Category: Experiments

Floating Rocks

As in many fantastical stories, Ferella is home to floating rocks. While these may seem to be magical defiances of reality, it is entirely possible that these rare formations are natural. Only one formation, on the Giant’s Hand island, has been documented. While the mythos of its creation may suggest otherwise, it is unlikely that magic formed this phenomenon. Instead, many of our scientists theorize that magnetic forces may be forcing rocks away from the ground and suspending them. This theory comes from ancient texts that describe the planet Eurth’s rotation. Ancient humans believed that their home planet rotated, thus causing a magnetic pull of some sort. In some places, magnetic rocks could theoretically be repelled by such forces.

This is such a rare phenomena that further speculation would be as properly supported as theories about magic. Thus, we will refrain from further elaboration in this report. The rest of this report will instead focus on the cultural study of those who live near the floating rocks.

It is not uncommon for locals to make their homes atop rocks in the Giant’s Hand, and rumors circulate of buildings built on such rocks elsewhere. Those who choose these locations have cited a variety of reason, including but not limited to the lack of sovereignty over these rock chunks. Others believe that the magic that causes the rocks to float is beneficial to health, and more still claim that it assists them with their own studies or magical research.

Everyday life on these rocks presents a challenge for locals since the rocks do not support their own ecosystems. Instead, people living there must descend on a near-daily basis to collect water and hunt. Crops seem to sustain themselves there, particularly those common in mountain areas. Locals have had to travel far to transplant hardy species of crops, herbs, flowers, and trees from mountainous regions for cultivation on their rocks. For this reason, plant life is valued heavily. Sometimes ground-dwellers in the region will make special trips to visit the rocks and see the plants that are so different from the ones local to the area.

One family claims that their home became unlivable for a short while, and they commissioned a druid to save their ancestral home. The druid determined that the air had “fled” from the location, but was unable to do anything permanent to help the family. The druid referred them to a wizard from our facility, who then brought the region to our attention. With our permission, the wizard performed some experimental magic borrowed from our space travel experiments and used the spell to encase the rock in a magical bubble to keep the air in. She also recommended that the family grow trees within the bubble to help produce oxygen, and they planted their “Mother Tree” in the home’s living room. The tree and the family thrive at the time of this report.

Image by muhumure ben from Pixabay

Signed, Eldi Deer-Threader, cultural anthropologist

Domestic Cats

Domestic cats are a curiosity, as there is no evidence that their descendants ever lived in the wild. Some theorize that they were a construct of magic while others believe that they were a scientific experiment like the Pas Todoans. It is interesting to note that older entries refer to them as “domestic cats,” implying that a wild cat did in fact exist. This could simply mean that feral cats were common at that time, rather than true “wild” cats. It could also be an indicator that Ferellan wildcats ceased to exist long ago.

It is important to note that while there are felines in the Ferellan wilds, they are not in fact related genetically to domestic cats. This, along with their physical similarities, would support the theory that they were genetically altered so that their DNA no longer resembles that of wild cats on Ferella.

Image by Ralph from Pixabay

Sailors have a strange theory, a myth that seems to be popular across all the seas of ‘El’. They believe that cats came from somewhere else, having become domesticated in a distant land where wild cats may still roam. This likely came from the fact that cats often travel on ships, visiting all the lands of ‘El’ that way. Sailors may have assumed that they did the same, though there is no reason to believe that another land might have existed before this one.

Ice Cream Tree

There are rumors of a tree in the far North, near the town of Towerkuns, that grows ice with the consistency of ice cream. A local druid has grafted several saplings onto it, using powerful magic to allow tropical fruits to grow in subarctic temperatures. The tree now grows ice cream in the flavors of each fruit, including orange, chocolate, and mulberry. The chocolate nuts were rather simple since they typically grow in mountainous regions, but the success of the orange ice cream branches was nothing short of miraculous.

Image by Hans from Pixabay

City of Two Worlds

Some people believe that the world was not always the way it is. Instead, it has been reborn many times out of the ashes like a Phoenix. People who share this belief report dreams of an ancient city of elves. In these dreams, the people of the city attempted a powerful spell that would allow them to survive beyond the End of Days. The spell transported them into a pocket plant adjacent to the Material Plane and those few who survived the spell were trapped there in a state of almost-living. While they continued to live their lives, they did so in slow motion. In the time it took one to brew a cup of tea, eons could have passed.

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Some people believe these vivid dreams are the result of alien experiments performed on the people, while others believe that the city existed and was covered up by a government conspiracy. Several attempts have been made to break into Nyamh Rosejoy’s research facility in Miketown by people who believe the facility was built around the ancient city.

Marina Winter-Rider

https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-underwater-1559192/

An elven wizard name Marina Winter-Rider spent twelve days underwater in a glass tank to perfect her version of the water breathing spell. The tank is still in her mansion, though some believe she drowned there. Either way, the mansion was abandoned and nobody is certain what happened to her.

Darnell Asylum

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The Darnell Asylum has a dark history. When humans first began to interbreed with elves, they were unaccustomed to magical abilities that the half-elf and three quarters elf children sometimes had. They locked them in this asylum to control them. The asylum was overrun by magic spiders from the elven forests, and the elf hybrid children fled into the forest. To this day, the webs in the asylum are too thick to break, and feral elf-hybrids are found roaming the woods, though most of their human blood has been diluted by bandearg or elven blood. (Click here to learn more about bandeargen)