Cindermoss
Summary
While not actually a true moss, the cindermoss' close resemblance makes everyone call it that anyway. A small, surface-covering plant, it carpets the surface anywhere capable of holding snow. It could, after a fashion, be called 'lumpy' and 'fluffy' together, giving it a unique texture. Tiny buds rise up from the growth, quasi-flowers whose crystalline cores shimmer with fire-aspected mana. From a distance, or during a snow storm, these many different buds look like the cinders found in ash. A simple plant at its heart, the cindermoss soaks up nutrients from the ground and air. Its cinder-hot buds radiate a tiny amount of heat, just enough to cause snow ontop to melt. The fresh water is what it really needs, and cindermoss grows rapidly when it has some. It can cause odd sights in snowy landscapes as a result, creating patches of precarious green around endless white. Its ambient heat is enough to keep the plant alive, unless faced by superfreeze conditions. At which point, it's happy enough to hibernate for a while. Found almost anywhere freezing conditions make snow regularly, cindermoss is an ignoble plant. Whether the victim of frequent grazing or a nuisance that gets ripped up, it persists against the odds. It wouldn't be until curious people harvested its buds that its true value started to show. For, if cindermoss buds, water, and certain dirts are mixed together, it creates a lasting heat reaction. Much too weak to start fires of any kinds, it was instead used to help heat up clothing. That is, wrapped cloth packs of cindermoss mixtures could be inserted into winter clothing. The long lasting, 'burning' concotion would help stave off the cold. Such a feature became priceless for limbs and digits, saving countless body parts from frostbite. The ancient innovation of cindermoss packs helped fuel the rise of alchemy in the frozen regions, or so some historians claim. Better heating options, after all, were vital necessities. While it only ended up doing so much as a direct ingredient, its fire mana continually helped out alchemical research. Thanks to its remarkably easy to cultivate nature, cindermoss farming became a staple virtually everywhere. If not in full-scale farms, then pots, terrariums, and other places they can be harvested easily. Having cindermoss packs on hands is just one of those every day, vital necessities no one would be caught without. As a plant, its humble nature became associated with places of warmth, care, and safety. A lot of artsy styles for inns, lodges, and other places of respite incorporated the cindermoss at one point or another. In some places, not having cindermoss on hand for the guests is tantamount to terrible service.
Geographic Distribution
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