Ashimachi: Flora and Fauna
Flora
Ironwood
Aptly named, Ironwood is wood harvested from a tree of the same name with the strength of iron. It must be hewn using spellglass tools, but such tools have become fairly ubiquitous throughout Ashimachi. Endlessly versatile in the context of city life, Ironwood can be seen in everything from tools and hardware to fasteners for clothing, structural supports, sculptures, utensils, and even armor and weaponry.
Notably, it does still burn (albeit quite slowly) and conducts heat poorly, so it's seldom used for applications like cookware except as a last resort. Its only limitation as a natural resource is its extremely long growing time: an Ironwood tree can take upwards of 30 years to grow large enough to carve a stockpot from, for instance.
Merro
A perennial flowering vine that grows on trees, making it extremely favorable to an area as tree-dense as the Ashimachi metropolitan area. Displaying leaves with distinct chevron stripes (alternating pale and dark green) and during blooming season delicate blue flowers with six actinomorphic petals, the Merro produces a plump, starchy vegetable which at harvest time has a smooth, shiny skin. In Earth terms, it resembles a round white eggplant.
Texturally, raw merro is prohibitively dense - more like cassava or yucca - and has a flavor similar to taro or a less-sweet yam. A staple crop of Ashimachi, flour ground from dried merro has a self-leavening effect that occurs all at once (rather than gradually, as with yeast-leavened dough) when exposed to heat and oxygen. This phenomenon led to Merro rolls being nicknamed "Poppers" for the sound they make when they are done baking. It's commonly used to make bread and noodles. Miller's Root
Native to the Ashimachi region, Miller's Root is an herbaceous perennial which forms carpets of red diamond-shaped leaves on riverbanks and the shore of The Fingerprint. Agricultural entrepreneurs in Ashimachi broke new ground in farming the vegetable using miniature aqueducts in LN 301. Their roots grow to the size of a human finger, and in Ashimachian cuisine the greens are eaten raw as a salad.
In uncooked form the roots exhibit a light taste of lemon and ginger, and are frequently shaved over dishes in Ashimachian mementos to add a touch of zesty pungency. Cooking the tubers destroys the compounds responsible for these flavors, but it is nonetheless common practice for their texture and versatility. Weaver’s Bean
A green bean which grows on bushes, widely used in Ashimachian medical practice due to its ability to seal wounds and quite literally bond flesh together. Weaver’s Bean Paste is a primary export, and also sees use in dried form as a convenient binder in various cuisines. Memory Shoot
A cross between bamboo and a vine, memory shoots are so named because their hollow shoots will follow the contour of any nearby surface seeking sunlight. A small crop of memory shoots can thus be planted and grown into a form, a technology which is used to cheaply manufacture goods like baskets and furniture. Coilwood
A distant cousin of the memory shoot, coilwood is a type of vine which grows with tremendous tensile strength along a single axis. It's believed this evolution was used to resist the massive winds which blow off The Fingerprint. Human applications for coilwood generally involve slicing it into thin strips which are used in various industries as well as in improvised weaponry. Prismatic Amber
A naturally occurring resin found around boiling lakes northwest of Ashimachi. A mild euphoric on its own, it can be refined into Seer’s Grass. Prismatic Amber is actually a complex byproduct of plant, animal, and mineral interactions, and as a result cannot be grown domestically. Water Lion
A plant which grows lily-like flowers, whose roots absorb water at a tremendous rate. This attribute has led to their cultivation and use by miners in Ashimachi who place the plants in "rootholes" drilled into large rocks and then pour water over them to split the stone. Nightflower
Growing up to twenty feet tall, the Nightflower grows wrist-thick trunks which sprout bioluminescent flowers the size of dinner plates at the top. Every part of the plant is edible, from the roots to the dried seeds and even the glowing flowers themselves.
Fauna
Sea Deer
Despite having little resemblance to actual deer other than their size, these herd animals levitate through magical means. With thin-furred translucent hides and vestigial limbs, their meat yield is rather poor - rather, they are prized for their blue blood which is used to make dyes and paints. Daishong
A cross between a cow and a giant boar, the spotted hides of Daishong are the chief resource for leathermaking in Ashimachi and Kansujian. Their milk has a hint of lavender in both taste and coloration, and though for many centuries they were rarely slaughtered as valuable beasts of burden, recent times have seen a significant increase in the popularity of their meat in local cuisine. Oncama
Described as “a cross between a 7-foot tall Komodo dragon and a tortoise,” the Oncama is a large, lumbering reptile-like creature. Due to their hardiness, ability to navigate vertical terrain, and the presence of hard-shelled humps conducive to saddling, they are the most common riding animal in Ashimachi. Oncama are omnivores by nature, and prey on sea deer and other smaller animals in the wild. Kanshokuka
These small invertebrates, about the size and dimensions of a dinner roll, are common around small bodies of water in the Sea. Gelatinous and mostly transparent save for their internals, they move by stretching their bodies laterally and contracting back to their dome shape. They’re also quite capable of propelling themselves long distances by taking in large volumes of air and expelling it from their posterior. Kanshoku are parasitic organisms that have evolved to forcibly invade their hosts - particularly herd animals like sea deer and daishong. They are known to attempt invading the bodies of human explorers, but their systems have no defense against the highly acidic environment of a human stomach. While they have very little nutritional value they are farmed and sold live as novelty street food in Ashimachi. Starlight Fish
Trout-like fish native to the Fingerprint, starlight fish are conspicuously luminescent and a dazzling feature of the lake at night. In a rather unusual adaptation, they lay clusters of fertilized eggs in the steep walls of the lake, which begin to glow as they near maturity. This attracts predatory fish and scavengers, who swallow the eggs whole. Their eggs' external membranes have a strong natural resistance to acids, as do their fry, who exit the digestive systems of their unwitting hosts and form large shoals in the race to adulthood.
When they reach maturity, the pectoral fins of male starlight fish become enlarged and enable them to glide over the lake's surface, flashing their bioluminescent spots to attract potential mates. The practice of casting nets to catch flying fish is called "Starlighting," and both the fish and their eggs are eaten raw and fully cooked.
Rubber Shrimp
Actually a type of aquatic vegetable, rubber shrimp are so named for their taste and high protein content. With a broad range that extends from Chamatkaar to Xinyuan, they provide an important source of protein for impoverished peoples which is abundant and easy to locate and harvest.
While rubber shrimp are nontoxic, they contribute to a form of "red tide" in the waters they inhabit when large influxes of nutrients cause them to overgrow, starving the waters of oxygen and polluting them with decaying matter.
Zhuyin
A crablike crustacean with a large domed shell, Zhuyin resemble our horseshoe crabs. Brightly colored with ultramarine shells that feature stripes of green and purple, they grow up to two feet wide.
Mubluk
These freshwater ctenophorae look and act much like our jellyfish, but can grow to truly enormous proportions: the largest recorded mubluk in history measured over 150 feet long. Despite being a common bycatch of trawling, they are unpopular as a food product due to their inherently bitter taste. Marelak
An apex predator of Ashimachian waters, the marelak resembles a gigantic Earth squid with prehensile octopus-like tentacles barbed with chitinous spines. Curved like hooks, these spines assist the marelak in grabbing prey - which includes terrestrial vertebrates. Marelaks have jaws, rather than beaks, and their multiple rows of molar and canine teeth make short work of anything they can fit in there. Hailongxiong
A six-legged amphibious beast with shark-like teeth, the Hailongxiong is covered in armored scales sheathed by a superficial layer which provides optic camouflage in a similar manner to chameleons. Dangerous and solitary predators, they are known to exhibit mild intelligence when stalking sailors and fisherman.
Additional Info
Ashimachi: Flora and Fauna
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