The Firecap, the mushroom that shoots back
The forest in Forgotten Eras is not only trees. Things grow on the ground between them, and some of them have opinions about Ivan. The Firecap is the rudest of these. Walk into its range and it fires at you.
Fire in the woods
The tales are full of fires in the forest that are not quite fires. A light seen between the trees at night could lead a lost traveller home, or lead him into a bog. On the night of Kupala, at midsummer, the fern was said to bloom for one moment with a flower of fire, and whoever found it would find treasure, if the spirits let him keep his wits. The Firecap takes that idea of a forest light that might guide you or mislead you, and gives it a temper.
The name points at the brightest fire in Russian tales, the Firebird, whose single feather could light a dark room.
A trap and a test
Most plants in the game are neutral or helpful. The Firecap is aggressive. When Ivan comes within range it launches fire projectiles, so you can walk straight at it and take the hits, or read the rhythm and time your approach. It works as a trap and as a test of patience at the same time.
It also tells a story. Its fire is the corruption and dark magic of the cursed forest, made visible.
The Firecap in 3D, from the first grey sculpt to the finished cap in flames.
Charred cap, glowing gills
The art notes for the Firecap say the cap turns dark and charred, throwing off sparks and flames, and that the glow around it should read as hostile. The pencil stages fix the silhouette first: a heavy, wavy cap with a curl of flame on top like a candle wick. Colour adds the burnt purple-brown cap, cracks of orange light along its edge and the pale glowing gills underneath. In 3D the cap became a sheet of moving fire over a striped yellow stem.
There is a gentler plant in the same forest: the Veela flower, which makes Ivan fast.
Sources: the Forgotten Eras design sheets for the Firecap. A. N. Afanasyev, Russian Folk Tales, No. 168, "Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf". A. N. Afanasyev, The Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature, Moscow, 1865 to 1869.
