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groworld_story [2008-10-15 10:11] – created 81.188.78.24 | groworld_story [2009-04-20 15:35] – 81.188.78.24 | ||
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- | ==== A (draft) | + | ===== groWorld: Borrowed Scenery ===== |
- | Plants. Green, juicy, sensuous beings and sophisticated chemical factories. Expendable individuals, | + | draft 200904: towards pataphores of plant_guilds... (at the moment prosaic descriptions based on metaphores and archetypes, not very ' |
+ | |||
+ | ==== Layers ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Layers are the different vertical strata of the environment, | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Canopy === | ||
+ | |||
+ | Plants in this layer are the stanchions of the world. They loop over the other life-forms, diffusing otherwise sharp light and tinting it viridian - making sure that the colour of the greening force (Viriditas) seeps through every particle of air, liquids and solids. These quiet and slow giants shade and colour the world, as well as provide support through the thick bones of their trunks. The bones (thin and elongated, massive and sturdy) support the plant' | ||
+ | These plants are so huge and so ancient that, close to the ground, they seem fossilised and almost mineral. Their behaviour, as seen from the ground, seems extremely slow and inactive. However, deep underground and high above ground, they dominate the landscape with their muted, murmuring whispering conversations. | ||
+ | Their reproduction cycle is equally slow and majestic. When they are ready to produce offspring, their highest branches touch and fuse with each other, forming elegant arches. Over a long time, they weave themselves together, moving inwards, from the branches into the inner cells of the plants. Once the process has woven together every cell of the two plants, the parents' | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: shelter, roof, pillar, column | ||
+ | * archetype: spiritual leader | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Dwarf Trees === | ||
+ | |||
+ | The multi-jointed balusters of these plants endlessly reach towards their kin, forming curved (sometimes gnarly, sometimes smooth) portals into and out of the world. On top of these portals, they sprout a meshwork of thin appendages that can also be joined with other plants, forming more or less dense tunnels, caves and niches - habitat for the darkness-loving flora. Through the various relationships with their brethren, these plants guide the shape of the landscape. By creating spaces of darkness, twilight and light, they attract and repel different species of lower growth. Underground their roots mirror their branches and hold the topsoil in place. They are able to flower and bear fruit and so communicate with the non-vegetal species, as well as channel information from the outside into the vegetal realm. With the slow dance of their balusters and appendages, they can sometimes enact scenes from other worlds, impersonating humans, animals and machines... | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: doors, windows, passages | ||
+ | * archetype: architect, policy-maker | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Shrubs === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | These plants change their density and hardness depending on the presence and absence of external threats. In calm periods, they form thin, glass-like translucent screens, framed by their narrow, angular branches. In more turbulent times, or in parts of the world that need intimate and secluded spaces, the plants swell into fortified walls of woven thorns. The branches turn into spiky lengths of barbed wire, making the passage in/out of the world a very painful affair... | ||
+ | Some of these plants flower and fruit, both of which are carried by the wind and can bring news from other environments. They have a boomerang-like ability, so always return home from far-off lands. Underground, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: barrier, wall, fence | ||
+ | * archetype: activist, warrior | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Herbaceous === | ||
+ | |||
+ | A wide variety of plants in this layer makes them difficult to classify. They come in all colours, shapes and sizes, but all of them have two things in common: their bodies are soft, as they possess no bones and they are short lived, ephemeral. This ephemeral nature makes them prolific and promiscuous, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: furnishings, | ||
+ | * archetype: artist, entrepreneur | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Rhizosphere === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Plants in this layer don't care much for the world above-ground, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: foundation, basement, bedrock | ||
+ | * archetype: alchemist, technologist, | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Soil Surface === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | The plants in this layer are the twilight-dwellers between life and death. Their lives are extremely short and they spend long periods in suspension / hibernation. They indulge in decay (both of self and of others). They live in large, rather conservative clans, who stick to themselves and their traditions. They are hard-working, | ||
+ | Their roots don't reach deep. They are modest and satisfied with occupying a few centimetres of the surface, forming a translucent shroud, a wooly veil of the land. They reproduce incestuously, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: carpet, floor covering, veil | ||
+ | * archetype: gardener, undertaker, garbage collector | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Layer: Vertical === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | These plants are the only ones in the world in which an individual plant can indulge in spatial travel. They criss-cross the other layers, connecting, entangling and confusing their dwellers. They can be fickle and treacherous at times. Their tangles are communication conduits between the different layers above ground. However, the information that passes through the twining vines rarely arrives unchanged - translation is never perfect, always enigmatic and slightly glitchy. Some plants in this layer are aggressive bullies, that can even turn murderous. Others can enjoy a cushy, parasitic life, usually sucking-up to the larger plants. Others again turn into explorers, venturing across ground and layers, to the furthest reaches of the world. As their shape reflects their journeys for the rest of their lives, they take utmost care to the twining and tangling of their paths, creating magnificent, | ||
+ | They are able to flower and produce long, thin seed-pods in elegant, entangled mating rituals, which occur when two vines (of appropriate species and sex) touch and entangle each other. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: connection, communication, | ||
+ | * archetype: trickster, translator, hacker | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Functions ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Functions are actions that particular plants undertake to sustain themselves and balance (in) the environment. By performing these actions, the plants take on different roles in the vegetal society. In order to perform these actions, they rely on microscopic organisms that live in a symbiotic relationship with the plant. When the plant is young, it has the ability to summon a specific type of micro-organism, | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Function: Fixing Nitrogen === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | This function can be summoned from childhood. A plant which accepts this role is able to absorb and transform an important mechano-chemical. This chemical can be diffused back into the environment, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: transforming, | ||
+ | * archetype: industry, technology (bio-engineering, | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Function: Pest Controlling === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | This function can be assumed from childhood. Plants function as immune system of the world. They protect themselves and others from external threats and dangerous internal anomalies. They can do this both offensively (attacking the threat directly) and defensively (healing the diseased plant, or environment). | ||
+ | The micro-organisms responsible are liquid flows of single-cellular, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: defending, protecting, healing | ||
+ | * archetype: border, front-line, hospital, clinic | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Function: Mulching === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | This function can only be summoned when adulthood is reached. The plants who assume this function are invaded by heaps of dust-like particles that are able to decompose plant tissues and transform them into soil and nutrients for the environment. These plants give up their physical form and decide to live suffused throughout the world, communing with other plants by being consumed. | ||
+ | The micro-organisms, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: composing, conserving, decaying, dying, regenerating | ||
+ | * archetype: cemetery, waste-dump, sewage, sublimation | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Function: Providing nutrients === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | This function can be summoned from childhood. It is meant primarily for healthy, altruistic plants. The plants performing this function are required to continually seek solid, liquid and airborne chemicals, then dissolve them in blisters of living solution that grow across their bodies, as soon as the function is assumed. Once the blisters fill up, they swell and burst in pulses of a viscous liquid. Above ground, the pulsing droplets are smaller and can spray metres through the air. Underground, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: making, cooking, gardening, hunting & gathering, parenting, educating | ||
+ | * archetype: philosophy, religion, school, kitchen, library, temple, family | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Function: Attracting Pollinators === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | This is a strictly adult function, that can only be assumed by particular plants capable of sprouting open translation organs in their flowers. The evolution made this into an adult function due to the fragile relationships between the plants and the non-plant pollinators. The action of the plants with this role might be damaging to the world, if the attraction skill is not mastered. Young plants can become apprentices, | ||
+ | The micro-organisms involved in this function are clouds of airborne gasses, that act as pheromones, affecting emotional states of their recipients. In plants, this can be visible through coloration. In seasons where communication with the non-vegetal is impossible, the clouds can carry reproductive cells themselves. When this communication is possible, they attract moving creatures and seduce them to carry reproductive cells between the plants. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * metaphor: seducing, imitating, storytelling, | ||
+ | * archetype: park, theatre, street, festival | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | == previous groWorld backstory (unused) == | ||
+ | |||
+ | draft version 200802 (will not be used) | ||
+ | |||
+ | <del>Plants. Green, juicy, sensuous beings and sophisticated chemical factories. Expendable individuals, | ||
Humans. Inventive, impulsive, mobile and adaptive creatures, able to fashion tools, cultivate living things (including ourselves) and manipulate symbols. Tasty to plants, particularly when decomposing. | Humans. Inventive, impulsive, mobile and adaptive creatures, able to fashion tools, cultivate living things (including ourselves) and manipulate symbols. Tasty to plants, particularly when decomposing. | ||
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People thaught each other in small communities, | People thaught each other in small communities, | ||
- | etc... | + | etc... |
Version 0.1 Feb 2008 | Version 0.1 Feb 2008 | ||
[[project_groworld]] | [[project_groworld]] |