Metagame Warning!
The knowledge in this page may not be accessible to the average character, as it may not be common knowledge.
Please consider if your character would know this knowledge first before using it in roleplay.
Author Note: Starsugar isn't well known outside places such as the Undercrypt or La'megoth. If you are a Vampyr or lived in places where starsugar was grown or traded, then you may know about it.
¶ Starsugar
| Starsugar (Taxonomic family) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| A shard cut from arcania rosea. | |
| Classification | |
| Family: | Arcanaceae |
| Found In | |
| Planets with ECF of at least 3‽. | |
| Applications | |
| Metapharmaceuticals | |
Arcanaceae, commonly called the starsugar family, is a family of anomalous plants that grow an anomalous substance known as starsugar. Plants in the starsugar family are rarely found in environments with a higher than average ECF of approximately 3‽, such as in anchor worlds. A large variety of different plants from different planets exist within the starsugar family, and many starsugar-bearing plants have yet to be identified.
¶ Description
Starsugar plants share a variety of different physical and biological characteristics. Specific species in the arcanaceae family can exhibit different characteristics from other species in the family.
¶ Morphology
Starsugar plants share a common physical characteristic in that they contain deposits of starsugar crystals somewhere on the plant. The size, shape, placement, and color of these crystals vary from species to species, but most tend to take on a beautifully iridescent sheen to them, and some even glow. These mineralized crystals are composed of anomalous crystalline sugars that form around sensitive biological parts of the plant, housing and proecting them. Most starsugar plants tend to be smaller in size, the largest found being the size of reeds.
¶ Biology
Starsugar plants exhibit unique biological characteristics compared to other plants. In most starsugar plants, the crystals of the plant serve a purpose similar to seed-bearing structures like fruit, housing seeds of the plant that propagate through a variety of species-specific means. Though the crystals are made of anomalous sugar compounds, they are still very hard and do not typically dissolve easily in their crystal form. The crystals of starsugar plants take a long time to fully form, causing starsugar to become a rare commodity.
Starsugar plants are notoriously difficult to cultivate domestically, as specific species require very specific environmental conditions to grow. In addition, starsugar seeds will become infertile when taken to an area with an ECF of less than 1‽. Starsugar plants will only grow in an ECF of 3‽ or above; if this environmental condition is not satisfied, they will simply stop growing and die. Due to the difficulty of growing it and the soil resources required to do so, starsugar cannot be farmed en-masse, and large clusters of starsugar plants can almost never be found.
¶ Applications
The starsugar found in the crystalline fruits of starsugar plants is a highly sought after commodity due to its valuable application in the field of metapharmaceuticals (referred to in some cultures as alchemy or potionmaking). It also has culinary uses. Starsugar is typically prepared as a powder, pulverized from the starsugar crystals of the plant.
¶ Metapharmaceuticals (Potions)
Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.
As a chemical, starsugar's property as a solute makes it highly valuable in the creation of anomalous drugs, a field called metapharmaceuticals or potion-making in some cultures. When in a solution or solid matrix, starsugar binds well with other compounds and phytochemical ingredients into a form that is easily delivered to the body, allowing the body to be affected in anomalous ways such as with the use of potions that can regenerate wounds, or dangerous poisons that exhibit unique effects. The creation of these strange brews are often elaborate processes discovered through long research and using different types of artificial and phytochemical ingredients. In almost every potion, a solution of starsugar with some solvent acts as the base.
Potions or other metapharmaceutical drugs using starsugar must be apped.
¶ Culinary
As a sugar, Starsugar tastes immensly sweet but with an occasional sour taste like candy depending on the species, sometimes it is sprinkled on sweet foods such as fruits to enhance its flavor greatly. Due to how starsugar reacts with certain chemicals, it can be put to interesting culinary use; mood-enhancing sauce, spices that you can also hear when you taste them, the possibilities are endless. Because of its rarity and price however, food made or garnished with starsugar tends to be expensive, the stuff of nobles and kings.