Alcoral

The alcoral is one of those species that, similar to the vangola, were living in the ocean, and during the Rending, they were yanked from the seas when the Cutter rose and were mutated by the power of Absence. Now they live on trees, sucking their moisture and nutrients.

They can live on any tree, but they prefer those that have the highest sugar concentration within their trunk, like the fruit trees. They look like regular corals. They have a hard shell and the tiny polyps living within them. However, these polyps do not catch food from the air like their cousins from the water. The polyps the burrowing into the trunk of the trees and suck up all the moisture and nutrients they can from their host tree. However, they only use part of the nutrients and sugar they get from the trees. Their bodies went through another change during the Rending. They are capable of converting the sugar into alcohol. Hence their name. The alcohol then drains out through small holes at the back of the hard shell.

Although there are wild alcorals, the valturo realized their potential quickly and now they cultivate the alcoral in orchards. Moving an alcoral colony from one tree to another is relatively easy. A small piece of the alcoral must be broken down and tied to the new tree until the polyps burrow themselves into the tree trunk. After that, nature will take care of itself, and the new colony will grow by itself.

First of all, the alcohol must be collected. That is quite easy, because the only thing the valturo needs to do is to cut small channels into the bark of the trees and collect it at the end of the channels. Only a small part of the alcohol is consumed by the valturo. Their bodies can’t process alcohol, so they only drink it during festivals. Most of the alcohol is sold to folks living on Gibora and Muaclun. It is a delicacy on both of those continents.

Sometimes, they add alcohol to cupcakes to give them a bit of a kick. But this is even rarer than drinking it because of the fear that hatchlings might eat the cupcake.