Yellow Jacket

Overview

The Moonmilk Fields are one of the 100 Wonders of Hemera, an expanse of tall, silken grasses that stretch across a valley of the Wilds where no one bothers to build. The grass itself is unremarkable by daylight, pale and silver-green, waving gently in the wind. But when Neru, the eclipse moon, rises, the entire valley transforms. The blades of grass begin to glow with a faint blue-white light, soft at first, then growing stronger until the valley looks like a rippling ocean of stars.

The effect lasts only while Neru shines. When the moon dips, the light fades, leaving behind nothing but ordinary swaying grass once again.

The phenomenon has baffled naturalists for centuries. The grass does not respond to the sun, nor to the other three moons of Hemera. Only Neru's light, the faint, black-tinged glow that appears during eclipses, calls it to life.

Geography

The Moonmilk Fields lie in a remote valley technically mapped within Green Zone borders but left unclaimed. The land holds no farms, no mines, no strategic fortresses. There is no practical reason for anyone to occupy it. The soil is too shallow for agriculture, the terrain too open for defense, and the phenomenon too fleeting to exploit.

It is, in every sense, a place of beauty without value. Which is perhaps why it has survived untouched.

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Ecological Interest

The only persistent study of the Fields comes from Dr. Jon Jay, a famed but eccentric ecologist who devoted much of his life to Hemera's stranger plant life. While the Neuman once harvested samples to decorate their fortress with glowing ornaments, the project was quickly abandoned. The grasses died outside their valley, their glow lost.

Dr. Jay. alone still visits, recording the phases of Neru's light, cataloging how different growths of grass respond. To him, the Fields are not just another curiosity but a personal devotion. His journals describe the glow in near-religious terms:

"When Neru breathes across the valley, the world exhales. It is not light we see, but a memory of light, caught in grass that remembers the sky."

Among his peers, this obsession is seen as a pet project, more poetry than science. But he has argued tirelessly that Hemera's beauty is as worthy of study as its utility.

The Grass

The grasses themselves are slender, almost reedlike, their blades coated with a faint waxy sheen. Under normal light they are pale, almost white, but when Neru shines they shimmer with bioluminescence.

Key traits:

Moonbound Glow: No other celestial body provokes the light. Neru's glow is essential, though no one knows why.

Fragility: Once removed from the valley, the grasses quickly wither, their glow extinguished.

Cycle: The grass grows in seasonal waves, reaching full height in late summer when Neru's eclipses are most visible. In winter, the valley becomes barren, its glow absent.