Popper

Summary

A tree fruit primarily aspected toward fire-type mana. Rarely are those who are so archetypal in what they do, the name really does say it all. The titular popper is a kind of fruit grown from sturdy trees, whose gleaming, metal barks are in themselves noteworthy. The fruits they produce are, contrary to expectations, exceedingly sweet and sugary. However, a ripe fruit will go from plump sweetness to a tight tartness as it matures. Shrinking and shriveling, it soon falls from the tree branch if it hasn't been eaten, and then explodes upon hitting the ground. This 'pop' then scatters the seeds, which birds eat and then deposit elsewhere on Veltrona.   By harvesting the fruit just before ripeness, the plump flesh makes for an ideal source of sugars. Mature trees produce year round and as long as people are watching, the popping fruit doesn't cause much of an issue. The explosion itself is actually significant enough to rip up veltron and destroy small rocks without much of an issue. The popper tree has long adapted to this problem, but good luck to anything else nearby. Some historical attempts had been made at weaponizing the maturing fruit, but that has been too unwieldy to do successfully.   Being a fairly universal sugar-producing prospect, the popper is eminently useful throughout history for most civilizations. However, the risks in harvesting the fruit are nothing to laugh at. Varying times of ripeness means a potential explosion at any moment, taking limb or life in the process. To make matters worse, the green leaves of the tree itself are stiff and sharp with metal, quite happy to slice into any kind of clothing or flesh. It can be nigh impossible to get to some fruit without being cut open in the effort. Because this incredible defense dissuades most animals, insects live en-masse within its canopy, a veritable haven for them. The risks, and those thrown at them, has made many deride popper-sourced sweets as 'blood sugar'.   Despite the difficulty in cultivating the tree, all sorts of rich and affluent people prop up the groves that operate them. To grow, the trees need metal-rich soil and a fair few decades. These metals then naturally deposit in the bark, hardening it enough to withstand its own fruit's destructive power. While not particularly special in any way, some take this as a sign of metal ores being in the area. Popper groves are then destroyed by extensive mining to acquire the metals instead of the fruits. It can be quite the problem for them, especially when sugar is in less demand because alternatives are available.   The other saving grace of the popper is its own concentrated fire mana. It is understandably difficult to find such a mana away from high temperature areas, which makes it a novelty for mages. How it does this is something of a mystery, as it defies most understood conventions of mana accumulation. Nonetheless, it doesn't care what anyone thinks, and so there it is. A number of groves, failing at sugar exporting, turn toward catering the mana-rich fruit to those who need that instead.   The history of exploitation around the popper tree usually makes it an unfavorable thing to think about. Worse, its temperamental fruit confer ideas of deception and explosive personalities. If it is brought up at all, it is to deride others and scorn them for the evil faults many attach to the popper fruit. Some have even taken it as a sign of rebellion, hoisting it upon flags against popper guilds and the workers they exploit.