Ikam (IH-KAMM)
A stonefruit discovered by Aguthsha Intoh on the 51st Day of the Season of Opening, 985AC, in an area of Gell's Landing she then named the Inebi Grove. It garnered interest for its ability to awaken and enhance Ega abilities, and speculated application for large-scale land fertilization and cloud-seeding. Unfortunately, it would gain infamy when it was used by Aguthsha to create a biological weapon in the form of the Plague of the Bitter Hand.
The fruit was formally named by Aguthsha; 'ikam' is a Shekoldahn term meaning 'injury'/'bruise'/'wound', referring to its macabre coloring and appearance when bitten / cut open.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A woody, evergreen stonefruit bush with largest known specimens of approximately six and a half feet tall and four feet wide. Bark is dark brown and fibrous/flaking. Leaves are dark green, glossy, and arrow-shaped. Flowers are scentless deep salmon-colored, four-pointed stars; the 4" petals decay to a lacy parchment-colored cage surrounding the fruit as it ripens. Ripe fruit is roughly tear-shaped and ranges from 2"-5", with dark purple-red / nearly black skin and orange-red flesh surrounding an off-white round, smooth stone of 0.5"-1".
Biological Traits
Only the fruit is edible; leaves and wood are poisonous. The pyrena (stones) contained eight, single-seed locules. The pyrena/seeds, while somewhat edible, were seen as too valuable to resort to eating and regardless, had even more unpredictable effects than the fruit.
The pyrena were observed to have an unusual, mutable Ega that -- given a period of time -- mimicked its surroundings, and that were otherwise something of a blend between metal, wood, and stone.
Genetics and Reproduction
It was believed to be pollinated primarily by nocturnal insects (including Intoh's wasp) once unique and indigenous to the Inebi Grove, which contained the only known specimens of the plant, and reproduces via its fruit stones.
Though Aguthsha did not have the opportunity to directly observe this, by looking at the growth stages of the specimens she hypothetized that there were at least two fruitings from which eight seeds germinated both times, that the fruitings were delayed after the first flowering, and that the fruitings were approximately eight years apart. Its last fruiting was in 985AC, by the sixteen original, mature specimens; though nearly all of the fruit was eaten, Aguthsha managed to propogate eight seedlings directly at the site and, the following year, induce an off-schedule fruiting.
Growth Rate & Stages
Aguthsha recognized that the ikam was very slow-growing, at a rate of approximately 2.5" a year (or approximately 2' every ten years).
Ecology and Habitats
Although the Inebi Grove was the only known localization of ikam, Icalaran biologists were unable to determine any special properties of the location compared to similar areas. They appeared to be content with their full-sun to partial-shade environment, which received an equally unremarkable amount of rain and water run-off from the nearby hill.
Additional Information
Domestication
Attempts to cultivate via grafting, cuttings, etc proved unsuccessful prior to its extinction.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
The fruit is notable for the ability to awaken magical ability in those that eat it and -- weakly in random cases -- increase magical ability in current channelers. Initial research suggested that something within the fruit acts as a catalyst of sorts between consumer and external Ega. The stone itself contains a tannin with immense implications for either mass organic fertilization and lcoud-seeding or, contrastingly, volatile toxicity; Aguthsha led this initial research prior to the formation of the Violet Accord and the War of the Six but ultimately used it to concoct the Plague of the Bitter Hand. Toward the end of the war, clues were emerging that there was a connection between the fruit and the otherworld Azgorach, and that Xa'aroch may be withholding information on its use as an Ega-enhancement drug.
The usual -- though not commonly-known -- method of authenticating an ikam stone involves multiple tests. The simplest initial tests are a scratch-test to determine hardness and an aura-check by a channeler to rule out outright fakes of purely stone/ceramic, metal, or wood. The second step is twofold: first soaking it in an acid, such as jeweler's acid to soften the surface -- the strongest acids available will not soften certain stones or metals -- and then applying a stain, usually inking algae. If the stone's surface only softens, not corrodes, but does not turn stain, it is possibly genuine. A further test is the scorch test -- holding it in a flame -- and while stone or metal won't be scorched, the stone actively resisting the flame can be observed. At this juncture the stone is in all likelihood genuine, but dissecting the stone to see its inner construction adds further credence. The surest way, however, to verify the stone is to apply Azgorach blood, which causes the release of mycelia-like fibers from the stone's softened surface.
Eating the fruit was incredibly risky for anyone regardless of age, race, or initial channeling ability. From the small number of observed and documented cases, it appeared that one stood a 30% chance of it either having no adverse or beneficial effects whatsoever, a 50% chance of some degree of adverse effect, and a 20% chance of some form of beneficial effect. Adverse effects ranged from vomiting, seizures, liver failure, cardiac arrest, and boils to an unsurvivable, uncontrollable surge of one's Ega that corroded the body and mind in minutes or caused outright spontaneous combustion. Prior to the release of the Bitter Hand there were no published results of attempts to isolate the variables that determined the type of effect or, at least, the subtype of adverse effect.
The only observed common factor in those who had consumed the ikam and later died -- noted by Master Shepherd Rarla Mizel, who typically attended the majority of the souls of those departed in this manner -- was how the soul contained a distinct kernel of black Ega, though this proved as mysterious as the ikam's biological secrets.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Isolated to the Inebi Grove, now destroyed.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Civilization and Culture
History
When the Bitter Hand was released at the height of the Widow's Siege, not only did it erupt over a large surrounding area and destroy the Inebi Grove and all verified specimens of the ikam itself, but spread via water and infected persons to become the greatest biological catastrophe in modern history.
In subsequent years many have claimed to have either the fruit, its stones, or immature plants, but they have always turned out to be either weak or outright fraudulent, to varying degrees of side-effect. It is broadly considered extinct. Unbeknownst to everyone, Aguthsha entrusted five ikam stones to Jal-Droxir Iknais -- to all appearances her enemy -- prior to her death.
EXTINCT
Lifespan
Unknown
Average Height
(Fruit-bearing) 4-6.5ft
Geographic Distribution
Discovered by
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