Glassthistle, Nehket Ashu|Gift of the Mirage or Tharz-Grak|Mind-Shatter
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Glassthistle grows in wide, low clumps, each plant forming a radial cluster of translucent, needle-fringed lobes that glisten like frosted glass in sunlight. Each lobe is covered in fine, reflective barbs, which shimmer like crystal at dawn or dusk.
Despite its cactus-like structure, it stores little water. Instead, its hollow, crystal-veined interior holds a faintly opalescent gel—a slow-moving sap known for inducing mild hallucinations, enhanced color perception, and dreamlike trance states.
Its bloom is rare: once every four to five years, a single ghost-white flower erupts from the center of the cluster during the hottest weeks of the year, attracting wind-crawling beetles that spread its dust-fine seeds across the dunes.
Biological Traits
- Northern Strain (Zolan) – More reflective and slower-growing; used in divination, sensory meditation, and sun rites
- Southern Strain (Durrozhonth) – Thornier, with sharper sap potency, used for warrior trials and bone-mind trances
Gendered traits do not apply, but certain blooms have been labeled "Starflowers" and considered especially potent or prophetic.
Genetics and Reproduction
The Glassthistle reproduces via spore-seeds, carried on the wind during its rare bloom. It requires extreme temperature shifts and solar reflection off sand-rich stone to grow. Seedlings appear as small crystal bulbs with only minor barbing.
Growth Rate & Stages
Mature plants can live up to 30 years, growing wider with age but rarely taller than half a meter. They grow in scattered clusters, often separated by dozens of meters, creating “mirage rings” that confuse unwary travelers.
Ecology and Habitats
While few animals consume it, some insects and lizards nest in its shadow or shelter beneath its crystalline lobes. It reflects sunlight in unpredictable patterns, helping to create the optical mirages that give the Gleaming Wastes their name.
Its thorns are too sharp for most grazing beasts, but Zolan sand-rats and a few species of Durrozhonth fire-wasps feed on its sap during dry spells, entering brief trance-like states.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Though a plant, the Glassthistle is partially chemotrophic, drawing minerals from the surrounding silica-rich sands and heat-activated fungi in the soil. Its roots form crystalline sheaths around rock deposits and are known to tap into buried ley fragments.
Biological Cycle
Glassthistle is dormant during colder months, its surface dull and matte. As temperatures rise, it becomes increasingly translucent, and its sap thickens. In Verdancy, the plant becomes most potent—sap is harvested at dawn using ritual obsidian knives.
During Caelorith and Silvanyx, hallucinogenic effects intensify and can last for hours, even with small doses. In Zola, it is consumed as part of controlled dream rituals. In Durrozhonth, it is chewed raw for vision battles.
Behaviour
Its barbs are capable of embedding in flesh, causing delayed pain and mild disorientation. The cactus hums under wind pressure, especially at night. Durrozhonth tribes believe these hums are the voices of spirits guiding the living.
When broken, the plant emits a shriek-like hiss, releasing a vapor that can momentarily blur vision or cause desert travelers to hallucinate shapes or faces in the dunes.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
In Zola, Glassthistle is sacred to the Temple of Second Light, used during sun-dream ceremonies to allow high priestesses to “walk the skies before judgment.” Only women may handle the mature bloom without being ritually cleansed.
In Durrozhonth, it is chewed raw or turned into war smoke, inhaled before blood duels, leadership trials, or underworld rites. Survivors of a full trance trial are permitted to tattoo the plant’s spiral bloom on their shoulders.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Found exclusively in the Gleaming Wastes along the eastern Zolan dunes and western Durrozhonth basin, particularly near mirrored stone outcrops or ruined sandstone arches. Both nations treat the Glassthistle zone as no-man’s-land—sacred, dangerous, and not to be owned.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The plant reacts to sound and vibration, curling slightly when approached by heavy footfalls or drumming. Its sap glows faintly under moonlight, especially under Velas, and intensifies in potency when harvested during desert storms or lunar eclipses.
When burned or crushed, the thistle gives off a sharp, bitter smoke said to “hum” faintly to the attuned ear. Durrozhonth warriors claim the sound mimics the speech of lost ancestors.
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