The
native plant life on this world evolved an unusual quirk after a
geological event slid much of the world’s soil into the ocean and
shallow seas that then covered their planet. For a billion years or
more the vegetal plant life of a large moon evolved to use “higher”
living beings (animals) as their soil. First parasitically and as
time and the complexity of life on this world evolved, eventually
symbiotically.
By
the time the first aliens came to this planet, the differences
between plant and animal, vegetal and meat, were fine and minimal, at
least as Teragen ecologies go. The vegetal life had definitely grown
to dominate the planet, animal forms either now impersonated,
replicated or “slaved” to the plant life that surrounded them. When
the aliens came, meat beings of a different order – both
intelligent and tool using – the native plant life treated the new
life forms like any other. In time, a few alien generations later,
the next wave of these aliens arrived and found – to their horror –
that their predecessors not only had died but had been … replaced,
by some bizarre native analog being to their own life form that was
definitely not known to or from the previous expedition.
These
aliens were homo sapiens, passing through this cluster out toward the
Pegasus Arm. In time they stopped coming here completely. But that
was still some 40-60 thousand sidereals ago. In
that time, however, rather than dying out, these analogs began to
replicate, to multiply, to spread. Humanoids made of synthetic
animal tissue, wrought of vegetal fiberes; analogous down to the
molecular level. Cell analogs. Brain analogs. Eventually,
these creatures collectively reached a kind of stone age existence,
spreading across their world.
When
the first Tauroch explorers reached this world, among the first
systems reached by their primitive spacecraft, what they found
transformed them. The
“Blooms” as they were called, had spread and adapted across most
of their planet, each settling into and becoming part of various
ecological niches; moreover, the Taurochs arrived perhaps a thousand
years into the Blooms’ agricultural revolution, using the native
flora, and the large Synthesis Blossoms to “ranch” foodstuffs;
while they are as photosynthetic as almost all other life on their
world, the caloric needs of even analog brain matter are high and so
the Blooms are constantly “ahungered.
The
Yellow Blooms live near the equator in large rainforest
jungles; they are the most successful Blooms to be transported
off-planet where they exist in countless billions. While much of
their original habitat on the homeworld has been destroyed, exploited
and clear cut, many wild members of the Yellow tribe remain free;
indeed a burgeoning resistance is brewing on their homeworld.
Elsewhere they are kept in cages, suspended, those who grow fruit
fronds remain so as to be “plucked” from; all others are planted
in the soil. Their skin and keratin (hair, fingernails, etc)
analogs are rich in carotenoids.
The
Green Blooms exist in the northern latitudes amidst a
Pine Forest like ecological niche. Nearly as successful as off-world
transplants, the Green Blooms exist throughout Taurochian space.
They have no remaining natural habitats, their native forests on
homeworld long since given over to factory style Bloom ranching.
The
Violet Blooms have been driven into extinction on their
homeworld and most of the worlds they have been taken to. Those who
remain are ranched lavishly and – unlike others – fed specific
and strict diets; these are the most flavorful and nutrient packed
Blooms and so considered delicacies. An emerging Taurochi noble caste
ranches those surviving Violets exclusively; not as mentally or
physically deficient as the others, many attempt to flee; most exist
as captives or quasi slaves until sold and eaten. Violet Blooms are rich in carotenoids as the Yellow tribe but also
many drugs and herbal analogs can be harvested from their bodies.
The
Brown Blooms occupy pseudo-deciduous forests; they
collectively hibernate all winter but are completely awake the rest
of the year. They do not adapt well to other conditions, and
especially do not adapt off-world well at all. These factors combine
in keeping them from being ranched much. Keratin analog structures
in Brown Blooms are instead replaced by bark.
Today the Blooms are “ranched” on a dozen worlds; reliant upon
photosynthesis, they are not fed additional foodstuffs; long ago it
was realized that keeping them underfed as they developed and grew
kept their brain and reasoning facilities to develop fully. So
the Agricultural Blooms are kept and maintained as underfed, slow, plodding things.
“Bloomworld”
doesn’t really have a name,
but that’s more or less what the Taurochs call it in their
language; a large moon orbiting a deep scarlet gas giant; system
primary is a mid-age K type orange star. It is a Garden
class world (naturally occurring, lightly modified) Relatively
dense atmosphere, high water vapour content, enough to compensate for
higher O2 content 1.12G Forests,
swamps, and shallow seas predominate. Cloying thick but breathable
atmosphere. Rain cycle drives much of the world’s activity.
The
world has been extensively colonized by the Taurochs (indeed, it is
the single planet with the highest Tauroch population, in the low
billions, far and away beyond that of their originating world) Given
it’s central importance as a food supply source it is functionally
the center of their burgeoning civilization. Were
it not for the Imperium, the Taurochi future might look bright.
The full text of this article, plus statistics and clade details for both captive and free Blooms right here.
For more on the Taurochs and the region of space they inhabit, see the Space Girl's Guide to the Empress Imperium, available at the links.
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