Fairy Berries and Berry Fairies

Name: Fairy berry

Physical Characteristics: Bright blue, seedless, segmented pseudo berries. The fruits grow in trailing clumps like currants. Color changes when heat is applied.

Special qualities: Sweet and tart, fairy berries sport a delightful floral mystique, turning from blue to green when heated. The delicate anthocianins that give these berries their blue color, combined with high concentrations of potassium, mean the blue is deep then transitions to an almost teal green when cooked, making them a favorite in the Eidruian lands.

Lifecycle/ growthtime: A scrubby bush springs from a large, blue, glowing rhizome buried under the ground. Seedless fruits grow from white bell-shaped flowers on short vines from which the multiple fruits grow in trailing clumps. The leaves are heart-shaped with serrated edges. Fruit grows during the late summer when nights start to cool and early fall before the first frost. The viney bush dying back, with regrowth beginning in the late spring.

Ecosystem: Found in forested and scrub land, bushes prefer partial shade. The fruits are eaten by small animals, rodents, and birds. The berries and bush itself are particularly prized by Fairies.

Basic Requirements: Occasionally, a larger, more rowdy, or group-oriented fey will be drawn by the magic of a fairy berry bush. In the event it’s uninhabited, they will move right in, making it a nest or harvesting its berries. The more destructive or prank-prone, even digging up and taking the rhizome. In the event it is inhabited, there is potential for a fight over the prized bush. Many farmers grow their bushes over a unique framework, leaving nowhere for fairies or other pests to nest.

Alchemical, Magical, or culinary uses: make the most celebrated jams and pastries. The glowing blue rhizome contains magical compounds that can summon fairies from the fairy lands. can make and enhance glowing blue potions and sparkling spells that give you the power to detect fey nearby or lure fey to your person.

Name: Berry Fairies

Physical Characteristics: Berry Fairies have vibrant green skin and dangling blue berry-like sensory organs at the end of slender green antennae. They grow to ten inches tall when fully grown, and infants start out around 3 inches, reaching full height at approximately one year(24 months). They're born wingless and wings grow in at around six months.

Lifecycle: Berry Fairies nest in mating pairs, growing little fairy families. After the pair has infused the bush with their essence, the infant grows in a nodule from the rhizome and is uncovered at the base of the bush when gestation is complete at the end of approximately one month. This is the most destructive part of the fairies nesting in a farmer's bushes. If the Rhizome isn't properly recovered, it can damage the bush. Most Fairies want to keep their home safe, so they replace the dirt as best they can.

Magical/Special abilities: Berry Fairies have little in the way of magical abilities of their own. Their antenna serve as sensory organs to guide and steady them while flying, and lead them to food and safety.

Their main power is encouraging and boosting berry growth. While some farmers find their presence to be a nuisance, many have found that allowing a family to inhabit their berry patch will ensure larger, more quality harvests. Their main defense against humans, goblins, or other beings that might threaten them is hiding first, or beating a hasty retreat, slinging berries if discovered.

Ecosystem or natural point of connection: Most commonly found in and around Fairy Berries. When found in their natural habitat: The Wondrous Realm of Fairies and Odkins, they don’t need a berry bush to sustain them, living off the chaotic magical energy.

Basic Requirements: As long as a Berry Fairy has a berry bush of some variety and a shady spot to nest, they are happy.

Alchemical or Magical uses: A berry bush inhabited by a family of Berry Fairies produces more berries, and all parts of the bush provide more potent magical or alchemical reagents or ingredients.

Legends and spiritual connections: Legend says that Atsiny (Halfling and Goblin goddess of plant medicine and alchemical healing) favors the Berry Fairy, and invites them into her bountiful gardens in The Expanding Realm of Life and Growth, where all living things, animal, vegetable, and magical, live and thrive in abundance