Cover image by; Dall-e

Plant life

The sun and moon not only grant the races their magical abilities, but it also affects the plant life that blooms during the day or night respectively.  Just about all the plant life glows with the power from the solar body whose powers they absorb, which is an extra step in the photosynthesis process the plants undergo. The different plants photosynthesize with just one source of light, and certain flowers have defense mechanisms for being exposed to the light of the other solar body. The more delicate flowers that grow using the moon’s light will close their flowers to save their energy and protect themselves from the sunlight that’s too warm for them. The same counts for the plant life that absorbed the light from the sun.

The fact that these plants glow with the power of their respective solar bodies has not gone unnoticed by those living on the planet. They both have developed a branch of schooling that works to extract the power that the plant life stores called alchemy. The Xipilians have their alchemist focus more on ways to get them the upper hand in attacks that take place during the night, whereas the Lunaegans think of ways to heal and protect themselves.

1. Solar-based plants and their powers

The aspiration to further develop their understanding of alchemy is one of the reasons that the Xipilians put a great emphasis on agriculture and preserving all the plant life in their country. The king has a big garden in the castle with samples of nearly all of the plant life that is always soaked in the light of fires. The alchemists have been ordered by the king to focus their efforts on creating ways to use the stored powers to give extra power to the soldiers in an effort to win the war, with him also reserving a percentage of these efforts for those who work in the mines. 

Liliana, one of the main antagonists of the story, is one of those who experiment with what alchemy can do in terms of battle. She is the one that created a way to combine specific plants in such a way that if launched and hit with an external flame will blow up with solar energy, which can even light up the night for short bursts of time. This is one of the reasons that she gained the attention of Lukairon himself and rose in the ranks. She tests out her new findings during battles led by her brother in order to see what her experiments are fully capable of. Currently, she is looking for ways to give magical properties to weapons that will make them more harmful to the Lunaegans.

2. Lunar-based plants and their powers

The Lunaegans treat their plant life with respect as they view them as a gift from the god that resides on the moon. Their way of life is integrated with the plant life they are surrounded by as it provides the main protection they have against the light of Sotechli. Their villages and houses are all in clearing in the forests that naturally exist, or using their biomancy to integrate their homes into the trees without hindering their ability to grow. When harvesting anything that they forage and grow they give thanks to Lunnadian.  

The alchemy they practice focuses on harnessing the power of the plants in a natural way. They work on infusing teas with the essence and working the sap into balms and potions, as well as using the light from the plants to help guide them. They don’t have big agricultural centres and leave plants to grow as they naturally would. There are farmers but these provide food for the village they live in and only grow what naturally grows in that specific area. 

The war has made alchemists focus on the track of absorbing the stored powers in the plants to heal the wounded. They have integrated alchemy with their medicine and thus the occupations of medics and alchemists are slowly combining as medics largely use alchemical means to heal diseases and wounds.