Grasslands

Brusol Mushroom

A prevalent type of fungus that litters lighter forests and root systems, often demarked by its tan rings, orange body, and stinging smell. The Brusol is a type of fungal colony that spreads across, unsurprisingly, the roots of trees. It will begin to leech nutrients from what it's attached to. 

The Brusol is seen as a pest for foresters, due to the fact that a single colony can destroy an entire acre of saplings if it manages to spread uncontrolled.

On the opposite spectrum, the Brusol is also seen as a useful plant by many cooks for the secondary effect that it will have on a host tree. When attached to a tree, the Brusol will begin to alter the sap of the tree it is on, giving it a distinct spice similar to peppers. 

Larovan Tulip

The Larovan Tulip is a common, yet treasured plant. Easy to grow and safe to eat, the plant tastes mildly sweet and faintly nutty, and is featured in many everyday dishes. But, it is also known to be the main ingredient in Numbspirit—a drink that helps people relax in the evenings. The tulip specifically boasts anxiolytic properties. Its oil is used in calming tonics to ease nerves, and dried, crushed petals are made into sleep powders that help people rest at night. Despite an otherwise carnivorous diet, Gorr often seeks out these flowers for their narcotic properties. 

“Many a’ monster hunter has found their quarry not in a frenzied state but instead in a pleasurable doze thanks to this unassuming flower", one towngoer recollects. 

Dried Nozreet

Nozreet is a biennial plant that originates from the banks of the Steppe rivers, but was domesticated in the Grasslands sometime after. When dried, it takes on a rose gold colouration and smells less pungent than when it's cut fresh. Dried Nozreet is used by alchemists for purposes of extraction, especially when they’re trying to retrieve one specific property from an ingredient rather than the whole of its essence. This makes it a staple in any artificer’s workshop, as it's invaluable in potioncraft. When used to line a Spindletree Sieve, the combination works marvellously to separate volatile or multipurpose regents. 

Tylnia’s Schlepper

Tylnia’s Schlepper is a yellowish-brown pepper with a woody stem endemic to the Steppes of East Tykonia. However, mercantile activity has brought cultivation of this fickle fruit to West Tykonia. Known as a common folly to adventurers and foragers alike, this pepper ripens over several months on a prickly, dry growth called a bristlebush. While its texture is unappealing to most races, borderline inedible even when cooked and stewed for prolonged periods, merchants have found other purposes for this fruit. Before anthesis, the woody stem develops a fibrous “shell” around the bud that soon withers up and falls off following completion of the flowering stage, roughly 4-5 weeks after the initial bud develops. These fibrous “shells” can be plucked just before they shed, and ground up to create a pungent, fragrant seasoning or perfume additive. Locals describe the scent as peppery and sweet, with undercurrents of something sour. The fragrance process was first discovered not by man but by the noble Stalgoth. Upon fleecing the otherwise repulsive fruit, they've been seen marking their dens with the odour in the hopes of enticing passing females—it's safe to say that the fad has caught on.

Burdock Root

Burdock is a biennial root herb, found throughout the Grasslands, and Forests of West Tykonia. It grows in two varieties: yellow, which is safe to consume and brown, which is poisonous. The root of the yellow Burdock plant is known for its significant medicinal uses, akin to the likes of nettle, ginger and other plants frequently utilized by apothecaries and healers alike. Burdock can be prepared in many forms, although it's most effectively steeped as a tea, enhancing the circulation of blood and aiding in the oxygenation of the body. In recent times, a Larovan court physician found that Burdock tea is useful in treating gout and scrofula, as it aids in the clearing of blocked arteries and, with a combination of other treatments, helps to alleviate most discomfort associated with inflammatory flares amongst patients.

Scarlet Creeper

The Scarlet Creeper is a winding, quick-spreading plant recognised by its unmistakable scarlet-colored petals. Scarlet Creeper is a low-lying bush that commonly grows where the dead lie. It is common in graveyards, hastily improvised burial grounds, Nightnadder burrows, or even at the sites of recent battles. The necrophyte bush eludes taxonomists’ classification, as it begins its life cycle as a mould growing overtop buried corpses, which sprouts roots and a primary grouping of stems indicative of common plants. 

Within days, the plant erupts from the ground, quickly growing up to a meter (~3 ft.) tall. During this time, the roots spread to other areas of the soil, absorbing nutrients found near the soil in which the corpse is buried. The plant leeches organic material from the corpse below. Cadavers can be processed quickly, lending to the necrophage plant traditionally being used by ill-intentioned alchemists and other unscrupulous folk to hide and promptly remove evidence of corpses best left hidden. It takes up to a week for a corpse to be wholly destroyed. After this period, brilliant red flowers sprout along the bushes' exterior.

The Scarlet Creeper does not grow in snowy or desert climates, and to reproduce, it releases a large cloud of crimson spores from its flowers, which search out for more bodies to colonise, potentially sitting in dormancy for years.

Damepetal 

Damepetal is a flowering perennial plant, cultivated by florists and cut to fill bouquets and decorate banquet tables. Damepetals grow year-round, and are comparable to roses, differing only in their pinkish-purple colour, size and bushy base. The flower is a common sight at nobility cotillions or other Larovan dances. Damepetals grow to about 3 meters (~9.8 ft) in height, and when mixed hand-in-hand with Tylnia’s Schlepper, produce the common perfume base, to which other ingredients are added. One Larovan Adventurer’s Guild herbologist by the name of Katrina de Eldcastle found that Damepetals can also be used in alchemy, when referencing their ability to mask a stench. This is done by crushing all of a Damepetal's petals and smearing the resulting extract over the object before cleaning it. In Katrina’s case, she managed to mask a particularly foul mixture with the addition of Damepetal, making it much more appealing. See, Katrina’s concoction was intended to poison a Forster bureaucrat, and to do that, she needed to fool the man; her endeavour’s success is unknown, only that she slowly faded into obscurity with the years.  

Mandrake Root  

Mandragorana, more commonly known as Mandrake is a perennial herbaceous plant that is found all across the Grasslands. It boasts wide, waxy leaves and roots that strangely mimic little people. When pulled from the ground, the plant lets out a continuous, sharp, high-pitched screech until it is put back in the dirt or chopped up. While the cry can’t kill a person, it can certainly induce fainting if there is prolonged exposure to multiple Mandrakes. These days, the age-old question, “Why might the swaths of the grasslands remain unused?” has been answered—the Mandrake grows in colonies, rampant and wild, and its presence turns fertile tracts into unusable land. Attempts to till an extra acre or build a homestead atop a Mandrake colony often end in disaster with livestock spooked, workers injured and crops failing due to the soil’s lingering mana. For alchemists, Mandrakes serve as a prized and potent ingredient. A Mandrake’s roots, when properly prepared, can be distilled into potent sleep draughts, or even potions to enhance mental acuity. Harvesting Mandrake safely is a skill only Grounded Artificers dare to handle. 

Cynthia Bloom 

When an alchemist by the name of Menas Woolsley first approached the affluent Cynthia Forster, he presented her a unique yellow flower, which he claimed was the first of its kind. It flower would later be named the Cynthia Bloom, spreading far and wide across the Grasslands to become the singlemost recognized prairie flower. The flower presented to Cynthia Forester was supposedly alchemically altered to breed out impurities then grown in a greenhouse. It has few predators, and grows in wide swaths across fields. Botanists and herbologists have long debated Menas Woolsley’s alchemical methods, some claiming the flower was enchanted from the start, others insisting it was a product of masterful cultivation, and some calling it an act of Menas’ love for the woman. In some Larovan communities, it is customary to press a single bloom into letters of affection, as a symbol of love and an ode to the pair’s story. When it comes to alchemy, its leaves can be crushed to form the base of larger, more complex elixirs and serums concerning passion. 

Aódhan Willow

The Aódhan Willow is a fairly commonplace tree that may be found across multiple regions. Its growth spans the Grasslands, Forests, Evergreens and Swamplands. When winter rolls around, folk tap the trees for their clear-colored sap, which is harvested and boiled to extract their sugars. This sugar is then boiled, and the resulting syrup is exceedingly sweet and is used as a cheap replacement for sugarcane or molasses. In many households, Chalksyrup, as it’s called, is drizzled on dried fruit, grains, and oats, to bake high-calorie bars not unlike hardtack to weather the long winter months. 

Crimson Aódhan Willow

Considered to be the bastardised version of the Aódhan Willow, the Crimson variant’s only difference when compared to its more common counterpart is that its sap is tapped in the spring season instead of the winter. Said resin is produced in the winter months and tapped in the spring season. Though some view the crimson version as an inferior offshoot, the Crimson Aódhan has found niche value amongst alchemists and apothecaries, who prize its sap for its use as a binding agent in potions and concoctions. Unlike the clear secretion of its parent species, the Crimson Aódhan’s sap is thick and comes out a dark black, faintly aromatic. Some Larovans also harvest the sap and then boil it to create Crimson Aódhan Concentrate, an extract used for its analgesic properties in healing serums or topical salves. 

Criqacress 

Criqacress is a perennial, sun-loving flower that blooms in the summer season. It’s found in shades of violet and blue with yellow pistils. The flower is fairly typical of Larovan gardens, easy to find and easy to grow, making it a favorite amongst both greenies and greenthumbs. 

Sono Debora

The Sono Debora, otherwise just called “Deboras”, are endemic to the Grasslands but can theoretically grow in any moderate climate. They are cultivated for their gorgeous, cream-coloured white flowers that bud in the early spring. Deboras are unique in that they hold sound in the form of vibrations through their roots and off their petals remarkably and release it when prompted. Old folklore tells of entire meadows of Deboras humming with echoes of lost hymns, releasing melodies in secrecy or at flowing mana. Some new Shinsei traditions see Deboras placed at tombstones and mausoleums, believed to preserve the last words of the deceased, heard only by those who might light a candle, smoke incense and listen to their hallowed tongue.