mugwort and Joe

Prolouge : Part 1

To put it simply a seedling is little more than a helper, a golem crafted with earth and magic, bound to a plant and gifted with some level of intellect.

Born and harvested in rich, magical plains, they act as servants who are paid in housing and in some cases food.

In some cases includes those born outside of these "rich, magical plains."

More than six generations of seedlings have been born outside of their rightful land, born with no aptitude for magic and treated as less than servants. These seedlings were bound to three plants and were gifts from the lands, gifts for a marriage that had cemented in the birth of a baby boy.

Three plants, Mugwort for medicine, Black Pepper for clever thoughts and Bergamot for boundless riches. Were gifted to the land of no magic as compensation for a peace treaty between the "Majiks" or fae and the "Mense" or the people.

The treaty bound the heirs to each throne as a way to create a peace, the fae heir lived permanently in the Majiks' land and the human heir in the Mense' land and for six months of each year their son would spend by their side.

The marriage was never a peaceful or humbled one and so the prince grew up plainly alone and alienated, except for his own private collection of seedlings or as called scornfully in the Majiks, Witches.

An old castle witch favoured for her talent of molding was chosen by the palace to provide the most beautiful of her seedlings to the higher court and eventually to the most intimate of the royal family.

Anthropomorphic creatures with wit and brain deserved names, the mense heir had said and had then named the old witch Joe. It was a crude, muddy old name, but the creature listened when the heir called it and so it was the creature's name.

Joe was a Black Pepper seedling and had the creature grown in majik's plains would have had no name. Names hold much power to the Majiks  and the creature accepting the name was a sign of devotion groomed from well before 'The Happening.'

'The Happening' had burnt out twenty years prior yet its devistating effects had remained, the historic event had totalled the six generations of bound slavery that was enforced over Majiks. Made to be the cattle of Menses' kind, the Majik's revolted and left behind scorched land, leeched of magic. They created a pocket of unfathomable size where they hid their people for 15 years before re - emerging to stalk their prior owners. It took two years, for the Mense to admit defeat and 6 months to to come to a agreement, a treaty, a marriage.

In these here dregs of calamity and pride we start our story, not as a villan of any kind, not as a hero, as a seedling.