Black Root Fungus

The most disgusting thing I've ever tasted grows on the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. Black root fungus is some weird kind of fungus that grows commonly on the spice, and it is used as a rite of passage for those in the Cherry Tribe. If you can stomach the fungus, you are officially part of the tribe.

Related Ethnicities

• Cherry Tribe

Execution

Travellers

For travellers, the black root fungus is brought to you on a red plate carved from the mountain rock. You will be invited to a long table in the town hall building, and seated on one end with everybody else eating at the other end. You must eat first, and the first thing you eat is the fungus itself. If you can deal with peer-pressure, then the stares of everybody at the table as you eat won't bother you. If you successfully eat the fungus and open your mouth to prove it, there will be cheers all around and the actual dinner will be served straight after. If you cannot successfully eat the fungus, you are picked up and thrown straight out of the building, and forced out of the village immediately, told to never come back.

Inhabitants

Existing inhabitants of the village are fed the fungus in a slightly different way. Once they hit 10 years old, they are brought the fungus on a red plate by their parents or an authority figure, and are encouraged to eat it. If they can eat it, they are welcomed as a tribesperson, but if they cannot eat it they have another shot at it the next week. If they cannot eat it then, they are taken to an outer part of the village where all of the people who couldn't eat the fungus went. This place has a population of 34, ranging in ages from 12 to 94.