Mendoloid
I was out picking apples when I heard it, a great buzzing from the sky. Then I saw them, soaring down from the mountains, their brilliant coats reflecting the light of the Void. Then at last I felt the Geenyetists swarming over me, their wings a blur of impossible motion, their colors dazzling my eyes. In the great swarm I saw patterns, blooming flowers, blowing winds, and the shape of fate itself. I knew then the true majesty of the world and understood how to find rapture in every moment of existence. -Suberian FarmerWhile empires rise and fall, weapons of mass destruction are deployed, and the cosmic struggle between good and evil rages on, people tend to forget the little things of the world. When inter-world trade started around the year 1000, merchants puzzled over how similar the plants and animals of the inner-island of all the worlds were. Although many worlds were modeled off of the homeworld of the lucid that created them, even worlds not created my lucids possessed the same flora and fauna. Theories emerged about all the worlds once being a single body of land, or diluted energies from Void essance having a uniform effect on life, but the true answer wasn't found in elaborate cosmological models or metaphysical energy. The true cause of this phenomenon was traced back to a very small interesting-looking flying creature called the Mendoloid. Mendoloids look like a mantis shrimp with dragonfly wings. These little critters migrate around the void arriving in the warmer seasons in each world carrying with them the seeds and pollens from the worlds that they visited last. From the small seeds of flowers and grasses they carried, other species evolved and then more around those and so forth until almost all the world had the same basic plants and animals.
A Great Journey
Mendoloids live a life of endless migration. They fly from world to world, out-running the cold. As they travel they bring with them their eggs. Mendoloids have no nesting season because of their lifestyle. Instead, they take their eggs with them. Stuck to the sides of these eggs are pollens from the many flowers that the eggs have been set down in. When the egg hatches the pollens are hurled into the air by a Mendoloid‘s explosive birth. When one is lucky enough to witness large Mendoloid hatching they see nothing but a great cloud of colorful spores, seeds, and pollens that bring the promise of new life to the world.And so I shall journey like the Modessures from this place, for no aspect of this pitliful city pleases me. -Tendria and MakavelThe journey of the Mendoloid has been romanticized in countless plays and stories. In the famous play Tendria and Makavel it is used as a symbol for leaving the past behind and beginning anew with life, and in the philosophical Suberian epic poem That Which Will Live On it is the Mendoloid who survived at the end to fly away over the white mountains to peace.
A Creature of Art
The colors of the Efdiok are the greatest of them all! -Ularrian ArtistInter-world species isn't the only thing that the existence of the Mendoloid explains. It also is the reason why the art of so many cultures features the bright colors of the deep void. From the inner islands of a world the sky just looks blue; only in areas far far away from any lucid creation do greens, purples, and oranges enter the spectrum. Yet still, the weaving, painting, and pottery of almost every culture features these colors. The answer is simple, Mendoloids posses all of these colors and visit every world, inspiring artists with their majesty and color.
A Beast of Many Names
The term Mendoloid is a scientific Quantanian word for this creature. Almost every language has a name these flying shrimp. In Suberia they are called Geenyetist meaning "cloud fish", in the ularrian tonge they are referred to as Efdiok, and in Dartar people call them Modessures.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
10 years
Average Height
1 inch
Average Weight
2 oz.
Average Length
2 inches
Geographic Distribution
Shrimpy is watching you!
