almost more like an insect’s lair than a plant. It consistently produces a pale grey mist that is extraordinarily toxic– it’s best to approach when the mist is sparsest.

This is literally one of the least medicinally useful plants I can think of– but it has… other uses. Spike Moss is a very potent source of toxins, making it splendid for the creation of a variety of different poisons, serving as an excellent base for several different types, from numbing poison to… lethal poison. Ah, it’s a bit of a controlled substance, alchemically– be careful with it…

Toxicity: Literally one of the first notes the Consortium makes on Spike Moss pertains to how toxic it is. It is unbelievably poisonous, both to the touch and in terms of the noxious gas it emits– only handle with protective gear, and store very carefully. Contact causes abrasions, inflammation, and even burns to many degrees, and inhalation of the gas can lead to dizziness, loss of consciousness, hallucinations if you’re unlucky, nausea, so on, so forth.

Additional Notes: For the love of the Gods, please only approach this with plenty of protective gear. I recommend gloves and a shield for your respiratory system so you don’t inhale anything– really, full skin coverage is fantastic if possible.

Location: Found in the Crescent Isles, growing in carefully-hidden pockets on the far reaches of Starlight City

Starberries are a beautiful fruit-- small, semi-spherical berries with a five-pointed bloom at the top. They're ever-shifting in color, a vivid sphere of blues, purples, and pinks, with tiny white dots that seem to mimic stars. They really do look like little pieces of space that have fallen down to earth, honestly...

The effects of Starberries are physical-enhancing in nature, and depend on how many you consume-- just a few will improve your energy levels, more than that may aid in stamina or endurance, and great amounts will even see a drastic change in things like speed or even the height of one's jumping capabilities. I'm betting they'd be useful for helping individuals who struggle with chronic fatigue, or with exhaustion... but I'd probably get thrown into an ethics argument over the potential of these being used illegally in performance-enhancers down the line, wouldn't I? Ugh.

Toxicity: Mild...? It's difficult to assess: they're not something anyone should eat in excess, as they seem to exist as an enhancer above all, and the effects of eating too many may burn out one's physical systems, which is obviously a terrible, terrible idea. Still, I don't think they're too dangerous.

Additional Notes: These also have a quaint bit of folklore; some say they're pieces of the night sky that simply couldn't hold themselves up anymore, some say Ziev himself tore some of the stars from the sky by accident and cast them down. Obviously that last bit is total bullshit. Ziev doesn't interfere with the fleeting lives of mortals.

Location: Found in the Marsh Flats, in the Black Bog and Hauntwood

Swampkins are a delightfully odd plant, and I have a particular fondness for them; they are a type of pumpkin that defies all logic, growing specifically in swamps; they ignore the usual delicate water balance required to allow pumpkins to grow, and glow. They come in shades of orange and grey, and their key feature is their carved face that is inherently there, unveiling the glowing core at their center.

Swampkins are a triple threat; they sustain a powerful light core that is useful in a variety of spells and alchemical projects, the oil that can be made from them can heal and ease all manner of internal ailments, and the seeds are absolutely delicious when roasted and seasoned. The leaves and flowers are also useful for serums for external issues, as well, namely for simple bruises and cuts. Their key trait, however, comes with that carved face; the expression shifts in the presence of aerial toxins, with the smile fading as toxicity in the air increases. This can be useful for tracking Spike Moss, or for simply navigating certain dangerous areas, so on, so forth.

Toxicity: None; they are a delicious snack, and are, in fact, fantastic for determining the presence of nearby toxins!

Additional Notes: I have absolutely no idea how they function but they delight me. They have several different colloquial names; Ghost Gourds, Canary Squash, Bog Lanterns...

Location: Found in Zeinav Desert, specifically in water bodies on the outskirts of the city

An underwater-growing type of berry found around Zeinav City, a deep indigo in color, and rather small. They're not much larger than my thumbnail, really, though that isn't a universal assessment. Either way, they grow in clusters, and their ripeness is determined by the balance of their coloration-- too blue, and it's not ripe, too purple and it's overripe. The midpoint between the two is best for testing such a thing-- both for medicinal quality, and for flavor.

On their own, they're best for a quick snack above all-- however, they shine best when utilized in potions, heated and crushed to mix with other components, or when used in tandem with a specific type of purple wildflower found in the Lantern Light Wood of the Moonglade for a poultice. It eases inflammation readily and has a numbing quality-- this can make it easier to focus on more advanced treatment while distracting a patient from any pain. Very useful.

Toxicity: None. In fact, they're quite delicious.

Additional Notes: Hardly rare at all, but finding them in their prime can be a bit tricky sometimes, as can finding the ideal water bodies they grow in. I'd like to cultivate some myself someday.

Location: Found in the Marsh Flats, typically in the Hauntwood, especially near high concentrations of magic

The first thing you will notice about these plants is that they are utterly colossal, about six or seven feet in height; they are massive the whole way around. They tend to be dark grey, desaturated green, or deep black in color, and are difficult to see; when they have recently eaten, bright runes light up the pitcher part of their structure for which they get their name. They have long tendrils that tend to go inactive, but... not always.

Witcher Pitchers are nasty things; they are carnivorous plants with a degree of awareness that absolutely abhor and covet magic, and will lash out and try to consume any magical creature, object, or entity that gets too close. They produce a syrup that attracts most non-sapient magical creatures, allowing the pitcher plant to close down over them and consume them, but humanoids don't fall for this so easily, which is... where the tendrils come in. They're dangerous and quite violent, but the sap they produce is unfortunately quite useful in alchemy and even some medicine, which is... not a fun time for magically gifted alchemists and doctors. This is another product I feel safer just ordering a shipment of.

Toxicity: Well, I consider a plant that wants to kill and eat any magical thing in its range quite toxic, but no, it is not poisonous or venomous beyond the digestive fluid it produces when it traps prey.

Additional Notes: Witcher Pitchers are entirely non-hostile to creatures who lack any magic entirely; hell, they'll eat your magical items, but they won't go for you if they don't trace any magic in your blood. It's only mages who need fear them, or inherently magical creatures.