Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rules

1. Follow all soquili rules and gaia ToS.
2. One entry per person.
3. Your entry must be your own work (No proxies or stock photos allowed)!
4. No mules! Participating with more than one account = instant disciplinary action!
5. Don't be a sore loser if you don't win! Discouraging behavior could disqualify you from future events.
6. PM Roniel Targaryen with any questions.
7. Any entries posted after the closing time will not be accepted for judging, even if I am not around to officially close the contest.
8. If you use real world materials for your entry, please include your username in at least one photo!
9. Keep each section of your form under 500 words. You will be disqualified if your your entry goes over this! (This was recently added! Be aware!)
10. These flowers need to be fictional. Entries based significantly off real flowers will be disqualified. (Example: If you describe a daisy and add a couple interesting new uses, it isn't acceptable for this contest.)

Use this form for entry. Feel free to edit your post up until closing time, but please post in bold red at the top of your post if you do.

A new species has been discovered! Edited in a small sentence about the roots and the lifespan (totally forgot them)
Username: SwordOfTheDarkOnes
Flower name: Midnight Shroud
Flower design: This flower is very dark in color and origin. Its roots are a deep purple which blend into its black leaves/steam all way up to its brightly colored petals. Its petals are the sole reason anyone could find this thing. They're a bright electric blue and seem to..glow. The pistil is a pale lavender color with the stamen being a vibrant pink. The flower has two leaves about mid-way down its steam while it has 12 (and on rare occasions 13) petals. The petals curl inward at the edges while it seems the leaves are spiked.

Flower information: The Midnight Shroud is, according to legend, the embodiment of the dark promise between a twisted Stallion and his unknowing Lifemate. The story tells the tale of the innocent minded male befriended a shunned soquili. This dark hearted Stallion was twisted beyond repair and by the time the innocent soquili had appeared before him. He nearly gave up on finding a worthwhile toy. To capture the heart, mind and soul of the innocent soquili he created this flower. It enchanted the Innocent Stallion and the Twisted Soul which craved him was satisfied. The flower was named for the Lifemated Pair themselves...as when the Twisted Soul laid dying, his Lifemate not too far away. He told their story and the flower's origins, his Lifemate vowing that their souls would forever be bound to each other. Their flower serving as proof of their vow. Some see this plant as a twisted vow of love as other twists on the story say that the Soul of the Innocent Soquili was trapped in the flower alongside the Twisted Soquili.

The flower itself is actually poisonous. The nectar it produces can be used in an aphoristic, but you'd have to use certain herbs to achieve this. The steam, stamen and pistil can be crushed into a powdery poison which dissolves in water. While ironically, its petals along with other herbs can be used in the antidote for the poison. Its roots can also be used in the more deadly aspects of the flower's uses, but if mixed correctly can also be the core of the antidote. So all in all, this flower is considered dangerous, but very few care to recall the good within it.

Like most plants the flower survives off of sunlight, unlike most plants it can also thrive under moonlight. Only growing in the mouth of Caves or near grave-sites this flower has become associated with danger and decay. It is not carnivorous, but under the right conditions (such as the seed itself being planted within a decaying being) slight traits can be developed in the line. The flower starts off as a dark purple seed, roughly as small as a pea. These seeds are mildly poisonous and can be used to strengthen one's immune system to the flowers fully developed poison capabilities. Usually these seeds are best planted during the fall as they mature over the winter to begin to bloom in the spring. Once it starts growing however most don't notice it unless they look for the bright pink tip of its anthers. At its final stage of life, most avoid the flower as it seemingly attracts dark hearted beings to it.

Most Soquili would use this flower (only one of it among many many others) to symbolize a eternal promise. While the Kawani would use it to ward off unwanted visitors, due to its association with danger and decay. If a single flower is given to a person, it usually means that the giver intends to keep them at their side...whether the receiver wants them to or not.

Prize preferences: Stallion, Familiar, Mare

Edit: March 16th @ 11:27 am MST || Added more Info and Art.

A new species has been discovered!
Username: Kara Asumie
Flower name: Midnight Glowing Glory
Flower design: The roots of the Midnight Glowing Glory glow deep into the ground. This helps it to come back winter after winter.
The Petals are purple and icy blue.
The stem is a deep shade of blue roan.
The seeds on the flower look like frost bits.
Once fully grown this flower looks semi like a rose brush then a single flower.


Flower information: Unlike most plants that die in the winter time from the cold. The Midnight Glowing Glory grows in winter the best. Surrounded by snow. It is the Snow and Frost that makes this flower bloom.
It's petals can be used in healing illnesses and healing wounds.
It glows the brightest on the nights of a full moon. When's it's best to be picked and used as a medicine.
The smell that comes from it's flowers is a sweet smell of coco. Which makes this flower prefect for the winter time. Sadly if one brings this plant inside it will die. It needs the cold of winter to live. Because of this it is a rare plant that is found in the coldest of areas and lands. Mainly found on the tops of the highest mountains where snow never melts away.

The tips of the mountains around the A-ta-lv-yi Pass, Rockslide Falls, and O-da-lv Pass have snow that cares and helps the Midnight Glowing Glory grow. So it is likely that one would look there to find the Midnight Glowing Glory. Though with it's colors it is hard to see so it is best to look for it at night when the flower's petals are glowing. This makes it easier to see once the night falls and the petals start to glow against the white background of winter.

When picking this flower to use as a medicine it is best to pick the flower only on the night of a full moon. Once picked you only have four hours in order to make the medicine so that it will work. After it is turned into a medicine it will last a year and still be fully effective to heal what it needs to. Sadly after a year the medicine will not heal as well.

How to make medicine from the Midnight Glowing Glory. First pick only the flower. Then take the petals off the flower to squeeze the juices out of them called Expressed juice that is used like an ointment and applied to the wounds. After that one can crush the seeds into a power that can be used to make a tea that is used to cure illnesses such as fevers and more.

Life-Cycle
Seed to Seedling in a week's time in Autumn
Seedling to Bud without blooming flowers in two week's time end of Autumn to the beginning of Winter.
Bud to Blooming Flowers within snow fall.


Prize preferences: Floral ulun'suti Mare , reroll

*edited in image*

A new species has been discovered!
Username: Moxxiie
Flower name: Phoenix Ashes or Phoenix Flame (can be called either)
Flower design:

The phoenix ashes, also known as phoenix flame, is a fiery flower that starts as a little ball of flame and blossoms into a beautiful fire lily, turning to ash when it dies.
Flower information:
The phoenix flame was first found to be blooming out of the ashes of a phoenix. The phoenix had been reborn and flown away, but some of the ashes remained. A small flower had bloomed in that spot, and the ashes and flame that fell on it, nearly killed the flower. The flower was resilient, and absorbed nutrients from the ashes, and some of the magic of the phoenix. The flower evolved, gaining the magical qualities of the phoenix. As the flower grew, it developed a slight glow. When it's petals opened, small licks of flame began to emit from it, and the flower caught fire. The first time, it died, burning to ash. Out of the ash, the flower was regrown, but this time, it was different. The seed that developed was a hard seed inside a ball of flame. As the flames took root, it began to grow. After a few days, the flames took the shape of a flower bud. Rain would fall, but the phoenix flame would burn on. On the eve of a full moon, night fell and the flower opened it's petals, revealing flaming petals that did not catch fire to the rest of the plant. The magical qualities of the phoenix flame had changed in that rebirth, and so it no longer died as soon as it bloomed. The flower stayed in bloom for the duration of the full moon, and at dawn the next day, the phoenix flame's fire started to die, along with the flower. Thus started the unending cycle of the phoenix flame.

Seed - Small black seed surrounded by flames
Bulb - Seed grows into a growing bulb that emits flames
Flower in Bloom - The bulb opens, revealing lily like petals made of flame.
Growth Time:
Three days after the flower dies, the seed will sprout
A week after that the flower is at full height, developed into a bulb.
The bulb only opens during a full moon.
The flower will remain in bloom during the duration of the full moon and will die again, returning to ash at the dawn of the next day
Prize preferences: Floral Suti, familiar, pass

A new species has been discovered!
Username: Feydrah
Flower name: Evanescent Feyweed (Amaranthus ameliorate)
Flower design: It is a very rare sight, as the flowers only bloom for one night before wilting. Clusters of white flowers effloresce in long tendrils. Cymes of leaves and small white blooms hang down from the lofty locations in which it grows. Though their delicate white flowers are a beautiful sight to behold, the smell is bitter and acrid.
Flower information: Feyweed is a very short lived annual that can sprout, bloom, and die in less than four weeks. Though its life cycle is short. it can seemingly grow almost anywhere, blooming between cracks in rocks on cliffs and mountaintops. Cymes of densely packed white flowers bloom at night, and by morning they will have wilted. Due to its short life cycle, feyweed is considered exceedingly rare and valuable.

The plant itself is renown for its powerful restorative properties, and it is told that imbibing a tea made with the flowers and stems of the plant (or simply consuming them) can bring someone back from even the very brink of death.

The flowers, when consumed, are a powerful psychoactive. Heavy or prolonged use can cause permanent psychosis. These hallucinations are often interpreted as clairvoyance or a "second sight". To use the plant for its restorative healing properties poses a great risk of the patient going insane. Those who have consumed the plant and are suffering psychosis are considered "feytouched".

Use of the plant for its restorative properties is highly unrecommended, though still both Kawani natives and Soquili alike will take that risk, even at the cost of losing themselves to complete psychosis. It is said that someone who has used Feyweed to come back from the brink of death should be considered dead, as the individual's personality, knowledge, and dreams will be lost to insanity.
Prize preferences: Floral Ulun'suti, reroll.

Edited 3/20/14 6:46pmEST

A new species has been discovered!
Username: Insane Butterfly
Flower name: Desert Secret
Flower design: Has a tall reedy, brown stem with broad, fuzzy, dark green leaves. Grows anywhere from single stalks to groups of three. This flower's pollen is a dull yellow that is patterned in an almost starburst. The petals are long and thin, they drape down and curl at the ends. The petals are a soft sage green that meets with an obnoxious shade of yellow.
Flower information: The Desert Secret is not a pretty flower, but it doesn't need to be. Anyone who is a healer, or aspiring to be anything of the sort, will want this plant, and need it. A bit hard to find, it lives in mainly dry area's, the deserts being at the top of the list, while similarly dry areas may have them. Its stem is a great storage of water for the plant, but also a good defense mechanism. The stalk of this flower is poisonous if ingested and has a very bitter taste, which is completely contradictory to the rest of the flower. The pollen and the petals give of an extremely sweet aroma, sometimes strong enough to hurt ones nose. Its perfect for attracting sweet loving insects to help pollinate. But that's not why healers seek out this flower. The stalk, while poisonous if ingested, when mashed into a paste makes a wonderful numbing agent for wounds and skin irritations. Also, the petals of the Desert Secret, can be eaten, and while the severely sweet taste of them is hard to get past, they help with digestive troubles. Most prefer to make a tea with the petals, mixing them with other bland flavors to tone down the sweetness. The effect is not as strong in a tea, but it definitely helps one to...ah...go. And while there isn't much use for the pollen, some like to add it to things as a sweetener. The root to this flower is fairly useless to anyone but the flower. It is long enough to reach down to more solid soil and then branches out, it holds most of the water that this flower will need while in the dry dessert. Many smaller animals seek out these roots and eat them for their water content. 90% of the time this effectively kills this flower.
Prize preferences: That gorgeous ulun suti mare!!! Then the Handsome familiar. After that, re-roll.

Updated the "Flower Information" section, including adding a new image

A new species has been discovered!
Username: pinkdog
Flower name: The official name of this plant is Medusolarvae Kaga. “Meduso” is from the many poisonous snaked haired mythological Medusa, which references the plant’s many spiked branches; “larvae” for the immature form of an insect, which is exactly what the fruiting bodies of the plant look like; and “Kaga” is the native people’s name for a demon. The common name for the plant is the Death Worm, a reference to its carnivorous nature, the dark legends that surround it, and its unique worm-like fruiting bodies.
Flower design: See image here.

The DEATH WORM has a bulbous hollow cavity at its center. Growing from the base of this and hanging over the opening are flowering stems. At the head of the flower are leaves and long stamen with pollen capsules on the end. The leaves that lean inward, toward the opening of the cavity, are long and wide, while those that face outward, toward the outside of the plant's cavity, are short and stunted. The pollen capsules on the end of the stamen only come out in the early morning with the rising of the sun, and then retreat back into the stamen at dusk. The leaves and stamen, include the nighttime covering over the pollen capsules, is covered in an extremely slick, sweet smelling substance.

The bulbous hollow cavity in the DEATH WORM is separated into two layers. The inside of the cavity is covered with the pollen that falls from the pollen capsules above. The lower section of the cavity is accessed by a narrow opening of the upper cavity. The lower cavity is filled with a sticky liquid to digest the insects for energy. At night, this portion of the cavity glows brightly in the darkness, with the bodies of its victims clearly visible as voids in the darkness.

The DEATH WORM is supported by several thick sturdy stems that root the plant firmly to the ground, allowing it to draw additional nutrients from the nutrient-poor soil. These roots are covered in short thorns that act as a “ladder” for insects. From the roots grow many lateral branches. All the branches are covered in sharp seeded thorns. Should the thorns on the outside most branch stems get dislodged (such as getting stuck in a passing animal's fur), there are seeds buried at the base of each thorn. This helps the plant to propagate over a wide range. These seeded thorns exist only on the outer most branches - as inner branches are less likely to be disturbed and the making of seeds would be a waste of the plant's resources. In addition to these thorns, the branches are covered thickly with fruiting bodies that look exactly like fat green worms with red heads. These fruiting bodies are quite sweet and filled with seeds. At the end of each branch are flowers. The leaves are thick, red, and slicked with the same slick, sweet substance as those over the main bulbous cavity. At the center of each flower is a small cavity filled with digestive liquid. These flowers do not close, but their cavities do glow in the night.

Flower information: The DEATH WORM lives in a humid environment allowing it to support a larger size and several ways of collecting food and ensuring propagation. Its soil is low in nutrients and acidic, preventing other plants from growing in the same territory, thus allowing the DEATH WORM plenty of space.

The plant attracts insects with its sweet smelling leaves. They land on the inner leaves above the bulbous cavity, and due to the slickness of the leaves, slide into the cavity. With nightfall, the plant uses an electrical current to close the cavity, trapping the insects. This ensures they become fully covered with pollen from inside the plant. Those insects that fall into the lower cavity are digested. In the morning the plant opens the cavity and insects that are still alive may fly out of the pitcher. The outside thorns on the plant allow non-flying insects to wander upward and fall into one of its many deadly cavities.

The life cycle is a strange story; No one has ever seen a juvenile. It’s believed that it pops from the ground, fully grown, like a demon. The death of these plants has been witnessed however; when they grown too old, its limbs and body dry out. Finally, it cracks and the digestive juices explode out onto the plant. The chemicals cause the dry plant to burst into flames and go up in smoke.

The Kawani people have observed insects that enter the plant and disappear - and if they return, the thick pollen covering them with makes them look as though they’ve metamorphosed. Myths have grown over time, until the Kawani legends attribute this plant to being a gateway to the underworld, akin to the place the Walkers come from. The way the plant glows in darkness, displaying its murdered victims attributes to this legend. (See this ancient cave drawing of a walker emerging from the plant)

Yet though the Kawani fear this plant, they are not unwilling to make use of its gifts. The Kawani warriors dip their arrowheads into the digestive liquid to poison them. The shamans collect the slick red leaves of the flowers for medicine. If not prepared, the leaves will kill a man. Yet ground leaves can be made inert or even made into a fever-break powder. However, over time the Shamans have noticed that the leaves can be change through force of will… long prayer can turn the inert medicine back into deadly poison….Many of the native people refuse to use anything from the plant, believing that they will become cursed.

The worm-like fruiting bodies are eaten like berries. Some boys return to their village with bloody hands full of the seed thorns, which can be roasted and eaten.

It is not know if the Soquili use the plant. It is believe that they would sense the darkness in it and keep away. However, it is possible that poison is used, even among the Soquili…

Prize preferences: Floral suti, pass