The term “girasol” originally referred only to the towering flora of the Pan-Feric region, discovered in 465 by noted explorer Jackenpost Lufton and named reportedly after his mother¹, a woman of towering height and massive armspan. In recent years, however, the term has also been applied to the narcotic vapors released from the leaves of the Girasol tree after they have been steeped in a solution of water and tarwing droppings, left to dry, shredded, wrapped in alchemical paper, and then smoked. The legislative branch of the Grand Duchy of Kroon² has attempted to tax alchemical paper in order to decrease the proliferation of its use with Girasol leaves, but this has proven unsuccessful in combating the spread of the narcotic.

Recently, alchemist and adventurer Grayson Dawes published a paper attesting to no less than thirteen medical applications for Girasol, including as a surgical narcotic, and with the leaves in their original state, as superlative bandages. The winner of a recent staged performance of Project Take-Things-We-Use-For-Other-Stuff-And-Make-Them-Into-Things-You-Can-Wear ingeniously managed to make a wedding gown for the daughter of Duke Wells of Exerprad out of Girasol leaves, dyed a violet the color of the highest social strata of Fengaks.³

As deforestation becomes an issue, naturalists are attempting to plant Girasols in the foothills of the Nihumet Range?, an environment closely approximating their own natural habitat, but as the Girasol requires 600 years to reach maturity and spout leaves, this is a long-term project with as-yet no true results.

¹ A recently unearthed letter from Mrs. G. Lufton to her son seems to bear out this fact. It reads, in part, And then you had the nerve to name a tree after me? You ungrateful buffoon! I curse the day the midwife pulled you from my loins. If your father were here… etc.

² Named Albert, he has been working for the royal personage of the Grand Duke for a remarkable 165 years. Ostensibly, his job is to write down the laws enacted by the Duke, but his declining years and lack of mobility, not to mention his decreasing ability to hear the pronouncements of the Duke, have led to a number of strange laws being put forth. See also The Gsshuh-Smaa Treaty and The Ban on Frrrrrrrrruh.

³ Despite the Duke’s urging, the designer was not beheaded after his daughter was subsequently kidnapped by Fengaks and made their queen – a remarkably short-lived reign, as she attempted to change from her wedding gown into something slightly more comfortable for bedtime and was poisoned to death on revealing the true color of her skin.

For additional reading, please see entries on:

• The Ban on Frrrrrrrrruh
• Exerprad
• Grayson Dawes
• The Gsshuh-Smaa Treaty
• Jackenpost Lufton
• Nihumet Range?
• Pan-Feric
• Project Take-Things-We-Use-For-Other-Stuff-And-Make-Them-Into-Things-You-Can-Wear

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