Fungi, Mushrooms, Toadstools

Thiubjohraiw

The thiubjohraiw is a kind of fungus that has no solid body. It looks a lot like a bit of slime when it grows from the sporules in the skin of a tree. Full grown, it tumbles down to the soil where it starts growing. The slime transforms into a network of roots and tentacles, that can be as large as a whole valley. The most common thiubjohraiw are up to 100 years old and have, full grown a diameter of about 10 man span, but there are thiubjohraiw that are over 200 years old and much larger.
The network renews itself into a few directions. On one side, the one turned to the tree the thiubjohraiw was born from, the fungus is always dying, but the other directions grow. One direction might grow a little faster, when it is better nourished. This way, the thiubjohraiw changes and it looks like it walks over and under the surface of the earth.

In the Afteryear and the Oldyear, the thiubjohraiw grows mushrooms. These are small, brownish bulbs with orange spots on them. They look a lot like the more common Molikhilms, that are edible. The mushrooms that grow from the thiubjohraiw however, are edible but very dangerous. Eating such a mushroom gives hallucinations and often paralysation. Some people use it as a drug to become insight in the will of the gods, but most of them just drop over onto the thiubjohraiw. There, the fungus starts its feeding, its network of roots and tentacles entangle the fallen body and start feeding on it, even when it is still alive.
When not eaten, the mushrooms will shed their sporules to grow new thiubjohraiws.

Molikhilms

The Molikhilms looks a lot like the thiubjohraiw, with a small “helmet” of brown and orange. It is a good tasting mushroom that is used in many dishes served on Moliksday. It is said as a remembrance of the death and burial of Molik, the earth grows the Molikhilms in his honour. However, modern priests that do not consider Molik to be a god (but a mere folklore creature) claim that the Molikhilms and the thiubjohraiw are the same mushroom. The deadly fruits of the thiubjohraiw are the “proof” that Molik is an evil character from folklore.

Ynlifuntehûn

The Ynlifuntehûn is more or less the sporule of a toadstool like creature. As a sporule, they live like butterflies on the heaths and in the woods. About a finger long with bright coloured wings they fly in the open and feed on flowers, fruits and berries.
After Foorday, they fly into the direction of the zetilufta. The zetilufta is the mother-toadstool, that spreads an attractive perfume when she is ready to mate. The zetilufta can be the mother of the ynlifuntehûn, or might be of the same generation. In one generation only few ynlifuntehûn grow out to be a zetilufta. It is thought but not proven that a zetilufta is a child of two ynlifuntehûn who mate before they are attracted by the zetilufta of their own generation.
The ones who arrive first will land on the large “hat” of the zetilufta and are glued on her with the same substance that spreads the perfume. This “glue” turns the ynlifuntehûn into the right sex to mate and increases its libido. Those who come next and find no spot on the glue form a protecting shield over the zetilufta and the mating ynlifuntehûn.
During the mating, the outer layer of ynlifuntehûn dies, and the rotting makes their bodies glow. The warmth keeps the inner layers alive a bit longer, but eventually, all ynlifuntehûn die. The zetilufta is pregnant then, and the young ynlifuntehûn feed on the dead.
In the storms of the Afteryear the sporules are blown from the zetilufta, who no longer spreads her perfume. They will end on the heaths or in the forest, where they make themselves into pupa and will awake after winter to fill the skies of the forests and the heath with their sparkling wings.

The name of the ynlifuntehûn comes from the assumption that there are 1320 ynlifuntehûn on each zetilufta, in Tuggs, the language of the Naglani, this number sounds a bit like ynlifuntehûn.

The glue of the zetilufta is gathered and sold as a love-potion. It is said to attract men, but is also known as a fertility medicine. It is used in many perfumes that are manufactured in De Erflanden. However, the Naglani are not fond of the smell, and say it stinks.

The rotting corpses of the ynlifuntehûn that glow in the dark can be used as torches. Most people abhor the touch of the moving mass of dead, mating and feeding creatures, though.

The flying ynlifuntehûn are attractive for children and the light of heart. he sombre, depressed people in the towns try to cheer themselves up with a ynlifuntehûn in a large jar (on the Foors, large jars with some ynlifuntehûn are sold for about 10 Assar).
These jars are used to find the zetilufta with the valuable glue. Others spend Foorday in the woods and on the heath to see the ynlifuntehûn fly and gather to meet the zetilufta.