: Man--you guys start talking about this while I'm asleep,
: and now it looks like I don't even care about this
: issue (HAH! If it has to do with Jmen, I'm all over
: it!). The idea that the mandrake root shrieks when you
: dig it up is from real-world, meatspace European
: folklore, which gave it pretty much the same powers as
: a voodoo doll (it supposedly looks like a human form,
: if you squint just right). It was believed to grow
: wherever a man had been hanged, which has all kinds of
: bizarre connotations in folklore, but none that relate
: to healing (as far as I can tell that's a Bungie
: original creation). Mandragora officiaorum, the actual
: plant, was used as a narcotic and a poison in Medievil
: times but was far too erratic in its effects (it
: tended to kill the people you were trying to put to
: sleep, and vice versa).
: Here's my take on the whole thing, for which, of course,
: I have no evidence: before the fall of Muirthemne the
: root was used as an anti-agathic (anti-aging medicine)
: by the Guard and also as a battlefield healing agent
: (they had two thousand years to figure it out--they
: must have noticed during an idle moment or two that
: you could heal a stab wound with the stuff), but this
: was a BIG secret since it was part of their mystery
: rituals. In all likelihood they shared it with their
: Emperor and his generals (i.e., Connacht, Myrdred and
: Damas), which explains how they lived so long, but
: that was it. Only after the sack of Muirthemne and the
: shaming of the Heron Guard did they decide to use it
: to help people in general since A) there was no more
: Heron Guard, and therefore no Heron Guard rituals
: (there were no initiations during the Great War), and
: B) in their shame the Jmen lost all of the Heron
: Guard's haughty arrogance and became friends and
: allies of the "common" man (which is also
: the explanation that Bungie gives for the shovel--the
: weapon of the common man or some such ridiculous
: thing).
: I think that a good session with a root would reverse the
: effects of aging, at least temporarily--certainly it
: made Alric hale and hearty sixty years after he
: defeated Balor. His hair became white, sure, but how
: many eighty year olds do you know (and this is before
: Geritol, mind you) who could put on full scale mail
: and whip Myrkridia butt with a lightning sword?
: To wit, "what brings about immortality in an
: exceptional person" means that mandrake healing
: reverses aging AND heals someone of big mana (mana
: here just meaning "personal power", not
: necessarily a big blue bar that floats over your
: head), while "restoring the vitality of lesser
: men" refers to the effect it has on everyday
: shlubs, who only got the benefit of it after the Jmen
: decided they, themselves, were'nt such hot stuff if
: they couldn't save one city. The root could always
: heal, they just used to be a lot more selective about
: how they used it on.
: Hey, a thought: maybe the mandrake plant only grows (in
: the Mythworld) in a place where blood has been shed in
: the last century or so--meaning it would have been
: pretty rare before the war (and the roots carefully
: hoarded by those in the know), but during and after it
: would pop up everywhere.
Yes, brilliant! This is a perfect solution! Thanks!
