Fireshroom

Fireshrooms are in my humble opinion the most important resource of this time. It finally enabled us to find a way to improve progress without the use of Falls, of which the Humans of Niorath have a far too small amount. It is what made the start of the industrial revolution efficient. Imagine the amount of forest we would have to burn down otherwise.

— Savas Keleris

Once they were only used as a resource to create fire by the Dwarfs. In their underground realms they had little available wood and the fireshrooms were a nice alternative. Now the fireshrooms are used to fuel the fires of the industrial revolution, giving the less magical inclined races an edge once more.

Properties

Fiery mushroom

The fireshroom got its name mainly because it can be used as fuel for fires. But it also has a fiery look thanks to its red and yellow color scheme mimicking the flames of a fire. When growing it often starts from a single stalk but rapidly expands into several different ones.
Besides the color it has another relation with fire since some of them can be hot to touch. The younger fireshrooms or dead/harvested ones don't have this characteristic. For this reason gathering the mushroom requires a pair of well protecting gloves.
When ingested in large amount it causes burns inside the victim even when the fireshroom was safe to touch. This has, however, not stopped Dwarfs from using it in a very small powder form to spice up their food. If used like this the effects are not worse than eating hot soup.

Fireshroom by Brad Messer

Yamaderis misplaced this image by Kefkjaco with heroforge

Growth

On average it takes about 2 weeks for a fireshroom to mature. Once fully grown they start creating spores which are pretty efficient making the fireshroom a fast expanding species.

Location

They perfer soil which is rich in sulfur and are commonly found near volcanic areas. People therefore use these areas as farming grounds. Normally they only grow underground but if given enough care they can be grown above ground under certain circumstances.
Most commonly they are found in the Lower Realms with locations such as the Sulfur Flats being their preferred habitats. Besides those location they are commonly found growing near embercrystal falls, even above ground.

Magical?

Some believe that the fireshrooms are a type of fungi that were influenced by Magicfall. Although this is not certain the fact that these fungi like to grow near embercrystals gives some credibility to these claims.

Origin

Deep Underground

The fireshrooms were first discovered by Dwarfs living in the Lower Realms. At first they tried to see if it could be a foodsource, which did not end well. After seeing the victim's burns they decided to see if they could use it to fuel a fire. Ever since that time the fireshrooms were used to warm the houses of the Dwarfs

Putting a fireshroom in your belly makes you warm for the rest of your life.

— Dwarf saying

Spread

Fireshrooms can be found in the Lower Realms all over Niorath which makes some assume that the Lower Realms of the various continents are connected. To this day that connection has not yet been found. They were most commonly found near places that are abundant with sulfur.
The idea of using fireshrooms spread among the Dwarfs. But they never traded it with surface dwellers since they were more inclined to use wood or charcoal

Yamaderis misplaced this image by Kefkjaco with heroforge

Yamaderis misplaced this image by Kefkjaco with heroforge

Crisis in Pavanor

The Pavan Empire was going through somewhat of a crisis. Not to long ago there was internal strife which led to the disappearance of most casters and besides Divine Crystal Falls, they did not have a large amount of Falls to use.
This was in contrast to the Raitin nation which was going through a rapid technological development thanks to conquest of the Tenari. At first the Pavan Empire tried to keep up by increasing charcoal production but the amount of woods that needed to be cut down was enormous. Fossil fuels were also not present on Niorath and therefore not an option.

A new fuel

All of this changed when the Pavan Empire tried to use fireshrooms which they heard were used as fuel sources by the Dwarfs. It proved to be far more efficient and enabled the Pavan Empire to increase their steel production and roll out steam engines across the nation.
They were able to grow the fireshrooms themselves in underground areas with volcanic activity and nearby sources of sulfur. In Farlis, the nation Terios was the first to follow this trend due to the large underground area known as the Sulfur Flats which proved fantastic for fireshroom growth.