“The shape of magic bends with the land. What grows on a cliffside does not speak the same tongue as what grows in a fen—though both may whisper to the same moon. Elevation, erosion, saturation… each gives root to a different dialect of the green arcana.”

— Clyven Mossbark, Fifth Archivist of the Lichenfold Conclave

Artist’s Note: This was one of my first experiences using a mud/clay substrate mixture to adhere to the back portion of the glass. It’s held up now for over a year like this and it was mostly a mix of topsoil and earthworm casings. I have since improved the formula to include bentonite clay and charcoal. If it remains moist then it will stick to the glass, I am unsure how long it will take for it to fail. I’ve been developing this substrate mix as a potential product to sell alongside the terrarium kits as an upgrade. The fern in here is a delight as I rescued it from a sidewalk where it fell from a tree and has thrived in here beyond my expectations.

Update 1/26/2026:

I recently spent some time to photograph all of my live terrariums for my portfolio. This is not 100% current as it took me some time to get to this, but it’s roughly in the same condition. The fern ended up dying abruptly after being very productive and the oak-leaf creeping fig has really popped off. I brought this as an example terrarium to a reptile show and this piece was commented on often, so I wanted to share where it’s at. A while back, I also added some regular variegated ficus pumilia, which has fit in nicely as well as some powder orange isopods, who live burrowed in the back wall until feeding time. Getting it to not fog up is a trick on it’s own and I’m having to constantly let this one breath. The mud in the back wall has held up great so far and shows no signs of letting up. It did get jostled a bit in transport to the reptile show this past weekend and will need to be cleaned up.