Stuff to Eat (or use) In Trithofar
STUFF TO EAT (or use) IN TRITHOFAR
So, I just got through eating my first pomogranate, and I liked it very much. But, I've discovered that you have to really want to eat one before you start to eat one. You have to be ready to get the juice all over you and to pluck about a thousand seeds off thing thing's innards before you are ready to eat one. However, the health benefits are extraordinary. Anyway, after I was done, my t-shirt looked like I had just murdered a smurf or a navi, and my teeth were full of crunchy seeds, but yay, I ate a pomogranate.
This got me to thinking about Trithofar again, and concurrent with me starting back on Drinna 2 (tentative title) I got to thinking about the edible things in Trithofar that would not be from Earth. While Trithofar has normal things, like apples, and peaches, and pigs and what have you, it also has some alien things, too, that we don't have. Here, as I brainstorm this afternoon is a list of things I've come up with that are not from earth and yet are edible in Trithofar. This is all just a draft, so I'm not really editing myself. I'm brainstorming here, trying to remember the multitudes of critters I've come up with a long time ago role playing out this stuff.
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Ambush Ant |
Ambush Ants: Very large ants that live in the Sea of Grass and which I have already discussed and shown pictures of on this and other sites. These creatures, if they can be caught, make a good and spicy stew, though.
Bitewall: Bitewall is a plant used to make candles that are repellent to insects. Kunjels light these candles in their windows at night to keep away flies, mosquitoes, and other pests. The bitewall, when burned, has a sort of bittersweet smell, and could be compared to cintronella.
Blagaroot: Mentioned in The Dust Finders. A root found in the deserts of Terrilia particularly. Blagaroot is known for healing properties, mostly, and is ground into medicines. It secretes a sticky substance to hold dirt around it, and it also has spines to hold it in place in the ground.
Cagulants: These are one of the Qwadro's curses for the world of Trithofar. It is believed this specific monster was first invented by either Ith or Lortho. Most scholars regarding the undead or the proxidead believe that this type of...thing...was created by Ith, the Lord of Chaos. Cagulants occur when two people stick together upon touching. Usually, the initial person to stick is someone who has caught a sort of spiritual 'disease' where he or she cannot afford to let people alone or leave them. The curse of Cagulance means that their flesh actually grows together into one, as though this curse were a mockery of the Bible verse: "The two become one flesh." More people attempt to help the first two, and they are stuck. Then more and more grow together until hundreds of people are permanently stuck together as one. The cagulant becomes, effectively, one organism, capable of moving only as the people are. Several theories abound about how cagulants came to be and how they are to be destroyed and whether or not they even still exist in Trithofar. Many think there is a limit to how many people can end up in a Cagulant. Others think that by killing the initial two people in the cagulant the cagulant will fall apart. The only way to completely kill a cagulant is to burn it completely up, or let it rot away entirely. The people in the cagulant remain alive until they all die of starvation or until they are killed.
Cannibalism: Nargs are known for being cannibals in Trithofar. They will eat anything that hasn't died from disease, isn't poisonous or poisoned, and isn't considered otherwise dangerous. Nargs stand about six to seven feet tall on average, and they will eat any type of meat they can find in their native forests and jungles, including each other and other sentient or sapient species. They are particularly found of killing and using Gincha, their rival species, for food, clothing, and other purposes. But Nargs are most notorious for eating each other. A Narg funeral consists of cooking and eating the deceased instead of burying him or her. They get particularly angry with Gincha because Gincha use all manner of poisons to kill their enemies, which make them inedible. To a Narg, it is considered an honor if you are considered worthy of being devoured at your death.
Continels: Continels are mutant monsters usually created by goblin fleshcraefters or chirugans. Usually, they are made by taking a regular animal and mutating and contorting it through magic. These beasts don't exist in nature, but are basically a type of golem or apparition used to kill or guard. Most things will not eat them, unless they are designed to be eaten. Some creatures are turned into continels that can withstand a huge amount of damage, therefore making them able to be eaten for a long time before dying, which is one reason goblins are considered to be awful creatures and not to be trusted.
Dremérrin: Dremérrin is among the strongest drinks Kunjels will allow themselves to drink. It is made from grass and grass grains, and has the strength of saki or tequila with the burn of fine sipping whiskey. It is powerful stuff, but the kunjels consider it high dishonor to be drunk, and being drunk among kunjels can get you arrested or even killed if you do something that endangers people. So, Kunjels often test their limits with the stuff. It is considered a rite of passage, particularly among males, to keep themselves under control after a certain amount of the stuff. Kunjels basically treat Dremérrin like some people treat LSD: they only drink it around responsible and trustworthy people who can make sure nothing bad happens as a result and can make sure they stop.
Driggits and other insects: The Kinto-Shah are big insectivores. They eat and use as many types of insects as they can find, raise, or collect and find a use for. The kinto-shah are known to use driggits, a larger and stranger version of a cricket, both as entertainment and as food. They also use them as thermometers based on their chirruping. Their chirps are predictable down to within about five or six degrees, and so Kinto-shah actually are among the first race to actually have a temperature guaging system in place. Unfortunately, as these creatures are living creatures, they cannot measure the higher and lower temperatures very well (that scientific honor belongs to the Gnoblins, who used other methods). However, driggits can also be used, in conjunction with other creatures, to provide a semi-accurate weather report. Kinto-shah have used insects in cages on ships to predict storms and humidity and temperature. They have also used it to predict wind directions in some cases, where certain insect creatures will face away from the wind in preparation to hop and fly. But Kinto-shah are absolutely known for making use of insects as a food source. Almost anyone can harvest them and do harvest them off of crops, and they are extremely plentiful, nutritious, and to the Kinto-shah are quite delicious. Kinto-shah particularly like locusts, crickets, driggits, beetles, grubs, some types of maggots, spiders, etc. They also use these creatures for divers other reasons, including their poisons, wax, laquer, etc. Trithofar also has magical insects included, which are used, well, for magical stuff. Of course, Kunjels and other Frosomians use clothspiders and clothworms of various sizes.
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Ek'luka Draft Picture (Wish I Could Draw Better) |
Ek'luka: Mentioned in The Dust Finders. Ek'luka are unsavory, yet valuable, creatures. They are found mainly as scavengers, and very rarely as predators. Usually, they follow behind caravans and travelers, waiting to eat their refuse, or to eat the unwary and unfortunate traveler. They are rather large, between the size of a big dog and a large wild-boar, have four legs and a long, extendable neck. Their head features a very hard and very sharp beak like a vulture or a hawk, but large enough, sharp enough, and hard enough to break rocks, and even break through bones. They are notorious for biting off children's hands when children are trying to feed them something, creating what are called onesides. The ek'luka is covered in a thick hide similar to that of an elephant or pig, which is useful for leather. Their bones are very tough and useful as tools. Their meat is edible, and as tastey, if not moreso, than pork. Their claws and beak are good for making tools, as they are notoriously difficult to break. Of course, their innards are some of the strongest known. Ek'luka tendons and gut strings are highly sought after not only as bow strings, but as musical instrument strings. It is near impossible to puncture ekluka guts, so they make very good bags and carrying implements.
Gek'liki: Mentioned in The Dust Finders. Gek'liki are a type of desert river worm that live in the East Terrilian Wastes. They are more like a cross between a snake and a salamander, but the people of the desert call them worms. They are a sort of dragonate creature, which means they descended from dragons in some form or another. The gek'liki most often dwell underground or just at the surface. They excreet a slimy substance that helps them cover their bodies with dust and dirt and whatever else they can find. Often, they will wallow in filth and feces to cover themselves. But the gek'liki are filled up with water. In fact, the majority of their core is water, surrounded with their tissue and musculature, organs and skeleton. They store water for themselves and are sometimes called "River Drinkers." When caught by the desert people, they are drained of their water first, and then the inside of them is used for a sleeve or for a stocking (when not too disgusting or when they can be cleaned). They are also edible, though few people wish to eat them as any sort of staple. Mostly, the desert people of the Terrilian Wastes feed them to ek'luka.
Gobbins: Gobbins are another breed of creature that takes things to use against their enemies. They are large reptilian creatures, about the size of a large-breed domesticated dog, but they, like Lorniks, move on two feet, sitting upright. They don't run, but hop around. Their most dangerous form of attack is by swallowing rocks, pieces of wood, or even bottles, coins, or other detritus left over from human beings and spitting them out at their enemies. They can spit as fast as a bow and arrow, and were it possible to compare in Trithofar, maybe even as fast as a bullet. They've been known to break bones with their projectiles. Sometimes, they have valuables inside of them, which makes them often hunted. Usually, all anyone ever finds inside of them is a bunch of rocks and sticks or glass bottles.
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Browngrass Gremlins |
Gremlins: Mentioned in Drinna, and further books I'm writing involving kunjels. Among kunjels, gremlins are more prolific, helpful, and tamed than dogs. They range from being the size of very small monkeys to just bigger than chimpanzees, and some wild mountain gremlins have been known to get as big as gorillas. They are extremely intelligent when bred and tamed and the kunjels use them as everything ranging from messengers, to beasts of burden, to hunting companion animals, to pets, to warrior beasts. Kunjel knights train them up and use them to carry necessary equipment along. A gremlin, to a kunjel, is basically as common as a family dog. However, there are several species of wild gremlins that can be dangerous to kunjels or merely pest species. These are eaten. Kunjels eat mostly the wild browngrass gremlin, which ranges all over the Sea of Grass, and is a staple meat source for almost every type of predator living in the Sea of Grass. They are as common as rabbits and reproduce almost as rapidly. However, unlike rabbits, gremlins are also predators and scavengers. They eat quite a few different species of animals, and will gather around in the night to eat dead carcasses as well. They travel in packs and can be quite dangerous in large numbers, though are commonly no bigger than a bonobo or very large spidermonkey. The kunjels were actually encouraged to hunt and kill them in the Drod days, which they were more than glad to do, seeing as Kunjels have known about the things from their homeworld since...forever. In Trithofar, they became a pest species and upset the ecosystem in Frosomia (the continent where Kunjels, Kinto-Shah, and Hials all immigrated to) until the kunjels hunted them back into balance.
Kinto-Shah Blue Wine: Made from the bluish-purple grapes found in Ish-Beréa in the Kinto-Shah empire, this wine is a peculiarity and a rare find. It is among the more expensive wines made, largely because of the difficulty in cultivating the grapes and because the grapes are thought to be near magical. The grapes are wild and grow in swamps and are peculiar for having juice that is rarely ever quite the same, but always delicious. The juice actually 'wakes' up the tongue and stimulates the 'pleasant' tastebuds only. The grapes actually want to be eaten, so the seeds will transfer, so the juice is almost addictive and tastes absolutely and always delicious.
Lem: Also mentioned in Drinna. Lems are like floating jellyfish. They hover along in the Sea of Grass and trail behind them about fourteen or fiftteen feet of paralyzing tentacles. Like many land-based predators in the Sea of Grass, lems eat gremlins, but lems will kill and eat just about anything that wanders into their tentacles, which makes travel at night in the Sea of Grass extremely dangerous. However, lems are very edible. It takes an expert hand to harvest them and eat them, yet they are very edible. The meat on the inside of their bulbous heads is a delicacy among kunjels. Another way kunjels sort of 'earn their keep' in Frosomia is to put up lem fences, and have invented them. The lem tentacles are rather delicate and rubbery, and so lems will not seek out ways to hurt them. Therefore, lems will not drag their tentacles over trees, or sharp thorns, or anything like. So, kunjels created barriers consisting simply of coarse rope, often with rusty pieces of metal or broken glass woven in, strung up between two large poles. The lems will usually fly between a certain level, and so a lem fence is a very easy way to keep them from getting in certain areas.
Lornic or Lornik: Lorniks are what scientists speculate bats will one day become in the far, far, distant future. They are large, land-dwelling creatures who walk primarily on two legs. Lorniks have large ears and almost no visible eyes to speak of. They hunt, like bats, by using very sophisticated sonar. Lorniks' ability to produce sound and have it bring back information is so developed, it is practically like seeing in color for them. Only creatures with very good hearing can hear them coming, though sometimes their calls sound like barking or chittering to the untrained or not-so-good-at-hearing. They hunt in packs, often finding, triangulating, and surrounding their prey before striking at once. What's more dangerous about them is that they have no particular hunting patterns. They can hunt just as good at night as the day time, and they only sleep when they are tired. Even so, the large majority of them hunt at night time or early morning, but they can be found hunting any time. Most of them are about as large as a human adult. They run on two legs, with a tail behind. They are stooped over and keep their dangerous and powerful forelimbs tucked up to their chests. However, they are edible, too. The elves (both L'wii and T'wii) have been known to hunt them as well as try to tame them. They are edible and quite tasty and their lack of needing vision to hunt makes them quite useful as guard animals and trackers. Their size means they yield a lot of meat, almost as much as wild boar, too. Elves have not entirely gotten them to the level of domestication common among the gremlins of Frosomia, but some elves have managed to get a tame pet of one here and there.
Luskfruit: Common in the Sea of Grass and pretty much everywhere in Frosomia, the Lusk fruit is a simbiotic, edible fruit. The inside of a ripe lusk has fruit, but it also has worms that are supposed to be eaten. Flies lay eggs inside the lusk fruits and the eggs are ingested by the eater of the fruit. Kunjels enjoy lusk fruits for stomachtickling received when eating them. The worms grow inside of someone's stomach, and then are ejected during defecation. The worms are not parasites. They eat only some of the 'leftovers' inside their host before they are ejected. In the process, they ingest also the seeds of the fruit, but do not digest them. When they leave, the worms take the fruit with them into the ground and plant them underground. The seed thus has a protected ride through the digestion tract and into the ground without being eaten by anything on its way, if all goes according to plan. As previously mentinoed, kunjels call these things various names, like Ticklefruit, Stomach Wigglers, and Cleansing fruit. The worms cause no problem for the ingester whatsoever, except a tingling sensation.
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Maceweed (Old Picture) |
Magical Animals and Plants: There are a wide variety of magical animals in Trithofar which people have tried to eat/use in the past in Trithofar with varying degrees of success. Here is a list of such animals, what they are believed to contribute or their believed benefits.
- Alnomor: These creatures people seek out to catch because they will live with someone for a certain amount of time and preserve the person's life, provided the person does 'interesting' things. The alnomor will guarantee a person lives for a certain time period inside the supplicant provided the host does something to entertain and keep the alnomor with them. This can be very risky, considering the alnomor can choose to leave a person behind at random times AND considering what they might find interesting could be very dangerous or have lasting consequences.
- Fae: The Fay, Fae, Faye, or however the heck you spell it, are all creatures derived from pure magic. They come in many shapes and sizes and forms and are among the primary sources of magic. They range in intelligence and ability from sparks of singular power to nigh unto gods. They are often thought of as gods by many peoples, or servants of gods, but they are NOT GODS, nor are they DEMONS. They are magical creatures that exist in Trithofar for a time (however long) and eventually die, though their lifespans depend almost entirely on how they interact with the world around them and the magic in the world.
- The AAVIRI are types of Fay creatures that basically ARE gods. Some of them are worshiped as deities, and some of them had a hand in helping to create life in the universe. The AAVIRI are creatures that are very much like angels or demons in a japanese sense. They are spiritual creatures that exist to either thwart or help human beings. They take up either the position of guide or demons, either trying to help the Ultimate Good, aka The Highest, in his will OR they attempt to thwart and undo the plans of the Highest. They will become under the judgment of the Highest based on their behavior later on, and are under the Curse of Mysterious Ajudication in that they do not know what The Highest is going to do with them when the ultimate judgment comes, so they attempt to figure out the Highest's will and do it or attempt to overcome the Highest. As I have explained before on this site. Because they have seen some of the Highest's will, and some of what he judges. He has cursed the evil ones, but knowing exactly why and the limitations of the curses is what the "gods" have to watch for in the lives of the mortals.
- Othlegants: Othlegants are giant, troll creatures. They are nearly indestructible, and completely stupid. They are about the size of an elephant, with tusks like swords and limbs like tree trunks. They can be nearly broken down into pieces and survive, so they are almost completely unkillable. It is believed they were actually bred/created from a particular type of mountain troll and used as a type of guardian or workhorse. The Othlegant has an organ in its body that basically manufactures a healing potion that, when injected into the bloodstream of the Othlegant, allows them to regenerate and repair massive damage. Unfortunately, the use of Othlegant blood has met with varying degrees of success. There have been potions made that did as they were designed, but for every one of these, there have been several that have had very negative results. One particularly nasty side-effect might be called on Earth, the Akira effect, where the subject overgrew himself, basically becoming like a giant ball of cancerous tissue. Another, caused a person to age until they were practically nothing but a living skeleton and almost an undead. Even so, attempts to use Othlegants to find healing medicines still go on. Unfortunately, Othlegants only reproduce about once every couple hundred years, and they only have one offspring when they do.
Mefs: Admittedly, I lament calling these animals this name, because it sounds like meth. Oh well, live and learn. Mefs are, basically, giant rabbit-like creatures. They are ungulates, meaning they chew their own cud. They are known for eating just about all the different types of grasses without succumbing to several of the more poisonous kinds. They are about two times the size of the average bull. They are distinct, and odd, in that they can reproduce asexually. A mother mef can have offspring if she is able to eat enough and goes long enough without a mate. Mefs produce milk and are a source of milk for kunjels and anyone else who can raise them. Most of the time, mefs are fairly tame creatures, particularly the females, who are rather lackadaisical, unless they are frightened by some form of predator. The male mefs can be very aggressive and very dangerous if they perceive a threat. A male mef is almost always first to be born to a mother when any litter is born. The males grow faster and stronger than the females by far, and are highly aggressive animals. The females merely grow fat, and usually they cannot be eaten in large doses due to the amount of vitamin A and D stored in their fat; consequently, predators only attack the females when they are in large numbers, or if the females are young enough to be more meat than fat. Male mefs have a bony crest on top of their head and reinforcing bone structure in their necks and back, as well as a lashing tale with quills about as long as a man's arm. A mef lunge can kill, as the male mef can jump nearly fifty to one-hundred feet horizontally and smash into an enemy with tremendous force. Sometimes, they even try to land on an enemy and smother them with their weight. Their tales, when brought down or to the side, is like a hammer and the quills are fairly difficult to get out due to reversed barbs in them. Because of this, kunjels often hobble the males when keeping them in captivity, or kill and eat them, while keeping females for their milk. Kunjels are known to fight the males as a rite of passage and for food as well in a ceremony not unlike bullfighting. They kill the females only when they are passed reproducing age. Both are used to make hides and leather. Their bones can even be used as small shelters if hollowed out correctly. Their bones are also useful as weapons handles, tools, etc. Their innards are good for bags, strings, and etc. Their fat is rendered into soaps and oils. Their meat is often shared around in large communal eating festivities, etc. They are a primary prey species in the Sea of Grass, and vor, kunjels, hials, and humans all feed on them.
Needletrees: Basically, cactii. However, there are different types, and quite a few of them are edible. Quite a few of them are inedible, and quite a few more are good for water. However, there are others which are quite hallucinogenic. A favorite activity for the Dust Finder tribes in Terrilia is to deliberately mix hallucinogenic needletrees with non-hallucinogenic edible ones and watch the ek'luka stumble over themselves. This is also a very easy way to harvest ek'luka when it is necessary to do so. This practice was not mentioned in the The Dust Finders quite frankly because I just thought it up, but it will be mentioned in the sequel I write to The Dust Finders.
Sea Potatoes: Sea potatoes are not really grown in the oceans of Trithofar. They are instead grown out in the Sea of Grass. They are cultivated. They are basically like yams, and are a staple of many cultures' diets. Nothing special about them really.
Sea Rice: Rice grown in and around the Swamps of Ish-Beréa in Southwest Frosomia in the Kinto-Shah empire. Sea rice is also a staple in the area. It is not as easy to come by as other sorts of grains in the Sea of Grass, but good.
Sourgrass: Also found in the Sea of Grass, sourgrass is a useful substance for flavoring. There are several species of grass that could be called Sourgrass, but Kunjels have a particular type. This is often eaten because the kunjel either just likes the flavor, or to calm himself down a bit. It has a flavor that gets one's attention quite rapidly and makes a person's mouth feel as though it would turn inside out.
Struks: Mentioned in Drinna. Struks are semi-wild birds that nest in the 'shores' of the Sea of Grass, usually around pastures or villages. Struks are basically like large egrets. They are beautiful and plentiful, and they know well enough that most of the more dangerous predators do not come around civilization. Because of this, they usually lay far more eggs than they need to, and allow for Kunjels to harvest some of them. Kunjels have to find the nests at a time when the struks are not defending it, though, or they have to be careful. A male struk has a very sharp beak and usually aims for the eyes, throat, or other soft spots on the attacker's body. Though struks lay eggs year round, only the ones laid in the spring time are those that will usually hatch. Struks are, of course, also edible and are as good to eat as goose, or duck, or any other wild fowl.
Sweetgrass: Mentioned in Drinna. A source of sugar for kunjels, sweetgrass is edible grass that is grown and cultivated in the Sea of Grass. It is used in a variety of ways, including sweetening teas and coffees, as well as just eating raw. It is used to make sugar, too. It is so plentiful and easy to find, however, that it is not worth much until it is refined into sugar and sold.
Tanglers: Tanglers are a difficult creature to classify. They seem to be a lot like plants and animals both. They have many different 'vine-like' branches that go in every direction and which the creature can use to grasp and hold things. But, they also have a head and main body, complete with a mouth and certain sensory organs (not necessarily eyes and ears, but...something). They also have teeth. These may be the creatures from which Maceweeds were first created. Tanglers are peculiarly intelligent, in that they understand the concept of weaponry, but not much else. They understand that using their prehensile branches and arming them with some form of weapon means that they get better results in finding food. Consequently, Tanglers will steal any weapons or armor they get their branches around and through and use these things to find more food, so these things can be found on them. Tanglers are most common in swamps where they set an ambush for victims.
Treepigs: Treepigs are like a combination between giant spiders and three-toed sloths and a giant gerbil. They are mammals, but they have long legs that are very flexible and almost ape-like hands. Their bodies are like a very large rodent, like a chinchilla or a gerbil, or hamster, except they have a pug-nosed snout and some species even have tusks. They are very edible and quite easy to kill for hunters with bows, while they are very difficult for predation by direct contact. Like the three-toed sloth, they are not fast moving, preferring delicate climbing skills and difficult terrain as a form of protection from their enemies rather than speed. Often, the l'wii and t'wii elves will hunt them and kill them when they can't kill and eat other things. Whereas they are a staple for these two forest-dwelling cultures, they are by no means the tastiest things in the forest, and they do not have a great deal of meat on their bodies.
Thoughtweed and other meditative plants: Thoughtweed is what kunjels call certain incense. This would also include such things as purrweed. Thoughtweed is any type of grass that the application of which (particularly with smell) is helpful to calming the rage or simply calming someone down. For humans, similar plants, depending on taste, might include: jasmine, lilac, gardenia, or things like that. Kunjels employ these plants in their thoughtrooms and in meditation parlors and when heated debate is necessary. Very commonly, they are used in a situation where an inferior has to disagree with a superior. It aids in focus and keeps the conversation calm.
Trottels: Mentioned in Drinna. Trottels are like a combination of crab, hermit crab, lobster, and giant spider all rolled into one. They primarily dwell in holes in the ground, particularly holes dug out of the sides of ravines or canyons in the Sea of Grass. They have four mandibles, each tipped with a poison fang. They have only one main body section with anywhere between eight and ten legs, which are flexible enough to extend and bend in just about every perceivable direction. They are ambush hunters and will wait for something to come near their nest, at which point they lunge out and attack it. They are quite delicious when cooked, tasting like seafood. However, hunting them can be dangerous, and so they are a bit of a delicacy. They cannot be raised or tamed, either. Kunjel hunters have to train their gremlins to move near the nest and be ready to shoot at them, or they have to drag a carcass near enough to the nest to lure the creatures out. Trottels can get quite big, also, ranging from having a body about the size of a basketball to having a body about the size of a motorcycle. They are mostly solitary creatures, meeting each other only for the purpose of mating, and only by a complicated and delicate ritual whereby the male practically has to capture and subdue the female in much the same way as they are lured out by food. The female would otherwise eat the males, and the males would eat the females, too, were it not for their desire for reproduction greater at the time of mating.
Wishberries: Wishberries are not found often, and are not what the name of the things suggests they are. Sometimes they are nicknamed Dreamberries or Desiries. Basically, these berries are growing on pure mystroskus and therefore have unpredictable magical powers. If a person eats them, weird things can and often do happen. They are usually known by the fact that the skin of the berries are luminescent and change colors. It is believed that the most common types of wishberries were originally supposed to be blueberries or redberries, but get changed by the direct contact with mystroskus. It is completely unable to be predicted what will happen when wishberries are used.
