Dangers of Venus

[TheUdjat]

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[Arclite]

Ok let me run this by the collective. How about a group of intellegent plant like organisms that live in small colonies all over the planet. The colonies consist of the warriors, workers and minds, with each division further split into smaller more specialized groups.

The Minds do all of the controlling and are at the top of the heirarchy. Gifted with telepathic abilities and superhuman Intelligence, they link all of the other plant beings in a certain radius together to form a sort of 'hive-mind' and coordinate they're actions. Unfortunately they are stationary and require a ton of food energy to maintain the bond, causing the workers to move and feed them.

I imagine the minds as giant bellplants with arm-like vine tendrils but otherwise unable to move. A horde of workers (I've dubbed them feeders) upkeep the minds at all times and make sure to suit their every need.

The warriors are a bit different. They are roughly humanoid shaped and seem to be made of twisting and interlocking vines. Split into multiple specialities they protect the colony and attack other colonies for resources. Only requiring water and sunlight, the warriors can be fierce foes.

This is purely conceptual, so I'm completely open for criticism. It just kind of hit me in a burst of inspiration. Thoughts?

[TheUdjat]

So, like, plant-ants?

This kind of species certainly could have a place on Venus, especially if we keep them confined to jungles, as a very alien-minded, but pseudo-sentient species. I don't want them advanced to a point where players could say 'Oo, I want to play one!', but I like them as potential adversaries and obstacles. Very cool.

The less humanoid, the better. I'd prefer them to resemble the trees, vines, bushes whatever they're modeled after, but perhaps with a subtle means of transportation. The warriors, for example, could each be a collection of vines that can travel in a serpentine fashion through the trees or forest floor, forming variable forms as needed to defend their 'brains' (Queen). Even, for example, forming a wall.

Any more critter creations?

[Arclite]

Yeah I got a few.

How about a primitive race of primates that rule the jungle and have adapted to living nocturnally to cope with the creatures. I'm thinking a mix between the Halflings of Ebberon, The Pygmys from The Mummy returns and south american tribes. Maybe they have even domesticated select species of the nocturnal predators and can control them through mundane and Magical means. Maybe giant centipedes or Krenshar?

Next I was thinking of Giant Dragonflys that roam the swamps in place of other sky terrors. Dragonflies are fast, manueverable and deadly and would be a hazard for any air ship trying to cross the swamps to face.

Not just Dragonflies however, I see scores of giant insects pulled directly from earths own history. Since the climate never changed I can see no reason for them not to be around.

These Giant insects will have to have predators as well like giant toads or frogs. The amphibians could have adapted to the sulfuric rain and could live year round in the same spot if need be. Maybe they could be one of the creatures the Jungle pygmies ride/ train for Intertribal wars?

I have more, but I'll have to post them later. Big thesis coming up soon.

[MaestroXC]

So what you're describing as far as the race of primates is concerned is almost like earth's evolution paralleled later in history on Venus, with the more advanced humans coming into contact with what are their evolutionary, extraplanetary analogs? Or humans that were split off from the main body of society after the terraforming and colonization and regressed to a primitive state?

I like the secondary possibility a bit more, as the chances of a humanoid species evolving independently on a totally different planet doesn't appeal to me from a scientific point of view. The more different the native fauna is from what we know on earth, the more intriguing.

I really like the fungoid hive-mind, could have a really interesting effect on the local ecosystem.

[TheUdjat]

Unfortunately, this is one of my more neglected settings. It's due an update for a long time now.

I honestly haven't gotten very deep into it. One of my early, early ideas (dating back before any of this was posted online) was to have it be a sort of variant D&D, but it has clearly advanced far beyond that. What I think is developing now is far more unique and inspired than a purely 'alternate setting'.

But I digress.

I have kind of mentally categorized the dangerous entities of Venus into two categories: local Flora/Fauna, and 'mutated' Earth species.

The former should be extremely alien and unlike Earth's species. Venus was terraformed and colonized, but it has maintained a certain amount of self-identity throughout the process (I actually plan this to be kind of a theme - a lot of the 'magic' of Venus is simply inexplicable processes and phenomenon for which the planet itself is the cause. But more on that later). In other words, some creatures should have evolved on their own. I kind of favor plant-like species, since Venus will even now be rather humid and warm, but I'm really just looking for non-animal types of things.

But when you get right down to it, there will probably be very few 'true' Venusian species, as opposed to the more dominant 'Earth-like' ones.

Which brings us to our second category. Venus was terraformed and colonized, and that process introduced a lot of foreign species to its soil (including humans). Some of these species have been left mostly intact (humans, notably), but other have been forced to change due to Venus's strange influences (also notably humans). There will be a lot of creature for which I take a common earth creature and twist it into something monstrous and alien.

All of this is rooted in the 7th Tower, and the human colonists that lived there. They, too, had some inexplicable disaster come to pass, where Venus mutated them, transforming them into monstrous, other creatures (typically undead - but not the kind of undead we're familiar with). It's what began Venus's 'dark age', where the science colonists brought with them utterly failed in the face of the strange Venusian influences.

(God, I'm really not explaining this coherently. I'm all tired, I think. My apologies)

Anyway, as a general rule, if it's 'humanoid' but a kind of monster, then it's because humans were twisted into that sort of form by the planet itself. But if they're wholely alien, they developed more or less on their own.

But in the end, it doesn't all have to be explained, because it's not like our 'enlightened' Venusians are really going to know. The people of Aphrodite like to think they know everything, but they're truthfully ignorant as hell.