Valanar or Lamp Plants

Valanar plants were a class of bioluminescent flora native to Milonia, having spread to parts of Ikharonia. These plants produced natural light in countless color hues. They were an integral part of certain cultures, such as Masorania, which partly lived around the nightworld. In other parts of Antoria, they were a mere curiosity, or a legend, rather.

Yonians brought some during the Revolutionary war, and during Pax Yanakhon, the lamp-plants became a commodity as a light source and even a cultural phenomenon, especially in larger cities, as they produced steady light without dangerous, smelly, and dirty flames, oils, or smoke.

Valorine

Valanar liquor was the concentrated form of the essence of the bioluminescent plants, and through a specific technique using wood ash or slaked lime, it could be dried into powder form. When added into an acidic liquid, commonly a sour juice, the essence activated, producing relatively intense light.

This powder extract could be stored indefinitely. It could be packed into vials and added to a flask using a wax stopper with a prepared acidic liquid to create a lantern that could be activated by single press. The initial flash was quite bright, and dimmed gradually over an hour or so.

Yonians developed spotlights using flasks with two valves for gradually replenishing the spent liquor, allowing sustained light.

Hair Bleaching

Mashed and soaked, the valanar plants could be used to make a liquor that could bleach hair and fabrics. This had long traditions in certain Milonic cultures, but Ikharonians were by far the most known folk favoring all variations of it. Because of this, they had earned the nickname Whitling, or Tharkhum (pale-folk) in Silvon.