Humus

Assignments: life, growth and decay, plants, nature, earthiness, confidence and hope, growing up and aging, compassion and grace, healing arts

Counter Element: Ice

Attribute: Intuition

Colors: green

Associated Deities: Ankhatep, Arngrim, Peraine, Mailam Rekdai, Mokoscha, Nurti, Rikai, Satuaria, Sumu, Tsa

Wanderstars and Constellations: Planet Simia, the Elven Star, the Star Satinav, constellations Stork, Lizard, Harp and Chalice

Seasons: Peraine month, spring and autumn, Earthday

Hesindian Art: painting

Minerals and Metals: agate, green jade, hematite, lignolite, malachite, emerald; no metals (as material stolen from the earth), instead horn, teeth and bones of various kinds (ivory, mammothon, horns, turtle shells…)

Associated Substances: puff, flowers and plants, dryad hair, forest animal fur and trophies, floraad flowers, fresh wood, fruits, resin, medicinal herbs, bugs, compost, natural foods, organs, fungi, seeds, worms

Special Locations: Citadel of Humus, Realm Forest, Elf City Simyala, Bloodelm Argareth, Sanctum Al’Zul, Living Forest and Tree of Creation, Globule Zze Tha, various Mythic Forests

Major Elementalists: Grandmaster Panuri Vennerim, Arbogast the Old, the steppe elf Ariana Unicorngreeting, Magister Jalal ben Rocha, the ship mage Kharima saba Meriban, Taînobhal Totenamsel (the Red Arrow)

Humus is the element of life. It includes the wood of ancient trees, the earth teeming with creeping life that spreads on cold rock, the life-giving crops of the fields, the plants and animals of the rainforest, and the first flowers of spring struggling through the blanket of snow. Like no other element, humus interacts, influences and is dependent on and finds its place among the other five elements.

Humus embodies the cycle of life: it brings not only growth but also decay, without which no new life could arise. It stands for the changing of the seasons, for youth and old age, but also for grace and compassion, for hope, but also for sadness.

Above all, however, it is the 'grounded' properties that are attributed to humus: cosiness, down-to-earthness, tradition and diligence. Painting is considered the art of humus. Its treasures include green jade and precious plant products such as resin, medicinal and useful herbs, precious woods, colorful flowers and their seeds. While metals have little in common with humus, the woody lignolith, as a symbiosis of ore and humus, is also attributed to the element of life. Animal products such as ivory, horns or skins are also to be understood as gifts of humus.

Over the eons, the cultural workers of Aventuria have regarded many gods as the patron saints of life and thus of hummus. In the belief in the twelve gods, these are mainly Perraine and her month of growth, but Tsa and Ifirn are also occasionally associated with life, and with witches also Satuaria. In times past, it was Ankhatep among the Urtulamids and Nurti among the High Elves whose principle of nurdra (life, growth) in contrast to zerza (decay, death) shapes the elven worldview to this day. In addition to divine beings, many of the legendary animal kings and fairies are also associated with hummus.

Above all, magic ascribes the magica curativa to the hummus, sometimes also the magica mutanda. Alchemy and the brewing of potions by witches, shamans and druids use not only the greenish gemstones agate and malachite, but above all all the numerous plants and herbs that grow from the hummus, as well as alchemical substances extracted from the earth, such as resin, pitch, resin or mastic.

A number of mythical places are associated with the element of life, including many forests. The citadel of Humus is also said to be in 'Ras Tabor' in the middle of what is probably the largest forest in Dere - albeit in the distant Gyldenland.

The opponent and lord of the unhumus is undoubtedly Agrimoth, the desecrator of the elements, through whose work entire landscapes were reshaped under horrific demonic influences.