Fencage

Blue Death

Sunfall    Animals, Plants and Diseases    Plants      Fencage

No blade or spear has killed more royalty, or gutted an empire more completely, than those deep blue flowers. Such beauty led to such death.

— A Kanodite historian commemorating the demise of the Kanod family

Fencage, the Blue Death or King's Bane, is a highly poisonous annual flowering plant, native to western Sarzamin and central Kalarah. A delicate plant requiring specific environments and temperatures to grow attempts to grow Fencage outside of its naturalised locations have failed and this, compared with a concerted effort to eradicate the plant, make it exceptionally rare to the point that it is now considered extinct.

Contents

Description

^{Back to top}

Fencage is an annual flowering plant that grows to 1.5-2.5m (5-8ft) tall, with a smooth, green hollow steam, using spotted with blue or purple on the lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless except for the leaves with are eight pinnate, finely divided and triangular in shape, up to 10cm (0.3ft) long and 5cm (0.15ft) broad. Fencage's flower is small and deep blue; they are closely clustered and each flower has four petals.

Distribution

^{Back to top}

Fencage is native to eastern Sarzamin and central Kalarah. Despite attempts to naturalise the plant in other regions, all endeavours have been unsuccessful. This kept Fencage to very exclusive areas as not only did it have geographical preferences, it also required certain environments to grow.

There were only a few places that the plant could be found, yet finding it was exceptionally hard.

— Kanodaria, On House Kanod

Ecology

^{Back to top}

The plant is often found in poorly drained soil, particularly near streams, ditches and ravines. It can also appear in recently lumbered forests, the edges of farmlands and waste areas. Fencage grows in extremely damp soil and is extremely sensitive to loss of water but can be drowned easily if given access to too much water. It is used as a food by several bugs that have developed an immunity and can safely eat its leaves, sometimes to the point that the plant expires, and this kept the population in check. Fencage grows in autumn when not much undergrowth is in flower and has a tendency to grow isolated from other plant life. All parts of the plants are poisonous.

Names

^{Back to top}

Fencage is commonly called Blue Death or King's Bane. Blue Death is derived from the flowers which are the most poisonous part of the plant and King's Bane comes from the plant's usage to decimate the royal Kanod Family, founders of the Kanodite Empire, in 282BSF. More infrequently it is referred to as the Breath Stealer, due to the effect that it has once ingested.

Toxicity

^{Back to top}

Fencage is poisonous to all mammals (and many other animals) that eat it. Ingesting approximately two to three leaves in weight will be fatal for adult humans. The stem, flowers and leaves are the most poisonous part of the plant. The roots and seeds are also fatal if ingested but can be survived if the dose is minimal. Primarily, the toxicity of Fencage comes from consumption but continued skin contact can also create severe, potentially fatal, reactions.

Toxicology

Fencage has a very bitter taste and, unless masked with wine or honey, skin contact, particularly the throat, will lead to a tingling sensation. Within minutes of ingesting a portion of the plant, acute respiratory failure begins. The first symptoms would be coughing and a loss of speech as the lungs constrict. The blood, rapidly deoxygenising, quickly does not have enough oxygen to support the body and the fingertips, toes and lips start turning blue giving the plant one of its names, Blue Death. Without the ability to breathe, death occurs quickly typically within four to six minutes.

^{The dried, crushed flowers which were commonly used by poisoners.}

As the effects of the plant are both rapid and fatal, the survivability rates are nearly non-existent. There is no known antidote for Fencage ingestion although it has been suggested that creating an immunity through exceptionally minor consumption would have been possible.

Historical References

^{Back to top}

The flower and seeds are exceptionally poisonous if ingested and both have been used to create potent poisons. In 282BSF, 17 members of the Kanod family, the founders and then-rulers of the Kanodite Empire, were poisoned and killed on the same evening leaving a power vacuum in the empire. The subsequent great king, Bakhyar, dispatched riders to all parts of the empire tasked with interrogating herbalists and finding, then destroying all Fencage plants they could find. A bounty was also placed on the plant with many being handed in for destruction for either the coin or to avoid the risk of prosecution as outlined on the Bakhian Wall.
A handful of dead specimens survive in libraries but no known living plants, or seeds, are known to exist making Fencage functionally extinct.

Fencage

Blue Death, King's Bane

---

Population

None known

Longevity

Up to 30 years

Diet

Photosynthesis

---

Range

The known range of Fencage