Lorelle

Members of the Rose Cult, while more colorful than the better-known Blackwings, are no less skilled at using and abusing magic to get what they desire. Rose Cultists obtain membership by cultivating a parasitic rose-like vine in their bodies, allowing it to take over their physical form in exchange for enhanced magical power. The commitment is lifelong, as with the Blackwings, and the ritual of implanting the parasite often kills less-skilled mages.

Rose mages are looked down upon by other magic-users as embarrassingly extreme in their habits and embarrassingly uncoordinated in their outfits. With a reputation for putting the 'hedge' in hedge-wizard, rose mages are often found to have a prickly demeanor and a rather pointed wit. They dislike being derided for their practices and many will defend their use of the parasites as symbiotic, though far too many young mages have been strangled by their own roses for this to be truth.

Lorelle joined the Blackwings mages for the chance to pursue the study of symbiotic magical bonds beyond what the Mirrorlight Academies would allow. He found kindred spirits in the Rose Guild and quickly advanced to adept, earning his chance to acquire his own parasite. The implantation process was painful and carried great risk, but Lorelle survived- the same could not be said of all his cohort. His shade roses grant him the power to alter the chemical composition of a plant by editing its growth from seed onward. He can craft poisonous apples or induce venomous thorns on a shrub, as well as enhance the healing properties of herbs or cultivate the perfect wine grape.

But the Blackwings rather enjoy the darker side of magic, and what's the use of crafting the perfect wine if you can't at least poison someone with it? His specialty is discovering plant allergies and cultivating plants with concentrated amounts of them so he can control the health of the dragons nearest him, rendering them ill or healing them at will, according to his own devious plans.

Someday he'll get his vials crossed and poison himself, but until then the lair knows better than to offend the vine-covered mage, or eat his muffins.