Venus Vine

Alrighty! I keep promising to put up the Description of Venus vine and its about time for me to carry through on that!

Type: Flora
Danger Level: Moderate
Sentience level: Lure (Sentient) Plant (Instinct only)
Description: A Venus vine is a most unique plant, while not technically a vine it was called such by one of the first people to find it and so the name has stuck, in truth this so called vine is more of a flower, disconnected from others of its own kind and coming in a number of remarkable subsets each with their own distinctive colouration and scents.

Each sub species of Venus Vine however has two thing in common. First as the plant ages it grows, it is unknown if a Venus Vine has a maximum size however as with all things of great size its food requirements are proportional to the size of the Vine, thus a larger plant will of course require larger prey, thankfully Felarya being home to a great number of giant predators the Vine can gorge itself with little trouble most of the time.

And second. Each and every species of Venus vine possesses a 'Lure' A lure is a humanoid Victim lured into a juvenile Venus Vine, once the victim is near the vine it releases a burst of chemical designed to make the victim extremely thirsty and lure it towards the Central stalk of the Vine where there are several niches that form naturally and gather a silvery form of sap, this sap counteracts the effects of the Thirst but by then it is too late. The Venus vines petals rise from the ground and capture the humanoid within a tightly sealed prison as they drink from the silvery sap, this ordinarily would begin the digestion process but in order to hunt for the entirety of its life the Venus Vine must have a Lure, a way to draw in victims that do not wander across it by simple chance so the process to create a lure is somewhat different, the victims body is bathed in a mix of chemicals that would make an alchemist proud, eternally bonding the victim to the Venus Vine, preventing the humanoid from going too far from its host plant and removing all thoughts and emotions except for serving ones Vine, it does however seem to allow the Lure to keep the 'memories' of what each emotion is like as every Lure seems able to portray the full human range of emotion.

The Lure once created goes out into the forest surrounding her plant (As the lure is always female, it seems incapable of creating a male lure however there have been instances where a male lured into a juvenile plant has emerged female) waylaying travellers through subterfuge, claiming her friends are hurt, or she was attacked and her sister is injured, anything to get a human to follow them towards their plant. Once the Lure has brought the victim close enough the Venus vine releases a burst of chemical pheromones that lure the target in closer, its open petals resembling nice spade shaped red velvet carpet, but once one reaches the central stalk each of those petals lift from the ground and seal the victim inside. While the petals appear to be soft and vulnerable if damaged the inner lining of the velvet petals produces a thick, sticky sap that coats the weapon or item that caused the damage, hardening in moments ((Thanks to Cauldronborn for helping me smooth out the digestive issues ^.^ )), and thanks to the regenerative properties of Felaryan soil any minor damage is healed quickly. In either case the point is moot as the outer surface of the Venus Vines petals is nearly as hard as steel so even if one could cut or shred their way through the velvet type lining of the inner petal the outer petal would prevent any escape.

One other oddity about a sealed Vine, once the petals have sealed about a victim magic does not seem to function inside, this prevents anyone within from teleporting out , opening gates or rifts in space and time, creating elemental hurricanes, blizzards or fire storms any form of magic, even telekinesis and other Psionic disciplines seem to be negated through a strange form of white noise generated from the plant during digestion. One can only surmise that this evolved as a protection against such escape attempts.

There are however interesting side benefits to becoming the Lure of a Venus Vine, as long as the Vine is alive the Lure will live as well, drinking every evening from its silvery sap and gaining eternal life and youth, while a Lure CAN be killed easily enough (Making it necessary for another Lure to be obtained by the Vine) if the Lure is careful and avoids violent death or being consumed by a Fauna type predator it should be capable of living eternally as long as the Vine is kept nourished. As the Vine grows larger larger food, or more bountiful food is required, many Lures in Felarya have met a sticky end attempting to trick predators into following them, chasing them to their Vine, but many have also succeeded, luring Giant naga, or just simple giants into their Vines by pretending to be prey, the giant creatures sensing an easy meal give chase only to find themselves befuddled by the Vines pheremones, and encased for lunch.

Reproductive habits of the Venus Vine: A Venus Vine bears one seed every ten years, no more no less, that seed is shot into the air where it is caught by the wind and carried to (hopefully) fertile soil, once it lands it takes root and begins to grow until it reaches the 'juvenile' stage, at this point it must find itself a Lure, once a lure is found however the Vine begins producing its first seed, nourished a little by every meal for the coming ten years.

F.A.Q

Q: What prevents someone who has been lured into the Venus Vine from simply running away when the petals begin to close?
A: The Venus Vines pheromones work to draw the victim closer, it also works to keep their heads fuzzy and unclear, the closer they are to the central stem the stronger the pheromonal attraction so they find themselves unable to think clearly and often unable to hear any warning shouts from comrades.

Q: If two people or more were present when the Lure showed up could the Vine handle them all?
A: Yes, depending on the Age of the Vine it is capable of trapping two, fully grown adult humans at the Juvenile stage and more as it grows.

Q: You do realize Pheromonal isn't a word right?
A: *sighs* Yes, yes I do.

Lotsa love, and I hope you like the Idea!

Shula

((PS: Please feel free to PM me with any questions you have about the Vine and I might add them to the FAQ, even if I don't I'll PM you the answer anyway ^.^))

ShulaDracos wrote:

The Lure once created goes out into the forest surrounding her plant (As the lure is always female, it seems incapable of creating a male lure however there have been instances where a male lured into a juvenile plant has emerged female) waylaying travellers through subterfuge, claiming her friends are hurt, or she was attacked and her sister is injured, anything to get a human to follow them towards their plant. Once the Lure has brought the victim close enough the Venus vine releases a burst of chemical pheromones that lure the target in closer, its open petals resembling nice spade shaped red velvet carpet, but once one reaches the central stalk each of those petals lift from the ground and seal the victim inside. While the petals appear to be soft and vulnerable the acid secreted from the plant seems specifically targeted to inorganic substances first, dissolving power armour, chainmail, weapons and anything else metallic or inorganic in moments, if a bladed weapon is used on the petals their acidic secretions eat away the blade before much harm can be done, and thanks to the regenerative properties of Felaryan soil any minor damage is healed quickly. In either case the point is moot as the outer surface of the Venus Vines petals is nearly as hard as steel so even if one could cut or shred their way through the velvet type lining of the inner petal the outer petal would prevent any escape.

Ok while your idea sounds interesting, the part which I highlighted falls flat on its face. What you have done is describe a chemica mixture as an acid then given it properties which do not fit an acid. Unfortunatly acids have rules just like any other chemicals and there are plenty of substances whcih they don't touch; at the molecular level there is nothing for the acid to react with. Acids strong enough to attack metals will also attack the complex organic molecules that make up a living organism in a heart beat; and while said acids will dissolve small ammounts of metal, when it comes to big chunks usually the acid attacks the surface then forms a insoluable metal-anion salt which prevents further corrosion. Also whenever an acid attacks a metal it produces large ammounts of hydrogen.

The idea that the digestive chemicals attack substances other than flesh as been done before however calling that chemical an acid doesn't work. There are some acids which can dissolve a wide range of materials, like concentrated hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid, however they are too reactive to be found in nature; if it is strong enough to dissolve 20kg of steel plate I'd hate to see what it would do to flesh or the plant.

To be honest if the vine keeps the victims in a sealed chamber there is no need for the digestive chemicals to dissolve whatever armour they are waering as the chemicals would seep through the gaps over time; you aren't going to encounter sealed armour all that often. From an evolutionary stand point I'm not sure why the plant would take this route unless it constantly encountered prey which wore armour ranging from steel plate to kevlar, a material most acids will find hard to attack, but even then the chemicals needed would destroy the plant, pH balances are very important. There are probably other holes in this idea that others may pick up on however as a chemist this is the one that stood out the most, if you really want the venus vine to keep these properties you may want to hint that it was genetically engineered or altered to do so.

I think the description of the idea is far too drawn out.

Wow, I just got more smarter.

CauldronBorn: Bah! Now see this is why I need to have more collaborators with a background in things like chemistry ^.^ You have an excellent point of course and I shall make an edit of the post, rather than the digestive acids eating away at inorganic substances I will simply put in that any weapon or object rupturing the inner petals finds itself coated in a sticky sap that hardens quickly, this way weapons are still at an advantage, while the Vine is tough it is most definitely not impossible to escape, in my post you will see that the outer petals are 'almost as strong as steel' technically this means if you had a steel weapon or something stronger you could cut yourself out in time, obviously though if we make this too easy the poor vines will NEVER have a decent meal ^.^

Sean: Perhaps so Sean but I have found it's usually better to err on the side of caution and add too much detail, rather than not enough, it also means of course if someone decides to make this plant canon, or to use it in Felarya they have plenty of information to play with. I often try to write my submissions as if they came from a guidebook or from a nature handbook or something similar.

gt500x: Hehe! Well I hope you liked the idea at least! ^.^

this is a really well detailled and thought of idea here . Your explanations about the process really show you know your subject ^^
The thing is I'm a bit unsure at the concept of the human lure as you described it.. I mean somehow it seems a bit complicated as an evolution to me ? with that gender swap and all ^^;

Karbo wrote:

this is a really well detailled and thought of idea here . Your explanations about the process really show you know your subject ^^
The thing is I'm a bit unsure at the concept of the human lure as you described it.. I mean somehow it seems a bit complicated as an evolution to me ? with that gender swap and all ^^;

Indeed... a human lure to lure other humans through advanced communication seems a little complicated.

Really what I could see would be a larger variant of this, creating the lure-girl and using this as bait to draw in larger meals like predators.

I think the part about nullifying all magic, psionics and that seems a bit off to me. It seems to be a bit.. Unnecessary. the number of prey that would have these abilities is small compared to the number that wouldn't. It seems a bit odd that they would have evolved an (unexplained) mechanism for dealing with this when they wouldn't be using it most of the time.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

I think the part about nullifying all magic, psionics and that seems a bit off to me. It seems to be a bit.. Unnecessary. the number of prey that would have these abilities is small compared to the number that wouldn't. It seems a bit odd that they would have evolved an (unexplained) mechanism for dealing with this when they wouldn't be using it most of the time.

It's not a bit unnecessary, it's forced. It's an artificial way to make the plant dangerous by blocking out any form of escape route. Writers should learn that Magic isn't a "get out of problem free" force, it's a power that's as versatile as its user and capable of being strong when used right, but weak if used poorly.

Hehe Thank you for the compliment Karbo hun! *bounces* As people might have guessed it isn't exactly the most natural of plants, while it has evolved somewhat independently of control it was initially conceived of by an alchemist who worked his own magic on the plant to control its growth, it is through his arts that the Vine has the ability to alter the gender of the Lure, Like you said it's a bit of an odd mechanism, but I like it *grins and blows raspberries!* And that's just a good excuse ^.^

Jaette_Troll: Using the same excuse above the Vine was designed with that specific difficulty in mind, this way if the Vine ever escaped the Alchemists control it would be unable to keep growing or spreading its seeds without a humanoid lure, this way if it could not capture a Lure in time the new plant would wither and die allowing humans to increase in number and keep a sort of balance with the Vines in the surrounding area! The Lure girl is a good idea, but I still like the Conversion thought, it works nicely as population control and allows the plant to be tough but not godlike, it is strong, hard to kill, so it needed some weaknesses and I thought the Lure would be a nice weakness.

Anime-Junkie & Sean Okotami: Sean is right Junkie! It was a deliberate attempt, once again due to alchemical intervention add to that the number of fairies and other creatures with some mystical ability that the Vines would capture from time to time and the number of mages as well and you have a good excuse for evolution to strengthen that natural tendency.

To all: I want to apologize for the post above! *grins* It's actually incomplete! While I did get some people thinking it might be too big to be truthful its far too small! I actually had an entire story set around the Vines and their origin, but a virus on my computer ate it >.< I will of course make additions to the description as I try pulling out more of the information on the Vines from my poor broken memory! ^.^;;

I'm gonna say this: No. It's forced. Forced is bad. You can try to excuse it, but the fact is, it's overly complicated and a lot of its concepts, especially the lure, could have been accomplished by an easy alternative, one that may not result in friends coming back to avenge their fallen comrades right away with a flamethrower, and the "block all magic and psionics" is not only overpowered, it's VERY overpowered.

Here's something that ALL should know: Anti-magic, by its very nature, is a broken ability, and the only reason it's not normally frowned upon is because it's rare. When it becomes common for no good reasons, it becomes an artificial way to nerf mages. In addition, Anti-psionic, by its definition, would stop all thoughts and mind process, since psionic is powers from the person's mind.

Learn this: Just because it sounds cool doesn't mean it will work.

Just how powerful must this alchemist have been to create such a plant?

Alchemists aren't so much "powerful" are they are knowledgeable and experienced.
To them, knowledge really is power. Since an alchemist is measured by his accomplishments (as shown in the Alchemist ranks, titles and Heirachy thread) and creating artificial life is a title earner, I'd say they'd have to be pretty accomplished. The more complex the life form, the more experienced and learned the Alchemist would have to be to make it work.

Sean : You could make your points without using that lecturing and agressive tone

This is why you work in teams; if a hundered alchemists worked off each other I guess they would and will make something very spectacular. Could the Venus Vine be an experiment created by a team of alchemists from Ur-Sagol as a protection mechanism for the city?

Cauldron makes sense there. Alchemists are going to work in teams just like scientists do today. A master alchemist has alchemists at his command, an alchemist has apprentices.

CauldronBorn: Now that is an awesome Idea Cauldron! I might have to stick that idea in the rewrite! *giggles and licks nose!* Ahem! *plots and plans!*

Karbo wrote:

Sean : You could make your points without using that lecturing and agressive tone

I was not agressive. I'm starting to realize that whenever I speak my mind, if a little bluntly, you immediately accuse me of being agressive. It's more complicated than that.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Karbo wrote:

Sean : You could make your points without using that lecturing and agressive tone

I was not agressive. I'm starting to realize that whenever I speak my mind, if a little bluntly, you immediately accuse me of being agressive. It's more complicated than that.

This is the problem with writing on forums it's hard to get across your tone of voice well impossible to really. It does make it harder to get your point across on some accations. Last time I did this I got burned so we should all have a break grab a cup of Tea and take it easy like.

I believe the Venus vine to be a bit to perfect nothing evolves that way. It's taken sharks 225 million years to become what they are. It's more like it was built not born and why would some one make something like that?

Sean Okotami wrote:

Karbo wrote:

Sean : You could make your points without using that lecturing and agressive tone

I was not agressive. I'm starting to realize that whenever I speak my mind, if a little bluntly, you immediately accuse me of being agressive. It's more complicated than that.

No it's not. It has been a good while where you are not just a "little blunt" but outright agressive and rude in most of your interventions, be it in DA or the forums, and you treat many people like dirt. I"m not sure if you realize it but there is a LOT of people who are fed up with that attitude of yours.

And like I pointed in my latest message to you, you have to make some serious efforts to change it now because it's starting to become really really problematic.

Okay, fine, I should word my words better as to not target anyone, but rather just speak my mind. However, I'm someone who doesn't like mincing words and believe a straight answer has more impact. Even if I use poor choices of words, that doesn't automatically label them as "agressive".