Shambog

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Shambog is a nutrient rich plant that grows in temperate to cold swamps. The plant grows on the surface of waterways, pools, lakes and even rivers. It is a very buoyant plant that is made-up of vines, leaves and varying colored flowers. When colonies of them merge, they can cover a vast area. This happens frequently in the Troll Bogs where millions of these plants will link up and block the channels cutting through Belnêth.

Shambog is native to the world Throndar. It was brought to the world Bal-Kriav with the opening of the Radullu Rift. It has since spread to a few regions of the world.

The buoyancy of a million or more shambogs cannot be underestimated. In the Aerie of Dragons, the people of Lum Trumgol Mir and Zomaar Yelvaad build their homes, towers, walls and entire cities on shambog islands. Drenvun is another area where shambog is used to support large floating settlements. Together, masses of this plant serves as foundations for structures and provide a limited mobility for less weighty structures. Shambogs move about waterways on their own. They use their vines to pull the mass upriver or along streams, rivers, and lakes. They do this after an area's nutrients grow low or to escape something toxic. Humanoids and unknowingly some animals feed their shambog colonies with leftover foods, dead bodies, and other organic matter. As a result, they are able to keep very large colonies alive almost indefinitely.

These plants are not life-threatening to the fish, crabs, and other creatures that gain sustenance from the waterways. Shambog is nutrient-rich and airy, it doesn't sap the oxygen from water like some algae blooms. In the lands of the Zomaar Yelvaad, huts, towers, and even a city float on shambog. They are never without food, as shambog is editable and tasty. Carnivores are hard-pressed to eat this plant, but when game is scarce, I have witnessed dire wolves eating the stuff.

- Boglin the Sprite, regional report at a Glade Summit - "Shambog Villages"