Fos

Fos is a root crop that, when consumed, is the principal way through which humans tap the Source of the Universe and thereby create magical effects. Difficult to grow, challenging to learn to use successfully, and bearing considerable risks, it is nonetheless one of the most valuable substances known to exist. The history of humanity is in multiple ways interlinked with its dependency on and interactions with this precious commodity.

Appearance

In its natural state, fos is a purplish root vegetable, about the size of a large radish or a carrot, with thick green stalks and broad leaves. The leafy portion of a fos plant can be up to a foot high, while the usable part of the root is normally at most 4-5 inches long when fully mature, with the narrow tapered part of the root being mostly whitish and unusable. The interior of a fos root is a dense pattern of white and purple - a cross-section of a mature root is a complex geometrical pattern that is seen as representing the connection of magic to the plant, or as resembling the bloodshot eyes of those who misuse or overuse the drug.

Growth and Production

Fos is found naturally growing only in a few areas. Fos requires soil that is extremely moist, but also that has a high acidity and a relatively moderate degree of salinity, and minimal direct sunlight. In the wild, the root grows in small patches that can be hard to see - the green leafy part of fos is easily overlooked, and the purple root is entirely subterranean. Fos crops usually take at least 90 days to mature - they are slow-growing compared to other root vegetables. However, after about 100 days after planting they begin to lose their potency. In Ashnabis, they are often harvested twice per year - in early summer (past the end of the rainy season) and in late winter (in the middle of the rainy season), whereas in Basai there is usually only one crop per year because it is so much cooler.

After fos roots are harvested, the thickest part of the root is carefully cleaned, pulverized, treated, dried, and turned into a purplish powder. This work can be done at a small scale by an individual, though it is now becoming a larger-scale practice. Well-prepared fos powder is long-lasting (it can easily retain its strength for a year after harvesting), poses a minimum of danger (though there is always some), and more potent than the root itself. Herbalists are now, for the first time in centuries, blessed with enough abundance in the crop that they can experiment with different preparations and are learning much about this difficult plant.

History

Historically fos was grown along the riverbanks and lakeside ponds of Basai in the far northern part of the Omban Empire - this fos was cultivated for many centuries in low, shallow waterbeds by the mystics and their allies. However, over several centuries, the salinity of the Basaian soils became more limited, reducing their utility for fos, and so supplies of fos similarly became limited. This trend was already noted by a few writers by the end of the Empire, but accelerated greatly in the centuries that followed. The fos blight of the mid-seventh century forced Basai to restrict the flow of fos out of the country, and at some points, to close the fos trade entirely outside its borders - in other words, all mystics had to obtain their supply of what was left of the fos from other Basaian producers within that country, or on the black market. Inevitably this caused great social tension, especially for those living in Choradan and Daligash, hundreds of miles from its source.

In and around the Sestapor Swamp in western Ashnabis, another variety of fos, sometimes known as the Osnab Root in texts, grows well, and clearly has for a long time. No one knows whether it has always grown there, or whether it was transported from Basai at some point during the late Imperial period, when Omban penetration into what is now Ashnabis was at its greatest extent. Certainly, the people of the area were aware that there was fos to be had here, and used it, but they were so far removed from the lines of communication to Omban territories that no one ever thought to, or was inclined to, share this knowledge. Whatever the case, around 742 IE, new supplies of fos finally began to make their way eastwards from Ashnabis to the former Omban states, beginning what is now known as the fos rush, or fos boom. Over 15,000 Ombans have made their way to the Kaskind Territory over the past two decades, both to search for fos and to support the economy that has rapidly grown up around the fos trade.

Use

Fos is rather bitter when consumed - much like a strongly flavoured radish, but without the heat - and is not of any meaningful culinary use. This has not stopped people from trying. Eating raw fos is something that some mystics and manifests have learned to do, but it is usually considered to be extremely wasteful. Some casters prefer to consume fos as a liquid rather than as a powder - this is a personal preference that does not affect the potency or effect.

There are many ideas held about fos and how it is said to create magical effects. Fos (in Ombesh, 'tap') is seen as tapping in, as a root, to the very Source of the Universe, the essence of creation. The complex patterns in its interior are like a map or a maze that the gifted caster navigates in order to shunt reality off on a different course than it would otherwise take.

Other species than humans are not known to use fos directly for magic. Hith, for instance, claim not to be able to use fos in this way. However, it is sometimes believed that some animals do know about fos, either to actively avoid it, or to consume it. So far, no magic-using slurks have been found casting spells in the swamp, thankfully. But be aware!

Variants

There are certainly different varieties of fos - skilled herbalists, who are the only ones well-trained to brew fos into its powdered form - often comment on the colour, smell, and even the taste of roots from particular areas. While there are visual differences between Basaian and Ashnabi fos roots in the raw, once prepared, they are essentially identical and have the same effects. There are certainly weak and strong roots - fos that is poorly grown, in poor soils, will result in fewer doses of refined product. There are rumors about, and active attempts to produce, hyper-potent (but also thus hyper-risky) forms of fos. There are all sorts of folk beliefs and personal superstitions that individual casters might hold - for instance, that darker-coloured fos works better for them than lighter fos, or that fos affects them more strongly in the evening.

There are several other root products that look like fos but do not have the same effect. More than one farmer has become impoverished growing what is, ultimately, an ill-tasting, ineffectual bitter root. Some of these species and variants are actively harmful to the consumer - this has never been a problem with Basaian root, but is now increasingly of concern given the chaos of the fos rush in Ashnabis.

It is rumoured that in Duedarcia, and in other lands poorly known to the Ombesh, that either the fos that grows there is very different and has different effects, or that there is another plant entirely that can be used to tap the Source.

Risks

Fos is a highly dangerous substance, not to be toyed with. As a raw root, it is not especially effective at creating magical effects but it does tend to create unpredictable wild surges. Even prepared fos is significantly dangerous to the untrained - the release of magical energies carries the risk that the connection to the Source will damage the caster physically or mentally. Mystics seek to minimize the risk of effects happening, while manifest magic seeks to control and channel those effects. Fos is not physiologically addictive, but it is psychologically addictive - people who regularly consume fos certainly find themselves inclined to invoke its power more often. Whether this is that power is addictive, and fos is powerful, or whether there is something in the fos itself that makes its users want more, is uncertain.

Economy and Society

The fos rush has created enormous economic and social challenges, as well as opportunities, in the Sestapor swamp area. Most notably it has created tension between locals and immigrants who find themselves newly in conflict over a territory that until recently was seen as completely useless. Nonetheless, many Aummesh have adapted rapidly to this changing situation and have used their knowledge of the region to profit enormously from the fos boom. The arrival of large groups of bubun under the control of Hand of the Dead priests, mostly from Hasmala, has created an enormous labour pool able and willing to work long hours in wet, swampy agricultural conditions. Thus, instead of fos being a foraged crop, or one grown in place in lightly tended swamp gardens, it is once again becoming a large-scale agricultural product within a plantation economy fuelled by bubun labour. The preparation of fos on a large scale also has created social effects. While there is now work preparing fos - cutting off leaves and stems, and otherwise cutting and grinding the root, a fairly simple manual task, this much exposure to the raw root is seen as having serious consequences, as individuals do absorb fos into their bodies in this way, often at risk to themselves. The effects of fos production can even result in clouds of fos.

The rise in fos has also caused tensions, both social and philosophical, between mystics - the traditional tenders of fos fields, and preservers of magical knowledge - and the newer, more chaotic magic espoused by the manifests. Because mystics have learned ways of using fos much more effectively than would otherwise be possible, they regard manifests as being unruly and wasteful, consuming a resource that is likely to go away someday, just as the Basaian stocks have dwindled. On the other hand, the manifests similarly resent the mystics for what they see as centuries if not millennia of restricting knowledge, and restricting fos supplies, in order to keep power for themselves. Many manifests believe that the fos shortages of centuries past were in part artificially created by mystics to limit the ability of non-Basaians to have access to magic, thereby increasing the power of Basai within world geopolitics.