Plants of Wobarth
Wobarth’s plants are not merely background decoration. They feed villages, colour the hills, fuel old remedies, hide strange magic, and occasionally make it very clear that they object to being stepped on. Across the fiery grasslands, deep forests, cliff paths, wetlands, gardens, and wild places, the plant life of Wobarth is as varied, useful, beautiful, and suspicious as the creatures that wander through it.
Some plants are cherished crops, like the mighty Bam, which has kept many a hungry household from considering whether leather can be boiled twice. Others are prized for their colour, scent, healing properties, magical uses, or ability to survive in places where sensible roots would have packed up and moved elsewhere.
Here you will find the flowers, trees, herbs, crops, fungi, weeds, vines, and botanical oddities of Wobarth. A world where even the plant life may have history, purpose, personality, and in certain unfortunate cases, intentions.
Bam
Bam is one of Wobarth’s most important staple crops, a large and sturdy tuber plant with the reassuring look of something that has fed generations and survived several bad winters out of pure stubbornness. Growing partly above the soil and partly below, its swollen root is thick, heavy, and practical, with broad leaves that turn a deep dark red when the plant is ready to harvest.
To outsiders, a field of ripe Bam can look rather dramatic, as if the land has decided to grow patches of edible sunset. To the people of Wobarth, however, it is a welcome sight — dependable food, good storage, and the basis of many meals that begin with optimism and end with everyone feeling too full to argue properly.
Bam is not delicate, glamorous, or especially graceful, but it is useful, hardy, and deeply respected by those who know the value of a crop that keeps a village fed. It can be roasted, boiled, mashed, stewed, or turned into the sort of thick, comforting food that makes cold evenings and bad decisions easier to bear.
In Wobarth, Bam is more than a plant. It is survival with leaves on.
Embergrass
Embergrass is a tall, unusual grass of the open plains and lower hills, prized for its beauty and mistrusted for its habit of making perfectly ordinary meadows look mildly enchanted. By day its blades grow in bands of green, copper, and deep violet, but at dawn and dusk the tips catch the light in such a way that entire fields appear to ripple with embers. In strong wind it looks as though the land itself is glowing and trying not to draw attention to it.
The grass grows in thick, waist-high swathes, with long, ribbon-like blades and feathery seed heads that turn from smoky silver to burnt orange as they ripen. It is tough-rooted and survives poor soil well, which means it often appears in harsh or rocky ground where other plants have already chosen to give up. Herd animals will graze it when young, though older embergrass becomes bitter and dry, and can leave the mouth tingling for hours. Children in some villages weave the seed heads into crowns. Older villagers generally tell them not to, on the grounds that it encourages ideas.
