Aestas
"Ee-stas"
Singular" Aestas
Plural" Aestaies
Singular" Aestas
Plural" Aestaies
These flowers are prevalent on then steppe but can be found almost anywhere on Senluna. They typically grow in small patches and are recognizable by their yellow heart-shaped petals.
These flowers are full of an extremely potent toxin, if a flower is consumed it can kill in minutes and even contact to skin can cause irritation. The petals feel greasy to the touch and this greasy layer can be very hard to wash off once it's on something.
Despite their toxicity, aestaies still need to be pollinated and so have developed a singular, sturdy stamen that insects can safely land on.
Pollen is collected in the two smaller pistils on the sides of the stamen. The aestas seeds are very small and pebble like. They are not as toxic as the flower but are still typically avoided by most creatures. |
Aestras poisoning effects
Content warning: Some effects of the poisoning may contain mention of blood, gore, vomit, parasites, and death
When an aestas flower is consumed, the first symptom is normally severe internal pain. This is soon followed by the creature bleeding internally and losing the ability to form blood clots.
The latter symptoms vary and can range from a loss of consciousness to continuous throwing up of blood and partially devolved internals.
Death is inevitable but the creature can suffer for several hours before succumbing.
The latter symptoms vary and can range from a loss of consciousness to continuous throwing up of blood and partially devolved internals.
Death is inevitable but the creature can suffer for several hours before succumbing.
There is no known cure
If being toxic wasn’t enough, aestaies are also frequently infected with a microbe that causes even more harm to any creature that consumes the infected flower.
The creatures unlucky enough to be infected don’t die immediately from the acidic flower. It doesn’t take long for the microbe to spread from the flower to the new host. Infected creatures tend to want to be increasingly social; this also causes prey creatures to lose their fear of predators. The infected also lose any sense of pain and will often still experience many of the symptoms of consuming aestaies however they do not die. As the infection progresses the creature becomes restless and starts to experience tremors and a loss of control over their body causing them to stumble and seem disoriented, they will also no longer be able to fully swallow and so will lose much of their body weight to starvation.
Due to their increasing loss of body control and their inability to feel pain the infected creature will often get injured and continue to move around sometimes with severe trauma that would have incapacitated a healthy creature. This results in a slow breakdown of the infected creature’s body as rot starts to take hold.
Infected creatures are contagious and contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva can pass the microbes to a new host even after the infected creature has mostly died. The best way to deal with these infected creatures is with fire, even if they are mostly decomposed, the flesh still is dangerous.
Bones of the infected are not contagious but most creatures still stay away from them, bones from an infected creature are easy to identify because the microbes cause holes in the bones as well as an unnatural orange tint to them.
The creatures unlucky enough to be infected don’t die immediately from the acidic flower. It doesn’t take long for the microbe to spread from the flower to the new host. Infected creatures tend to want to be increasingly social; this also causes prey creatures to lose their fear of predators. The infected also lose any sense of pain and will often still experience many of the symptoms of consuming aestaies however they do not die. As the infection progresses the creature becomes restless and starts to experience tremors and a loss of control over their body causing them to stumble and seem disoriented, they will also no longer be able to fully swallow and so will lose much of their body weight to starvation.
Due to their increasing loss of body control and their inability to feel pain the infected creature will often get injured and continue to move around sometimes with severe trauma that would have incapacitated a healthy creature. This results in a slow breakdown of the infected creature’s body as rot starts to take hold.
Infected creatures are contagious and contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva can pass the microbes to a new host even after the infected creature has mostly died. The best way to deal with these infected creatures is with fire, even if they are mostly decomposed, the flesh still is dangerous.
Bones of the infected are not contagious but most creatures still stay away from them, bones from an infected creature are easy to identify because the microbes cause holes in the bones as well as an unnatural orange tint to them.
Aestas wasting progression on a pistrix