Sydan Peach

Sydan Peach Trees are a type of fruit tree that primarily grows in southern Makereva.

Growth Location

The trees for these peaches only grow in extremely fertile ground and most often are found on battlefields or in graveyards.

Flavor and Eating Experience

When the peach tree is in bloom the pollen of the trees smells like death or a corpse pile to some while others cannot smell it at all. Once the blooms begin to transform into fruit though the smell goes away.
When ripe the peaches are soft past the skin, and nearly explode with juices when bitten into. They initially taste tangy like copper but the flavor quickly turns cloyingly sweet as the juices are exposed to more oxygen. Their juice is blood red and appears as thick.

Associations, Legends and Rituals

Protection from the Undead

Common folk believe these peaches to protect their towns from the rising of the undead. They believe that if the dead rise while the peach tree has fruit, the dead will feast on the fruit instead of shambling to the nearby town. They associate the initial taste of copper with tasting like blood, luring the undead into biting them, and then soothing them with the sweet taste to remind them of their lives before death.

Use in Celebrations of The Departed

In the areas where the tree grows the peaches are often used in celebrations of death, or at funerals, where it isn't irregular to place the peaches either at the base of a headstone, or even in the coffin of the departed before lowering them into the ground. On more general death-related holidays these peaches are cut in half by children where they place one half on their family shrine, and then eat the other half themselves, sharing a meal with the departed.

Cartographer Society Rituals

The Cartographer's Society uses these peaches in two of their rituals. The first ritual is called The First Parting, and it involves sending a new cartographer on their first solo project as their test to leave apprenticeship. The second ritual is called The Final Parting which is a type of funerary rite.