Flatlander Expanse - Part 4 - Field Guide to Emberlife

Flora and Fauna of the Court and Wild

“In the deep of frost, her breath kept me alive.”
—Testimony of Flame-Sister Naeli, Emberwarder

Elemental Fire Conduit: Influence on the Boreal Forest

Concept:
The Elemental Fire Conduit isn't just a flame source—it's a magical, semi-living rift between the world and the Elemental Plane of Fire (or Mars, depending on your setting's flavor). It's not a volcano or a wildfire in the classic sense. Instead, it changes the way fire behaves across the surrounding boreal forest.
Instead of the usual natural fire cycle—lightning strikes causing periodic burns that clear undergrowth and renew the soil—sentient, unpredictable fire energies now warp the entire ecosystem.

Effects on the Boreal Forest Ecosystem:

• Living Fires:
  Fires don't just start and burn out; they linger like semi-aware beings, smoldering without consuming all fuel, moving at unnatural speeds or directions. Some fires "hibernate" underground, then emerge months later.
• Ash-Born Flora:
  Certain plants now require elemental fire exposure to germinate—seeds won't sprout unless "kissed" by the conduit’s ember-charged flames. Groves of ash-blackened trees with glowing veins might sprout up almost overnight after a fire.
• Elemental Fauna Mutations:
  Some native animals slowly mutate from the elemental nature of the area.
• Weather Warping:
  Rain clouds near the conduit might carry sparks instead of water. "Firestorms" occur where hot dry winds whip embers across miles in unnatural patterns.
• Spiritual and Magical Distortion:
  The conduit has twisted or empowered spirits of the land—once guardians of regular growth cycles—. Some now act as shepherds of necessary "cleansing fires," while others become aggressive, seeking to ignite all life in endless, destructive rebirth.

Courtbound Creatures

Keepers of the Last Coal

Species: Canis Familiaris (Sheepdog lineage)
Court Role: Hearth Guardians, Spirit-Warners
Temperament: Fiercely loyal, empathetically attuned
Notes:
When a Keeper dog curls beside a hearth, Ember sages say they are listening to the whispers of coals long dead. If they bark at empty corners, it's said to be an omen of intrusion—be it spirit, ember thief, or emberborne child gone rogue.

Ritual Practice: Their ashes are mixed with forge soot to bless newborn hounds.

Redhorns of the Hearth

Species: Bovinae (Heirloom Prairie Cattle)
Court Role: Warmth-keepers, sacred providers, living relics
Temperament: Docile, protective in groups
Notes:
Redhorns are not just beasts of burden; they are the living hearthstones of Ember villages. It is said their breath can revive failing embers and calm restless ash spirits. Calves are named ceremonially and braided with emberthread during the Winter Stilling Festival.

Game Hook: A Redhorn calf has gone missing before its Emberwild release. Track it before the forest spirits grow offended.

Sunborn

 

Species: Gallus Domesticus
Court Role: Egg-bringers of fortune, providers of sacred ink
Temperament: Nervous, irritable near firestorms
Notes:
Every egg laid during Ashveil Night is gathered for divination and ink-pressing. Elders believe the yolks carry messages from the fire gods. In lean times, Sunborn flocks are offered to the Emberwild, where they often vanish without trace.

Wild Kin of the Emberwild

Fleeing Flame (White-tailed Deer)

Role: Spirit messenger
Habitat: Borderlands of the Emberwild
Behavior: Flees unnatural fire, guides the lost
Field Notes:
To see a Fleeing Flame during an ember storm is rare and powerful. Embercourt folklore suggests following one can lead to hidden safety or lost relics—but to hunt one is blasphemy.

Smoke-Eye (Great Horned Owl)

 

Role: Omen-bringer, vision guide
Habitat: Burned-out ruins, high scorched trees
Signs: Three calls in the night = warning of betrayal
Field Notes:
It is said the Smoke Eye can see both the ember trail of the past and the spark of future acts. Scribes sometimes follow them on vision quests, using powdered ember glass to match their gaze.

Art Prompt: An owl with ember-colored eyes and smoke curling off its feathers as it lands on a twisted chapel spire.

“I followed the flame-tail through ten shadows, and there I found her locket—untouched by ash.”
— Journal of the Wandering Skald, p. 87

Changed & Charred

Charwalker (Emberwild-Adapted Horse)

 

Origin: Descended from prairie horses left behind in the Great Ashing
Appearance: Charcoal skin, ember mane, burning hooves on nights of high fire magic
Temperament: Skittish but fast; require whispered handling
Use: Courier missions, fire dancing rituals
Special: Resistant to heat and terrain-based fire damage
Cultural Role: Only chosen riders may bond with a Charwalker. The ritual involves walking barefoot across hot coals while reciting fire-lineage names.

Coalboars

Origin: Wild boars fused with ember growths
Appearance: Blackened hide, glowing tusks, exhale faint embers
Temperament: Aggressive, territorial
Use: Rarely domesticated; hunted for volatile bone charms
Ecological Role: Tillers of the Ashground. Their rooting encourages emberflora growth.

Game Hook: A particularly massive Coalboar has begun attacking embergrain fields—only a boar-bonded youth knows its old name and may calm it.

Invasives of the Ember Rift

Ash Ghost

Classification: Elemental Remnant (Ash/Smoke)
Common Names: Corpse Smoke, Soulflame, Moundland Shade

Appearance:
An ash ghost is a drifting mass of ash, soot, and smoke vaguely suggesting a humanoid form. Its shape flickers and distorts constantly, with only brief moments where a gaunt face, reaching hands, or a ragged cloak silhouette is visible through the swirling gloom. Its body radiates a low, smoldering heat; wherever it passes, the air becomes thick with the stench of scorched flesh.

Behavior:
Forged from the ashes of the dead during the Necromantic Wars, ash ghosts are not true spirits but elemental echoes of assassins who served the Fallen Lord's Corpseman army. With the war's end, they now drift across the edges of the Moundlands as freelance killers, offering their services to the highest bidder, though they care little for gold or goods. Ash ghosts trade only in souls, demanding the surrender of life essence as payment.  They are relentless and tactical in combat, weaving through groups of enemies to isolate and immolate individuals. Death at an ash ghost’s hands is not the end — unless their remains are sealed, the fallen may rise anew as more ash ghosts, continuing the cycle of horror.

Despite not being a place where the necromantic wars took place, hearthgate and the adjoining area attracts these creatures like a moth to flame.

Ember Court Notes:
"Mark this well: the Ash Ghost is no mere wandering haunt, but a weapon of war still fighting battles long after their masters fell. Should one be encountered, conventional defenses will fail — steel does not cut smoke, nor can walls halt mist. Use cold, containment, and consecration. Above all else, do not allow the ash to scatter. Every grain uncontained is a blade pointed at your throat."
— Vigilant Arcanist Morren, Ember Court, Twelfth Seat

Cinder Beasts

Classification: Exoplanar Apex Predator
Common Names: Ashmanes, Riftwolves, Red Howlers
Appearance:
Monstrous quadrupeds with a hulking, lupine build and leonine musculature. Their ash-coated fur constantly smolders at the tips, and their eyes glow like molten obsidian. When agitated, heat waves ripple from their bodies, distorting the air.

Behavior:
Cinder Beasts hunt in volcanic-style packs, communicating through low-frequency rumbles and sulfurous scent trails. Attracted to heat and flame, they will circle fires and settlements before striking with calculated fury. Solitary cinder beasts are rare, usually outcast or wounded—though no less lethal.

Ember Court Notes:

• Their hearts are harvested to create flame cores for Emberforged weapons.
• Folklore says a single howl can boil blood in the uninitiated.
• Packs are sometimes mistaken for firestorms on the horizon.

"I thought it was a weatherfront. Then I saw their eyes."
—Last log of Pyreguard Mekk Thorne

Pyrokinetic Scorpions

Classification: Elemental Invertebrate
Common Names: Embersting, Hellhook, Flamecrawler
Appearance:
Carapace of shimmering lava-glass, with glowing joint lines and pincers that radiate waves of oppressive heat. Their tails end in a stinger tipped with emberstone, capable of igniting living tissue on contact.

Behavior:
These scorpions favor ambush tactics, lying motionless beneath ash dunes or stone outcroppings until prey nears. They hunt with infrared vision, detecting body heat with uncanny precision. Once prey is marked, they unleash gouts of flame from their stingers, searing and stunning.

Ember Court Notes:

• The stingers are often harvested and used in pyromancer wands or alchemical injections for short-term fire resistance.
• Sightings increase dramatically during Red Ember Moons, when dimensional breaches thrum with unstable magic.
• A court legend tells of a warband riding tamed Pyroscorps into the Emberwild—none returned, and the scorpions bred freely.

"Its breath was fire, and its eyes did not blink. The desert made flesh."
—Field journal, Emberseer Karran Vel

Pyronoid

Classification: Oozing Elemental (Fire)
Common Names: Bloodfire Blob, Ember Horror, Hellbubble

Appearance:
A pyronoid resembles a massive, glowing ellipsoid of molten, bubbling sludge, roughly 25 feet long and 10 feet wide. Its surface constantly seethes with blistering heat, giving off noxious vapors and a hellish red-orange glow.

Behavior:
Driven by an insatiable hunger, pyrenoids drift lazily across landscapes, consuming any solid material they encounter. They are not intelligent but exhibit an almost instinctive malice, gravitating toward populated areas and sources of water, which they foul or vaporize with their mere presence. They show no fear or curiosity, only a relentless, smoldering hunger.

Ember Court Notes:
"Should a pyronoid emerge, immediate evacuation is advised. Standard fire wards are insufficient — cold spells and overwhelming water sources are the only known deterrents. Remember: what cannot be burned will be smothered and crushed. The Court's official stance is extermination on sight, before an area is lost to red sand and ruin."
— Archivist Jallis, Ember Court, Sixth Seat

Sinderreign

Classification: Ancient Flameborne Great Horned Serpent

Location: Candle Lake, Saskatchewan

Appearance:

His body is a glowing mass of volcanic scales, each scale like a burning coal. His great horns are blackened obsidian, constantly steaming in the cold northern air—his breath smells of burned forests and ancient magic.

Behavior:

Volatile.  Sinderreign's emotional state is precarious. One day, he may be wise and conversational; another, a raging inferno of hatred.

Ember Court Notes:
"Should Sinderreign stir beneath Candle Lake, regional containment protocols will be initiated immediately. Surface signs include blackened deadfall, vitrified sands, and unnatural mist regardless of season.
Subterranean activity reveals a volcanic lattice of molten channels and obsidian tombs. All prior artifacts encountered are deemed unstable and must not be retrieved without pyromantic clearance.
Cult activity detected: The so-called Cult of the Ember-Twined has begun active insurrection, citing 'purification' mandates in Ashcoil’s name. Engagement options are limited. Direct assault is sanctioned, though the Court advises attempting parley with Ashcoil himself to sever their claim of divine right, lest a full holy war ignite across the region.
— Archivist Jallis, Ember Court, Sixth Seat"The air smells like wet ash and ozone. Eerie, flickering light reflects off the ceiling like a phantom aurora.

Court-Cultivated Emberflora

(Domesticated or ritually farmed plants essential to survival and symbolism in the Ember Court)

Ashfern

 

Origin: A hardy mutation of native ferns
Appearance: Pale silver leaves with black stems, grows only in burn-scars
Use: Soil restoration, weaving
Field Notes:
Ashferns bind with ember spores, allowing them to regenerate burned soil quickly. Some use their fronds as parchment for spirit-writing, claiming messages appear when burned slowly.

Superstition: Ashferns growing in a circle mark a spirit’s grave or a place of hidden ember treasure.

Coalroot

Origin: Native prairie root now used widely by Emberfolk
Appearance: Gnarled, black-skinned tuber with red-veined flesh
Use: Medicinal paste, warmth tonic
Field Notes:
Coalroot is dug only during the waning moon, when its volatile essence has retreated deep into the earth. Improper harvesting causes violent steam eruptions.

Ritual Use: Crushed with snow ash and birch sap to produce ‘Ashdraught,’ a warming brew during Emberbirth ceremonies.

Embergrain

Origin: A magically adapted strain of wheat
Appearance: Deep red stalks with black-tipped heads; glows faintly at dusk.
Use: Staple food crop; also used in ceremonial ashbread
Field Notes:
Embergrain must be planted during the waxing crescent moon and watered with cooled hearthwater for the best yield. Farmers often chant ember-prayers to encourage flame spirits to bless the soil.

Special Property: When ground and burned, the ash produces a mild warmth. It is sometimes mixed into winter poultices or used in firestarter charms.

Firewhorl Bloom

Origin: Hybridized prairie flower fused with elemental energy
Appearance: Spiraled crimson petals, center flickers like a flame
Use: Symbol of courtship and sacrifice.
Field Notes:
Firewhorls are cultivated in courting gardens and used to propose Emberbonding (marriage equivalent). The petals are brewed into a passion elixir or left on pyres to honor the dead.

“When I could not speak my heart, I left a Firewhorl upon their windowsill. It was answer enough.”

Kindlecap

Origin: Transformed fire-loving fungus found in scorched woods
Appearance: Bright orange mushroom with smoky underside and ember-speckled cap
Use: Hallucinogen, spiritual incense, rare seasoning
Field Notes:
Kindlecaps emit soft warmth when clustered. They are used in vision quests and ancestral communions, where people mix dried caps with fiberglass dust and inhale the mixture.

Scorchpods

Origin: Charred version of native legumes
Appearance: Jet-black seed pods that snap open with a spark
Use: Emergency food, flint substitute.
Field Notes:
Used by hunters and scouts. When crushed and chewed, they numb pain and dull hunger but cause dry mouth and vivid dreams.

Utility: The seeds are used like tinder, striking flame when struck against bone or stone.

Emberwild & Untamed Flora

“I saw my grandmother, dancing barefoot on hot stones, and she asked why I still feared the flame.”
—Visionkeeper Tharran, Ember Monastery

Cindertrees

 

Origin: Burned pine trees that refuse to die
Appearance: Barkless black trunks with glowing sap and red-veined branches
Use: Ritual charcoal, dream-wood, sacred firewood
Field Notes:
Cindertree wood burns forever unless doused with blood or riverglass water. Its embers are stored in the Ember Court’s eternal hearths.

Mythic Note: Sages believe each cinder tree harbors a sleeping ancestor spirit waiting to awaken at the world's end.

Flarethistle

 

Origin: Transformed prairie thistle
Appearance: Thorny stem with bright red crown that sparks when agitated
Use: Defensive hedging, trap-making
Field Notes:
Flarethistle patches are used to ward off spirit beasts or line perimeters. Some couriers coat their boots in thistle oil for spark-stealth, where each step leaves behind a nearly invisible ember trail.

Whispersoot Flower

 

Origin: Unknown—appears spontaneously near sites of sorrow or betrayal
Appearance: Small, delicate gray petals with a voice-like rustle
Use: Spirit detection, grief rituals
Field Notes:
These flowers cannot be picked—they dissolve into ash. Instead, they're listened to. Whisper-soot blooms are said to speak in the voices of the dead, and sometimes tell secrets not meant for the living.

 

 

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