Mes

Mes is the common Útelic name for a kind of vine native to the southwestern Ela'k Forest and northwestern Jarrak Forest along the edge of the Vúrakesen Mountains in western Dragonía, though nowadays it has been introduced by Útels to most of Ela'k Forest like many of their other crops.

Basic Information

Biological Cycle

Mes is among the first plants to bloom each year in Ela'k Forest, and Útels -particularly those belonging to leh-naa, the healers' caste- thus consider the appearance of the dark blue flowers mark the beginning of spring. The small, pink or magenta fruits are ripe during autumn.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Medicinal

The Alalaríans, ancestors of the Útels, considered the plant to be a gift from the nature spirits due to its powerful medicinal properties, and while this belief has since become obscure among the Útels as ancestor worship has supplanted animism for the most part, mes continues to be esteemed among their healers. While the leaves are sometimes used to make tea to cure certain aches, the roots are most important: dried mes root mixed with honey is used to make poultices to alleviate pain, while the use of fresh, sliced roots is limited to those with grievous or mortal wounds.
The reason for this is that the latter method, while highly effective, is also extremely likely to cause addiction to it.

Other

There are also certain cultivars of mes grown as ornamental plants in gardens, while the fruits are rarely eaten by the Útels nowadays, due to their association with spirit worship, though it's not nearly as taboo as eating aned'ber flower bulbs; Alalaríans and early Útels offered them cakes made from the fruits and the juice as libations to the ancestors.
The latter practice has long since been supplanted by the use of almond milk, wine and honey, while members of yþrú-naa -the shamans' caste of old- in the countries of Malónat and Kanot continued offering mes cakes to the spirits until their role was changed into that of húal-naa, the northern merchants' caste, and still do so in Kaiqonon.

Average Intelligence

About as smart as a variegated-leaf hardy kiwi.

Mes root by Lappalingur

Origin/Ancestry

Northern Vúrakesen foothills

Average Height

3-4 meters