Bāgh-e-Azīm (baːɣ e ʕaˈzˤiːm)
"The botanical needs of the alchemist are many and varied. The Bāgh-e-Azīm permits them to cultivate what they require."
Bāgh-e-Azīm is a vast botanical complex built in the hills of southern Tarshish. Its name translates as "The Great Garden", and it exists to meet the needs of the Alchemists who live and work in the city.
Alchemy is a demanding art that requires that each aspiring alchemist embark on a lifetime of self-discovery. The alchemist is an essential component of every formula they create, and each alchemist must find the ingredients and methods that harmonize with their being. Since these ingredients can be quite esoteric, the alchemists of the Nagarajya established the Bāgh-e-Azīm as a place to propagate them. When Saba was conquered by the Malika, sha gave over the administration of the garden to the Burj Alhikma, and the current governor is Zahir al-Khafa.
An Alchemical Legacy
The Bāgh-e-Azīm is not a public garden. When it was built, the Naga alchemists involved each established a claim within the garden, known as a Haqq-e-Bāgh. These claims are each associated with a private plot inside the Bāgh-e-Azīm, as well as the right to use any of the garden's more specialized facilities. These claims have been passed from master to apprentice ever since the garden was built. There are 72 Haqq-e-Bāgh, and being willed one is an honor a master grants only to their most promising apprentice. Sometimes, a master dies without specifying the disposition of their claim in which case it reverts to the Burj Alhikma to redistribute as they see fit.
What Grows in the Garden
The requirements of alchemical formulae are specific and strange. Sometimes it requires a mundane plant gathered by moonlight, or harvested with a silver blade. Other times, it demands a flower cultivated in complete darkness, or watered with blood, or that has been drawn from the depths of the Dream. Many of the plants in the garden are dangerous to be around, or require unusual conditions to thrive. The garden exists as a place where those conditions can be established and maintained, as well as to protect the plants (and to protect the people of Tarshish from the more dangerous cultivars).
One of the more famous plants raised in the Bāgh-e-Azīm is the Barrah-e-Tsabz, also known as the vegetable lamb. This bizarre tree bears green wooly fruit which resembles a lamb. When it is large enough, the lamb will drop from the tree and begin to amble about the tree. But the Barrah-e-Tsabz is not a plant-eater like the animal it mimics. Its mouth is filled with sharp thorns and it will latch onto any person who comes to close, ripping away flesh and watering the tree with blood. Its woody body is resistant to most weapons, although it will recoil from open flames.
Another of the strange plants in the Bāgh-e-Azīm is the Gul-e-Nawchand, or Night-Blossom. This flower must be grown in complete darkness, and only be under the open sky on the nights of the new moon. The soil in which it grows is regularly infused with bonemeal, and when it does bloom it releases a burst of pollen which can blind anyone it touches. This pollen is extremely useful to alchemists, although the exact applications will vary depending on the practitioner.
From strange barnacle-trees grown in salt-water pools to the mustard berries that turn to watch passersby, each corner of the garden contains something strange and unsettling. The Alchemists are always on the lookout for new plants to add to the collection - one of the more recent additions are the Clotberry Laurels which sprouted in the ruins of Lorbeer, although their need for the blood of torture victims has limited their cultivation.
A Unique Landmark
Throughout the Great Ring, there is no place that has collected so many unusual plants as the Bāgh-e-Azīm. It has cultivars which grow upside-down, or sprout the year before they are planted. Some of the plants there will eat the unwary gardener, while others exist simply to gather fragments of dreams and distill them into hallucinogenic dew. The people of Tarshish are proud of their strange garden, even if few would ever dare enter its confines, and they frequently point it out to visitors before regaling them with tales of the oddities that grow within.
The Insects of the Garden
While most people speak only of the strange plants in the Bāgh-e-Azīm, the insects which live there are just as odd. From moths with arcane symbols on their wings to the mesmerizing mirrorworms, the wildlife of the garden can be just as valuable to the alchemists as the plant products. Skull-Snails have been introduced to the artificial tide pools, and there are seven types of bees that produce arcane honeys, including the honey used to capture and sell slumber in Tarshish's Naga Market. Many of these insects are unique to the Bāgh-e-Azīm, or have been gathered by traveling alchemists for their special properties.
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This article was originally written for Spooktober 2024. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
This article was originally written for Spooktober 2023. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
Thats a wonderful article - and while it is strange and wild and dangerous...I still want to visit.
Sit down, my friend, and let me tell you of Aran'sha . A world where the sands shift and the stars sing, where the wind carries secrets and the twin moons keep silent vigil over it all.
You'd make a wonderful alchemist.
I'd love to be one in the million islands - so many ingredients to discover..
Sit down, my friend, and let me tell you of Aran'sha . A world where the sands shift and the stars sing, where the wind carries secrets and the twin moons keep silent vigil over it all.