Mandrago - plant spores mimicking felaryan inhabitants

More than simple plants, even if "simple plants" are surely big words, in the Grove zone, Mandrago could be definitively considered a race, a vegetable form of life alike dryads, but with many... many differences.
More than the plants themselves, the most interesting thing are their spores, but I prefer to let talk the Felaryan etologist Ladimus Ehrinejahr.

Here's my interview to him.

Nksrocks: Once again, Ladimus, you've made an outstanding discover, this time truly risking your life, bringing your research in the grove of Carnivorous plants.
It seems that you were intended to study the insects of that zone, but, like past times on your various trips around in Felarya, you discovered something completely different from what you were intended to find.

Ladimus: Very true, I mean, my unconditioned research many times brings to unexpected results, like when I went to study Cecaelians, and instead, found Razias. This time the discover were really surprising even to me since it was something that I had heard before as a rumor in the Neko village, and at first, I couldn't believe that magic wasn't involved in such creatures.

Nksrocks: I see... but now, please, tell us more about Mandrago.

Ladimus: Sure. So, I'll start from the real beginning... Before heading for the grove, I visited the neko village to see if I could find some information for my research, but instead of that, I found about a rumor that tickled my curiosity... Lately, a green being resembling the appearances of a Neko (though, the description was really approximate, and distorted as the rumor spreaded) was spotted at the edge of the Grove. Someone would have seen it touch a tree, and suddenly disappear absorbed by it.
The nekos were already talking nonsense about this hypothetical "Grove people"... nothing could be more different from the truth.
So, I took up all my baggage of magic scrolls, objects and charms, perfectly mimetic and defended from most of the risks, then I walked in the Grove. Still... countless times I found myself fleeing from predators and avoiding the traps of the carnivorous plants. Luckily, I didn't enter too deep into the Grove, or now I would have been dead for sure.
It took me two days to discover the presence around me of such creatures, popping out from plants and silently chasing me. I was under surveillance? No, their was simple curiosity, some kind of eager to know more about me. The researcher, this time, became the observation subject.
Tired of such situation, I've tried to put some traps behind me, to make sure they would have been leg hanged in places that would have prevented them from touching the surrounding vegetation.
It was easier than what I've thought. This action could have enraged them, but when the first fell for it, the others simply disappeared from the surroundings, feeling a menace. It had truly the appearance of a female Neko... but the fur disposition was completely different, more "savage", the hands were more like paws, and from the nape of the neck, two leaf-like small appendixes flew down on her back it had light green skin, darker green fur on the forearms, the paws, torso and from the belly down, leaving uncovered the pelvis zone. Also, there was something growing from his head... some kind of wooden conic "hat". From its tip, a half body-long leaf, like a plume on a helmet. Quite comical.
I've immediately understood that she was a vegetable form of life, much alike dryads.
It didn't seem to be able to communicate and neither understand my words, but during the trip to get outside of there surprisingly she learned to express a few words and seemed aware of the meaning. She can apprehend information and process it.
Having failed my etologic purposes, carelessly interfering with its natural acting, I've binded her to me with a spell and took her with me outside of the Grove, I've had to bring her to Nergav, to deliver her to the explorers guild, for more deep biological studies.
Just outside of the grove, I saw her very being start to tremble, cripple and fade. Like her cells lost unity. Then, she suddenly sunk in the ground, like she was incorporeal, leaving just the "leaf plume" out. Digging, I found out that her body changed into an intricate root system.
Then I found out: she wasn't a "vegetable Neko", as I thought first. She was a seed! A spore!
I dug out the entire plant and transported it with me to the guild. We're still studying the plant, but in short time, I'll be able to say more.

Nksrocks: thank you Mr. Ladimus... see you next time.

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just a preview of the work I'm doing with this race, this is just an intro to them, next will come a proper bio. How is it going so far? (I'll post even a reference image in short time)

Nice idea...and a freaking hillarious way to write it^^

Very interesting! I don't think we've ever had anything quite like it.

Ohh this sounds a great idea !

Somehow I like a lot the thought of strange vegetal beings appearing and disppearing out of plants. It has a nice surralistic feeling to it ^_^

"Mandrago"....... "Madrago"....."Matango"!!

But yeah, I think this is a great idea. It adds a surreal, yet clearly sci-fi element to a rather ill-defined region. I think it fights right in.

New stuff about Mandragos...

The examination is complete, and the scientific equipe of the guild has unravelled every secret of this particular race

So far, we understood that Mandrago-beings are humanoid spores of a particular plant. The original plant is 2 meters tall, it's shown as an intricate vine of green, thorn-filled tentacles coming out from the ground. The roots are spreaded all around the plant, just underneath the earth, and sense the victims with pressure detection.

When a living being, may it be human, neko, or whatever gets close to it, triggers the reaction of the tentacles, that attack that way. Though, they don't try to grab, or kill the victim, usually they'll just scratch it a little.

Far enough to start the reproductive process of the plant.

Indeed, the Mandrago-plants use the little amount of blood spilled from the victim to "clone" it, the genes get analyzed, reproduced, and united with Mandrago's fluids. Then, the tentacle that absorbed the blood will lose thorns and from the tip a huge blossom will grow, the gestation lasts months, and then a "deambulating cloned spore" is born. Still, the analysis capabilities of the plant ain't reliable at all, it will mess up lots of things in the superficial appearance of the cloned spore (names: if human, Mandrago-man/girl, if neko, Mandrago-neko etcetera...) Like for the mandrago-neko seen in the first post, fur disposition, color, skin color, general appearance are totally different. Two things remain the same for every spore: the wooden protuberance with the plume leaf on the head (it's the seed of a new Mandrago plant) and the fact that they're sentient.
The seed hatches mostly when the spore dies, but sometimes even if it's just extremely frightened or worried. The one captured by Ladimus "hatched" for the second case.
The spores can live for a really long time in the deambulating state, they don't age much for their metabolism is slow alike plants. They don't need to eat much or oftenly, they can survive for months just with water.

Mandrago-beings power to melt with trees is a collateral effect of their creation: usually vegetable forms of life have a very stable cell system, but Mandrago-plants try to mimic the cell system of mammals or whatever race is cloned, messing all up in the process. The spore cells are quite unstable and in contact with other plants, they lose totally integrity and melt with them. The spores can remain in this state for just a little time though, or they would be absorbed totally by the upsaid plant.
When the seed hatches, the spore cells change shape, penetrate into the ground and turn the whole body into the root system.

Example pic of a mandrago-neko



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Society / nature: they seem to have none, lacking intellect until they apprehend more knowledge from the confrontation with outer races. Besides, they're naturally curious, unoffensive and shy, whatever was the race, or personality of the original being which the spore is cloned of.
They don't have any magical power, or else.
Their only defense against the perils of Felarya is the "melting with the trees" capability and the fact that, when put in the mouth of a predator, it will understand that IT'S NOT MEAT by the taste, and usually spit it out.
Veggie addicted preds are a real peril for this race.

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The Mimicking problems:

So, the spores can be born from the blood of every being that comes in contact with the Mandrago plants.
But what happens when the Mandrago has to create spores cloned by beings or predators way more huge than the plant itself?
That's what would be called "reproduction epic failure". The Mandrago gets an overload of genetic info, and cuts parts out here and there. The resulting spore will be a usually stupid, comical, "chibified" and human-sized version of the predator, with sterile seed, and with a fungus growing from the tip of the wooden protuberance instead of the leaf.

Example of a Mandrago-plant and a reproduction failure using, by hypothesis, dragon blood



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Am I missing some information? Do you want to know more about this and that? Just ask. the work ain't finished yet

About the failure reproduction thing... that's epic win. Imagine that a spore made it to the giant tree zone, hatched and scratched Crisis. There would be human-sized, chibified, green crisis-es running around with a fungus on their heads. XDDD

I think my favorite would be the picture on the top

and I like the picture in you signature lol XD

I love it. I love it a lot
and the failled dragon was just priceless XD

Thanx, but is there anything lacking? Any questions or critiques? Come on, or I'll think I've made the perfect post ^_^

Well I personnaly really like it because like I said I find that this idea of strange creatures running around, disappearing in the trunk of trees, reapparing, has a nice surrealistic feel to it ^_^
Moreover this is an area that is a bit bland at the moment and could do with more development

As i see it each creatures created this way could learn from the outside and maybe transmit what they learned to their "mother plant". Just an idea

so do the plants then bond itself to it's victim, creating another plant-creature? that's quite interesting ^^

As for what Karbo said, it would also be an idea that they transfer knowledge and history of their race through genetic memory or something similar.

Karbo wrote:

As i see it each creatures created this way could learn from the outside and maybe transmit what they learned to their "mother plant". Just an idea

Archmage_Bael wrote:

As for what Karbo said, it would also be an idea that they transfer knowledge and history of their race through genetic memory or something similar.

So, let's say that whenever a Mandrago-being comes in contact with a mother plant, it actually can transfer its knowledge in it with the melting ability, but this way dying as an individual being.
Then, whatever other spore will be born from that mother plant will own the knowledge obtained through the sacrifice of the previous one...

This actually gives them a real chance to construct a society, for many of them would have intellect obtained directly from their birth, not acquiring it with just experience. I must think very well about this part...
For sure they wouldn't be in need of constructing houses or artificial places of sort, I see them well sleeping on the branches of the trees, or crafting webs with the vines making bridges from a tree to another (good even as connection to pass though a place to another using the melting ability and "travelling" from a plant to another, actually inside them) and using caved vines to bring water from water pools here and there, to their favourite tree or their mother plant.
They would have plenty of spare time, being practically without the need to hunt or else. And use this time to study, learn everything about things around them... and debating about everything new they come in contact with.

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Some doubts and ideas

Race placing:
The grove would be the perfect place for this race and their prosperity, but I can see them good even in other places, maybe Miragia forest?

Interaction:
What could be their interaction with humans and other races beside a vague interest due to their nature?
Maybe Nergavians could hunt them down to make some "Mandrago vegetable soups" with their bodies?
The meaniest Mandragos maybe could lure victims in the grove just to see them eaten and study their reactions?
Would they be horribly terrified by fire? Or vegetarian beings?

Body doubts:
If the "seed hat" is removed by accident or intentionally, would they die or become totally indipendent beings? (this means they would lose the capability to give birth to another mother plant... so maybe these ones could be the cast-aways among Mandragos... and the only way they could do to be forgiven would be travelling around in all Felarya, learning as much information possible to bring it back home and give it to a mother plant sacrificing themselves. Useless to say, no spore that has become enough smart would do that, and surely would just try to survive and melt with other societies.)

The only real objection I have to this idea so far has to do with the "reproduction epic failure".
Namely, the fact that due to a 'genetic mishap' Mandrago Chibi-Preds are "Stupid".
This gives off the impression that the Mandrago Chibi-Preds are mentally retarded...
As someone who's brain is... 'Atypical'... I find this extremely offencive.
I'm guessing this isn't what you meant... but yeah... it kind of pisses me off...
Especially since it now sounds like you are going to put the "Brains" more on the Mother Plant's side of the family.
I hope that you will rethink this and not make them intellectually challenged for comedy's sake.
Might I suggest instead that Mandrago Chibi-Preds lack their 'common sense' and their 'Blood fathers' Natural Species Instincts.
This would create Mandrago Chibi's that act and behave 'Stupidly', but not because they lack an intellectual ability to understand.
Examples:
Mandrago Chibi-Harpy - Is ground-bound and has to walk everywhere do to not knowing how to fly
Mandrago Chibi-Dridder - "How do a shot shoot web?"
Mandrago Chibi-Naga - Has to pull herself around with her arms do to not knowing how to work her tail
Mandrago Chibi-Mermaid - "HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!!!"

nksrocks wrote:

Some doubts and ideas
Interaction:
What could be their interaction with humans and other races beside a vague interest due to their nature?

Since they would probably want to gather knowledge to help improve the lot of 'Plant-kind', I think they would take quite an interest in other race's horticulture.

nksrocks wrote:

Maybe Nergavians could hunt them down to make some "Mandrago vegetable soups" with their bodies?

I don't know who the Nargavians are... but this seems unlikely given Mandrago's tendency to germinate when startled.
Considering the trouble inherent, I'd think it be more likely for a tribe to try and 'Domesticate' one instead.
Basically, they would try and convince it to germinate inside the village... then use it to make Mandrago Clones of 'Food' animals.

nksrocks wrote:

Would they be horribly terrified by fire? Or vegetarian beings?

I'd say probably nether... this is a race who's members 'dies' when they 'put down roots', which would imply they lack the drive for self-preservation...
If they DID have it, however, I'd say the vegetarians... the big jungles don't seem to get too many forest fires.

nksrocks wrote:

Body doubts:
If the "seed hat" is removed by accident or intentionally, would they die or become totally indipendent beings? (this means they would lose the capability to give birth to another mother plant... so maybe these ones could be the cast-aways among Mandragos... and the only way they could do to be forgiven would be travelling around in all Felarya, learning as much information possible to bring it back home and give it to a mother plant sacrificing themselves. Useless to say, no spore that has become enough smart would do that, and surely would just try to survive and melt with other societies.)

I don't know what you mean by "Independent Beings"... but I think 'decapping' should be non-fatal.
It would seem like such a waste to go through the trouble of cloning a creature that would become useless if it hit its' head just the right way.
More specifically, if the "Seed Hat" is needed for a clone to transform into a plant... its' removal should cause the opposite to happen.
The Mandrago-being would start to transform into a member of the species it was cloned from, slowly losing their plant traits in the process.
Eventually, the 'Ex' Mandrago-Clone would be genetically indisguisable from their 'Father' species, though they will probably retain at least some of the superficial appearance traits indicative of their vegetative origin.
This might not allow the Ex-Clone to produce another Mandrago, but it would allow them to:
-Successfully integrate into a society
-Return to their Mother Plant to be cloned themselves
-Take the Clone into the society to care for and teach it
-Make sure the Clone germinates in a good location
While this means a Mandrago Plant will need to make an additional Clone, this increase the chance that Clone will germinate in a good location with a larger knowledge base.
Of course, since this could lead to clones willfully removing their "Seed Hats" and the end of the Mandragos, they would probably be genetically encoded with the false knowledge its' removal will result in death.
In any case, the "Seed Hat" is going to need to be slightly smaller if its' removible.
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Additional thoughts:
If a Mandrago Plant is going to retain the knowledge from when it was a Clone... would it be too far fetched to assume they'd still be thinking sentience?
I think if that were the case... it would be pretty horrific for them to be were stuck as a 'simple' plant for the rest of their lives...
Unless...
What if they had a Dryad-esqu third life stage or alternate form that is a hybrid between their 'Plant' and 'Clone' bodies?
The reason I suggest a Dryad-esqu form is that Dryads are capable of moving if needed, so such a form might be useful to a 'thinking' plant that becomes bored...
Or maybe just simply connected to the same "mental network" as the Dryads... as well as having a 'wireless network' with their Clone offspring?
That way, they'd at least be able to interact with others... if not necessarily able to move, see, or speak.

I personnaly don't like very much the idea of the clones becoming like their original and integrating themselves. I feel they are more interesting the way they are.
I have also second thoughts about this learning ability, maybe this could turn the idea more complex than it need to be ^^;

Well either way they have now a spot reserved to them in the plant section

Whiteagle : I can understand what you mean but it's his idea and it's obviously second degree. If you begin to take everything at the first degree in Felarya I doubt you will enjoy the world very much...

Karbo wrote:

Whiteagle : I can understand what you mean but it's his idea and it's obviously second degree. If you begin to take everything at the first degree in Felarya I doubt you will enjoy the world very much...

Don't take it too seriously too, Karbs I kinda enjoy strong critics and radical change suggestions, they're a good challenge XD Plus, they help me think in a different way so, at least for me, there's no problem.

This time, it looks like I found my own GREGOLE XD

Here we go:

Whiteagle wrote:

The only real objection I have to this idea so far has to do with the "reproduction epic failure".
Namely, the fact that due to a 'genetic mishap' Mandrago Chibi-Preds are "Stupid".
This gives off the impression that the Mandrago Chibi-Preds are mentally retarded...
As someone who's brain is... 'Atypical'... I find this extremely offencive.

In fact, I didn't mean to offend anyone, my primary intent was to use the "reproduction failure" to make simple parodies of the most famous predators among Mandragos

Whiteagle wrote:

Might I suggest instead that Mandrago Chibi-Preds lack their 'common sense' and their 'Blood fathers' Natural Species Instincts.
This would create Mandrago Chibi's that act and behave 'Stupidly', but not because they lack an intellectual ability to understand.
Examples:
Mandrago Chibi-Harpy - Is ground-bound and has to walk everywhere do to not knowing how to fly
Mandrago Chibi-Dridder - "How do a shot shoot web?"
Mandrago Chibi-Naga - Has to pull herself around with her arms do to not knowing how to work her tail
Mandrago Chibi-Mermaid - "HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!!!"

Interesting proposals, really funny examples XD but still, looking at the original concept, spores are born with knowledge acquired by the Mandrago-being who sacrificed itself on the mother plant, and there is nothing mentioned about genetic memory for the instincts and common sense of the species cloned

For example: a failed Mandrago-naga could be born with the knowlege gathered by a Mandrago-neko... blood fathers give just the "body shape" to the spore, it's the data gathered in the mother plants that makes the difference for the resulting intellect.

- I agree on the horticulture habit, it fits them. Thinkin' about it, they could eventually be quite caring even with dryads for such reason, but dryads don't like them for their melting ability tickles as hell XD

Whiteagle wrote:

I don't know who the Nargavians are... but this seems unlikely given Mandrago's tendency to germinate when startled.
Considering the trouble inherent, I'd think it be more likely for a tribe to try and 'Domesticate' one instead.
Basically, they would try and convince it to germinate inside the village... then use it to make Mandrago Clones of 'Food' animals.

Nergavians = the inhabitants of the city of Nergav
I'm not sure I understood this one... damn problems with english sometimes but hardly a Mandrago would agree to become domesticated "feeding plants". Maybe it could work if they are forced to hatch in the upsaid village, but they would try to resist with every mean necessary (people or animals would be eating her "sons" after all)

- The fear for vegetarian beings: agreed. Lack of self-preservation sense: refused (they have a normal self preservation sense, but instead of dying, being hardly harmed, forced badly to do something (or in the case when they would be so terrified to lose totally control) they would hatch the seed and become plants to escape that fate, losing the self-consciousness and the capability to sense anything.

Whiteagle wrote:

I don't know what you mean by "Independent Beings"... but I think 'decapping' should be non-fatal.
It would seem like such a waste to go through the trouble of cloning a creature that would become useless if it hit its' head just the right way.
More specifically, if the "Seed Hat" is needed for a clone to transform into a plant... its' removal should cause the opposite to happen.
The Mandrago-being would start to transform into a member of the species it was cloned from, slowly losing their plant traits in the process.

As indipendent beings I mean simply that they wouldn't be bound anymore to their fate of transforming into a mother plant.
And it's not just about "decapping", the seed hat grows directly from their cranium, it's quite hard to be broken or eradicated.
I don't see how they could lose the plant traits... they are born directly with that shape for the genetc mix-match of the mother plants, it's something fixed in their bodies, it's not a matter of "hat" presence or not.

-as specified before under the answer about Nergavians domesticating them for food, when they become plants they lose self-conciousness, the resulting mother plants are just data vaults (the seed hats keep inside a copy of all the knowledge data like they're vegetable HDs (remember that even the spore brain turns into the root system)


For the other ideas... I must agree with Karbo, how much complexity does this race need, actually?

nksrocks wrote:

Here we go:

In fact, I didn't mean to offend anyone, my primary intent was to use the "reproduction failure" to make simple parodies of the most famous predators among Mandragos

Interesting proposals, really funny examples XD but still, looking at the original concept, spores are born with knowledge acquired by the Mandrago-being who sacrificed itself on the mother plant, and there is nothing mentioned about genetic memory for the instincts and common sense of the species cloned

For example: a failed Mandrago-naga could be born with the knowlege gathered by a Mandrago-neko... blood fathers give just the "body shape" to the spore, it's the data gathered in the mother plants that makes the difference for the resulting intellect.

This would probably work even better, as you would get Naga that think they were Neko or Dridders that think they are humans.

nksrocks wrote:

Nergavians = the inhabitants of the city of Nergav
I'm not sure I understood this one... damn problems with english sometimes but hardly a Mandrago would agree to become domesticated "feeding plants". Maybe it could work if they are forced to hatch in the upsaid village, but they would try to resist with every mean necessary (people or animals would be eating her "sons" after all)

See below.

nksrocks wrote:

- The fear for vegetarian beings: agreed. Lack of self-preservation sense: refused (they have a normal self preservation sense, but instead of dying, being hardly harmed, forced badly to do something (or in the case when they would be so terrified to lose totally control) they would hatch the seed and become plants to escape that fate, losing the self-consciousness and the capability to sense anything.

Well I spent a LOT of time last night laying in my bed NOT sleeping... and during that time I thought up a Biological purpose for my "3rd Stage" idea... but it kind of requires a Mother Plant to be able to at least become self-conscious again.

nksrocks wrote:

As indipendent beings I mean simply that they wouldn't be bound anymore to their fate of transforming into a mother plant.
And it's not just about "decapping", the seed hat grows directly from their cranium, it's quite hard to be broken or eradicated.
I don't see how they could lose the plant traits... they are born directly with that shape for the genetc mix-match of the mother plants, it's something fixed in their bodies, it's not a matter of "hat" presence or not.

Well what I meant to say was that they would lose the plant abilities, such as:
-Their Autotrophic Metabolism
-Their Plant "Merging" ability
-Their vegetable taste
This would be due the fact that that they'd be becoming more animal then plant, which I kind of put in here because I have a thing for procreation and fertility...
They would probably retain most, if not all, of their "Vegetative" appearance... but would be able to make babies with members of the "Parent" species...
It would also allow the Mandrago Chibi's a chance to live life like their Giant counter parts... even if they'd still be "Chibified" versions...

nksrocks wrote:

-as specified before under the answer about Nergavians domesticating them for food, when they become plants they lose self-conciousness, the resulting mother plants are just data vaults (the seed hats keep inside a copy of all the knowledge data like they're vegetable HDs (remember that even the spore brain turns into the root system)

As mention before, I was thinking up things about my "3rd Life Stage" idea last night...
For it to work though... the Plants would need at least some kind of consuoiusness. (And maybe some sort of awareness to the condition their offspring are in, in order for this stage to be used as a counter the "Domistication" problem.)
I... really went whole-hog in my restless hours.
Basically... the change is brought on when a Plant goes for a long period of time without cloning. (Either due to there not being anything around TO clone... or because the Plant knows any clone it makes won't make it.)
Without the strain of cloning, the plant begins to grow and develop.
A woody flower bud begins to develop on top...
The base of the plant starts to become bulbous...
The leaves grow out into thick, leafy vines...
A second set of tendrils grow beneath the vines, with thorns only along the top and pointing outwards...
The main root gets drawn up into the body, so much so that it creates a large "pouch" in the bulb.
Several smaller shoots grow around the opening to the pouch to replace the missing root.
By this time, the bud has grown quite large.
It is at this point that the "Mandrago Flower" is ready to bloom, and it opens its' Flower Pod.
At the center of the blossom sits the feminized upper body of the very Clone who became the plant in the first place, with petals and pastels in place of leaves and greens.
As she uproots herself and stretches in the sun, she contemplates her task...
And this is when her ever-present, eerily sincere smile first creeps across her lips.

Alternate names:
Mandrago Migration form - Since they can re-close their flower pods to shield their soft upper bodies as well as use their thorny tendrils to scare herbivores away, this stage can travel far safer outside of the grove then Clones and defend themselves better then Plants.
Mandrago Matriarch
Mandrago Mother - Their personal favorite.

I tried to take the Harmless and Creepy factors from the Clones and change it to Mostly Harmless and Pure Nightmare Fuel Unleaded...
From the Plants... I replaced the Cheap Knock-off Pod Person reproduction with... "Forced Adoption"... leading to a Tomato in the Mirror...

I know this may all sound complicated... but let me know if you want to hear more about it...

could you write me a basic description of the plant ? it don't have to be very long or detailled, just a base for me to use for writting the article ^_^

Long time no see... Here's a little update image for the Mandrago race, enjoy!

GREGOLE wrote:

"Mandrago"....... "Madrago"....."Matango"!!

Exactly what I was thinkin'.

Quote :

But yeah, I think this is a great idea. It adds a surreal, yet clearly sci-fi element to a rather ill-defined region. I think it fights right in

Eh, what Casey said.

Don't know how I didn't find this earlier... Anyway, it's a great idea.

A very nice picture. I swear your posing keep becoming better and better man
And again I really like the idea ^_^