Coralweed
I mean, it does look like coral floating in the air. Of course, it also looks like a nightmarish snowflake the size of a ship, too...
Coralweed is a unique form of giant algae that grows in the Shadow Shard region. They are the most common in the Centauri Belt. This species grows to several meters in length, dwarfing all but the dreadnaught class of lightning ships. Because of their size, coralweed presents a unique type of hazard to travel through the Centauri Belt. But its slow rate of movement makes it simple for passing ships to avoid them.
Gentle Giants
The name is a bit misleading. But I understand where it comes from. They do look like a giant floating snarl of coral.
The name of the species stems from its outer appearance. But looks are deceiving. That outer surface is a bark with a coral-like appearance and the texture of rock. It covers the entire surface of the plant from tendril to root mass at the center. This outer shell comes in a variety of colors, from grays to rich purples and greens.
Original settlers first considered them a threat. This was due in part to their size, appearance, and the method by which they bloomed. The latter being the cause for more than a few damaged colony structures that lacked force screen enchantments. Their branching appearance was reminiscent of ripper vines. But coralweed has more in common with the gentle crystal-leaf air whale than carnivorous thorn vines.
Basic Information
Anatomy
It's amazing that those things are just... algae. Really determined algae.
Coralweed structure looks simple but is in fact a complex and layered species. The plant is in fact a giant algae colony that has developed means for survival among the island asteroids of the Centauri Belt.
This plant has three main sections comprising the hard outer skin, the root ball, and the exterior furfronds. Each play a distinct role in coralweed development.
Coralweed skin is a tough outer, wooden bark that looks like coral and feels like a soft stone. Strong enough to deflect some direct projectiles or bites, it acts as the primary defense for the plant
This shell grows overlapping layers of the course of its centuries long lifespan. The number of layers is a direct method to measure the age of a given coralweed. The oldest ever encountered was before the Final War. That specimen was measured at 1224 years old.
Along the tendrils of coralweed are long ridgelines where the outer plates of bark meet but not entirely seal closed. That is where the plant’s furfronds grow and fill that gap. These finger-length rubbery fronds are warm to the touch with the texture of a fine fur, which is the source of the name. This is a coralweed's primary method of gathering dust and magical energies that the plant uses as food while on the move.
The furfronds are sensitive to magic and magic use. It's been observed many times that these fronds will lean toward a mage or mystic if they are close enough. This is because the fronds are collecting the ambient, stray magical energy that a spellcaster naturally has on them.
Spellcasters never feel a thing, either. Interestingly, this attraction is what draws coralweed toward lightning ships. The plant senses the power runes in the ship’s engine.
In the center of the twisted mass is the root ball. This is the trunk and root of the plant. Here, the plant processes the magical nutrients it gatheres while it sails across the breadth of the Centauri Belt. It is also contains the enclosed garden grove used by wildlife to migrate between island asteroids.
This root ball is the most mysterious of all the coralweed structures. It processes the magical cast off and upwelling from spellcasting and other magical sources while storing what it can’t process. But this processing is performed by the plants growing in the center of the coralweed. This grove is several meters wide, easily wide enough to hold small herds of kynou or other native wildlife.
In mature coralweed, there are reports of large ponds and gardens. It's this terrarium and its internal growth that performs the actual processing and digestion of magical energy. The primary result is the coralweed's ability to navigate and move, assisting the ramscoop and jet structures of the plant. Secondary is the preservation of its digestion terrarium. Elemental waste is shed through the trailing ends of each tentacle stalk or during its resting phase, where it creates a star-blossom.
Movement
Where one of those things goes, you just have to get out of the way.
Coralweed looks unable to move, but this is far from the case. The plant is one of the more efficient creatures in the Centauri Belt regarding movement. Coralweed swims or 'flies' through the Centauri Belt through a siphon system where they take in particles, dust and even magical debris through a series of ramscoop holes on one side of the root ball. This would be the effective 'front' when it travels.
What it collects is expelled out through four funnels to creating a jet of magically charged debris. This allows the plant to move, following the shifting patterns of the Shadow Shard energies. Coralweed uses its tendrils while moving. They can flex, and their slow adjustments act like rudders for the plant.
Lifespan and Other Traits
Coralweed is one of, if not the longest lived species across the entire Worldspace. These enormous giants have been recorded to live up to 1000 or 1200 years in age.
Stories recount tales of even larger coralweed in the deep Centauri Belt or even the surrounding Shadow Shard that may be up to 2000 or even 3000 years old. As the plant ages, it increases in size until it reaches an average height of 22 meters (72.1 ft) and length of 45 meters (147.638 ft). Beyond those dimensions, it self-prunes, losing tendrils while growing new ones.
Every sailor or asteroid prospector has a story. Some of the older ones are convinced that island asteroids are just really old coralweed gone long dormant. Me? I just don't see it.
Genetics and Reproduction
How does something that big have offspring? Well, it isn't quiet about it...
Coralweed produces offspring through budding. This period of initial growth can take between ten to twenty years. After that time, when coralweed makes landfall on an asteroid, it undergoes a bloom, which is far more dangerous than when it simply blossoms. For anyone in the Centauri Belt, this is the most dangerous time to be near coralweed.
When coralweed blooms, the tendrils take root into the surrounding ground in the same manner it would to blossom. Once grounded, it explosively jettisons any buds ready to calve off in a mile radius around the parent. Once done, all the coralweeds open their root ball as they normally do during their resting phase. They will remain like this for several days. After that, the parent releases the hold of the asteroid, leading the younger coralweed out into the depths of the Centauri belt.
Predator and Diseases
Coralweed has few natural predators because of their size. The primary threats coralweed faces are extreme solar flares, bark rot, and a swarm of ghost-borers. The latter is the most common.
Bark rot happens when the root ball of a coralweed could not rest, therefore expand into a star-blossom on a regular, seasonal schedule. This causes a buildup of water, often enchanted elemental water, which can be aggressive in what it seeps into which is the bark and structure of the plant's root ball.
The interior becomes flooded, causing its internal terrarium to decay. As the rot sets in, the root ball loses the ability to keep its shape. Over time, it will decay then tear walls open, killing the plant. This process takes months for an average sized coralweed.
Ghost-borers are a different matter. Ghost-borer beetles are another hazard of the Centauri Belt. Swarms have been known to devour entire lightning ships and their crews. For coralweed, ghost-borers can be deadly, as the beetles will bore into the bark until they reach the base of the furfronds, at which point they eat the plant from inside. Depending on the size of the coralweed, this could take years.
Once the beetles finish, the swarm moves on. At that point, the coralweed is nothing more than a dead husk floating between the asteroids. More than one lightning ship has encountered a dead coralweed drifting aimlessly through the void.
I did hear a story about a necromancer who found one of those things and animated it. I've never wanted to go find out if that was true or not...
Scientific Name
phaeophyceae octocorallia holopela
Lifespan
1200 years
Average Height
22 meters (72.1 ft) (at the core or midpoint)
Average Weight
130 metric tons (286601 lbs)
Average Length
(when mature) 45 meters (147.638 ft)
Geographic Distribution
The Eyes Have It
Coralweed doesn't have literal eyes or a sense of smell. Instead, the furfronds acts as the plant's 'eyes'. Being so sensitive to magic and mana, the huge plant's furfronds allow it to detect the flow of magic through the Centauri Belt. The larger, older, coralweeds have an easier time detecting these currents.
For younger coralweed, they detect the eddy and wakes created by the larger coralweed as they pass through the current energy streams. This helps the furfronds of these smaller plants ‘learn’ to detect the energy.
Sailing The Deep
The topic of how some wildlife hitch a ride inside a coralweed’s root ball, causes many to ponder the idea of riding inside a coralweed. Even the idea of using one as a living ship and steering it. Younger sailors often pose the question with bright-eyed enthusiasm. More experienced sailors simply laugh.
Mages and other researchers have long studied this problem. Rumors persist of some mystics being able to ride coralweed, but no one has proof. The problem lies in that coralweed is an enormous algae colony. A hive mind that works in conjunction for the betterment of the colony. The plant is aware of its passengers and takes steps not to hurt them. But in the end, coralweed follows its instincts, not instructions.
Anyone or anything closed up in a root ball will be there until that coralweed reaches another asteroid. That could take days, weeks, even centuries. A passenger might wait a long time to disembark.
What? 'Steer' coralweed? A colony of giant algae? I'd rather walk into a mage council and try to get them to all agree on what they want for lunch...
Nature's Natural Ramscoop
Coralweed is a filter feeder. Only what it's filtering is background and other ambient magical radiation from dust, debris and all other particles drawn in by the furfronds. It does this while moving between island asteroids and other large masses in the Centauri Belt and similar regions.
Once it reaches an island asteroid or other landmass, the coralweed will make landfall and drive its tendrils into the soil to act as an anchor. This is the plant's 'resting phase' where it stores energy and releases excess material it can’t store, such as elemental water. Doing this provides critical, and rare, nutrients for the island asteroids. Also, the coralweed will open its root ball into a flower called a star-blossom.
The star-blossom is an enormous star-shaped bloom formed from the garden-like interior of the root ball. This allows the coralweed to absorb the most energy, magical or otherwise, to sustain its growth and recovery. Colors of the petals reflect and compliment the purples, greens, and blues of the plant’s bark. Most petals are a shade of milk white with wine red, blue against a sea green and other combinations.
While the root ball is open, local wildlife like the kynou will graze on the garden interior. Once the coralweed completes this resting phase, it closes its star-blossom back into a root ball then lifts off from the surface. Wildlife passengers in the root ball are not harmed. Light is provided by phosphorescent fruit and flowers. Water is in abundance, as are plants for the wildlife to eat.
Once the coralweed makes landfall again, any wildlife it carries is deposited on the new island asteroid. This is the primary means of migration between asteroids in the Centauri Belt.
There is a special discipline of sage called a 'Coralchaser' who enter the coralweed when its blooming and go along for the ride once it closes up. they either cast portal spell in conjunction with a portal generator. All that excess magic means its never certain they'll succeed and get back with their research. Not sure whether this is brave, foolish, or a bit of both.
Comments