Rastenivitsya

Of all the curses I keep within my pages, the most difficult to define is what some Folk dubbed Floration, or Virenification but others defined in Slavic terms as Rastenivitsya. Called the wrath of the Fae, Rastenivitsya (or plant-becoming) as a process is straightforward enough to denote:

Those struck by Finnegan's darts transmogrify over time into plants, usually extinct trees or flora covered in bark.

A slow and degrading metamorphosis awaits all who are infected with Rastenivitsya, a process which was undergone more readily during the Mystic War, when Finnegan became a torrent upon the fields of battle. When the mighty Fae Lord gave not one, nor two fucks about any but his precious flora and doffed this curse with wild and threatening abandon. Those infected with Finnegan's rage became walking testaments to his dominion, to his cruelty. Often rejected by their home people, or slain in acts of 'mercy', those who held out waited a cruel and painful process of stillness by degrees. To lose their functions, their autonomy in minuscule proportions until their consciousness was trapped within their new encasement to await what fate they would meet and eventually topple. Two deaths, and only the slight promise the Fae would take pity enough upon them to train those whose consciousness and spirits were not broken ragged into dissonant insanity, to one day exit their prison and become Fae. In recent decades, Finnegan seemed to repent the wanton use of his cursed darts to the point there has not been a newly florated folk in eighty years.

Transmission & Vectors

Contact with a powerful and primordial Fae, whether through usual physical contact or an outright attack, where a thorn is jettisoned into the flesh.

Causes

Finnegan's ire.

Symptoms

Bark grows from wounds instead of scabs.
A slow metamorphosis into flora.

Treatment

Not even death relieves Floration, for in death the curse is expedited.

Prognosis

After floration, the being receives a slight grace period, where the seed begins to germinate within their bodies. DNA mutates over time, each renewing of cells around the epidermis, especially through the entry point of the infection. Once embedded and enough growth occurs, every knick, every gash or cut furthers the condition, bark heals over like a scab. Eventually, the Floration process descends from the bark of the epidermis to infiltrate other bodily organs, until the infected becomes the fertilizer for the flora they will inevitably become. Upon death, once planted in the ground, the florated individual grows and the fauna retreats, nutrients utilized in the unnatural growth of the offspring.

Sequela

The growth of bark & loss of motor function over time.

Affected Groups

Fauna.

Hosts & Carriers

Tuija Draganova
Is it macabre to say 'multiple sacred groves'?

Prevention

Don't get attacked by Finnegan. This is the only necessary prevention. The Bogatyrs were particularly effected by Finnegan, due to their 'burn everything' approach to horticulture.

Epidemiology

Floration is an attack. A punishment on the fauna for the destruction of plant life during the Mystic War. Although it would be easy to call floration a war time necessity, it would also be redactionist. Finnegan cursed fauna with floration far before the Mystic War, and after its passing into the The Mystic Truce.

History

It is a rule of nature that all species which live must evolve or die out. In the botanical world, and with flora this examined truth is held as firm as with the species of fauna upon the facets of the myriad Realms. Yet, as fauna tend to die in anything but quiet, flora trend toward a much less... physically visceral dying. Fauna cannot see the plant life of the Realms in their suffering, cannot hear the agonies of a tree being cut down. Wood burned or turned into various other things (like pages in books made of cellulose instead of vellum). Yet, there is a being who hears their passing. Finnegan was not always a jovial party host thrusting through throngs of folk for hedonistic and wild fun. The reality of floration and the myth the Fae speak are not as far removed as some would posit, but their story goes like this: Out of all the Fae, Finnegan alone tricked the Green Man into releasing his magic of instilling the seed of flora which is and was into animal hosts.

Cultural Reception

Fae

Righteous, near sacred retribution and regrowth. Each being infected with floration is a chance to celebrate the return of an extinct species of flora. While the Fae do not often trust those in mid-floration, once the process is complete and the being becomes the plant of Finnegan's choosing, the Fae take on the responsibility of training them in the proper way of sapient plant life. Although some florated do eventually become part of Fae Court, they never attain the same belonging or status as a true sprouted Fae. The mark of their traitorous animal past still lies upon them.

Other Realms

The reception to the florated is a mixed affair of shame and distrust. Most Realms cast out the florated in an attempt to halt the unintentional espionage which they fear might take place. Can a florated person be trusted not to begin affiliation with the Fae they will one day become? It is a cruel practice, the view of most Realms to separate from the eventual dead. During the war, many Realms slayed their florated out of perceived mercy. Others ostracized and shunned them. Still others were wary of the florated. Kept to the fringes of the Realms, in places where they could be monitored and prodded. Studied. At least one Realm is known for waiting until the florated becomes a mature flora, before cutting down and torching the roots in a ceremonial second death, using the wood as funerary pyres. It is to write the least... macabre.

The Wrath of the Primordial Fae Lord

Type

Magical

Origin