Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26149161-20170702233046

Mae govannen, mellyn-nin! Before I begin this suggestion, note that I will be at camp for the next week, and have absolutely no online contact. As such, I will not be able to reply to any comments.

This suggestion is concerned with the ingredients of Lembas and how, as detailed in The Peoples of Middle-earth, it was produced. No, I am not suggesting that Lembas should be craftable. In fact, that runs entirely counter to the lore given in the text.

The Corn
Lembas is made with a special kind of corn, which I will call "Ivanniaw", which is "Corn of Yavanna" in Sindarin. The name must have been Sindarin, to survive the Ban Upon Quenya instigated by Thingol, if it was made by his wife.

This corn would be found only in Lothlorien and rarely Lindon, growing in an uncommon subbiome called the Sunlit Glade. This would be a bright, beautiful clearing with Ivanniaw growing in it. Many guards would be found here, for the corn is precious.

Destruction of the corn would cause, similarly to Dorwinion, alignment penalties and guards spawning. The defence of this corn would be far more aggressive, however--break more than one and you are done for. Furthermore, if an evil player attempted to eat the corn, they would recieve a (potentially fatal) poison effect.

The corn can be planted by the player in tilled earth. It grows very quickly, and in fact speeds up the growth of all plants near it. However, it is incredibly sensitive to tree-shadow and will not grow beneath non-Mallorn/Lairelosse trees.

The corn can only be picked by a new(always female) farming NPC, an Ivonwen (p. Ivonwin). They spawn in the Sunlit Glades and are hireable by a miniquest. The Ivonwin are the only ones who can handle the corn, and do not wield hoes, but use their bare hands to till and pick.

Ivonwin would not deposit the ears (though they would the haulm or roots, which are also a product of the plant) in chests, nor give them to the player. Rather, they would make of the ears a meal, stored in baskets made of the haulm (which the player can craft out of haulm). They would then, through secret, sacred arts, make the ''lembas. ''None but the Ivonwen would be permitted to handle the ears or grain.

The Bread
But it's not over yet. The player could only aquire this lembas from an Ivonwen with +1000 alignment and at a price of silver and an offering of elanor and niphredil. This may seem tedious and cumbersome, but it is in fact both lore-friendly and balanced--lembas should be hard to get.

''Ithilion debuffing the elves?? WHAT??''

Lembas was a rare gift, given only to hardy travelers who had the love of the Massanie, or breadgiver, and only extremely rarely to Men. Since Galadriel (or any other breadgiver characters, for doubtless Lindon had one as well) are not in the game, the Ivonwin must serve. I say it is unlikely Imladris had one, because there was none given to the Fellowship.

To the effect of its rarity, it should be removed from the structures of the Woodland Realm and Imladris, who had apparently no access to it anyway, and made incredibly rare in those of Lindon and Lorien. Traders from any faction should no longer sell it. The empty baskets, roots, and stem parts would however be findable or buyable.

Textures
I've made textures for this. However, the Wiki isn't letting me upload them for whatever reason. Here's a link to the Dropbox file. If someone is able to upload them in the comments, I'd greatly appreciate it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jd8oa5exbkccdvy/Ivanniaw.zip?dl=0

Thank you for reading this suggestion! As always, comments, Kudos, and constructive criticism is most appreciated.

Ithilion, Discussions Moderator (Auta i lómë) 23:30, July 2, 2017 (UTC) 