Red Weeds

The nursery grounds were everywhere crimson with the weed, a wide expanse of livid colour cut with purple shadows, and very painful to the eye....

The War of the Worlds, Book Two, Chapter 9: Wreckage

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Red Weeds in Wermspittle
Several varieties of Red Weeds are known to periodically infest the Burned Over Districts. Some times the foul, noxious things extend into the ruins from an unguarded Weak Point. Others erupt from old, unchecked cellars or from beneath mounds of decades-undisturbed rubble and debris. In most cases the Red Weeds come and go within a few hours or days, quickly clotting alleys or blocking streets, then collapsing into fetid, fleshy ruin as the white blotches of some blight kills it off. For a time. Creepers, cacti and fronds--each new incursion by this pernicious, invasive species brings a slightly different form, yet another approach, as if the plants were deliberately attempting to adapt, desperately trying to evolve before being struck down by their pale splotchy nemesis one more time.

Persistent and incredibly fertile, Red Weeds are considered as much machines run amok as any mere garden pest. Their stems are slightly metallic in appearance and they grow almost explosively when first bursting forth from their seed-pods, if they are granted access to water. Any kind of water. Fresh or salt, stagnant or sweet; it matters not to these plants. Their blooms choke rivers, cause floods. They clog sewers and close-off any waterway they come into contact with, even covering-over lakes with ruddy canopies. The Red Weeds have destroyed numerous greenhouses, ruined many a turnip plot or other garden, making it a cause of starvation and a much-hated enemy to those who try desperately to survive the bitter winters. The Red Weeds run rampant...until they succumb to the white blight.

There are those who believe that eventually, sooner or later, the Red Weeds will develop resistance to the bacteria and mold, the fungi and so forth that strike it down. Those will be terrible days indeed...

Red Seeds...
The Lysenko-Lamarck College of Strategic Contra-Agronomy and Paraculture -- the infamous so-called School of the Red Circle or more often 'Red School' -- was founded in the year of our adversity 326 (Reformed Calendar). Their Charter is to study the Red Weeds with an intent to eradicate the recurring menace. They known more about the Red Weeds than practically anyone, but they have yet to end the periodic red peril. Their laboratories have developed a number of processes for utilizing the Red Weeds such as the technique of slow-roasting the roots to make a ruddy coffee substitute, as well as the notorious spatter-bombs that harness the destructive potential of the plant's rapid expansion in reaction to water. Some suspect that the scholars and scientists working within the horticultural fortress of the college are more inclined to study the Red Weeds than to eradicate them.

There are also those who have attempted to domesticate or experiment upon some of the more accessible varieties of Red Weeds recovered from the Burned Over Districts, the Near Deep, the surrounding forests and brambles. Most of these amateur agronomists have done so in defiance of local ordinances and the laws of no fewer than seventeen Governors, Trustees, and Overseers. They also have run afoul of freelance gatherers trying to bring in a few seeds to sell in the markets as well as tactical harvest-crews sent out by the Red School, often resulting in some vicious gonne-fights or worse. Several greenhouses have been destroyed by these sorts of conflicts, sparking a number of Investigations, Administrative Reviews, and in three instances drastic Academic Censures that have terminated careers and destroyed entire germ-lines and experimental crops. Scandals and bad choices seem to proliferate more quickly and perniciously than the Red Weeds themselves...

Red Deeds...
The Red Watch was originally formed to monitor and combat the incursions of the Red Weeds. But there was a stretch of close to a dozen years where no new infestation was reported. The Bureaucrats reorganized the Red Watch, converted it into a police force of sorts, one set to investigate and prosecute various murders and other domestic crimes that tend to interfere with commerce. Slowly, over the years the Red Watch had its budget cut as it languished in administrative obscurity. One more vestigial agency buried under a plethora of red tape and regulations. Their best people were hired away by the Red School. The overworked and underpaid investigators and detectives of the Red Watch are ill-prepared for the return of their old foe, but perhaps in returning to their roots, so to speak, they might become relevant again. If there is time enough...

Red Panic...
The Red Weed has been spotted again. Recurring growths have rapidly sprouted-up in a number of locations. Mostly in the Burned Over Districts. So it isn't reckoned an immediate threat by the pencil pushers and accountants. Perhaps they are right...

The people of the Low Street have a saying; 'Politicians and governments come and go, but the Red Weed always returns.'