The mystery of fyre is one which has much occupyed my studies and the studies of men before me. ... I have concluded that fyre is the product of Fyre Antes. Professor J Klewlise, "On the nature and origin of fyre" (1542)
The mystery of fyre is one which has much occupyed my studies and the studies of men before me. Whence cometh this hot orange humour that speweth from logs? Many have proposed the existence of phlogiston, though I think this absurd that we postulate the existence of a substance we cannot yet isolate!
What then? In my own researches, where I have subjected logs to the most thorough and microscopic investigations, I have concluded that fyre is the product of Fyre Antes. These cureous creatures lyve in wood, dormant larvae, until such time as heat awakes them. Then they begin to devour the wood, turning it black and emitting the noxious and searing miasmas we see as flames.
These antes are too minute to be properly seen, and are best noticed as small orange speckes glowing in the fyre. Their owne digestive heat destroyes them, and in the end there are none left. But during the orgyastyck devouring of wood they also mate, releasing theyr young as spawn in a black cloud we see as smoke. When this landes on other logs it fertilises them and the dormant larvae grow inside, ready to performe their owne fyredance someday.
Professor J Klewlise, "On the nature and origin of fyre" (1542)
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- Insects (and Spiders and other creepy crawlies) ephemeralstability linked by MoonHunter
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I really like this idea.
A cool little post. I like the imagery you provoke with this. These creatures are background creatures that add depth to the setting and could be at the heart of some plot. Some alchemist or druid could use them to kill his enemies, just apply fyre infected wood to the wooden dwelling of your enemies and voila!
Wow. Not sure how to rate this one. On a personal taste level, I'm not a fan of overly done thees and thous, which I think this is a little guilty of, but it is very well written on a more objective basis and the puns are amusing. I don't see how this would every come up in game play.. you're basically saying wood burns because of what the ants do in heat. So I suppose then wood without fyre ants wouldn't burn? But the ants seem to be everywhere I imagine. As for sabotaging someone else's home with them, unless I understand the ants themselves do not create fire, unless you hold a torch to the house.
I believe the entire point of this is to insert it as a random background piece into your game world, to give your players a laugh. And in that respect, it works.
I agree CM. This to me seems to be a good attempt to recreate medieval 'scholarly' texts and to me he seems to be discussing the origins of fire in general, in much the same vein as frogs appear spontaneously from mud.
What val and CM said. I actually love these type of pseudo-science treatises!!