Querisca Blooms

The gods must be smiling down on me today!

I managed to gain a sample of querisca blooms from the Siquera Marshlands - though my conquest was not without risk (notes on the Siquera do not do it’s dangers justice). Hopefully these blooms will provide a much needed insight on how to survive the Siquera, even if they only reveal a temporary measure of protection.

Trystan Lawrie,
Journal Entry #1

A rather unusual plant species that makes its home in the Siquera Marshlands. With the exception of the skulwood trees, querisca blooms are the only living things in the otherwise inhospitable region.

Querisca blooms are a type of flower. They have two large outer petals which are pale purple in colour, five inner petals that are slightly smaller and take on a darker hue of purple, and a bright green (almost fluorescent) stem. At full bloom, the head of the flower is around 2 to 2.5 inches wide. From the bottom of the stem to the very top of the flower, a querisca bloom can grow to be 12 - 14 inches tall.

They grow in clusters around water sources, making them a common sight around the overflowing ponds of the Siquera, and where there are high concentrations of arcane essence. Clusters of querisca blooms can stretch across an area of 50 or so feet.

Something quite peculiar is happening to a few of the blooms I picked. It has only been twelve hours since my return from the Siquera, yet these blooms seem to be... wilting? Or going through a process akin to that.

The flower petals - the central ones, usually a very dark purple - are secreting a green liquid and the colour of the petals appears to have dulled in the hours since their removal. It is difficult to tell whether or not this behaviour is normal, considering we are as yet unable to observe the blooms in their natural habitat.

Trystan Lawrie,
Journal Entry #2

The blooms thrive under the environment of dense rift essence. Where any other creature in the area would be killed by the sheer amount of rift essence warping around them, the blooms actually absorb it. To them, the excess rift essence is a free buffet, which likely contributes to the large clusters of blooms growing throughout the Siquera.

Whilst they are able to absorb other types of arcane essence, over generations they have grown accustomed to the excess rift essence and are provided greater benefits from this source over the others. Such benefits include larger petals, a significantly greater flower height, and a longer period of blooming. Scholars from the Wildflower branch of the Moonglow Archivists discovered that pulse essence appeared to be the next best source of energy, perhaps due to how similar the two variations of arcane essence are.

25 hours post my departure from the Siquera and the blooms that were secreting that green liquid have since died. More blooms have started to display the same symptoms shortly after the first few.

I have picked up on something though. Every time Riani - our resident lifeblood arcanist enters the room - the central petals stop secreting that liquid. Almost as if they are reacting to Riani. I doubt it’s her personality. Perhaps they are capable of recognising the very arcane essence that she wields and are responding to that?

The questions then, are how and why? Do they feed off of arcane essence? Is that why they can survive the catastrophic levels of rift essence in the Siquera when nothing else can? Time to find another arcanist, I suppose, so I can get to work on testing this theory.

Trystan Lawrie,
Journal Entry #3

Because of the lack of insects or animals within the Siquera, querisca blooms must rely mostly on wind and water for the pollination process. Constant flooding in the Siquera means that, over time, the blooms have adapted to pollination by water to make it viable. There is also evidence to suggest that the rift essence of the Siquera helps with the pollination process by warping pollen from one area to another in order to redistribute it to other clusters of querisca blooms.

Placeholder by SunlanceXIII

Scientific Name

Queriscian Bloomae

Geographic Distribution

• Siquera Marshlands

Uses

• Consumption of the petals acts like a calming agent. It also provides a temporary protection against the rift essence in the Siquera (scholars are currently unsure as to whether that protection extends to other types of arcane essence) - around 10 or so minutes of protection
• Combining the blooms with twincross herbs magnifies the calming effects, but does not prolong the protection afforded by the blooms against rift essence