Possible Plant Lore?

So - New here, Hi! (Some people have already met me in chat, but I figure not everyone goes there). I saw that flora are fairly lacking in the bestiary, outside of, well, blood vines and stone carpet moss. I've been thinking about this for the last day or two, and while I don't have specific examples for everything yet, I did come up with some stuff? - Note, my RPC is an alchemist which prompted me looking into what he could work with.








Medicinal herbs, or plantlife that can be used for medicines, poisons, antidotes. These are beyond the standard "Can I eat it, without dying?" classifications, and require some level of herbology, alchemy, or wilderness survival to recognize and utilize as a resource. General categories:

Neutral:
Plants that on their own, have no effect on a living individual. These can be used as a base for potions, salves, tonics and the like, as they generally carry no properties of their own, but will take on properties of things that they are mixed with - as a filler substance.
-Sub Category:
Some plants listed as neutral also refer to plants that can be either Beneficial or Aggressive, depending on the dosage involved, and other ingredients.

Beneficial:
Plants that fall in this category are generally recognized as having some kind of healing or positive effect on someone who takes the plant in. These do however, require a skilled hand to prepare, but generally will not harm one unless horribly mishandled. These are used to make stimulants, light sedatives, anaesthetics, antidotes, and the like. These plants also include the type that have positive effects on the environment – biochemical reactions that can give light for example, have soothing properties,

Aggressive:
Plants in this category are used to affect the world around the user more so than the user themselves. This is because their impact is generally negative in some way, or otherwise aggressive, not strictly beneficial. Poisons are the most obvious selection – but plants that have powerful narcotics would also fall in this category, as well as plants that contain hallucinogenic properties, powerful sedatives, and plants that when combined properly have acidic, basic, or explosive properties. Plants in this category require care in handling, as only a select few can be used in medicine, and the majority are more likely to be seen as dangerous – improper care can harm even the person utilizing Aggressive plants in a concoction.

Tier 0:
Plants in any of the categories at this level can be obtained without much hassle – albeit plants classified as 'Aggressive' might draw some concern and a visit from local constabulary if they are made aware. Neutral and Beneficial plants of this tier are used in common remedies, and feasibly could be grown in most gardens without special care.

Above this level require effort to get (Actually have to get them in a thread? Not sure how this would work.)

Tier 1:
This is when things begin to get interesting in herbology and related fields. Plants that are labeled as T1 have actually taken on, in general, some kind of magical property. The magic is generally mild, and are most often seen as a cousin to a T0 plant – that is, they have the same, or similar, effects to a completely mundane plant, and can usually be recognized as related to a normal plant. Their results in a mixture of any kind though, are an order of magnitude more pronounced than normal plants. Not only are the plants themselves mildly magical, but the process of using them to make something also requires at least some connection to the Tap – a magical presence is required in the crafter in order to draw the full potential out of these plants, otherwise they give only mildly improved results compared to the norm. If cultivation is attempted outside of their natural environment, a magical tender is required.

Tier 2:
When looking at plants on this level, there is an immediate difference to be seen between those that are easier to find and these. That is, that they are regionally specific, and require more hospitable climes to grow. These plants are typically seen growing in harsher environs, and are almost entirely magical in some regard – and if a relation to a normal plant can be seen, it is superficial at best. Advanced training or experimentation is require to know the full effects of plants at this level, and even then that knowledge is usually kept to alchemists or herbalists who live in that region. Care is required in handling these plants – they are quite magical, and often volatile in some regards, even Beneficial plants can be dangerous if handled improperly. Cultivation of plants of this level outside of their natural environment require careful environmental controls, usually best achieved with magic, and an active magical influx – a source of magic being constantly exerted somewhere nearby that they can draw on. These plants will wither and die if grown without magic to feed off of, in addition to their other nutritional requirements.

Tier 3:
CAUTION. Plants at this level are actively magical, often possessing magical defenses against harvesting or utilization. Be prepared before attempting to gather ingredients of this tier. Tier 3 plants are additionally secrets – only known in specific regions, often mythological, and require great skill and determination to even reach. These plants often have potent magical properties, and can be considered as highly valuable resources. Usually only seen in remote, extremely harsh environs, they can give staggering benefits if properly prepared – but even their methods of preparation are kept secret, as many of these plants could be seen as worth their weight in gold. Cultivation of plants of Tier 3 is almost impossible outside of the exacting conditions that they originate in, and should only be undertaken by skilled magical herbalists or alchemists who are prepared for what they are getting into.

Tier 3.5/Tier 4/Tier EX:
Plants of this level are myths, legends. Unique existences in and of themselves, they are dismissed by even most masters as non-existent, or extinct. Highly magical, possessing impossible properties – finding even a piece of one of these plants is a cause for excitement – and for extreme caution, because others will be trying to find out what you know, and how you found what you did. Cultivation: Hah.hahaha.No. Whatever circumstances went into the growth of a Unique level plant, you are not going to mimic it unless you have somehow come across an ancient formula for growing it – and even then, that might (will) not work, unless you are extremely lucky. Cherish what you have, and be prepared.



I'd be happy for any feed back, or if people can think up examples that fit one of these!

I will have a proper read of this later, Nevin, during my uni. But it looks really good so far.

This is beautiful!

I would probably say, based off my current understanding of the system, that up to Tier 3 plants could be buyable, but it would cost a lot of gp. Considering that there are "legendary" items like adamantine that cannot be bought because of both strength and status as a sort of historic myth, Tiers 3.5 and on would be needed for quests.

That makes sense, as I do know about the bazaar at least somewhat roughly. This was regarding on how to get the plants without needing to purchase them, but having them be available for bazaar purchase as well would work too. Not sure how stuff gets put in there and what the regards are in that in terms of "You can buy this, or you can go on a quest for it".

If the material (like dragonscale for example) is extremely powerful and game breaking, you have to get a dragonscale coat as a spoil or get a hunk of dragonscale as a spoil and pay $$$ for the coat be made in the bazaar. For example, to get a sword made of adamantine you have to get the adamantine to make a sword or just find an adamantine sword.

We could get some names going for the different tiers and things. I do like the way you define the differences between them, such as the magical properties. You have a good steady process, on something that has not really been touched on as far as the bazaar or anything has gone. Certainly I would like to see these be developed further as part of proper Althanas herbology.

Seperating them out into netural etc is really good. So you could have a neutral Teir 2, that is a hard plant to keep but is just at its core a pretty flower. You certainly have put a lot of work into this and it would be good to develop some examples of all of these perhaps. Maybe some quests with Nevin to go and discover the darker ones. A place to start would be the Red Forest where there are a number of dangerous plants already in the lore. Because of the state of the Red Forest these can be extremely volatile and dangerous, so would look to fit into your "Aggressive" catagories. I really look forward to seeing the work you do with this.

Yeah - one plan I have is for myself, and other Alchemist/Herbalist/Plant Users to find plants during threads in natural environments and add them to the categories, building them up. When I have time I plan on making some examples for each of the tiers and categories as they stand to start with, along with what those plants could be used for. This would probably work best for plants up to Tier 2 - Tiers 0 and 1 are common enough that they've been seen before, but regional stuff is a bit harder to find so not as well known. Tier 3 and Tier 4 basically don't exist unless they're found in threads for now, I think to start.

Hey Nevin, I was thinking the same thing! I don't know what plants exist in the bestiary, but it might be interesting to do forays into the wild and discover new plants.