Regarding Black Lotus
A request to research into the sources, locations, and trade of the herb known as ‘black lotus’, known to have once grown in Imperial lands in or near night regios.
Announced by Severin Teyhard von Holberg as Minister of Historical Research, Autumn Equinox 383YEOverview
The big obstacle facing the Department of Historical Research in compiling this report is that we have been able to find almost nothing about a herb called Black Lotus. There's certainly no record of a plant that fits the name growing wild in any part of the Empire, or being cultivated by Imperial citizens. There's also nothing reliable to point to the supposition that it grows in the vicinity of Night-aligned regio. There are certainly peculiar plants associated with regio of all stripes - such as realmsroot - but nothing that feels like it matches the intent of the historical research commission.
The Druj
There is one reference that shows up repeatedly. There are several historical references to Druj - generally prisoners captured in the Barrens at various points - who have mentioned Black Lotus. At first it appeared to be only a valuable and rare herb, perhaps equivalent to realmsroot. Further investigation though has brought to life some obscure references - one in the journal of a Highborn military captain from the reign of Empress Brannan, and one from a much later letter written by an archivist at the time of Empress Giselle.
The Druj of course are the self-proclaimed masters of the herbal arts. The barbarians are known to be ruled by their master herbalists - their buruk tepel - whose mastery of the apothecary arts seems to rival, or in some cases potentially even exceeds that of the Empire. There is ample evidence, however, that these buruk tepel actually cooperate with each other only when they absolutely have to, and that they jealously guard their own secrets from each other.
The account from the reign of Empress Brannan involved a freed slave who was encouraged to talk about what life under the Druj was like. Some details of this discussion provided the first information about Druj society that the Empire takes for granted today. The Highborn military captain Libennon of the White City wrote about the discussions in her journal, recording many of the harrowing details of living as a slave in the Mallum. Black Lotus is mentioned only once - in reference to the buruk tepel who will pay almost any price to lay their hands on it. There was a rumour among the slaves that anyone who found a Black Lotus - a flowering plant that floats upon the surface of the water with petals of deepest sable - would not only be freed but exalted by the buruk tepel. The journal does not record whether there was any further discussion on this topic - the plant isn't mentioned again in Libennon's writing.
In the reign of Empress Giselle, a letter from an archivist involved in the fighting at Holberg mentioned an encounter with a small group of elite Druj orcs scouring the Morass clearly looking for something. One of the orcs survived the ensuing altercation, and shortly before dying of their injuries, spoke deliriously of a "special quest" they had been set by their het. They had been dispatched to chase up rumours of a Black Lotus in the depths of the marshes, because it would allow their clan to become recognised as among the rulers of the Mallum. The Highborn didn't attach any particular significance to the name, but if the Druj wanted it they assumed that the Empire did not want them to have it, and engaged in a cursory search of the area where the orcs had been encountered. There was no sign of any special plants, but the possibility remains that they either were unsure what they were looking for, destroyed it in the process of trying to find it, or more likely there was nothing there to be found in the first place. (As an addendum added by Leontes the Scribe, it should perhaps be pointed out with the commencement of the Siege of Holberg in 346YE, the Druj would have had some thirty years or so to search the Morass. If there was any such herb there, it is very unikely it is still to be found there.)
Obviously the Druj are extremely secretive at the best of time, and hardly unwilling to share their information with Imperial scholars. However there was talk half a decade ago of a Druj herbal, a book of Druj herbal craft that was taken from the buruk tepel of the Stone Toad during the liberation of Reikos in 379YE. Two copies of the book were created - one for the Highborn and one for the Imperial Orcs - but the researchers of the Department of Historical Research were unable to track any further details down. If it still exists, it is likely this may prove to be a vital document in discovering more about Black Lotus.
One final note, a more contemporary one. One of the Department researchers took a trip out into the forests of Misericorde to speak to the Sand Fishers with the assistance of a bishop who had been helping to build trust between the orcs and the people of the League. The Sand Fishers did not know much, although they were able to confirm that Black Lotus is considered priceless by the Druj. Furthermore, there is a law among all those who live in the Mallum that proscribes the possession or use of Black Lotus to anyone who is not a buruk tepel on pain of torment and death. A Navarr civil servant provided a similar report from the orcs of the Great Forest in Therunin; they believe that all the clans of the Druj, no matter how fractious they might be on other matters, allegedly enforce this same rule without mercy or exception.
The Other Orcs
If the Druj know about the Black Lotus it is entirely possible the other orcs may have an inkling of its purpose or location as well. There are a few historical references, but they are even rarer than those relating to the Druj. The mystics of Ishal in Kallavesa have a fragmentary record of a herb called Ancestor's Breath which is apparently one of the only herbs that is forbidden by the Jotun to their thralls. It is apparently only for the use of the ghodi, grows in water, and is described as "hued as the night of starless quiet". The reference turned out to be part of a barely readable record from the Highborn "prophet" Malachy who spent some time in the marshes of Kallavesa in pursuit of visions of the future. There's no suggestion the Black Lotus has anything to do with Malachy's researches, but the mystics were of the opinion it had something to do with Jotun spirituality - but the documents that might have confirmed this had been lost in a minor flood.
If the Jotun know of it, it's not impossible that the Thule and the Grendel do as well. Even though they are recognised as foreigners, both of these nations have rebuffed queries from the Department of Historical Research. Interestingly, shortly after a polite note was delivered to the Department declining to discuss the matter further, a short letter from Saltbinder Grekodh - leader of a coven of magicians who claim the Isle of the Osseini in Feroz - arrived enquiring as to whether the Empire had come into possession of Black Lotus and if so would they be interested in selling it? The Department has not followed up (as such negotiation would be beyond their remit), but the Minister might wish to do so - or to seek information through other contacts with the major orc powers.
Imperial Accounts
This lack of knowledge, incidentally, does not appear to be part of Nicovar's legacy. There have been two previous requests to the Department for information about Black Lotus. The first was made in 154YE, more than five decades before the libraries were burned, and a copy of the document now kept at the Grand Library of Canterspire was examined as part of the process of preparing this report. There was even less information about Black Lotus than there is here - no primary sources and nothing more than a rumour that the plant is some kind of flower that flourishes rarely and only in "night black water" - which might conceivably be where the connection with regio might have begun. The second request, for information on Ancestor's Breath sixty years later, failed to find anything of relevance and is mentioned here only on the off-chance that there is a connection between the two herbs. The Senator for Kallavesa who raised the motion apparently did not share the document - this was long before the current policy of making historical research reports available to any Imperial citizen.
So there does seem to be evidence that Imperial scholars have never possessed any useful information about this herb - which seems to be priceless (or at least extremely valuable) to two orc nations on completely opposite sides of the Empire.
Other Lands
There is one mention of the Black Lotus from the Sarcophan Delves. An Imperial trader, a member of the Purple Sails called Zara i Luss i Guerra, was arrested in late 379YE by the Sarcophan authorities on suspicion of theft. They were held for two weeks and questioned at length about a rare herb that had been stolen, which the Sarcophan called Tranquil Dream, but said was known in the Empire as Black Lotus. The herb was apparently the property of a bedelaar huisbar, and had gone missing in some complicated deal of which Zara claimed to no knowledge.
There appears to be no knowledge of the herb among the Sumaah, the Asaveans, or the Jarmish - at least not by the name of Black Lotus. A few narcotic preparations claim to use an exotic ingredient called "black lotus", but investigation in each case has shown this to either be fanciful hyperbole, or a reference to a more common plant with mind-altering properties. The Sarcophan Delves, perhaps surprisingly given their own advanced mastery of apothecary arts, claim not to have access to Black Lotus despite the incident with Zara i Luss i Guerra mentioned previously. There is however a note from a member of the Kruidenkenner working in Necropolis that the plant is believed to be extremely rare, grow only under carefully controlled conditions, and to hold "the secret of immortality" - although in what context they declined to say. As with the Grendel, they inquired if the Empire had recently come into possession of any and if so would they be prepared to sell it?
The only nation that did seem to have any particular knowledge of Black Lotus was the Commonwealth. A Zauberer visiting the Empire to study at the Lyceum happened to overhear two scholars discussing the matter during a brief visit there to consult the library - we were still at that time pursuing the possibility that the plant prospered only at Night regio. Apparently there is a herb much sought after by some of the orc citizens of the Commonwealth which they call the Mind Blade - a black flower that grows only in water and "never fades". It is only a comparatively small number of orc citizens, and they have a reputation for being stand-offish, but the similarities to other reports should not be discounted.
Recommendations
Eilian Sweetwater did most of the work collating this report, and wishes to go on record as apologising for how little is known. His recommendation is that the simplest explanation as to why the Empire might not have very much information about Black Lotus is that it has been, for most of its history, a human Empire. Everything uncovered - little as it is - points to Black Lotus being something that is used by, and of use to, orcs.
Challenging as it may seem, should the Empire wish to know more there are two obvious avenues of continued research. The Druj herbal could be tracked down and examined to see if the buruk tepel of the Stone Toad recorded anything about Black Lotus. Alternatively, ambassadors might make contact with the Thule, the Grendel, the Jotun thralls. Perhaps one of the septs freed from the dominance of the Druj now living in Skarsind could be approached - the Yerende consider themselves masters of herb lore after all - but most likely after the latter have joined the Imperial Orcs (assuming that ever happens).