Crystal Sugar Bloom
Miscellaneous
This plant grows in subpolar environments, thriving off the cold to make its heated-up sugar cool down as prisms or crystals. When these flowers are found, they can be taken and ground into a powder for sugar. They are a substitute for natural sugar from sugarcane.
They were relatively soon found by herbalists from the empire. While they do not grow as far north as the Frozen Empire, they can be grown quite easily in the Empire. The plants are used with long periods of darkness and Aeterna's sphirix's warmth is enough to keep them alive, so they're easy to maintain. They are the reason why Empire grifix always could make use of sugar, and they are also used for alcoholic products, being the source of most alcoholic drinks in the Frozen Empire.
Most of the flowers used by the Empire are grown by the herbalists guild, but those that grow further south from the Empire are way more flavorful, so sometimes hunters or greenseekers bring them, but they are only given to very influential and important grifix.
The sugar produced from these flowers has a flowery aftertaste, the alcohol having a flowery flavor as well.
If a grifix consumes this they might have aftereffects such as similar to a sugar rush but heightened. Otherwise, this plant is fully healthy to consume and is even baked and used in food.
The flowers grow on vines, which can easily climb rocks and buildings. The flowers are quite warm to touch, but they cool down when cut. The flower's tendrils are made of sugar, and the cold freezes them into sugar crystals.
Creator: Emizu_TH
