¶ The Florans
Loremaster:
WowGain
¶ Overview
A species of virulent and brutish hunters, renowned and feared for savagery and a capability to reproduce in nearly any environment and make it their own, the Florans have a powerful drive to spread and claim land, and those who don't fall into the fold of Floran society are quickly disregarded. With the one-track mind and straightforward thinking of most predatory species, the Floran are often dismissed as brainless tribals, however, given proper training they are capable of rather intriguing feats of engineering, especially when given alien technology to dissect and integrate into their knowledge-base.
Quickly making their way into the interstellar stage per the mishaps of other nearby Hylotl missions, the Florans have spread across the stars at an alarming rate given their time with interstellar travel capabilities, forever moving forward with the desire to grow, spread, and consume.
¶ Physical Description (Biology)
The Florans are a remarkably unique species, both familiar in their plant-like biology and unsettlingly alien in nature. They are often considered to be merely walking plants, but their complexities go much further than can be described as plantae. Starting from the inside and working outward, the Floran have an internal biology that can best be described as an odd mimicry of the few animalia that wandered their home planet. Capable of reaching heights ranging between 4'8" to 7'10", Florans widely range in height depending on environment. Ornamentation often sprouts from the head, with possibilities ranging from simple leaves to large flowers to even hard, chitin spikes.
A strong pulmonary system supplies oxygen to the cells of their body, intertwined about the tubes that circulate water and nutrition in the sap and lifeblood of a Floran. The muscles of Florans are represented by sinewy and remarkable tough cellulose tissue; bones of a dense, almost wood-like structure capable of withstanding large amounts of direct force. This powerful support is the key to the remarkable agility and strength of Florans. Skin is generally hydrophobic, more or less depending on their environment, known for a soft, yet slightly rubbery feel. Certain subsets of Florans are capable of producing a nutrient-dense nectar by which their offspring can feed off of, this is most often seen in Floran cultures with a heavier emphasis on child rearing. Breasts-like growths in general seem to have arisen as a means of predatory, sometimes cannibalistic, attraction, with sickly-sweet attractant chemicals being excreted from these lumps, attracting males of various species to them which are then often attacked and devoured quite viciously by feral Florans with these pheromone glands.
One of the most variable and interesting systems of Florans, however, and likely their main asset in their rapid ability to perform macroevolution beyond all belief is the reproductive system of the Florans. To describe this system would be to do its intricacies a dishonor. Unlike any of the major sentient races of the Galaxy, the Florans exhibit a reproductive structure that is seemingly unique to any major subset of their species, allowing for nearly any conceivable environment to suit the reproductive behaviors of a Floran populous given several generations.
¶ Culture & Society
Most of Floran culture outside of smaller urban populations exists in tribal collectives scattered across the Fringe and Floran CivSpace. These tribes usually exist in very disorganized states, with little inter-tribal cooperation outside of the mysterious Floran Tribal Confederacy in CivSpace, which seemingly operates on an otherwise unheard of level of organization, but only in the mysterious nature of the Greenguard, which offers protection to all Confederacy member tribes. While the majority of Confederacy Tribes are highly xenophobic and hostile to outsiders, Tribes and collectives found within the Fringe are often much more welcoming of outsiders, but it is often recommended that non-Floran visitors keep a gun on their side and remain alert at all times within Tribes that are unfamiliar.
These societies often revolve around worship of either solar deities (secluded tribes have been known to revere visiting Novakid as Gods, leading to rather awkward situations) or mysticism and value of the spirits within the life around them, and rites of passage for seedling Florans often include ritualistic hunting of a revered beast that roams near the tribes. The leadership of these tribes often involves the "Greenfinger" of the Tribe, a crucial shamanistic role that has been an integral part in the Floran species ability to adapt technology seemingly much beyond the grasp of their culture without much difficulty. The Greenfinger, as such, is the member of the tribe who is capable of forming organic technology and weaponry, these Florans are the forgemasters behind such creations as the thorn-guns and other signature bioweapons utilized by the Greenguard. Such mastery over techno-organic meshing is often considered to be what allowed for the Florans to spring themselves into the space age following accidental interactions from nearby sentient species.
¶ History
3098 - 3283
"The nature of Floran History is considered one mostly based on fanciful accounts of stories that over time have become great Epics and legends, such as the human tales of Gilgamesh and King Arthur. Only in the past century or so of the species' history has there been a more objective focus on collecting and archiving factual information, mostly emphasized by outsider Historians cataloging what information they can pry from the secretive Greenbriars, keepers of the many stories of Floran mythology and recorded history." -The Floran Conundrum
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Over one hundred years before the current date, the Floran species was a disorganized collective of tribes interacting in a loose consortium, feuding over petty differences and disagreements over property and religion, the species hadn't accomplished much of tangible merit since the fall of the dynasty of Tarnop following the Invasion of the Hylotl homeworld 307 years prior. However, this soon began to change as the first Greenlord, Fyewyven, began his conquest of neighboring tribes. Within two decades, Fyewyven had taken control of every tribe of Florans within twelve parsecs of the Florus homeworld. Moving his throne to Florus, he sat as a ruthless emperor who would remove dissenting factions without hesitation. Many scholars attribute his powerful leadership as one of the major reasons that the Floran species was capable of holding on to their remaining territory and the original Hylotl homeworld during the war that would be in their hands twenty years later.
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War was here. The Hylotl armada had found a new purpose under their new predominate governing party, the destruction of Floran society. This time, it was the Florans who were caught off-guard. The ships of the Florans were extremely outdated when compared to the Hylotl's shiny new warships, quickly being swept aside in the early battles. Entire planets were razed by orbital cannon fire, countless lives lost. The Florans were only capable of holding the line at best after reworking their strategy to more guerrilla-like tactics that better suited the smaller, older ships and weapons of the Floran army. However, one could not simply hold a line forever against the might of the Hylotl's weapons, and they began to slowly push in closer to the homeworld of the Florans. By 3189, it seemed that nearly all hope was lost for the Florans.
Countless billions were slaughtered by the Hylotl's rage, and 40% of their original territory were being colonized by the Hylotl. The Floran species was narrowly saved by the intervention of the other species of early CivSpace. This intervention is considered to be a formative event in the solidification of CivSpace treaties and pacts that allowed for the sector as we know it today to exist. Many modern crises have arisen because of the Hylotl that remained situated in planets that were set up as colonies in the war, with humanitarian organizations existing to campaign for the rights of either side.
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Following the war, the Floran species was left with much of their population decimated. Even with the Hylotl war reparations providing a stimulus that allowed for them to begin rebuilding and modernizing their technology, there was a major need for the amount of Florans themselves to grow once more. This need was fulfilled by the Greenlord providing personal stimulus rewards to those tribes which could boast the best output of Sprouts, offering them territory to the north in what would become the Fringe. These early colonization efforts by the Florans into the northern sector of the Galaxy gave them a major head start in beefing up their military and their numbers for the coming Galactic War, a conflict which would provide an excellent opportunity for the Florans to display the savagery they can inflict upon their enemies. Species discovered by the Florans were often either enslaved or destroyed viciously, and their territory and resources were held with vigor and ferocity, most notably against the Hylotl, whom they took any chance to fight against when given.
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In recent history, the Florans have shown themselves as an accomplished species, spread out across most portions of the galaxy and with a large swathe of territory under the control of the Floran Tribal Confederacy in CivSpace, which remains the largest concentration of Floran powers in the galaxy. The works of the unorganized tribes that are scattered across the galaxy are countless in number and state, making it all but impossible to catalog their shared histories, however, the actions of the Tribal Confederacy are quite well known, especially for the animosity that exists between them and the Hylotl Chancellery, something which has culminated in the official declaration of war between the two states once more. What this means for the Florans species and for the stability of CivSpace as a whole is unknown, but the tides of war rarely wash good fortune to the shores of those who beckon them.