/uuu/ Lore
Relationships
Relationships with immediate neighbors
/nasa/
Generally positive
They offered to trade us some baked goods
/who/
Tentative
There's some history between us as nations as well as lore between our deities.
They have requested passage through our forests to be able to travel/trade more directly with /nasa/
/rrat/
No monks have come down from the mountains to speak with us yet.
Relationships with other nations
/meat/
Commercial
Have offered us open trade with any of their goods, but we have no immediate need of anything at the moment.
/risu/
Friendly (?) with some cultural schisms
Overall /uuu/ has a cultural stigma against what we call "squeebing", due to the very seiso nature of our deity. Despite this, Risuners have expressed an extreme desire to sail to our forrest for a cultural exchange of sorts.
It should be noted that as of the time of this writing, /uuu/ has no docks or naval infrastructure of any kind.
Sapling biology
Saplings are human-plant hybrids. For now the terms "ent" and "druid" have been used interchangeably.
Cause
Saplings metamorphose into progressively more and more plant-like beings over time. The change is a side-effect of spending so much time in Fauna's forest, which is catalyzed by the worship and rituals of our deity.
While the forest affects any human that spends sufficient time in it, without active worship it will never reach the levels of physical change displayed in the average sapling anatomy.
Lifecycle
All saplings start out with their normal human DNA intact. Over time the plant-like changes become more pronounced.
After enough time has passed, the metamorphosis process will diverge. While most all saplings look similar in the start (bark-like skin, greener hair, small protrusions of leaves and branches), once the divergence processes begin, they will turn into something different.
There are categories saplings tend to change into, with some being more common than others. While they primarily continue to exhibit plant-like qualities, some may also begin to display animal-like properties as well (hooves, antlers, extra limbs, etc)
Though currently unverified, there exist legends and myths within the sapling community speaking of chosen saplings turning into kirin, the mortal form of their deity.
Nurterer
Saplings that take after the caring nature of their Goddess and promote the health and wellbeing of the forest and the saplings that dwell within, specialize in healing and regrowth and are powerful conduits of chuubanite energy and magic
Guardians
Ancient and colossal, these saplings are brutish as their figure suggests and are utterly unbreakable in form and will. They serve as moving mini-forests in their own right and are only moved in times of great distress of the forest at large or trespass of special locations blessed by Fauna.
Nymphs (?)
Elusive variants of saplings that are mischievous by nature and manipulate the foliage to their will, whether they create ensnaring vines to capture trespassers or to create open clearings for the weakest of saplings to be able to thrive at last. The foliage bend to the will of Nymphs and they should never be underestimated in their cunning and might.
Treants
The wisest of all sapling variants, they serve their purpose to the forest by providing a guiding hand in the development of the forest and the saplings. Treants are a diverse group of individuals as they take their intellect and hone it into arts they seem fit as some Treants are strategists, logisticians, and some even developing their martial prowess.
- are there any exploitable weaknesses to these different forms, and if so how would they deal with them.
saplings transform based on different stimuli, not always based on a natural evolutionary directives
- from a physiological perspective, how do these seemingly radically different variants of saplings develop in nature, and how do they work. it seems they all share a similar beginning, but diversify at some point, what causes that to happen?
combination of chuubanite and passive divine intervention from Fauna
- what evolutionary process lead to such diversification? if i had to give a few suggestions, biologically enforced roles (such as gender roles, or roles in hierarchical structures like social insects, etc.) could be evolutionarily advantageous.
because our metamorphosis isn't directly influenced by reproduction, normal evolutionary traits based upon fecundity and natural selection aren't a driving factor.
forms can be affected by anything from the time spent in the forest, to chuubanite concentration, amount and type of fauna worshiping rituals, fauna's will, and the wills and needs of the forest itself (a need for the forest to protect itself could lead into a sudden appearance of more guardians-types for example).
Forest Layer
essentially, this is a forest layer map, not an actual "terrain" map.
- light brown/sandy bits: beaches/dry brush areas (could also be salty marshes); at these layers, there is little to no /uuu/ chuubanite influence and visitors can spend a few months there without seeing biological side-effects
- light green areas: sparse forests, rolling hills, open meadows, grasslands; this is where new saplings roam and where visitors would have to come into if they care to actually talk with saplings; at this layer non-saplings can spend a maximum of about a month before side-effects start; hair might start turning green/mossy; bark-like fingernails, etc, are the common initial symptoms
- dark green area: this is the /uuu/ forest proper; all saplings live here; encounters with metamorphosed saplings are common (see lore docs for details on what these are like); non-saplings can spend a maximum of a week here without seeing symptoms; side-effects from the previous layer might start appearing as soon as 48 hours; after a week, the side-effects will start to adversely affect non-saplings (plant growth in lungs, eyes, ears), death is very possible after enough time
- the three elder trees: massive trees the size of skyscrapers; elder saplings live in them and protect them; extreme concentrations of chuubanite forms near their roots; it is said that any seed planted near this soil will sprout instantly; outsiders are not allowed here unless extremely trusted by a clan of saplings and even then will have to be escorted at all times
- dark spot: little is known; the trees are so tall and thick light barely reaches the ground; even saplings that go in here rarely come out; legends say this is where kirin roam; if a non-sapling somehow managed to make it here, it would be instant death for them
again, the actual terrain, trade routes, "settlements", etc, will need to be established later; I just wanted to apply the lore we saplings have already discussed to a map so that risuners, and others, can plan accordingly, and are aware of the consequences of different parts of /uuu/'s terrain.
for any other saplings wanting to expand on this (and if it wasnt already very obvious), Im drawing heavy influence from Made in Abyss (for the layers), and from the movie Annihilation (for the body-horror/plantification)
SCUM
Squeebing in Chronic Uncontrolled Mannerisms
random lore post but I wanted to get this in the books for /uuu/ lore; SCUM saplings are either sold as lumber or turned into compost
Golden Apple
I'm good with Golden Apples being a mythical item. As for the usual kinda fruits I would say we would follow the fruits that usually grow in temperate environments such as fruits in the Rosaceae family including: Apples, Apricots, Plums Peaches, and Cherries. Along with any kind of berry, there are plenty of kinds.
Special fruits idea seems good too, of course, fruits that are attached to the ents would see around the clock kind of care and would therefore be the most pristinely tended to and be the most flavorful of their kind. If the Risuner means fruits that hold some kind of magical property just scattered along the forest, I'd say probably not unless we gave fruits that grow close to the Elder Trees have some kind of vague magical power but that sounds like a copout.