Psybloom Species in The Dragonstar Sagas | World Anvil
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Psybloom

These beautiful and fragrant flowers are a common sight atop The Ironfang Mountains at the highest elevations. Pysblooms are perfect, complete flowers with a stamen, pistil, petals, and sepals. A Psybloom plant creates an inflorescence of florets, up to a dozen flowers per plant.  

Nutritional Powerhouse

Psybloom seeds are very important to the mountain ecosystem. The Psybloom's seed is a super food and the preferred diet of the Snow Wren. The pair have a symbiotic relationship with the small birds spreading the plants' seeds and helping with germination. Superstition holds that the Snow Wrens favorite snack powers the magic behind its Sunrise Song of Healing.   The seeds can be crushed to create a high-quality oil. The remaining oilseed meal is protein-rich, high in fiber, and nutrient-dense. The small seed size, inconvenient summit top location, and the inability to grow the plant elsewhere have prevented any commercial use.  

Romantic Implications

Unlike true love, the Psybloom's flower fades quickly after being harvested. Young Dwarves often return from their first expedition, a Summitstrider Hunt, with a few Psyblooms to gift the Dwarven woman they are courting or wish to court. These flowers are often pressed dry and preserved in a keepsake if the young lady reciprocates.  

Mindburst Tea

The psychic powers known as Eternal Insight are only unlocked through drinking a sometimes lethal and often maddening beverage, Mindburst Tea. A power-hungry individual may take the ultimate risk and consume a tea brewed from the Psybloom's flowers. Existential crises abound for the people foolish enough to drink this tea.  
They say it's like living in a world with a broken fourth wall.
— Alikaine Loreweaver on the topic of Mindburst Tea.
  Those who survive the tea and are coherent enough to explain the experience claim to have seen the world around them dissolve into a complex and ever-scrolling infinity of incomprehensible Arcaic. They become lost in a stream of data. These visions of a world run by a complex machine instead of a deity's sleeping mind are considered heretical and insane by most Akirans. The Oracle struggles against a terrible malaise brought on by his experiences after drinking Mindburst Tea. He almost never leaves his home, The Shrine of Insight.   One-trip only - Once the mind has perceived a reality beyond The Dream, the door to Eternal Insight is unlocked. The experience cannot be duplicated - consuming the tea a second time does nothing. The tea is not an addictive substance.    
    Want to learn more about Eternal Insight and The Oracle? Check out the related articles:


Cover image: Psybloom by Midjourney

Comments

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Jul 12, 2023 12:36 by Marc Zipper

Wow that's a very scary drink that this plant can make very interesting and also love the fact that the drawers using it as a sign of the love

Let's have fun creating the impossible, building new worlds, and all types of possibilities. Valcin
Jul 12, 2023 15:04 by Melissa

Thanks! The Eternal Insight is a pretty powerful set of abilities but I don't think I would risk it. Who knew Dwarves were such romantics?

Aug 15, 2023 01:37 by Deleyna Marr

I love that it only works once.

Deleyna
Aug 15, 2023 21:46 by Melissa

Thanks, Deleyna! I decided that because the effects are permanent, so there's no need to drink it again. Mostly, I didn't want the Oracle hooked on the stuff. He's got enough problems. :)

Aug 18, 2023 19:37 by Deleyna Marr

How kind you are!

Deleyna