Firemoss

Firemoss is an addictive substance that is a native form of plant life to Roshar. Used as a "relaxant" by members of Sadeas's army, it is actually a strong narcotic that a person can become heavily dependent upon with little effort.
As with all narcotic substances, repeated use and addiction requires more of the substance to achieve the same results. When a person is this dependent on firemoss, the use of it is called "mossing," which is usually to the level of incoherence and delirium.
==Appearance==
Firemoss is red-brown in color and dry when ready for mossing.
==Process==
When rubbed between fingers, the friction ignites the moss and sends out a cloud of vapor that is inhaled. This is said to make a person's mind more receptive to thoughts and ideas.
Once a person grows callouses on his/her thumbs and fingertips, the rubbing is said to be euphoric.*
==Characteristics==
The scent of its vapor can make one's longing for the moss multiply tenfold.
The effects of its vapor can be the washing away of one's pains, followed by a strengthening of one's resolve.
*Once one has worn through one's calluses, one then rubs the moss with raw, blistering fingers, and it hurts.
The scratchy sound of scraping the moss against itself, according to Dalinar, is unpleasantly similar to that of a knife along bone.
Still, a feeling of warmth - like an ember - occurs immediately. A thin plume of smoke rises from (usually) callused fingers and strikes below one's nose, then everything fades. Euphoria spreads through the user like sudden sunlight on a cloudy day.
==Applications==
Firemoss can be used in extreme cases of trauma to the head, but one must beware of allowing the subject to form an addiction.
==Notes==
The one time Szeth had tried it, it had given him a headache and two blistered fingers.
Kaladin refused the firemoss surgeons had once tried to give him. His father had hated using the addictive stuff.
Teft is addicted to firemoss.
Dalinar used firemoss in his younger years. While it gave him a quick rush of euphoria, that only made him want the greater headiness of the Thrill.
Gavilar hated the stuff.
==Q&A with Brandon==
Q. Does firemoss use have an effect on Shadesmar?
A. One could tell, if one was really good ... . This is going to be, as we move forward, a talent in the cosmere, to kind of be able to look and basically read souls from Shadesmar and tell things about them. It would not be - what was Robert Jordan's phrase - "intuitively obvious to the casual observer" - that this is a person that has suffered the effects of firemoss from the other side. However, like a lot of things in the cosmere, the more skilled one is at one's particular version of arcanum,Ars Arcanum the more likely one is able to do things like this, and one could tell.YouTube Spoiler Stream 4, 6/16/22
==References==
Category:Flora of Roshar