Whenever I’m currently working on Alaria stories I like to be adding to/improving my “in world” guide to the setting “Adlar Ashton’s Guide to Alaria”. Below the break you’ll find two new entries (a new god and the beginning of a section on vegetation) or you can find the Guide in it’s current entirety HERE.

Shiaal, Goddess of Monstrous Fertility

Shiaal’s domain over “monstrous fertility” leads most to assume that those who worship her are limited to the small number of monsters with the intelligence to do so and the handful of strange people known to breed monsters. Although this does make up a great deal of her worshipers her faithful are a surprisingly diverse group. Why this is unknown to most is the fact that most who worship Shiaal do so in secret.

That Shiaal is most often worshiped in secret in most places across Alaria should not be a surprise. “Monster” can be a loaded term, with most agreeing that Alaria would be a better place if there were fewer of the creatures commonly called by that name. At the very least it is a near universal commonality wherever you go in Alaria that monster populations must be kept to a minimum when at all possible. Thus the breeding of monsters, especially when done with the divine blessing of a goddess, is something that is often done in secret.

There are other reasons why Shiaal worshipers often keep their faith hidden. The culture that has grown around their religion is an odd, confusing mix of seemingly opposed misogyny and misandry. I’ve encountered groups of Shiaal worshipers where men treated women as little more than sex slaves at worst and broodmares at best. It was just as common to find pockets of Shiaal worshipers where women ruled with an iron fist, their ability to birth children making them “self-evidently” more holy than men and thus “divinely dictated” to rule over them.

Both extremes, and everything in between, seem to please Shiaal as I saw evidence of her blessings amongst all her followers. Some of those blessings were quite disturbing, and although I think it best not to go into detail I will say that the goddess of “Monstrous Fertility” is happy to mix the fertility of the monstrous races with those of the fully sentient Greater races.

Even more disturbing was evidence I uncovered that confirmed these unnatural couplings led not just to women of Greater races birthing monstrous children of a Lesser race, but to terrifying hybrids. Knowing the power the gods hold it does not take much to imagine that Shiaal or her worshipers are responsible for the creation of many of Alaria’s monstrous races that seem to have a bit of the Greater races’ intelligence bred into them.

With some of the oldest legends suggesting there was a time when there existed no animal or monster in all of Alaria with anything near the intelligence needed for speech one must wonder if the fuzzy spectrum of intelligence that currently exists between the Greater and Lesser races is Shiaal’s doing. Perhaps all creatures that are less than a member of the Greater races that have any kind of near-personhood or intelligence are Shiaal’s creation in some way or another.

If one considers Shiaal’s faithful and the things her blessings create disturbing you’ll find details about the goddess herself no less offensive. Although always portrayed as a woman, often a massively pregnant one, many of her depictions also show her with a phallus. Her worshipers believe Shiaal is as likely to birth monstrous offspring as she is to impregnate fertile women so they can birth those she’s sired.

There are often legends and rumors of nearly every deity taking physical form in Alaria, but with Shiaal it is something so common it took this scholar by surprise. Nearly every priest or priestess of Shiaal I was able to interview seemed to have a firsthand story of at least witnessing Shiaal taking physical form to take part in a fertility ritual. Never have I seen such evidence of a deity being as involved physically with their followers.

Often those carrying Shiaal’s blessing (or at least claiming to) would say they gained it by a sexual encounter with the goddess herself! When pressed the stories would become vague, as though the person who went through the ordeal had a hard time remembering clearly how the events transpired. Knowing that a god taking physical form often warps reality around them and can drive mortals who must interact too closely or for too long with them mad I must admit these stories seem more likely to be true than not.

Notable Vegetation, Magical and Otherwise

Alaria is a vast realm, its true size undiscovered even by my long life of extensive exploration and research. My journeys have shown me that Alaria’s main land mass seems beyond measure, with the lands to be reached over the known and unknown seas seeming to stretch out further than any Human could travel in one or even several of their lifetimes. It is a stunningly diverse world, filled with a large number of Greater and Lesser races, countless monsters and animal species, and an even more staggeringly large variety of vegetation.

The lands across the oceans are strange, exotic places. But most reading this guide will live on the large, unnamed, seemingly endless central land mass of Alaria. Although the northernmost regions of this land mass are frozen wastelands, most of it is temperate, with the vast arboreal landscapes known as the “Wilds” being the norm. Mountain ranges and vast river networks run through this overgrown world, with ancient secrets hidden under the overgrown wilds. Only where civilization has begun to be reborn after the long darkness that followed The Great Collapse are open fields and cultivated lands common.

Yet whether you find yourself deep in the Wilds or in lands reclaimed by civilization there will be common forms of vegetation you’ll be able to find. Most often these common flowers, trees, and other plants have uses as potion or spell components, with many scholars (myself included) believing they are so universal because they were cultivated and spread by the civilizations that existed before The Great Collapse. Perhaps that cultivation is WHY vegetation with magical properties is so common across Alaria, although many think our world is just a naturally magic-filled one and the magical nature of so much vegetation needs no further explanation.

Regardless of HOW they came into being there is countless vegetation worth recording in this guide. In this section of my guide you will find a mix of both common and rare vegetation, their only common attribute being that they are worthy of note.

Astragalus

Astragalus is a pretty pink flower that grows in clusters close to the ground. They are commonly found as dense clumps in forests or around the edges of open fields. Thanks to their vibrant colors and how easy it is to grow and keep them lush they are also often found in the gardens and yards of people who live in smaller towns and villages. They are much less rarely seen in larger towns or cities as they do not thrive in an urban environment.

Some mistake them as weeds because of how easily they grow and spread nearly everywhere outside large cities. It is true that if allowed to grow untamed Astragalus will choke out other plants they are far too useful to be considered weeds.

The thick tangle of roots one finds when pulling Astragalus from the earth can be cleaned and used for a variety of purposes, and their pink flower petals are even more useful. Many simple medicinal teas use Astragalus root as a main ingredient, and Astragalus petals are a mainstay of healing potions.

But one must be careful when dealing with Astragalus petals! When healthy those petals remain a vibrant pink color, but many report that a change in hue to more of a darker red can spell disaster. Red-petaled Astragalus still has healing properties, but when its roots are used in herbal teas or its petals are used to brew potions other alarming effects occur. The most common is an unnatural and confusing rush of arousal, one that isn’t often easily connected with the healing potion or tea recently drank as there seems to be a time delay before this effect kicks in.

What causes some Astragalus to change to this red variety is unknown. It is said that once changed the fragrance of the flowers becomes magically altered, smelling to each person like whatever odor leaves them most aroused. I can confirm from firsthand experience this is true, and that the research partner I was with described a very different fragrance from what I smelled.

Perplexingly this change in color, fragrance, and magical properties when used in herbal and alchemical creations is not just something that happens only to growing Astragalus. Dried roots and petals stored in alchemist’s chambers or herbalist’s kits have been known to seemingly spontaneously convert to this altered form of the plant, often at the most troubling of times.