Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Palmyra's Wail, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Disciples of the Vader, Ashspawn/Reborn.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Longstem Porphyry Tussock (Palmyra), Dream Grass Porphyry, Mind Taint Weed.
Origins: First sprouted near Palmyra's Wail on Tephrike as a result of the fallout.
Other Locations: Limited to Tephrike. The conditions required for its growth are difficult to replicate.
Classification: Tussock grass
Average Growth Cycle: Is an annual. The stems can grow to maturity from the tussock within a month fully. The tussocks are spread by wind or fire borne seeds and take several months to establish in the soil. Once the tussock is established it is very hard to excise as its spread root system anchors it deeply.
Viability: Thrives in semi-arid and arid climates with limited water. Can subsist in sandy soils. Does not like lots of water - overwatering can use wilting as can too much shade. Soil requires some of the thaumaturgical remnants similar to the region of Palmyra to survive.
Description: This plant grows in arid climates. The dense tussock forms a mound which grows the stems of the grass. This tussock is dense and roots itself deep into the soil making removal very difficult. Several dozen stems can grow from a single base. These stems are long and quite flexible, ending in a seeded head with angular spikes. The stems and especially the heads have a strong purple colour - the only real difference from the original species which is found all across Tephrike.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Average Height: Up to 1m, but typically around 50cm.
Average Length: Grows in tussocks up to a metre in diameter.
Color: The flower glumes have a reddish-purple colour.
Nutritional Value: No nutritional value. The stems and flower spines are sharp and have little value for grazing or sentient consumption.
Toxicity: Certain species which eat the raw grass can get severe cramps. The spines and stems can cut unprotected skin and the sap of the grass can cause infections or access to the psychotropic qualities in large amounts.
Other Effects: The grass is psychotropic. Consumption will give people very intense visions...and occasionally in high doses psychosis The plant alters perception, cognition, consciousness and such. It can only affect a living brain's chemicals...which means it has become a valuable commodity for Ashspawn to trade since they cannot be affected. Despite the risks it is very attractive for seers, mystics...or simply people who want to experience an incredibly intense rush.
Distinctions: The plant is gathered and pulped and the combined sap and leaves are blended into a paste which can be eaten or dried and smoked. Fire causes the grass to release seeds which are heat resistant and thus spread.
Strengths:
- The grass is a pyrophyte. As such it relies on fire to spread its seeds. Not only it is very resistant to fire, attempts to eradicate it with fire just intensity its spread.
- Highly psychotropic and psychedelic. Induces powerful, vivid visions in those who consume the plant. The experiences and the resulting rush can be incredibly intense.
- Grows very easily in arid climates.
- Requires the heat of fire, chemical signals from smoke and charred plant matter and such to spread its seeed. The lack thereof can thus obviously halt or slow down its spread. The plants can remain buried in the soil seed bank for a long time until a wildfire awakens them.
- For obvious reasons, they do not thrive in the cold and too much water is bad for it. Soil requires some form of thaumaturgical fallout.
- Consuming the plant in high doses may cause violent psychosis.
- The active ingredients require processing to be useable.
Once the capital of Tephrike, Palmyra fell into ruin during the Gulag Virus. The city was the site of an apocalyptic battle between the Jedi-led, totalitarian Dominion of Light, and the Disciples of the Vader, a human supremacist, genocidal Sith cult that worshipped Vader. It was a brutal battle during which no quarter was given. The loss of life was staggering among civilians and soldiers alike. Both sides systematically shelled entire city blocks, carried out massacres and utilised chemical weapons and various Force-based tools of destruction.
Dominion troops were forced to fall back after the Sith performed a dark ritual to create a huge Deadly Field and later raised countless dead as zombies. Defectors claimed that the Dark Lord had gone mad and was using blood sacrifices to power a ritual that would create a tear in reality, allowing him to open a gateway to the depths of Chaos. It is no longer possible to verify these rumours. Either way, the Dominion had been driven to the brink and was desperate. Thus Jedi General Mahtara was authorised to unleash a terrible nuclear weapon Dominion scientists had built in secret.
When the bomb was dropped, Palmyra ceased to exist. The Sith crusade came to an end, and the surviving Vaderites were forced to retreat. But it was very much a Pyrrhic victory. On paper, it had been a victory for the Dominion. However, it was a Pyrrhic one. Not only had the loss of life been staggering, Palmyra had been turned into a radioactively contaminated hellscape.
The mass deaths had irrevocrably tainted it, turning it into a dark side nexus. The cursed land became known as Palmyra's Wail. Moreover, the dead had been unable to pass on into the cosmic Force. Many lingered on as spirits, being driven increasingly mad. But that was not the end of it, for the dead rose from their mass graves and charnel pits. Some say it was on the third day after the cataclysm. Jedi and Sith, soldiers and civilians - across the hellish ruins of Palmyra, dead sentients rose. A few of them became the Ashspawn, intelligent undead who had retained their sentience. The Dominion of Light created a quarantine zone and erected a fortress after attempts to cleanse the nexus with the power of the light failed. The Ashspawn were not the only life forms that came into being as a result of the cataclysm.
Soon the Dominion guardians noticed a new species of plant that had sprouted near Palmyra. It was eventually nicknamed the Mind Taint Weed or the Dream Grass Porphyry, though scientists called it the Longstem Porphyry Tussock. The Mind Taint Weed possessed very powerful psychotrophic properties. It could grant those who consumed it intense, potent visions of the past, present and future...though sometimes it would induce psychosis. However, the soil required thaumaturgical remnants similar to the region of Palmyra to survive.
After experiments the Dominion declared it anathema...though this did not stop certain Jedi from consuming it to 'commune with Ashla'. A severe crackdown was carried out when people started acting...strange. Likewise Vaderites were drawn to it. Militant Vaderites proclaimed that they could hear the voice of the Dark Father when they consumed it. The Ashspawn soon saw a valuable commodity they could sell, but until the Netherworld War their attempts to do so were limited due to Dominion containment. This changed when the events of the Netherworld Crisis threw Palmyra's Wail into chaos.
The Republican Guard sought to eradicate the grass after wresting control of the fortress from the Dominion. The anti-Force rebels regarded it as tainted and cursed. So they set the fields aflame...which only intensified its spread. At the same time Ashspawn would set up trading networks to trade the grass or use it as currency on the black market, so there was no risk of temptation for them.
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