A New Encyclopedia

[Gwaihir]

OOC:This is a random writing project I'm starting, do me a favour and don't add to it if you haven't talked to me

(I like Rune's idea of blue for ooc : )

 

:wigglycabbage: The Encyclopedia of Wiggly Cabbages :wigglycabbage:

General Overview: Wiggly Cabbages are irridescent, passive creatures that greatly resemble normal garden cabbages--but they wiggle constantly. A closer look will show that these creatures are not just a wiggly plants. On a basic, outside level they don't just move their leaves, they can move from place to place (via Telekenesis, they have no legs, and it would damage their roots to be walked on.) It is extremely rare for this to happen, though for the plants rarely seem to have the disposition to move.

This brings up another issue--These "plants" are every bit as sentient as you and I. Whether to move or not is indeed a decision that they make, and can discuss with their fellows. However, lacking a mouth, they speak via Telepathy. Since, they are able to speak with those who do not have telepathy, this enables them to communicate with all varieties of even partially sentient animals, and of course, humans.

 

Habits:

Wiggly Cabbages live in large communities, that generally spend all their time talking. No matter, how much any human tries to persuade a Wiggly Cabbage, or group there of, to come see the world they have no interest. If the patch that they grow in (for they do indeed seem to grow via sunlight, dirt and water the way other plants do) becomes unsuitable for reasons of too much shadow or unhealthy dirt they can move, but otherwise do not. These communities form the point of life for these cooperative creatures. If for some reason a Wiggly Cabbage was forced to remain alone, for instance, it suffered some damage that prevented it from communicating with others, it would quickly wither and die. This can cause some fairly simple tasks to become extremely hard. For instance, if drought strikes a region where they live it is very unlikely that these homebodies could manage to find their way to a more appropriate spot. A few try, and travel as a band toward some vague, half understood goal, but they usually do foolish things like smash themselves on trees when distracted from actual life by some pleasing conversation. For this reason, Wiggly Cabbages rarely survive a drought.

Although Wiggly Cabbages, will on occasion, manipulate their nonsentient surroundings, in furtherance of a goal, (not being eaten for instance) they will never force an interaction with a sentient animal that is not pleasing to it. They can feel mental fields, and detect thoughts, so they usually know what a creature does or does not want, and can not bear the anguish of an upset or frustrated mind. They will never declare war, but when attacked will defend themselves. They generally begin by repeatedly moving the attacking creature away from them. This is generally enough for any non sentient, or not very determined creature, but if any animal persists in their harmful intentions the cabbages will give out shocks.

This is rare though, the main use they have for their ability of reading minds is to find friends. They will hail passing creatures from miles away, if they think the creature might be willing to chat. In many places the local Wiggly Cabbage patch is the best source of gossip, and functions rather like a radio station. Similarly, any wounded creature is easily apparent to them, and so they will help (if they're able) or summon help regularly.

[Tyrion]

OOC: I write this with Gwai's approval.

 

The Beginning:

Although the Wiggly Cabbages themselves were not able to inform us of the way they were created, a mage posessing knowledge of a story that dates back hundreds of years was willing to share it with anyone who could prove his(her) friendship with the sentient plants. This man, known by the name Sorinath, has learned this tale from his teacher, who was himself an apprentice from the Order started by Slessar in an age long forgotten.

This is how Sorinath translates what he knows of the creation of the Wiggly Cabbages:

"Like every afternoon, Slessar was testing his young student Tarshina's mastery of basic spells.

'You can start today by showing me how well you can cast the Slow spell,' he said. 'Try is on that passing peasant.'

'I don't know,' replied the student. 'I've been very hesitant to test spells on people ever since the orangutan incident.'

'An incident like that would not have happened if you had stopped using contractions of words like I suggested so long ago. Wizards who use them have a tendency to do so in their spells as well, and that changes the results dramatically,' explained Slessar.

'Forgive me, I will try to stop.'

The event known as the orangutan incident had happened the week before. It is believed that while performing the routine demonstration of making a man fly, Tarshina mispronounced some words of the ancient language of wizards and instead of saying 'Wings you have not, but once this spell is complete, take a deep breath and flying you shall be.' she said 'Wings you need not, as once this spell is complete, your hair will turn red and an orangutan that will make thee.' Being the language of the wise, this form of expression is very concise and a minor difference in one word can change the meaning of all the others in the sentence.

After Slessar helped his student regain confidence, she agreed to cast 'Slow' on a nearby peasant. The spell was successful, and the poor worker continued chopping wood at a greatly reduced pace.

'Well done,' said the teacher encouragingly.

It wasn't until later that day, as Tarshina was casting her last spell, that Wiggly Cabbages were created. There are a few different stories of how this happened.

The first one suggests that it happened while she was trying to make the village idiot a smarter person. The latter, who shall remain nameless, had just caused the destruction of a statue in the town square, and was being yelled at by the villagers. Seeing this, Tarshina felt pity for the poor man and attempted to make him more intelligent. 'Useless and despised you shall be no more, because with this enchantment, your intelligence will soar' were the words that she aimed at the man, but as she did so, a young boy threw vegetables at the idiot, and the spell never reached its target. This event would explain why the Wiggly Cabbages are so wise, and it is believed that this newly acquired intelligence could have led them to try to expose more of their foliage to sunlight, creating an oscillating motion.

The second story would have happened as Tarshina saw a lonely and sad gardener at work and tried to cheer him up. This story also involves the village idiot, who was up in a tree shaking branches to get apples to fall to the ground. One of these would apparently have distracted the young wizard as she aimed her spell, making it hit a group of cabbages near the gardener. The spell also seemed to have been mispronounced: 'No more sorrow, let mirth take control of you, giggle and feel alive' were the intended words, but what was said was actually more like 'Do not be passive, do not let the earth control you, wiggle and be alive.'

Of course many more hypothesises were emitted by mages who refused to believe those two possibilities, but I do not have time to get into details right now."

Edited February 8, 2003 by Tyrion

[Gwaihir]

First Contact with the Wiggly Cabbages

 

"Few people have even noticed the Wiggly Cabbages, since they live in out of the way places and tend to hide themselves in protection spells, but to date a few people have now spoken with them. However, it is certain that the first one was a rather strange elf named Gwaihir. Given here is one of the most common tales about that first meeting.

 

Gwaihir was somewhat frustrated that day as he walked into the woods, because yet another lady had yelled at him for his manners, well and for bumping into her. But it's not as if he didn't pick up her packages for her after she dropped them and even tried to clean the spilt milk off her dress. He hadn't even torn her dress when he tried to clean it...like last time, so why did she yank it away from him and call him a wretched pervert and an idiot?

 

But the woods were beautiful and there nothing ever went wrong for him. He could safely admire the flowers without worries, because the trees always warned him before he could crash into them. It was hard to talk to flowers; they were always a bit too flighty to hold one idea throughout a sentence, but they were very poetic, so he always tried. There was a new flower off to the south they told him, so he wandered that way. It wasn't his usual area, but new friends are always good. Then he heard something very odd. It seemed rather like a plant version of a...of a radio station!

 

Now, since the Wiggly Cabbages didn't know Gwaihir they certainly woudln't have dropped their protection spells for him, so it's rather a mystery how he ever got through. The favourite explanation though, is that Gwaihir managed to waltz through the spells, because he just didn't notice them. He was so oblivious, in fact, that they had no effect!

 

Regardless, we may be sure that Gwaihir did get through and once he saw the beautiful Wiggly Cabbages he was spellbound. Once he had found them, it was easy for the plant loving elf to get a young one to speak to him. Young Wiggly Cabbages are always happy to find a new friend.

[Tyrion]

The Interactions between Wiggly Cabbages and Other Species

 

As you may have noted before, Wiggly Cabbages as a species rarely speak to strangers. Though most of their time is spent talking, those conversations are usually held with each other. Although they occasionally speak to passing elves, they usually only talk to peaceful, intelligent animals since no other sentient plants have been discovered to this day. There is only ony humanoid they trust almost as much as they would trust one of their own, and that is, of course, Gwaihir the Elf.

 

Most of their contact with humans or elves happens when a friendly adventurer stops within a few miles to rest, or when they give directions to lost thieves or murderers (in order to get them as far away from them as possible, of course). They have good memories of one particular wanderer named Tyrion. This particular elf was very interested in expanding his general culture, and the dicussions he had with Wiggly Cabbages were rather long and entertaining. Tyrion was very surprised when he first met the sentient vegetables, but he quickly grew quite fond of these interesting creatures, for they taught him more about wild life than any Wood Elf could. He, on the other hand, told Wiggly Cabbages news from the Elf and Humans cities he had recently been through.

 

The creatures Wiggly Cabbages talk to the most are actually animals intelligent enough to understand the thoughts of the cabbages. Rarely do they have conversations though, the animals do not usually care to talk back unless they have questions. The cabbages usually teach animals as much as they believe they can understand. That information, the gossip and the important news were usually transmitted in the form of broadcasts, much like a radio station, refered to as the Cabbage and Nature Network (or CNN). The Wiggly Cabbages were very serious about this, which explains why they were so eager to speak to travelers, who were their main source for news.

Edited October 27, 2003 by Tyrion