False Garden Blubber

Fertile Grounds

Written by Endrise

There is beauty to be found in these creatures, but their sacrifice ensures our survival. Their deaths power our machines, our crops, our light. So may every life I take from them be an honourable one, to help fuel that of thousands.

— False Garden Hunter

The blubber of False Gardens is a valuable material used across the Plane of Air. Produced by the creatures, hunters seek it out for their airships and machinery, even at the cost of the species themselves. Though its sales on the market make it hard to ignore.

Properties

The blubber appears as a semi-transparent, thick yellow gelatine found below a False Garden’s skin. Very few blood vessels and nerves run through the layers. Thanks to its thickness, it protects vital organs from invasive species and lets symbiotic partners settle with ease.

Like other animals with blubber, it regulates the body’s heat while travelling through colder currents. It also keeps infection to a minimum.

Growth & Development

False Gardens start accumulating their blubber at around 6 to 10 years of age. The mass grows between the muscles and skin, clinging onto the former for stability. As the calf gets older, more begins forming until a thick layer forms so that vegetation can settle.

The thickness varies, with some having over a foot of blubber covering their body. Without a proper diet at an early age, it may under-develop to support any plantlife.

Harvesting

One cannot remove Blubber without damaging the body, as it clings to a False Garden's skeleton and muscles. Cutting the blubber free from the body kills them, with even the few that somehow survive dying shortly after from infection or disease.

The best blubber comes from before vegetation had time to settle, making young Gardens a prime target for hunters. Though many regulate against it to protect the species’ numbers.

Type

Biomaterial

Related Species

• False Garden

Counterattacks

Prolonged hunting of False Gardens led to the species adapting with their own tactics. Females and their young appear to stop travelling to common hunting grounds while males sneak up on Airships to destroy hunting equipment. Some know which ships to tackle first, showing higher intellect than expected.

The increased aggression makes become it harder to get Blubber, threatening trade of the resource. Instead, some seek alternatives that do not rely on them for oil or fertiliser.

History & Usage

Products

Oil & Medicine

When refined, the blubber produces a large amount of oil that gets used in all sorts of products. Lubrication of machinery is its most common utility, while others make goods like soap and even paint with it.

Multiple regions even use it for medical purposes, as the oil is rich in vitamins that are not easily accessible for everyone.

Light & Flammables

Besides the typical oil for lubrication, lamps and other light sources use it as a fuel to keep burning. While the practice died down with new emerging technologies, people keep it around due to its reliability.

Its flammability also makes it ideal for making explosives, having seen usage in combat or industrial use.

Fertiliser

What remains after refinery becomes fertiliser for crops. As False Gardens use it to feed their own ecosystems, gardeners use it to help grow their own plants.

Entire corpses may get dissected and grounded up after all the useable material is gone. So not only can it contain blubber but also bones and other waste.

Myths & Legends

Old stories saw the creatures responsible for bringing life to the empty world, as their skin carries forth plants from one island cluster to another. Some even believe that the remains of False Gardens make up the islands, as bones become stone and flesh become soil. Others believe they were islands made alive by the winds and sought out civilisations to bring them land.

They became a symbol of fertility for the people, making them sacred in some circles. Such tales became fables with the growing technology. Their iconography nowadays is used to hope for bountiful crops or safe births.