Flora and Fauna

A magical and invasive import of the 1920s, the choke vine lived up to its name by choking out agricultural development and other plant species alike, and also literally choking animals and people to death. The choke vine has prehensile appendages which are too strong and tough for a normal human to remove with bare hands. It kills plants and animals that come near and use them as nutrition a they decompose.

The choke vine was toxic to every native species on Manta Carlos. It was resistant to most attempts to destroy it. Today, the choke vine population has been brought down to manageable levels in the far reaches of The Forbidden Forest, thanks to the magically bred and aptly named "vine-eater moths."

A breed of apple created by some botanical wizards (literally) out in the Manta Carlos Farmlands, the Heart Apple is a unique addition to the culinary arsenal of island life. The trees are deathly pale with barely any foliage, giving them a particularly haunted appearance. The flowers are bright blood red in stark contrast to the muted tones of the rest of the tree. The fruit is a much darker shade of red and some say that it vaguely resembles a human heart in shape.

The apples themselves, as well as the flowers and honey made from bees who have pollinated the flowers, can give a vampire the nutrition that they would otherwise need to get from blood. It is not a substitute, because it would take roughly ten whole apples (or much more of the flower petals or honey) to equal a simple pint of blood. But it allows for things like coffee sweetened with 'blood honey' or pastries that can supplement a vampire's normal diet. The apples and associated products made from them are also safe for human consumption.

Synthesis flowers are known for their large, color-changing flowers and their ability to fuse with and eat humans. A fully matured synthesis flower is approximately 6 feet in diameter, with a large hole in the center that reaches into its root system. It creates a sweet scent and emits pheromones and telepathic messages which convince all kinds of animals to climb into the hole in the center, where it usually digests the creature.

The plant gets its name from its interaction with humans. A synthesis flower with a human victim begins to make itself one with its prey instead of digesting it, hijacking the person's body and central nervous system. Over the course of the next few days, the human host will either lose their will and become one with the flower, which enters the post-synthesis phase, or the flower will find its host unworthy (often because the host is too strong-willed to be fully controlled) and the human will be fully digested.

A synthesis flower with a host has even more telepathic potential, and will often retain much of the supernatural abilities of its host. The host will retain many of its memories, as well as the ability to speak and some semblance of its personality, but its only interest and goal in life will be to attract and consume more victims. It will spend much of its time unconscious, awakened only when a sufficiently large animal is nearby. It can defend itself with its root system, which becomes prehensile and develops more and more strength as it progresses further into the post-synthesis phase. Their telepathy could reach for miles, corrupting the dreams of humans and giving them the idea to come to the forest.

Supposedly, much of the funding for the project that developed the synthesis flower came from the Manta Carlos Government, to help deal with the plague worm infestation of the twenties. Why the flowers ended up the way that they did remains a mystery to this day. Soon after the flowers were deployed, the mage who developed the flowers and his wife both disappeared, their home burned to nothing with magic fire. Many believe that the couple became one with their creations, or that one of the two became a host to the flower and devoured the other. In any case, the flower was responsible for an alarming series of disappearances that flared up in the late thirties and lasted into the early forties, when it was finally discovered why so many people were dropping their lives and wandering into the forbidden forest, never to return. Most of the population was culled with the newly-invented napalm in 1943. They are rumored to still exist in small numbers in the forest, careful not to attract too much attention, but still a threat to those who wander too close.

The government now requires a lot more oversight for any attempts to deal with invasive species.

The Two-Tailed Fox (also known as the "Twintail") is a native species of fox that predates the arrival of Cordelia Moor. Not inherently magical in any yet-to-be-observed way and typically the same size as the domestic house cat.

Its fur color ranges from pale yellow to white, and, as indicated by the name, it has two tails. Its diet typically consists of insects, fruits, small mammals, and occasional birds. The two-tailed fox has been considered a pest since the colonization of the island.

The animals are more aggressive than their counterparts in other parts of the world, having been known to attack house pets, destroy gardens, root through garbage, and make loud noises. Multiple independent efforts have been attempted over the years to curb the population, with limited success.

The vine-eater moth (also known as Melvin's plague worm or simply plague worm) is a magically-bred moth developed by the wizard Melvin Thatcher to combat the choke vine infestation of the mid 1920s. In this capacity, he absolutely succeeded. The larvae of the moth thrived by eating the choke vines. When these were nearly depleted, they turned on the very fields that they were created to protect, as well as several native species of grass and flowering plant. And, once again, available pesticides were not able to destroy the insects.

The plague worm spends most of its life underground, consuming plants from the roots up. At the end of its larval stage, it burrows underground in a spiky protective shell and bursts out from the ground as a fully matured moth. The matured moths survive as moths for a week at most. They mate, lay their eggs in sacks near the tops of trees, and die.

In the aftermath, several academics came up with alternative solutions to the new plague worm infestation. These were, in order of introduction to the ecosystem: the Manta Carlos giant spider, and the synthesis flower. Eventually Melvin Thatcher developed a magical ward-based form of pest control that curbed the population of the moths in cultivated land.

Manta Carlos giant spiders are a breed of very large spider, magically developed by a team of wizards at the academy to help mitigate the Melvin's plagueworm infestation. Often exceeding one foot in radius from leg-end to leg-end, the giant spider makes its home in webs high up in trees. They eat most flying insects as well as small birds and the occasional squirrel. The toxin they use to kill their prey is ineffective on humans and most humanoids, and they have remained at a small but stable population size since their introduction.

The Manta Carlos giant spider is not to be confused with the gargantuan nesting spider, which is far more dangerous to human life and only found in the Forbidden Forest.

Gargantuan nesting spiders are very large spiders, often exceeding two feet in height fully -grown, with 4-foot leg-spans. They are solitary predators, filling an ecological niche similar to big cats, primarily hunting and eating small to medium-sized animals. They do not fear humans or humanoids, and have been known to kill them. They can be very territorial.

As the name suggests, these spiders make "nests" out of their webbing. These will not only house their young, but also serve as a shelter against the elements and predators for the mature spiders themselves. The spiders have been known to drag prey back to these nests to share with offspring and mates. The spiders will also sometimes use their webbing as a sort of garrote, allowing them to choke their prey to death or unconsciousness. This behavior is not fully understood, and most recorded gargantuan nesting spider attacks involve biting rather than choking.

Wanaal are the solution to a number of problems with Manta Carlos' isolated existence. These large creatures that are unrecognizable as any kind of animal are the primary type of meat that makes up the diets of most of Manta Carlos citizens. Depending on when a particular Wanaal is killed and processed, its flavor and texture can resemble chicken, pork, or beef.

The wanaal is considered to be a highly ethical alternative to other meats, as it is more closely a fungus than an actual animal. The wanaal can ingest any organic matter that they are given, meaning that they are also used as waste disposal for much of the island. Wanaal are found almost exclusively on ranches in The Farmlands.

A desert native equine creature, the Vynix are a rescued species relocated to Mana Carlos to protect them and the Veil. They are tall, lanky creatures distinguishable by their vibrant, unnatural coloration, their two sets of eyes, and the mysterious bells that seemingly appear around their necks when they reach maturity.

The Vynix are used by some as substitutes for horses and they can be found both the the Starlight Academy stables and on ranches in the Farmlands. It is said by some that the Vynix are capable of seeing a person's future, but verifying this has been tricky at best.