Mistflowers
An addition for the Whimsical Flora Codex (based on my Crunalan society in my Dragon Empire setting)
Always shrouded in mist before cultivated, each Mistflower is, or rather turns out to be, unique. It is a species native to the Ckatlon Steppes. The only vast clump of it grows next to the Ctofalir (Ground of Truce). It plays a heavy role in the reproduction of the Swallow-tailed Butterflies, which have two long filaments extending out from the gap between its bottom pair of wings (hence its name). Besides their unusual appearance, the Swallow-tailed Butterfly is distinguished by the fact that their size is proportional to their ages. The largest observed in size so far was about that of a medium sized canine. When close to death, a male and a female of the Swallow-tailed Butterflies would travel to the Mist Flower clumps to dance. At the conclusion of this dance, they come together and shatter into myriad pieces of baby Swallow-tailed butterflies. The sight is so enchanting that many Crunalans newly-weds and would be couples travel to the Ctofalir during the breeding season of these butterflies to watch this spectacle<
The Crunalans cultivate the Mistflowers for one purpose only: to present to their brides upon marriage. The Mistflower is a symbol of a couple's mutual affection- it would never wither unless their love dies. When a particular flower is cultivated by the groom, it would continue to be shrouded by mist until brought back and to the bride. Once in the hands of the bride, the mist will clear rapidly and a unique bloom to any other Mistflower would be found in the hand of the bride. According to their lore, this aspect of the flower corresponds to the fact that each Crunalan woman will bring unique joy to the household, in her own way. In some cases, the Mistflower will rapidly wither in the hands of the bribe and then the marriage would be officially annulled, which is considered bad luck for both the groom and the bribe and their associated families. If no such mishaps happens, the Mistflower brought back is planted in the front of the wife's ger (tent). The continuation of the marriage itself is thereafter tied to its continuing to bloom.
What no Crunalan knows is that the Mistflowers take nourishment from no conventional source but rather the atmosphere of harmony within a *household and positive emotions such as affection. In fact, its actual blooming requires on such sustenance. Contrary to Crunalan lore, the Mistflower actually blooms right in the hands of the bribe (having fed on the mutual feelings of the groom and bribe) rather than having already bloomed but having the bloom being obscured by mist until in the hands of the bribe.
*In Crunalan society, each woman has her own ger to live in with her unmarried children. There might be competition among male siblings given that the Crunalan are polygamists but usually not among full-blooded siblings.
Author's notes: some aspects are left out because this's not an actual sub. I'm open to comments though.
A blighter brings his black thumb to the village and all the mistflowers wither and die simultaneously.
A royal demands to see one of these plants, and it blooms as a servant presents it.
An isolated, unloved magician is studying the flora and wants to see it bloom. His current method of using love potions is proving unsuccessful, and sowing chaos throughout town.
A noble who cultivates these in his garden seems to be doing well, is cheery and amiable, but all of his mistflowers abruptly fade. He or his wife might be an impostor.
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? Responses (14)
A misc. question to the Citadelians: can anyone see a lot of sidelinks and odd characters with this sub? I had inadvertently ddled a lot of junk software and I kept seeing them on my submission page and I came wanting to get rid of them but I couldn't. So if they're bothering no one but me, I will ignore them from now on.
I'm seeing stuff like the following:
by SaverAddon' style='background-color: transparent !important; border: none !important; display: inline-block !important; text-indent: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-weight: bold !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important; background-position: initial initial !important; background-repeat: initial initial !important;' target='_self'>marriage
Which in the middle of a sub in multiple places is an unwanted mess, removing it would be most appreciated, and I shall give it a vote and comment after it's been cleaned up.
I dunno if you fixed it or not, but I'm not seeing anything like that. There is a typo here though: spectacle<
I want one of those flowers . Instead of 'bride' you've said 'bribe'.
Oops, thanks for the typo alert Cheka
Very nice from what I can read of it. My screen has a lot of strange crap polluting the page, so it was very tuff to read. Withholding vote until you get this fixed(obviously NOT your fault). Perhaps a general statement on looks, unless you want one flower to be completely different from another.. I think I like this a lot but with the glitch it's hard to tell.........
For the looks, I left it blank because in my mind if you compare different Mistflower pairs, it's like comparing different pairs of people. One set of comparison would have the two quite similar but another set could be completely different.
I cleaned out the junk, but you need to fix your browser -it is corrupted and potentially introducing malware to you - and through the added links - potentially others. Most of the links appeared to be trackers, but they could do worse.
Please fix your browser. You should also virus scan your PC.
Thanks Val. I do have a virus scan installed that apparently does auto scan at 12p.m daily. Maybe I will download Adware and Spydoctor again which were on my old comp and worked quite well. This is a new comp that I bought last year and the company I got it from just installed a single one for me.
I am actually partial to this idea. I think it has some interesting implications.
Very nice idea, I don't see it as useful so ordinarily that would lower my vote But big points for cool factor 4/5
I'm trying something new and thought making the leader of the guild I'm trying for my first victim could have no possible downside. Four criteria and one wild card spot for voting.
Art - Full point - A good idea here, presented with some thought.
Craft - Half Point - Needs minor editing, but overall well-written, clear, concise.
Style - Half Point - It's a bit on the dry side, That might be on purpose, but it doesn't draw me in completely.
Substance - Full Point - I could drop this into my game with little to no trouble.
Extra Mile - Half Point - I actually REALLY like the concept.
3.5 out of 5.0
I'd revote for editing, spicing up the style a bit, and/or a bit more information, common traits, plot hooks, examples of use in play, etc.
Well met, fellow Weaver. You're surely welcome to try your experimentation on me (although I'm not sure the Weavers had sorted out the authority issue, I'm certainly the second most senior member according to time of initiation and I guess the only other contender for temp leader besides me is Val now that both the leader and the only Journeyman Weaver is MIA). Anyway, Weaver biz aside, your 3.5 score is exactly what I would've given myself and I think your criteria-by-criteria fairly on the mark.
As for improving this sub, I have an urge to revise old subs once in a while. But then on the other side, I've got strong wanderlust too. The fact that I made this sub a 500 words already bespoke the fact that this is a semi ‘discarded' idea for me but then if the whim took me, I might come back one day to work on what you term the Craft and Style parts. Meanwhile, I'm trying my hand at writing a novel based on the Crunalan society and is playing with the idea of posting up a sub about the Crunalan society in general. But then I need to be taking stuff out of my Sister of Magul stub (I'm pedantic about how to organise content across different subs) and I've got an idea for the current quest so that will also take a while.
So the short of it for anyone really liking this sub and want to see it improved/expanded is: stay tuned but don't hold your breath for it.
You were the only one to reply to me in my Weaver thread, so I assumed you were da boss. :P