Ankhezian Philtre

Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation required

An unnatural recipe for sure. Created in the ancient Akup empire, the entire liquid revolves around the concept of life. These people symbolised the god of life through the symbol of an Ankh, not a unique idea in the infinite worlds but one they built up to such a degree that it birthed a god. This god held weak control over the domain of life, and in return for the empire’s dedication to it a small ankh shaped flower sprouted through their borders. Priests worked hard to show devotion through their god by consuming the flower, and some more alchemical minded believers developed useful liquids such as this. The power of life can truly bring about mortal miracles.

Ingredients and recipe Freshwater, 800 ml – non magical fluid Otun’s gift, 2 flowers – natural gathering stage flower Warming berries, a handful – non magical fruit Calming moss, a handful – non magical plant Harvested food, 100 grams – non magical plant or animal part

Due to the obscurity of this recipe, as in I personally dug it up for the sake of this guidebook, all the plant names are what the Akups gave to this wildlife. I have tried adapting the recipe to different ingredients, but Otun’s gift cannot be changed in any way. The plant was retrieved a long time ago and specially farmed for its power over the life domain, but its specific type of control means that the only way to replace it would be using a recipe way, way above this tier.

Long story short, you gotta buy the rare, expensive ingredients. Sorry.

As stated, Otun’s gift is a flowering plant which produces an ankh shaped accessory from its stigma. This shape of plant mass both aided the Akup empire immensely while feeding back some faith back to Otun. This sort of method to gather faith power is common amongst gods, but generally extremely inefficient because of the disseminated power at the same time. Luckily, Otun did not infuse each flower during the sprouting process, instead creating the entire species with this power over life.

Warming berries and Calming moss can both be found in wintery forests, a type that formed a vast stretch at the north of the Akup empire. Both gained their name from effects upon eating either, which are non-toxic to clarify.

Warming berries are similar to blueberries in appearance, but their skin is ever so slightly paler. Their primary effect is spreading a warm feeling throughout your body, like taking a warm bath after a day in deep snow. This warming feeling is actually a weak healing of the soul, or rather, simply an imbuement. The healing effects don’t actually do anything in most cases, but you feel warmed up as a result.

Calming moss is a greenish, grey moss similar to lichens in appearance. It only grows on the bark of magical trees, but finding a few of those should be a matter of time. Natural gathering stage trees are far from rare, especially if any competent cultivator is farming them properly. The calming moss provides an intense mental calming, who could’ve seen that?

The calming moss is a mental equivalent of the warming berries, however the residual effects of such healing on the mind is a calming sensation. Describing this is harder than it looks…

Like many times before, mulch the berries into a paste and extract its juice. The juice is added to your freshwater while the remaining berry flesh can be eaten as pleased. Once again, some make it into a jam but you can eat these raw if preferred.

Something different for once now.

The calming moss is dropped into the juice and water mixture and placed in the sun for 4 days at minimum. This is done for two primary effects:

First, the calming effect is leached into the water by day 2.

Second, the moss is perfect for absorbing impurities in the warming berries to better exhibit the effects of Otun’s gift.

After the sun sets on the fourth day, fish out any moss in the water and prepare for the ritual to activate the flower’s life empowering energy. These ritual components are extremely cheap, and function as more of a formality, but not doing it renders the flowers basic ornaments at best. They don’t even taste nice without this process.

The ritual, specially designed by Otun, allowed even civilians of the empire to make use of the flowers, and as such only requires a simple sacrifice with chanting. Any raw food source works for the offering, the only condition that the chosen item is flammable.

As Otun is a divine being, language holds no meaning to it. This means that the chants can be translated into any tongue and used. In this case the book includes inscriptions which auto-translate to your native language, providing your language is legitimised.

The ritual chant holds 4 lines which are read three times total. After the first readthrough light the offering on fire. From here begin the final two readings and ensure the flowers are nearby. The ritual’s effect only spready up to a metre away, so keeping them at hand is recommended.

The chant is as such:

‘From life, started from nature, we are created. We are moulded by its whims.

Otun exceeds nature, moulding it as our lord pleases.

The light of Otun changed life, giving intention to the simpleness.

Life is Otun. For our sake, Otun rises and grants compassion.’

Confirm the ritual’s completion through the Otun’s gifts, which should now contain faint flowing lights within. If this is the case then the activated flowers hold a myriad of uses, but this guidebook only contains a few.

In our case you only have to drop the full ornament into the brewed mixture to complete the recipe. Upon touching water the attachment will dissolve, slowly mixing the power of life throughout the fluid. Do not stir during this process!

After a few hours of slowly diffusing through the water you’ll have completed the recipe.

Usage

This recipe actually had a second, informal name in the Akup empire.

‘Mother’s brew’

If this medicine is drunk anytime within a pregnant woman’s first trimester it guarantees the child will not be stillborn. There are no other uses, and it cannot be used after that specific window.