Let's try making a working society of Myconids in the Underdark.
We will flesh them for good.
Myconids are humanoid fungus living in caverns deep under the mountains.
How big are they? (dwarf size, huamn size, dark soul size).
How do they communciate?
At the center of big mycnoid settlements there is a giant fungus called Atomic Mushroom. It irradiates strange light upon which Myconids feed.
>>46519467
Dak souls size
More importantly:
How do they taste?
Remember, slice down not across.
>>46519511
Truffle-tier
Btw, the largest organism in world is not whale, jellyfish but underground mycelium
>>46519524
The Myconids nury their dead by submerging in stone coffins filled with minaral oil.
Adventures affirm there is nothing that tasetes better then a centuries old pickled myconid.
>>46519467
>Size
height: 0.8 - 2.5 m
width: 0.1 - 0.8 m
volume: 0.006 -1.25 m^3 (based on cylinder)
density: 0.23kg/L
mass: 1.4 - 287 kg
>Communication
Linguistical: Pseudo-Telepathic, through vibration of gill structure beneath head-cap
Emotional: Pheromones, through micro particle emission from cap pores
>>46519683
>Cont'd
>Society
Underdark myconids operate in migrating family tribes, slowly moving from one place to another when food runs out, and leaving behind marker pheromones for other myconids to find. During winter solstice, if the lunar phase is correctly aligned, the myconid families are observed to flock together in what can only be described as a massive breeding orgy. Entire cavesystems may be lost as a result of this, due to the highly toxic spores which fill the air during mating.
>>46519683
I like the idea of of the spore-things vibrating to make sound.
>>46519798
>migrating
no
>>46519798
>Cont'd
>Age
Myconids sexually mature in the age of 20-50, depending on the amount of food available, and the size of its tribal family. They can live to be about 600-700 years old, though life expectancy is much lower due to other cultures finding myconids particularly tasty, especially those who have not sexually matured. The older myconids are sometimes killed and used as a barbaric form of building material.
>Migration
>>46519823
Migration does not happen often, only when all food has run out in the area, or when the breeding estrus is nearing. Myconids can move surprisingly fast if threatened, or if in sexual lust, but their migratory speed is little more than a few dozen km every year.
>>46519467
>At the center of big mycnoid settlements there is a giant fungus called Atomic Mushroom. It irradiates strange light upon which Myconids feed
The majority of the myconids are smaller workers, which are about 4 feet tall. They spend their days tending to the Atomic Mushroom, both the main shoots and lesser shoots that spring up around it.
This careful maintenance includes the killing of pests (insects and gelatinous cubes) that wish to eat the Atomic Mushroom and laying fresh corpses at the Mushroom's base (to suplement its diet).
The largest, most powerful Myconids assist the smaller workers by praying to the Atomic Mushroom's glory (which acts as a communal spell that sustains the mushroom). These larger Myconids take the role of Myconid clerics, and also lead the Myconid tribe in matters of state.
>>46519844
>Cont'd
>Feeding
Myconids are able to suck up minerals, water and other nutrients through the earth by growing thing, elongated tendrils which dig deep and attaching themselves to cave walls and floor. If the nearby area has poor soil, they will sometimes emit sweet smelling spores to attract lesser beings, camouflaging themselves as ordinary mushrooms to be eaten. Myconids have no known mouth orifice, and it is mystery how they feed on animals, though it is assumed their malleable bodies will attach themselves to the pray, strangle them with gases, and slowly absorb them through organic acids. No myconid droppings have ever been found either, and so their digestive system must be extremely efficient, but medical examinations have revealed no such organs at all.
>>46519844
>>46519899
Migration shouldn't be a yearly thing, since the Myconids have a steady food source in the form of the Atomic Mushroom's oh most Holy Radiance. Migration only occurs at the end of the Atomic Mushroom's life, when is releases its spores.
This migration is seen by the Myconids a most holy pilgrimage, and a quest to find their new Atomic Mushroom. These pilgrimages are often more like violent crusades, as it is seen as good luck to gift a new Atomic Mushrooms with the corpses of enemies.
>>46519904
Why would they need minerals to eat when they have the glow of the Atomic Mushroom?
>>46520000
stop shilling the atomic mushroom idea
>>46520017
It's a good idea. Much better than the idea of fucking wandering mushrooms.
Like, if this were a plant race based on dandelion seeds or something, I'd understand why migration would make sense, but I don't think you can get more sedentary than fucking mushrooms.
>>46520073
The mushrooms in OPs pick clearly have legs. If they were not meant to walk, they would not have legs. Cut off their legs then.
>>46520073
No anon, both migration and atomic mushroom are dumb ideas.
>>46520092
You can have legs without migrating, anon.
In fact, the majority of things with legs do not, in fact, migrate. Especially species with a form of 'agriculture' like what an Atomic Mushroom would provide.
>>46520111
What do you think, then?
>>46520129
>the majority of things with legs do not migrate
are you fucking retarded? where is the evidence of this? Just look at humans, we migrated as fuck, and we still do, we just have better transportation now.
>>46520146
>and we still do
Do you not know what 'migration' means? Honest question, too, because I'm pretty sure humans do not abandon their permanent settlements following grazing herds of deer anymore.
>Trump
>>46520185
Do you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people
>>46520236
wrong tab, anon?
>>46520266
You mean one small and insignificant culture that barely migrates anymore? You sure showed me, anon.
Tell you what: lets get past this impasse, and just go with both. There are two main cultures in the Myconid race.
One is a group of evil, sedentary myconids who practice necromancy and sacrifice sentients to their god/Atomic Mushroom
The other is a good/neutral migratory variety that live in smaller communities at the fringes of the Underdark landscape.
Is this a good comprimize, anon?
>>46520338
Fucking syrian migration
have you been living under a rock anon?
>>46520338
>One is a group of evil, sedentary myconids who practice necromancy and sacrifice sentients to their god/Atomic Mushroom
Woah hang on, he's onto something here. How about they go hunt other living things (drow, rothe, beholder, etc) and carry their bodies back to the colony and dispose them into a big digestive pool which then serve as the colony food source.
>>46520368
>implying syrians are human
>mfw
in all actuality, syrian migration was caused by war/chaos, not because they live a migratory lifestyle.
>>46520386
No Atomic Mushroom?
>>46520386
the necromancy is actually mycology. All they raised was near-sapien fungi
>>46520403
>spouting racist /pol/ shit
nicely done, have fun with your thread
>>46520403
No atomic mushroom. Unless you actually want to discuss half-life and fissile material and isotope separation in your game, or alternatively do the WFB thing where they call it warp stone and avoid the word atomic.
>>46520418
They should look like mold-covered skeletons, since the flesh is removed earlier and used to feed the mushroom/pool thing
>>46520424
not racist, just sarcastic. I also make sure to make fun of my own ethnic group so that its even. pic related.
>>46520429
If your problem's just with it being 'Atomic,' then I'm fine with changing it. I just think there should be some sort of central fixture of the community with provides the food.
>>46520467
yes, the fungi support and animate the skeleton
>>46520418
>>46520500
Do you mean that myconids are just fungal undead? Because if so, that's a stupid idea that defeats the purpose of a Myconid civilization to begin with.
>>46520386
>>46520467
Any digestive pool or atomic mushroom thing should primarily be fed by some sort of ambient magic or other unspecified energy, but be supplemented with corpses. It's just not viable that a mostly sedentary community would be able to subsist entirely on raiding its neighbours for corpses.
>>46520467
Fine, whatever. but where does this central fixture obtain food from? Why does food never run out so it can remain fixed?
>>46520552
then tell me what is the purpose of necromancy?
>>46519467
>How big are they? (dwarf size, huamn size, dark soul size).
They grow their whole lives, from tiny sproutlings as small as morello mushrooms to huge, immobile Elders the size of buildings.
>How do they communciate?
Telepathy or via some janky spore-based system. They have no obvious sense organs, or indeed organs of any sort, so their sense are probably magically based. On the other hand, a spore-based system makes them a truly enigmatic race, with very little possibility of communication between themselves and outsiders.
>>46520563
Most underdark setting have giant mushrooms that eat ambient magic, so id we wanted to be lazy, we could just say say "ambient energy."
That being said, I think we should think of something a little more creative. I think they should be fed with either...
>A: tortured/enslaved souls, very necromantic
>B: some sort of radiation energy, possibly provided by some god
>C: magma vents, kinda boring but it works
>>46520566
Mostly military. The skeletons protect their borders, and also suplement their crusading armies as light troops.
They also help a bit with maintaining the central mushroom, but aren't as adept at it as worker Myconids are.
There was a Civ of sewer dwelling ghouls that allied themselves rather closely with a myconid colony.
They communicated with a Morse code type tapping. They were vegetarians, harvesting plants and debris to be consumed by a central pit. They were all born from and connected to a massive mycelium Network they could telepathically communicate through if connected with it and would rest and feed by sitting down and mixing their mycelium.
They practiced Sporemancy, growing new special breeds of fungus and mushroom. They eventually started making fungal zombies out of umber hulk and humanoid corpses as their defenders.
The Network was created by a giant sedentary mushroom Elder that was actually the corpse of an ancient mage who ran afoul of a magical fungal infection
>>46520684
>magical fungal infection
kek, ''dripping like pipe''
>>46520684
>connected
I don't know how I feel about that part, but besides that, it's a good idea.
I particularly like the idea of sporomancy. I'd imagine its a lot like alchemy, only potions take the form of AoE airborne spores instead of liquid drinkables.
Pic related is the myconid god: a 5-fold elder who is a god of the underworld, rot, and possibly radiation.
help me flesh this concept out.
>>46520862
The bearded one was an epic-level wizard as described in >>46520684. This is why his 'children,' the Myconids, are to this day adept at magic, alchemy, and other wizardly arts.
>>46520648
Alright I got this:
>Myconid's main food source is a fungus called "Golden Mane Mushroom". Golden Mane kind of looks like IRL enoki, but much longer growing upto 5m long, and is flexible hence the name.
>Golden Mane grows in underwater pools heated by geothermal vents. The fungus uses the temperature difference between its root and tip (which is buoyant) to provide the energy for growth. When Golden Mane mature myconids harvest them by rowing out in boats to the middle of the pool and reeling the fungus up.
>Because underground water level and geothermal energy fluctuates, the pools are in a constant state of flux. Some cool down and thus result in mass die off of their crop. Some drain to become a bubbling bath of mud. Myconids are constantly moving around looking for new suitable pools to seed with Golden Mane spores so that they have a steady supply of food source.
I like the idea of the central food source being a Digestive Pit. Mushrooms grow on dead and dying things, so the myconids should be scavengers, eating the garbage and corpses of other underdark civilizations. The only thing they won't feed to the digestive pit is living sentients and myconid corpses, because the corpses provide little to no nutritional value. Feeding a living being to the digestive pit is only used for the most severe criminals, such as adventurers who break into a myconid burial ground and eat the pickled corpses.
While all myconids need a digestive pit to survive, different myconid tribes have different attitudes about the pit. The golden-capped Cubens guard their digestive pit only from non-myconids, and will sometimes bathe in it for short periods of time to remove external grime. The Baeocysts, on the other hand, keep their digestive pools in elaborate temples, where a necromancer theocrat lives by controlling access to the life-giving soup. Normally the dictator mage is whoever has the largest army of skeletons.
Migration should be rare, and only occur for one of three reasons:
>1. Something fucks the digestive pit, usually someone accidentally puts a magic item in it.
The group must quickly find a suitable location and sacrifice a myconid to create a totally new digestive pit.
>2. The group is too large to function off of a single digestive pit
Colonists take their time to scout an ideal location and create the new digestive pit from some of the liquid from the old one
Or
>3. Warfare
The myconids gather a huge amount of the current digestive liquid and take it on the road. Wandering myconid groups can survive for decades just off of liquid in a bucket, but the digestive pit must be in the earth if it is to flourish permanently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgeNBO-nwCE
>>46520954
>>46520971
Is it possible that I can keep you guys interested in the idea of giant radiative mushrooms by reminding you that there's a species of mushroom that only lives in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that subsists entirely off radiation?
>>46521023
Yes I know you're getting at that, but those mushrooms are not very well understood, is rather one off and there's no reactor in your average fantasy setting.
>>46521023
The problem is that my idea of a high fantasy universe doesn't have a concept of radioactivity. I wouldn't mind the species existing as a result of a massive magical disaster.
>>46520954
I like a lot of what you've got going here, but I also like the idea of mushroom people having a higher level of civilization.
I guess this is one area we just have to decide on now: are the Myconids wanderers or can they have cities?
>>46520954
I like the idea of a hot pool of fungus, but I'm not crazy about crops. I honestly think the myconids should eat something more insubstantial than solid food. Remember, these things don't have mouths.
Maybe, instead of eating, they drink the actual fluid of the pool: a hot, rancid, sulfurus mix of rotten sacrifices, sediment deposit, and volcanic water.
>>46520971
Remember, sedentary Myconids are mostly evil. They are absolutely fine with raiding and killing and sacrificing, and then going on great profane crusades for new pools when theirs runs out.
>>46521101
Evil myconids are sedentary, only moving once every couple generations when the pool runs out. These are great crusades where many die, and the mass of corpses are used to seed a new pool.
>>46521101
Husbanding a fungus crop seems perfectly inline with advanced civilisation. It's basically an underground mushroom version of early human agriculture.
We could even say the Golden Mane mushroom grow at a nominal rate in your average pool, but when the pool is enriched with nutrients via throwing corpses they grow much faster.
>>46521130
I'm fine with the myconids drinking from their great pools. Also works with the idea of Myconid alchemy.
Instead of a boney skeleton they have fluid filled sacks to provide structure. They can also use this structure to increase strength to mythic levels through hydraulic forces. This allows their warriors to be unparalleled in grappling and unarmed combat.
>>46521163
kinda like morghs. I like that
>>46521130
>>46521156
Pool of fungus work as well I guess. When the pool is of rich enough density for consumption it kind of looks like miso soup or watered down vegemite and is a similar brown sort of colour.
Pool, crops, or radiation. Lets put it to a vote
http://strawpoll.me/7305089
>>46521130
I'm still not sold on maliciously evil shrooms but probably more like, theyre so alien it seems evil to outsiders.
>>46520793
Puffball grenades of choking paralytic spores, secretions from a modified bleeding gum sh room that are highly flammable, glowcaps, healing spore clouds.
I imagine that a myconid can grow up to several types of alchemy mushrooms on their personal cap, taking up inventory slots. Defenders would grow puffball grenades for easy access, miners would have glowcaps growing on their caps, etc
>>46521225
Isn't:
>the foul, fungal waters of their central pool
and
>crops grown in their central pools
Really the same thing if the "crop" is something microscopic like yeast or algae and not something macroscopic like giant enoki?
I love some enoki now
Some immoral myconids would breed hallucinogenic mushrooms to enslave and addict a servitor caste like goblins, frogs, draw, etc
>>46521419
Troglodytes and drow*
Stupid autocorrect
>>46521376
I'm fine with alien-morality myconids instead of pure evil
>>46521403
Maybe it can be macroscopic crops in the pools (like the giant enoki), but they don't actually eat the crops; they just drink the water around it.
>>46521419
But they have undead. Why do they need mind controlled sentients?
>>46520467
I like the idea of one centra big Mushroom that digest the food and gives the enrgy to the colony in a more easily assimialted way.
We already have mindlfayers with the central brain so this seems perfect for something central that dones't seems like a mindflayer rip off.
>>46521472
The pool isn't really a mindflayer ripoff
besides, nobody else likes the idea of a central mushroom.
>>46521472
That's a penis.gif
>>46520648
>C: magma vents, kinda boring but it works
To convert such a big temperature drop to energy you need something big. Just physics. So it is a good explanation for why they evolved/addomesticated the big central mushroom.
So the consensus seems to be drinking from the central pool right? The pool would contain...
>superheated sulfurous water as a base
>filled to the brim with giant enoki-like fungi
>suplemented with rotten corpses
This sound good, or are people still hung up on the idea of creatures without mouths eating solid food?
>>46521494
but but...
>>46521225
Oh somebody made a poll nevermind, next time will finish reading the thread before posting.
>>46521601
Sorry we didn't do the giant radioactive mushroom. Maybe, as a compromise, they can live inside of giant mushrooms?
>>46521597
I suppose without mouth solid food doesn't make much sense. With microscopic fungus crop they just have to stand in the enriched pool water and soak it up.
>>46521639
Actually, scratch that. giant mushroom houses is a stupid idea.
>>46521639
>Maybe, as a compromise, they can live inside of giant mushrooms?
That's already sort of a thing in FR:
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Araumycos
>>46521705
The Myconids are sustained by the waters of their central pool: weather this sustinance comes from the microscopic fungus or the waters themselves is a question for another day.
>>46521727
yeah, it's not a good idea
We still going with the idea that a priest-caste rules the Myconids?
>>46521597
totaly agree. It is settled so we can move forward.
There was a debate about servants. Do we want troglodytes or undead? Do we want servant sat all?
I like the sporomancy/alchemy. Myconids can develop rapidly (weeks) breeds of microscopic fungus that asnwers a particular need (produce flamamble spores, can eat rust and eat metal, infects humans, acid secretions). Then they use the newly grown fungus to make alchemy stuff.
>>46520989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnsfRWaDL-E
>>46521863
Undead made from fungal sekeltons. The meat goes into the pool, and the leftover bone gets raised to an undead.
>>46521727
>>46521707
Despite my love for Mushroom houses everything being mushroom is a bad idea. I'm against it.
>>46521639
>>46521601
Thinking about it big digestive pool is better then atomic mushroom.
>>46519683
>vibration of gill structure beneath head-cap
They can produce only low frequencies so when speaking with oustiders (rarely done but it happens) their voice is very deep and seems coming form everywhere.
When a myconid is angry air under the cap is vibrating making him look like a dragon ball character charging a power attack.
>>46521932
Their voice is so low, that most races can't even hear it properly.
When interacting with these races, Myconids use their young as 'translators,' since their voice isn't as low, and just high enough to be heard by humanoids.
Given their particualr body shape looting/trading armor from outsiders is not gonan work for them. How do they protect themselves?
I'm relatively sure there exist fungus with 17 genders. Where are we going. Everyone is the same or everybody is so different outsiders can't tell that those myconids are the same species, much less understand anything about the mating rituals?
We need a reason why they stay underground. Light Sensitivity?
>>46522072
>how do they protect themselves
with walls of shambling skeletons, of course.
Serious answer: any Myconid that would need armor would just cover themselves in armored scrap and embed it in their skin. They also have a bunch of redundant biology, so they can be stabbed a few times without it slowing them down much.
>>46522079
They don't find as many volcanic vents near the surface, and their pool fungus doesn't grow as well in the sun.
>>46522194
They grow and harvest a type of shelf fungi that when drying it can be shaped while still flexible before it sets creating lightweight but durable plates that can be used for armor and shields. Best part is theyre mostly inflammable
Fungal Plate armor
>>46522343
and giant shields made from the mushrooms' caps
>>46520236
Make the Myconids great again.
>>46521155
I guess in my mind the die-offs were much more common than in yours.
They can trade those hallucigenic mushrooms and other special crops to peaceful merchants or settlements in return for stuff that's dangerous for them to make like metal tools and weapons. Forges suck if you're super flammable
>>46523411
Also, myconids are one of the few things that will totally buy rotten meat by the barrell-full, and I'm certain the Drow would be glad to trade 'expired' slaves for high-quality Myconid poison.
>>46523514
Some aspiring drow may even try to send apprentices to learn poisons, alchemy, or just simply mushroom farming techniques
The "atomic mushroom" should be the main reproduction body of the society and should have a huge mycelium like a normal mushroom. It should be half magic and half normal mushroom where they excrete digestive enzymes and reabsorb the digested shit. It should also have an attached digestive pool for all the other mushrooms to feed.
Are Myconids immune or resistant to psychic or telepathic attacks?
>>46524595
If they are sapient, no
>>46524619
There goes my idea for a tribe of illithid exterminators.
Being a race that theoretically has an insane amount of genders or an asexual race, should they go by they/them pronouns or do like warforged and just pick what they want?
>>46525289
I've always liked the idea of a very simplistic race that refers to others/themselves as "this one" and "that one" or something like that.
So, the sentence...
>"I need to get a fungal zombie from him to help you with the war"
would become...
>"this one must get a fungal zombie from the one who is [name] to help the one that is you with the war"
>>46525444
That is so cute
>>46525289
Their language lacks specific pronouns (as they never needed any); they simply refer to each other by "me" "you" or by name.
>>46522343
>>46522399
Among other stuff they throw into the feeding pool they throw Underdakr insects. Some of those have a very resistant chitin carapace that is not digested but used as body armor.
>>46527493
they embed/graft the shells into their "skin".
We need some Chracaters/history.
Important myconids that did important stuff.
>>46527706
The first Myconid was an incredibly powerful epic-level wizard who tried to become a worm that walks, but fucked up the ritual and ended up being the first Mycolid, and eventually, the demigod creator of the Mycolid race.
Or so the Mycolids claim, at least. If there is a god of Mycolids, he is extremely furtive, hiding from other gods and their divine agents.
As for the facts, Early Drow histories claim that the first Myconid tribes entered the Underdark approximately when the Deuregar declared independence from their Dwarven cousins.
It is written that a large earthquake caused a great shift in the Underdark's geography, including the revealing of many tunnels. The first 12 sedentary Myconid tribes from which all Myconid tribes are descended emerged from these tunnels, fleeing a homeland from which modern Myconids claim was destroyed by volcanic flooding.
These 12 Myconid tribes immediately went to war with their neighbors, slaughtering many tribes of Troglodytes and Kuo-Toa, and using their bodies to make the Underdark's earliest known Fungal Pools.
>>46527962
The early Myconid wars, while brutal, were rather quick and containded (as far as war goes). It was not long before the more civilized races of the Underdark make contact with the early Myconids, although the Myconids were even more isolationist then than they are now!
Looking at myconid histories, we see that these Myconid wars were the origin of the Myconid race's centralized leadership, the Council of the Elders of Tzi; The Council is named in honour of Sporefather Tzi, a powerful Myconid cleric who led his race during the Myconid wars.
The Council of the Elders of Tzi is a group of the 12 wisest, oldest, and most magically powerful Myconid clerics. It is made up of 5 major Elders. The Major Elders each have the right to veto any council decision, and the 7 minor Elders can veto any move my the major Elders, provided the 7 are unanimous in their bid for veto.
The Council of the Elders of Tzi do not hold absolute power over their race. Myconids are decentralized by nature, and each tribe's Sporefather ultimately has absolute say on the governance of the Tribe, with two major exceptions. Firstly, the Council has the supreme authority to enforce peace between two (or more) waring Myconid tribes. Secondly, and most importantly, the Council can designate which races Myconids are allowed to interact with, and which races the Myconids must shun.
>>46521932
>Despite my love for Mushroom houses everything being mushroom is a bad idea. I'm against it.
why not? i got this one from a "creatures" thread a long time ago:
Mush-Rooms
A type of symbiotic species of giant fungus that grows to resemble a small shack on the inside.
It feeds off of the various dander, dust and organic leavings left behind, and provide travelers with a comfy, if a little creepy, getaway for the night.
Also comes in poisonous varieties with darker brown caps, which
fill the rooms with toxic spores and then absorb the inhabitants.
>>46525070
make them a sub-race of the original myconids that somehow evolved to protect themselves from the mindflayers
>>46528407
it seems a little lazy to make everything mushrooms, IMO.
That being said, I'm fine with it as long as there are no redwood or sky-scraper sized mushrooms in these villages.
>>46527706
I liked the original deity living in the same plane(layer of abyss) as Slime deity. Can we leave that?
>>46527962
>>46528213
nice. Adds chinese aesthtics. Now I immagine myconids with long mustaches.
>>46528754
>chinese aestheticsIt was supposed to sound like Hebrew instead of ChineseI literally based the council off of the protocols of the elders of zion
but I guess chinese works, what with all their focus on potions and alchemy.
>>46528837
I just read Tzi and ELders and assume dchinese. My knowledge sure sucks.
On the other hand as Hebrews they all wear the cap all the time.
Actuly that cap is not a part of their bodies they just wear it for religious reasons.
>>46528900
Dude, if you wanna imagine what a mushroom-man would look like without his cap, be my guest, but I can't imagine its something one would wish to dwell on.
>>46528729
>sky-scraper sized mushrooms
the redwood term is not familiar to me but i guess you mean super big giagantic mushrooms... but thats part of the natural enviroment of the underdark, even without the myconids
>>46529056
>>46529056
>>46529083
I want the most important, eye-catching thing in Myconid villages to be their Fungal Pools, not some giant mushroom.
>>46529083
>>46529161
oh well, ok then
>>46529228
There can still be big fucking mushrooms, I just don't think they should be huge.
Like, the ones in >>46529202 are OK sized. It almost looks like there's a Fungal pool in the trench at the bottom of the pic
so... if we're going with the myconids being long lived then something that happens in a lot of mushrooms as the fruiting body ages is that the cap turns upward, often resulting in tears in the cap... so would a myconid near the end of its life span effectively have a ragged crown rather than a cap?
>>46529579
Probably. I mean, look at the OP art. look how the smaller Myconids have much narrower caps than the one at the top.
I think we need to give som thought about their reproduction. I was thinking that the fungal pits could also be good "spawning pools". maybe some myconids replace all of the flesh of a corpse, and use its bones to gain structure. So depending on the neighboring races, the size and shape of the myconids could be very different from another tribes.
Superior Mycon coming through. Juffowup is life.
>>46529911
I don't know m8, that kinda sounds like fungal zombies, not mushroom people.
>>46529992
Forgot my pic. You are the non.
>>46530011
They wouldn't be visibly rotting corpses being controlled by a fungus, the fungus completely consumes the flesh of the body and replaces it.
I say Badgers should be to the Myconids what dogs are to humans.
>>46530125
So they just use the corpse as a scaffold build the body on?
I'm okay with that.
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Mycon
>>46530170
Exactly. I like the idea of some myconids being more fit for hand-to-hand combat because they aren't so stubby limbed and chubby
>>46530503
This also gives us the added benefit of being able to use art from many different styles to represent the Myconids, since we can just say they were based on different corpses.
this seems relevant.
>>46525444
Following with the alien idealogy.
The zombies should be referred to as 'uplifted' or something similar.
They litterally make othet creatures 'better' after their comparably insignificant lifespans are up.
>>46532010
They should be called "the healed."
I mean, they're technically right. They were dead before, but that got 'healed' quite well.
>>46529161
What if they live inside geodes?
If their feeding pits are sulphuric acid it would work out. Look up the mexican crystal caves.
The crystals don't need to be obvious from the outside, they just look like rockey domes around the sulpher pool. But if you're on good enough terms you might get invited inside.
Also the larger geodes closer to the pool are for the elders.
This can build into the poisonous gasses idea too.
>>46532119
Yes!
Like thet barely understand death as other races see it.
'They got very sick so we healed them'
Because applying fungal material is simply how you keep someone going.
>>46532241
What if there was only one city made out of geodes, and this was the Myconid 'capital,' where the Council of Elders of Tzi live.
Like, I think its a bit farfetched to say that every city is made of geodes (how would they build them?), but I think that having one city like that would make it interesting and memorable.
What do you think?
>>46532343
>applying fungal material to corpses is how they make new myconids, so why wouldn't they see undeath as a way of growing life
this is a good fucking idea.
>>46532343
Is this not how medicine normally works?
>>46532394
Capital city is yes. I like this
>>46532417
No, Myconids are actually excellent healers, what with their incredible skill at alchemy.
Its just that they don't really see the difference between traditional healing and necromancy.
>>46532119
>>46532343
That could be a big part of their religion. They want to spread the healing gifts of their God to everyone, and "paradise" is just a big pile of rotting stuff, full of endlessly repeating cycles of death and rebirth.
>>46532394
You're right given how long it would take to form them.
Maybe they have a way of actively encouraging the growth with the pool. So you can find very small ones in many established settlements.
They could get upset if you take their house 'seeds'. It took them 200 years to get it that big, damn breathers!
Somebody should make a proper civ thread with all this fluff we've added
>>46532394
>>46532511
What if their zombies given enough time grow enough material to become myconids? So they have the zombies doing work and the older established myconids can go about their study of magic, praise, crafts or adventuring as they see fit. They all already worked their 'teen years'.
They could even take the view that the other races are children who can all eventually grow to become a full adult myconid.
>>46519467
>working society
>Underdark
You may choose one.
>>46532695
Nah, the process of making new Myconids is different than making undead; Myconids are living beings, but the undead are just sustained by magic
>>46532719
Mindflayer, kuo-toa, Duregar, Sniflbrein, and basically every society that isn't Drow or Beholder works quite well in the Underdark.
>>46532653
Indeed. Any CMs in the thread?
>>46532695
I like it. Especially if the Myconids literally view all of life as just a part of one big metamorphosis that ends with them. We're all really the same organism, we just look a little different is all. Now this makes me want to play Myconid paladin who wants to spread the truth of life
>>46532719
i think kuo-toas have a very strick rules and a very well stablished society
>>46532819
>>46532695
I think it should be that, over time, the enchantments keeping the zombies animate get weaker, and when they completely run out, the zombie's body is used to grow a new Myconid.
It could almost be seen as something evolutionary. Obviously, if that particular zombie was able to survive battle and labour long enough to die of 'natural causes,' it must be particularly well designed.
>>46519542
>sentient species who are a delicacy to other sentient species
That's a neat idea.
>>46532968
And if they don't make it to complete "ascension", you can just toss them into the fungal pits to make food.
>>46533041
actually it is a wide-spread rumor propagated by the natural enemy of Myconids so that they will be hunt down. Shit tastes different by everyone and are only delicacy defined by culture, not unlike the irl truffle
>>46533061
They probably wouldn't mind being thrown in the fungal pits. They'll just be recycled into something else, which will one day become a Myconid.
Really, I don't see why the other humanoid races care about this whole "death" thing in the first place.
>>46532968
I think it should be more of a gradual transition of a zombie to a full Myconid. Like a few spores are planted on the corpses, and as it grows and replaces the zombie it becomes more intelligent until the zombie is completely replaced with fungus and gains free will.
>>46533141
Truffles are objectively delicious
>>46533190
What if the zombie is destroyed half-way through? that's a waste of good spores, and they won't get to be recycled as easily. Far better to just wait for the zombie to collapse, cover it in reproduction spores, and put it at the bottom of a refuse pile for a month.
>>46533228
so u tried it before?
>>46533156
"death" shouldn't even really be a word in their vocabulary. To them, it's just like going to sleep or growing older, just more dramatic. This makes it hard for them to comprehend other races' concept of an afterlife.
>>46533347
to them, "death" is more like "being paused," or maybe "taking a trip" or something equally mundane.
Btw, why always depict them as fruiting bodies which are only temporary? most of the time fungi/mushroom exist as underground mycellium
>>46533261
Mushrooms make spores in the billions with luck determining if they mature.
I don't see my Myconids need to be more careful with it. They probably shed spores most places they go.
>>46533407
because its impractical and, more importantly, boring for a sentient humanoid to exist as underground mycelium.
>>46533261
Would spores be that hard to come by though? One of the advantages of the Myconids should be how fast the propagate.
Just here to post some cute mushroom folks. Keep posting, though. I love Fungus people in these games.
>>46533467
>>46533473
I still like the idea that there's an obvious distinction between Myconid and zombie.
I don't know. To me, it seems a little weird to treat someone as useless mook one day, and a full blooded citizen the next.
>>46533663
It'd certainly make the Myconids seem different from other races, wouldn't it?
>>46533663
It would be a gradual process.
And no reason why the adolecents should be mistreated anymore than humans do.
We sent young boys to die by the millions in WWI and II. The young die so the old may continue living.
The zombies can be nurtured yet manual working class still seen as an adult precursor yet still sent off to war in droves as their bodies are seen as more capable (same way we humans do it).
>>46533747
>>46533770
fuck it, I'm sold.
Now all we really need to hammer out is the rest of the Myconid religion, and we're good. I think.
>>46533819
At this point, I think we're probably going to do a monotheistic religion based on god like Nurgle.
>>46534151
We already discussed earlier in the thread that their creator god is a deified epic-level wizard who became the first myconid by accident.
However, all we know about this god's personality and abilities so far is that he's good at necromancy and likes to separate himself from the other gods. We need more, though. What is the god's name? What are his domains? What is his alignment?
still a lot of questions to ask.
>>46534326
His domains are Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.
>>46534423
kek,
All Hail 3R
>>46528973
I imagine there's a glorious afro under there.
>>46534534
that ass
>>46534326
What's also important is if they actually view him as a god, or is he just the guy how got the ball rolling and is the most deserving of their respect. Maybe he was a prophet for an even larger force
>>46534423
Kek
>>46534744
He's a full on god with a divine rank and everything. His clerics get spells from his worship.
He's basically Kyuss, only not a complete and utter failure at everything he does.
Honestly, I don't like the wizard thing. No matter how much thought you put into it its hard to overcome the "oh so 'a wizard did it' what a cop out" response.
Why not have them believe in some enso / zen circle of life thing? Upon the first separation of the light and dark places the entire underworld was one giant fungal pool. From it came myconids, and then after them all manner of life marched out of the pool to populate the would. As they did so the first pool shrunk and splintered until only small pool of today remained. Since all life came from the pool it only makes sense that they one day return to it.
>>46535052
Don't think of it as "a wizard did it." Instead, think of it as "a demigod did it."
>>46535096
>demigod
some god fucked mushroom?
>>46535120
demigod doesn't always mean a god/mortal hybrid. it can also mean a mortal who achieved a divine spark
>>46535167
I kinda like the god sticking his dick in a mushroom idea. Can we have that?
>>46535486
I prefer the idea that he tried to become a worm that walks, but the magic atracted fungus instead of insects, and he rose as the first Myconid
>>46535486
Or maybe the reverse... I present to you, Godly Chlamydia.
On a more serious note, that talk about the Atomic Mushroom earlier lit a spark of idea. What if the Atomic Mushroom were named that way not because of their energy source/radiation? They're Atomic because they're the singular fungus that is the center of the Myconid settlement. The Myconids are but the mobile fruiting bodies of the Atomic, to seek out other Atomics and to interact with them, either by 'mating' or by conquest - or by any other new thing that the Myconids learn to do.
So tl;dr the Atomic Mushroom is the grandpappy/actual organism/hivemind of the Myconid settlement. It cannot move, and might be dispersed through the settlement - or maybe it's the settlement itself.
>>46535557
>>46536180
So we can't have a god balls deep in some fungus? Fuck
>>46536180
we scrapped the idea of the atomic mushroom
What are relationship with other races?
I'm not an unddrdark expert does races down hthere have relationship that aren't "we are at war with everyone else"?
>>46519511
Infectious.
Their spores are basically roll or die and spawn 10 more myconids.
>>46519467
The reason why they live in the underdark is that they are major pushovers.
Worse than kobolds, barely know how to work stone.
Their greatest reason for their continued existance is the sheer numbers and their deadly spores.
>>46530169
I would suggest pigs. As pigs are used to find truffles.
>>46535486
And his sperm fell on the Shroom the shroom starte dgrowing. After all succubus are born from unused sperm, no reason not to use it.
OR
In the tha batle between Azarus and Wire the later had his dick chopeed off. That dick fell to the ground and became the first Myconid. Their shape with tth ehat and everything is due to this.
I have never done a civ before but if someone makes a mycnoid civ thread I will be participating.
