Poison Apples

"Pick your poison, straight from the vine."

The so-called Poison Apple is one of Everwealth’s most curious horticultural phenomena, a wild, unlikely hybrid between common apple trees and the land's infamous Everwood Trees. Despite its ominous name, the fruit is not toxic, but intoxicating, with each apple naturally fermented to produce the equivalent of two full glasses of potent wine. Its skin is thinner and more fragile than a typical apple’s, but its juice is luxuriously rich, with a flavor profile so smooth it conceals the alcoholic burn entirely. Coveted by vintners, nobles, and warlords alike, the Poison Apple is often picked not for nourishment, but for celebration, ceremony, or subterfuge. Born from dangerous roots, and sweet enough to disguise its bite, this apple has earned its name in irony, and perhaps in warning.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Poison Apple trees stand somewhat shorter than most orchard trees, their gnarled trunks retaining the amber-hued bark of their Everwood lineage. The leaves, while shaped like a common apple’s, bear a subtle gold sheen and the Everwood's infamously flammable sap-like coating. The apples themselves are round, slightly flattened, and dappled with faint golden freckles. Their skins are soft and easily bruised, but beneath lies a syrupy, deep-crimson flesh that shimmers faintly when freshly picked. The juice within is naturally fermented, sweet, heady, and potent enough to intoxicate heavily.

Genetics and Reproduction

This hybrid tree is a rare success among wild cross-pollinations, only occurring naturally in remote groves where Everwood and apple trees coexist. The Poison Apple retains the apple tree’s capacity for seed-based propagation, though its offspring are highly unstable, only about one in twenty saplings matures into a true Poison Apple tree. The others revert to lesser variants or sterile fruit-bearers. Grafting is the only reliable method of cultivation.

Growth Rate & Stages

• Sapling Stage: Takes root quickly, reaching shoulder-height in two years.

• Adolescence: Begins fruiting in its fifth year, with small, sour-tasting apples.

• Mature Stage: Produces full-bodied, intoxicating fruit by year eight and continues bearing for centuries if undisturbed.

Ecology and Habitats

Poison Apple trees are found in areas where wild Everwood groves brush the edges of abandoned orchards, old farmland, or crumbled wine estates. They seem to prefer the liminal zones between cultivated land and untamed forest, taking root in places both fertile and forgotten. Most notably, they flourish in the Rookshade Vale, near The Woodswatch Mountains where they were first discovered, a sun-dappled basin where the soil is rich in alchemical runoff from ancient ruins. There, groves of Poison Apples grow naturally, watched over by vintner clans and fiercely guarded by territorial homesteaders. Attempts to plant them in artificial settings often fail, as they share Everwood’s refusal to grow where they are unwelcome; But they are found sparcely in areas such as Woodsend's orchards or the fields of Axebreak, though even-still tightly regulated to few acres of land, the dangers of having Everwood trees present to maintain them and the tree's propensity to violently ignite its surroundings considered a, small, problem for close-knit thatch-roofed wooden settlements.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Poison Apples are not grown for sustenance or passing vice, though many do simply take their apple and enjoy it, which is their right. The Poison Apple’s nutritional value matches that of any common apple, thus it is not prioritized as a food staple. Its alcoholic nature also makes it unsuitable for, civilized, children, though it remains a common indulgence among the war-orphaned child gangs of Opulence’s slums. Instead, Poison Apples are primarily served at elite banquets, used in the crafting of rare spirits, and fermented into dark, spicy ciders known for inducing vivid dreams, affectionately called “sweet dreams” for their generally euphoric nature. Certain chefs use thin slices of the fruit in decadent roasts or glaze sauces, while others distill the juice into euphoric tonics sold in illicit alchemy markets. Among wealthier circles, offering a guest a Poison Apple is considered an act of bold mischief or veiled insult, an edible dare. The gesture draws from centuries-old folktales of nobles assassinated by doctored fruits, often served under the guise of rare hospitality. Even today, to present a Poison Apple to a rival of equal standing is considered provocative, if not outright offensive, suggesting one sees their guest as either a fool to be loosened with liquor, or a threat to be eliminated. This duality fuels the fruit’s reputation: equal parts gift and gamble. In less noble hands, its potency has been used to drug enemies, loosen tongues, or mask more insidious poisons, and in more than one case, a Poison Apple has been a poison apple. The question is never what it is, but what it means.

Biological Cycle

The Poison Apple’s fruiting cycle follows a solar-lunar pattern. Blossoms emerge during the spring equinox and bear fruit by late summer, but fermentation only begins under the harvest moon. Apples plucked before this stage are merely tart and flat. Once the fermentation is complete, the fruit glows faintly in moonlight, signaling peak ripeness. Overripened fruit becomes cloyingly sweet and can induce hallucinations or nausea in large doses. They rot slowly, lasting nearly three months in cool storage, a prized trait for caravan merchants and smugglers alike.

Behaviour

While not sentient, Poison Apple trees display unusual behavior. They twist toward moonlight rather than sun, their bark shivering slightly on cold nights. Their fruit ripens in synchrony, seemingly ‘aware’ of the lunar cycle. Some farmers claim the trees moan faintly in strong wind, a low wooden groan that smells of sapwine and smoke. Folktales speak of trees that only grow near places where secrets were buried or oaths were broken. Some even claim they thrive on forbidden soil, thrice-cursed graveyards, duel sites, or the ruins of burnt churches.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Like, almost, all flora on Everwealth, Poison Apple trees do not possess awareness, but they exhibit a strange alignment with emotional and atmospheric energy. Trees planted in cheerful, well-loved soil tend to die, while those in haunted, grief-soaked places grow tall and fruitful.

Scientific Name

Malum venenum viniferus.

Origin/Ancestry

A natural hybrid believed to have originated after The Fall, Everwood forests and abandoned orchards bled into each other. Some think it was born of accident. Others believe it was deliberatea forgotten vintner’s prayer to create a fruit that defied rot.

Conservation Status

Scarce and intentionally unspread. Farmers and alchemists alike guard their Poison Apple groves fiercely, and the fruit remains a high-value black-market good. Cultivation is discouraged near towns due to the potential for wildfire from old, dormant Everwood root-sap lingering in the bark. Yet, for all its risk, the reward is intoxicating, literally.