from March’s Creatures Beyond the Walle

Melissae (singular: melissa) are huge, magical bees who produce ambrosia as their honey. Like ordinary bees, melissae live in colonies called hives and are led by queens. Although melissae are the same colors and shape as honey bees, they are ten times the size (around the size of small songbirds.) Melissae live around fifty years, and their hives can remain active centuries.

Melissa hives are the size of cottages and too large for trees, so they are usually found in caves or sometimes abandoned human or elvish dwellings. Melissae are ferocious in the defense of their hives—they swarm anyone near their hives they consider inimical. Because of their size, their stings are extremely poisonous, often fatal, and unlike honey bees, melissae do not die when they employ their stinger.

Despite these risks, humans still attempt to harvest ambrosia from melissa hives because ambrosia can cure any ill (including death according to some sources.) The most common technique to harvest ambrosia is smoking the hive using wood soaked in a faedust elixir. However, some witches have perfected spells to calm melissa hives to harvest their ambrosia.

Because ambrosia is so rare and arduous to obtain, it is extremely expensive to purchase. Ambrosia is only used by royalty, high priests, and the wealthy. The most historic use of ambrosia was when Calator’s mentor, Esme the Great, healed King Maimaneros of the water elves during the Stone Wars.

Flowers pollinated by melissae are more hardy, vibrant, and potent than their brethren. Melissa flowers are sought for their luminous beauty as well as their stronger magical properties. Some say melissa flowers heal almost as well as ambrosia, so many harvest them while harvesting ambrosia. However, it is possible to harvest melissa flowers without special smoke or spells.

Although it is witch healers who wear melissa torcs to symbolize their ability to heal using magic, soul healers are said to possess a special relationship with melissae and are able to directly communicate with the queen melissa. However, since soul healers are so rare, this claim has never been proven by reputable sources.