Renseng

Come walk through these fields of red with me. See the Renseng flowers flow around all of us, spending us their energy, giving us dreams and hope. Come run with me, run through these fields of glowing red petals, while your heart races to the music of our imagination. Run, run, run faster, run for your life, through these fields of red blood, the nightmare behind us, next to us, around us everywhere. Stop!

Wake up.

Please wake up.

Hastily scribbled notes of an unknown elf
After they experienced Renseng Tea for the first and ultimately last time

Renseng, also known as the waking nightmare flower, is a red blooming flower growing in shadowy, marshy places. While it does grow in most parts of the world, it can be found en masse in the Coppania Valley especially. The petals can be used both in powerful sleeping draughts and for a popular tea that has a strong waking effect. The distinct red-purple colored petal is also useable as a coloring material.

The Red Flower

The flower usually grows in large bushels with roots mostly submerged in murky water or within soil having a high liquid content. Its stems reach a height of about 30cm to 45 cm and thus reaches most adults just below their knee. A Renseng stem typically has between two to five big, oval, dark-green leaves with reddish veins through them and ends within the flower head. The flowerhead blooms in the early summer and always has 17 thin petals in bright red. After its bloom is over, the head will develop into an equally purple-red berry carrying many seeds within.

Waking up

The seeds of the Renseng can be dried and roasted in a lengthy process. The resulting roasted seed is customarily grounded up and boiling water is filtered through it to produce the Renseng Tea. This beverage is well known to keep the drinker wide awake and is becoming rather sought after in the noble circles of Ethoressi, Keandra and Baradolia.

Going to sleep

Interestingly, the petals and roots of the flower can be used to the opposite effect. Drying and grounding those and adding them to most alcoholic solutions would create a powerful sleeping draught. A concentration high enough is called the Draught of Waking Sleep which can put a drinker into a deep sleep.

Care is to be taken when creating this draught, however. While heating the mixture speeds up the process of breaking down the solution - and also increases the potency - too much heat will increase the hallucinogenic effect and will increase the danger of permanent mental damage and death - often caused by the simultaneous failure of multiple vital organs.

Releasing the Nightmare

No matter if you use the seeds, petals or roots - too much consumption of Renseng can lead to strong and regular hallucinations, sleep deprivation and nightmare riddled sleep. This effect is strengthened if seeds and petals are consumed at the same time. Once the stronger hallucinations have manifested, only long abstinence can lessen the symptoms. This is further complicated since especially the tea has a slight addictive effect on most users. Orcs are for some reason immune to both the addictive effect as well as the nightmarish hallucinations.

Alternate Name

Nightmare Flower

Type

Flowering Bush

Rarity

Common

Scientific Name

Calis Renexaris

Average Height

30 - 40cm

Further Reading