Odrun Fell

The Varlas Conservatory is a lush exhibition garden for the Sprigs' elite, filled with specially bred insect species. This conservatory is maintained by an elite cadre of Barely caretakers and mages who cultivate rare arthropods known for different alchemical utilities. Some are silk-producing spiders with silk that shimmers with emotion-reactive colors, venomous mantises with toxins that would fetch for a fortune on the black market, and chitin armored scarabs with shells that any Ashcoat crafter would desire. Buyers bid on specimens through private showing lounges or offer their own exotic monster parts for breeding rights or other exchanges. Each deal is veiled in politics and often illegal, but between the Promissory and the Barleys, and enchanted contracts, the trades that happen within stay secret.

The Varlas Conservatory rises like a crystalline hive at the edge of the Sprigs, its domed roof crafted from overlapping panes of beetle-wing glass that catch the sun and scatter it into prismatic rainbows across the manicured paths below. Giant flowering stalks sway inside the structure, some blooming with lantern-sized blossoms, others crawling with glittering beetles or humming with silk-draped moths. The entrance is flanked by two living statues—massive stag beetles bred to remain perfectly still unless disturbed—while vine-wrapped pillars pulse faintly with bioluminescent rhythm, like a heartbeat woven into the garden itself. The scent of nectar and ozone clings to the air, accompanied by the whispering click of insect limbs in motion behind the glass.