Rage root

Create a plant species that is harvested for use by at least one culture in your world!
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The rage root is harvested in the jungles of the Orc Hegemony. It is then pulped and mixed into a tea which allows the drinker to tap in to their inner rage. While tapping into said rage, the participant is tougher, stronger, and more deadly than their foes. However, some do not have an inner rage strong enough for the root to express, and this results in a deep, empty, despair when drinking rage root. Orcs are proud, and not prone to suicide, but the few orcs who dared to drink the root without proper preparation were found dead the next morning.
The root is the basis for a barbarian's rage, and it is exported all over the world by the orcs.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The root has a bright red appearance, which nestles deep underground and sends a stalk to the surface. This stalk has many sharp needles which inject rage venom into souls unlucky enough to get stuck with a needle. This venom is too concentrated, and will send even the most experienced of barbarians into a blind rage that eats them from the inside. In order to harvest the root, one must pick all of the needles off. Every single one. This is important, because if you attempt to remove the plant from the ground the stalk will actively contort to wrap around your hand/arm and stick you with more needles.

Growth Rate & Stages

The rage root is a relatively fast growing and dying plant, and when it dies the stalk falls, letting the poison drip into the ground and possibly grow a new root.

Ecology and Habitats

The rage root requires incredible amounts of moisture to survive, and sometimes it can even dehydrate itself to death through movement. To this end, it is found in swamps or jungles, but mostly jungles.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The rage root is a decomposer, feeding off of the dead carcasses of animals and insects around their stalk. Unlike many decomposers, it actively hunts it's prey, secreting a sweet nectar and then killing most animals instantly upon arrival with it's poison. The poison, and rage that it induces, causes heart failure in most small animals, causing them to die on the jungle floor right around the rage root. To this end, rage roots are normally found thanks to the litany of decomposing corpses littering the jungle floor around it.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The root itself can be pulped and mixed into a tea. This heavily dilutes the toxins within, allowing the user to tap in to their own inner fire if they have any. 
The poison is contraband in most civilized society, including the Orc Hegemony, but there is a black market for the so called "Red Rage". Some have even combined the poison and pulp to make a drug that has gained some usage in the 9 families.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The rage root has several thousand sensory hairs lining it's stalk between the needles, this lets it know when to contort.

Origin/Ancestry

Southern Jungle

Geographic Distribution

• Western Continent