Difference between revisions of "Herbs with Mechanics"

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==Caledan==
 
Caledan is a bunch-forming tuberous herb with long, flat, fibrous leaves, small yellow star-shaped flowers at ground level, and an elongated root stock bearing several fleshy roots. Its most distinctive quality is the unusual arrangement of its leaves, in that they strongly resemble a pleated skirt, and will wave slowly in even quite gentle breezes.
 
  
Its leaf fibers are used to make nets, hammocks, and the like, and the fruit is edible. Its seeds are black with deep wavy grooves.
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==Khav Root==
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When you chew it, it gives you +15 hit points until unconsciousness or sleep.
  
It grows best in light shade, with consistently damp soil; it is tolerant of other light conditions, but not of arid environments. It can thrive indoors if tended appropriately. It is most readily propagated by dividing its root stock and replanting. Given the flowers' proximity to the ground, it has been speculated that its principal pollinator is a small rodent-like marsupial, but there is no hard evidence of this.
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==Sapora Oil==
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Strong soporific.
  
==Comfyr==
 
Comfyr (aka turkey-tree), is a deciduous tree native to the eastern and northeastern reaches of the empire. It has leathery, feathery leaves, golden, clumped flowers, plentiful small black fruit, twisting branches, and thick, corky bark. It is resistant to drought and insects, and it can thrive in a variety of soils.
 
  
The bark has been used to produce a yellow dye and is also of significant use to the herbalist. Medicinally, comfyr bark and the oil of the comfyr fruit are both of value.
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==Snake Oil==
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* 1 drop: Strong aspirin
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* 2 drops: Sleep
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* 3 drops: Deadly
  
Cultivation of comfyr trees is entirely unnecessary, as comfyrs are real forest thugs. One comfyr tree in a forest of a thousand oak will be a thousand comfyr and one oak within sixty years.
 
  
==Damiona==
 
Damiona (also known as Blue damiona or woodwort) is a hardy perennial herb. The stem is upright and no more than half a zhàng tall. Damiona loves wet areas and grows well in fens and along lake shores. The medium-sized blue flowers appear in late summer. The flowers do not grow from the top of the main stem, but are produced along the length of side branches that grow from the nodes of the main stem. The flowers are grouped in pairs and orient themselves to one side of the branches, giving rise to several popular children's tales about how the damiona lost half its flowers.
 
 
Herbalists employ damiona for many purposes, most commonly as a mild sedative tea or sleep-promoting incense, but also to relieve pain and inflammation. All parts of the plant have similar effects, but the leaves are the most potent, especially leaves of younger plants and/or leaves that have been quickly dried immediately after harvesting. One of damiona's advantages is that an infusion reaches peak efficacy very quickly, so a damiona tea can be administered immediately upon brewing.
 
 
==Dongqua==
 
Dongqua is a perennial herb with large somewhat triangular leaves with thick, fleshy stems and roots. The flowers are small, whitish green to pinkish green, always with six petals, and grouped in large compound leafy inflorescences. The fruits are tetrahedral achenes with winged edges, resembling a quartet of miniature maple seeds flying in formation. While the leaves are toxic, the stalks are used in cooking and winemaking for their tart flavor deriving from high levels of lamic acid; the House of Resplendent Vintage is the principal non-medicinal consumer of dongqua.
 
 
Cultivated dongqua is plagued by a number of insect larva, including those of the yellow nutmeg moth and ermine cabbage moth. Fortunately it is easily propagated by cutting up the crowns of larger dongqua plants.
 
 
Medicinally dongqua is prepared using the roots, stems, and stalks together. All parts of the plant contain small amounts of the olica poison, and dongqua also produces traces of other poisonous compounds, including anthracin and Three-Grave Cutri. None of the toxins are present in dangerous amounts, and in fact are responsible for most of its medicinal properties -- as even the neophyte herbalist knows, the most potent ingredients are often also the most dangerous.
 
 
==Ebyohim==
 
Ebyohim (aka peasant's ginseng) is a perennial flowering plant native to the northern Honeth Arcade, eastern Qin Chao, and probably the Hidden City. It is usually found growing around stream banks and forest openings under the shade of trees.
 
 
The plant is shrubby and dense and has a tendency to climb, producing heart shaped leaves, light green five-pointed bell-shaped flowers with prominent yellow or light purple veins. Ebyohim can grow up to two or three bu in height with roots one to three cùn thick.
 
 
Ebyohim root is used to lower blood pressure, increase blood volume, stimulate appetite, and replenish chi. The roots are harvested from the plant during the third or fourth year of growth and dried prior to use. Its pejorative nickname, "peasant's ginseng", is quite undeserved, as its efficacy nearly matches that of ginseng while being significantly gentler in nature, making it highly appropriate as a component of sophisticated formulas requiring ingredients that play well with others.
 
 
==Gingbaklo==
 
Gingbaklo (aka strangling demon's ringlet) is a slender parasitic red-pigmented vine native to the Strand which climbs other plants and takes nutrition directly from them via a haustorium. The gingbaklo resembles a pile of light yellow to orange-red thready straw or stiff yarn wrapped tightly around its host plant. It is mostly stem; the leaves are reduced to minute rudimentary scales on the stem's surface. In early summer it bears clusters of tiny yellowish bell-shaped flowers with five pointed triangular lobes which are only about one-third of a cùn wide. The gingbaklo reproduces by seed, with each plant capable of producing over 10,000 seeds at once. The seeds have a hard coating, and can survive in the soil for 5–10 years or more.
 
 
Gingbaklo seeds sprout at or near the surface of the soil. While gingbaklo germination can occur without a host, it has to reach a green plant quickly; gingbaklo grows toward the smell of nearby plants. If a plant is not reached within 5 to 10 days of germination, the gingbaklo seedling will die.
 
 
After a gingbaklo attaches itself to a plant, it wraps itself around it. If the host contains food beneficial to gingbaklo, the gingbaklo produces haustoria that insert themselves into the vascular system of the host. The original root of the gingbaklo in the soil then dies. The gingbaklo can grow more or less continuously and attach itself to multiple plants, and may reach high into the canopy. Gingbaklo is parasitic on a very wide variety of plants, including a number of important crops, most notably tomatoes and soybeans.
 
 
Most kingdoms have laws prohibiting import of gingbaklo seed, but enforcement varies considerably. When dealing with an infested area, swift action is necessary. Recommendations include planting a non-host plant such as sorghum or teff for several years after the infestation, and pulling up host crops immediately, particularly before the gingbaklo produces seed. If gingbaklo is found before it chokes a host plant, it may be simply removed from the soil. If choking has begun, the host plant must be pruned significantly lower than the gingbaklo, as gingbaklo is versatile and can grow back from haustoria if present.
 
 
Despite harsh potential criminal penalties, gingbaklo seed is a commonly smuggled item, as its value to herbalists is tremendous. The list of classic formulas that require or are strongly enhanced by gingbaklo seed is seemingly endless. It is one of the most versatile ingredients in the repertoire, having value in sedatives, stimulants, tranquilizers, restoratives, antivenins, purgatives, prophylactics, and some say even lifespan extension.
 
 
==Gotkotha==
 
Gotkotha (aka Ghost Celery) is a tall biennial herb native to temperate and subarctic regions of the northern empire, reaching as far north as the Wall. They grow to one to two zhàng tall, with large globular compound umbels of small, numerous, yellowish-white or greenish-white flowers. During its first year it only grows leaves, but during its second year its fluted stem can reach a height of two zhàng. Its large leaves are composed of numerous small serrated leaflets, divided into three principal groups, each of which is subdivided into three secondary groups, each one of which is again composed of three tertiary subgroups. The flowers, which invariably blossom on Midsummer's Day, bear pale yellow, oblong fruits precisely 90 days later. Gotkotha only grows in damp soil, principally near rivers or other open water.
 
 
Gotkotha has been grown as a vegetable and medicinal plant for approximately a thousand years. Legend has it that the first to discover its medicinal properties was the Herbalist Emperor Lo Wen.
 
 
A flute-like instrument with a clarinet-like sound can be made of its hollow stem.
 
 
It is reported that northern barbarians use gotkotha to flavor reindeer milk. Civilized people use its intriguing aroma, reminiscent of a blend of musk and juniper, to flavor liqueurs or distilled spirits, omelettes and trout, and as jam. Even the roots are fragrant, but the seeds are the most prized for their most delicate aroma.
 
 
Gotkotha roots are nutritious and toothsome if unprepossessing in appearance, but crystallized strips of young gotkotha stems and midribs are bright green in color and are sold as distinctive and savory cake decoration and may also be enjoyed on their own. The tender new leaves are eaten as tempura in spring festivals in the Qin Chao Steppes.
 
 
Chewing on gotkotha stems or drinking tea brewed from them will have an anesthetic effect, but will also temporarily strengthen resistance to infectious disease. Dried gotkotha leaves can be used as a potent incense, but moderation is advised, as inhaled dosages can be hard to control and gotkotha is prone to yang-biased imbalance. Gotkotha roots are naturally not as yin-deficient as the rest of the plant, and as such have the greatest all-round medicinal utility of any part of the plant.
 
 
In cultivation, gotkotha is susceptible to the larvae of lime-speckled gray moths.
 
 
==Turmeric==
 
Turmeric is a perennial herb with creeping rootstalks. It is indigenous to the Strand and needs hot climate and substantial rain to flourish. It is collected yearly for its creeping rootstalks, most of which are used, while the saved rootstocks are replanted for the next year.
 
 
The rootstocks are stewed for many hours and then desiccated in herbalist furnaces, then pulverized into a rich golden powder with broad culinary and dyeing use, although turmeric makes an inadequate cloth dyestuff as it gradually evanesces when exposed to sunlight. As a food coloring agent, however, it is ideal. It has a distinct earthy, slightly acrid, slightly piquant flavor.
 
 
The city of Twelve Culverts is the world's most prominent source and most significant market for turmeric. As a result Twelve Culverts is also called "Xanthous City" or "Suffusion of Yellow".
 
  
 
[[Category:Herbalism]]
 
[[Category:Herbalism]]

Latest revision as of 13:59, 27 June 2011

Khav Root

When you chew it, it gives you +15 hit points until unconsciousness or sleep.

Sapora Oil

Strong soporific.


Snake Oil

  • 1 drop: Strong aspirin
  • 2 drops: Sleep
  • 3 drops: Deadly