Firstly,

I would have to agree totally with Brunneng's post. Primarily with the
part about the Valerian shortage.

Long has Valerian been a rare plant after, many years ago, people
decided to strip the plants down to the minimum allowable level. Then,
people will walk past and see that there is one more leaf they can
pick..and keep it at the minimum allowable level. Valerian growth has
been stagnant for decades due to this simple fact. Also due to this is
the fact that there are people walking around with 700+ leaves of
Valerian, while the majority of people will never see such a large
amount, let alone have it. The requirement of Valerian, in many things,
from curing to health elixirs, though I would point out it is also used
in Caloric elixirs and Restoration salves, means that the few people
that do have large amounts of it, need to continue the "strip
harvesting" to keep their supplies of Valerian.

A better suggestion, Brunneng, though one that is quite hard to police,
would be the total halt of all harvesting of plants such as Valerian,
aye it is a rare plant..but so is Irid Moss and Bloodroot, both of which
suffer the same situation as Valerian. All that asking to stop for 12
months would do is enable the same concoctionists with large amounts of
Valerian to get even more Valerian, creating an even more unbalancing
system.

I can understand why this option would not be suggested..it requires a
lot of work to be done. But is not the state of the herbs of Sapience
worth this work?

Think on this, Concoctionists. While you harvest one valerian leaf from
a room..ensuring it doesn't grow.. Think on what you are doing, and why
you are doing it. Ask yourself, Is it worth it? Is it worth the time to
scrounge around for a leaf here or two leaves there.. just to get a
small amount of gold? Is it worth the effort to go and harvest a plant
into extinction, just to ensure another person has health refills?

And to the non-Concoctionists, I could ask you the same thing. Is it
worth the near extinction of a herb just so that you can move off and
kill the scourge of goblins and undead that fill Azdun? Or to massacre
the Mhun that make their living in the Mines of Moghedu? How can you
justify that? And what will YOU do, when there is no valerian and, thus,
no health refills? What will you do when your desire to hunt, be it
Goblins or what ever, has to be halted because you have not got the
means to sustain yourself?

Is it worth it?

Malhavoc O'Lyryus-Ohmsford

Penned by my hand on the 23rd of Khepary, in the year 114 MA.