Flowerfolk

FlowerFolk Culture

Strangler Fig Dryads are the heart of Ffolk culture. Each and every village has a Strangler at its center along with an associated tribe of Myrmidoms, Pixies or Mites. Stranglers are the only Dryads that normally gestate in the selva densa (dense forest), and they are never moved. Typically, the Strangler Dryad is the lover of the town's Jaguar Knight. The special mutualistic species of Little People are formally known as "Faerecophytes".

Ysbles, which are mouse-deer Satyrs, are the natural husbands of all Mistflower Dryads. When they are young they have tusks instead of horns and are called "Chevrotains". All Ysbles are wanders, paying special attention to the selva densa where new Dryads may be born. Their iterant natures make them natural traders.

Underneath every Ffolk community, shallow beneath the soil, grows the Undernet. The Undernet equal parts communications system and energy generator. The 'Net grows in all residents, Hometree, Dryad, Faerie, Were, Animal, whathaveyou, giving them a kind of empathy and access to background knowledge. The Net also functions to a degree like a very inobtrusive neural implant - Flowerfolk do not have to look at their watches to know what time it is. The Flowerfolk know that the fungal Net is there, but they don't talk about it- when they must, it is just "the Earth", but then again "the Earth is god, god is in the Earth". The Savages consider it a silly, primitive "god", that really doesn't exist. The Net of a town is the (+) mating type, the Ysbles carry the (-) mating types, which also means they can interface with any town-Net. The Earth's priestly needs are met by gardeners ("Thosewho") who have mysteriously domesticated a wide variety of mycorhizzal fungi and other saprobes.

These four parts, the Strangler Dryads, their symbiotic eusocial Little People partners (Faerecophytes), the Ysbles and the Undernet, are the physical core of Ffolk culture, but the Four Suns are its spiritual pillars. The Sunbean Trees are Dryads that produce psychoactive and magically potent fruits or nuts. The Four Suns of the Flowerfolk are Kola, Cocoa, Mezcal and Yopo. Kola nuts are angular white, pink or fucshia seeds. Kola nuts contain nonaddictive simple stimulents, and give 1 fatigue. White is more mental, fuschia physical energy. Cocoa beans come in a kind of pod, though not like a bean pod, 50 per. They are euphoric stimulents and mild aphrodisiacs. Both Yopo and Mezcal trees are legume, with seeds in bean like pods. Yopo are black, shiny and contain tryptamine and are mildly hallucinagenic. Mezcal are red and contain psychedelic amphetamines, including mescaline. Betel trees, which are palms, grow only in the Riparian villages. Their maroon nuts contain strong but addictive stimulent (and a indelible red dye) Betel trees are the Mirror Sun, the Past Suns' water reflection. All Sunbeans give magical energy when eaten, and all are toxic or cause unconciousness in high doses. Flowerfolk like their Sunbeans seasoned with lime - as in calcium carbonate. This occurs commonly in the soils below the Jungles and is found aplenty while mining Jade. Lime is kept in a belt pouch with a stick - lick the stick, dip it, suck it. Consumed this way, they may be used to juice up spells, with two or three extra points, though the specifics are somewhat idiosyncratic.

The Copal tree is also deeply revered. Its resinous is the sacred incense of the Flowerfolk. Combined with sweat, blood, mother's milk, dew and tears it becomes Itz, the sacred elixir, the substance through which life become manifest. The bark of the tree is pinkish grey, the dark green and leathery leaves average 15cm in length. Its flowers grow in cream colored clusters and mature into dark 3cm fruits. Copal dryads, Itzimis, literaly steem with fragance. Sharp, warm, glorious or biting, the odor cannot be ingored. Physically they have the same pinkish grey skin as their Hometrees, with dark green dreadlocks. Most are asture rather than the voluputous traditional dryad - Itzimis are figures of power and dread, not desire. Itz is the most precious substance known to the Flowerfolk. It's smoke utterly repels all the Notpeoples and destroys lesser Undead. Inhaling the vapors will reverse most curses and other Black Magics. Most villages have only a few grams in the care of their Queens, and it is never traded or sold.

Villages will have a Strangler, one Sunbean and an Itzimi Dryad, with a maximum of 50 Hometrees. Cities have all the Sunbeans and up to 400 Hometrees. Something about the 'net or some other factors prevents their from being more than one of each kind of Dryad in a given area. Other common Dryads include the Lesser Suns: Virola, Jurema, Brugmansia (tree datura), Pimientas, Candlenuts and Ololiuqui (morning glory trees). There are Rubbertree Dryads, but normal rubbertrees are also grown in orchards. There are many species of fruit tree Dryads, but also flowering tree Dryads and hardwood Dryads. Outside the central village, there is a ring of orchards, mostly rubbertrees and banana groves.

Other than Dryads, Faerecophytes and Chevrotains, the Ffolk are mostly Little People and Halfling and Demihuman (that is, small) Weres. Local Were species include Jaguars, Ocelots, Jagaurundis, Margays, Coatis, Bats (micro and mega), Maned Wolves, Bushdogs, Zorros, Spectacled Bears, Kinkajous, Mouse Opossums, 4-eyed Possums, Grisons, Tayra, Tree Sloths, Arboreal and Giant Anteaters, Giant Armadillos, Ground Sloths, Tamarins and Marmosets. The most common Little People are Scarabs, Ornate Tettigons, Poisondart Peepers, Arboreal Efts, Emperor Scorps, Tiger Scolp Polypedes, Banded Spiropedes, Leafasmids and Sprites. Monstrous types include Quetzalcoatls and visiting Ambassador SsuBuLung dragons. Birds are welcome, but only Amazons and a few other parrots are really civilized. Orchid and Bromeliad Floryds likewise lurk on the edges, present but rarely encountered. The various species of Drupes, Drunkards, Shooflies and Midges are considered food, not people.

Flowerfolk culture is an advanced magico-technological anarchocommunist society with a post-scarcity prestige/gift economy. This is very nearly Utopian, a fact which goes completely unremarked by the Florans themselves, as they have little to compare it with. There is essentially no crime and interpersonal violence never goes beyond a brief spat. The empathy created by the 'net is largely responsible for this - it just isn't possible to hurt another person without suffering in the process. The nature of the economy contributes to the stability in that all needs are givens, while luxuries can only be obtained by gaining social status. One can gain social status by giving gifts, and lose it by hoarding and being miserly. Ffolk are very free to be who and what they want - but their dreams are most often fairly tame. In turn, the overwhelming majority of Ffolk live happy and fulfilling lives. If for you that involves watching holoprograms and doing nothing much, that's fine. In GURPS terms, a great many antisocial Disadvantages are taboo.

The Queens of the cities and villages, be they Pixie, Figpid, Myrmidon or Mite, are all devoted and accomplished rulers and sociopolitical scientists. They have the greatest contact with the Undernet, and electronic contact with all other Queens. They are genetically programmed to be the best coordinator/commanders possible. Outside their own Hives, the Queens rule purely by consent, but no less totally for it. The functional technocommunist gift economy that smoothly runs the Florida is purely their construction. The Sunbean Dryads are not the wealthy, they sacrifice the most, giving their potential children into the use of the community. They are, perhaps, the most honored.

Floran technology is rooted in Lorecraft, but Spellsong, Alchemy and Artisantry are also commonly practiced. Technological items are created by applied industrial Enchantment, Artcrafted items are normally unique gifts. The High Metal, so central in other regions, are not used in Ffolk magic. Powerstones, called "hemis", are made from Jade mined by prospectors beneath the Jungles, but this is the only mining.

The Ffolk economy functions on three levels. The first is Sunbeans, which are consumables and the equivalent of pocket change. The next level is that of Hemis, which are power storage devices and not often traded. Beyond that, there are abstract units of social worth called "guineas". Guineas are nonmaterial currency in the gift economy - they are favors owed. Ones gets Guinea by giving gifts or performing services. At times they are more qualitative than quantitative - a Guinea may be associated with a favor/debt of some kind, which has individual characteristics, but one might have several favors and debt-favors to different people or society as a whole. Also unlike money Guineas can arise spontaneously. Acts of compassion and social service generate Guineas, as they generate societal wealth. They are also IOU's for favors, and thus somewhat transferable. When a Floran needs something, it enters into the net-unconsciousness, as a kind of opportunity, that may be noticed by apropriate individuals. Whoever helps him will receive Guinea, often more than were "spent" by the first party. Of course, you do not give Guinea to the untrustworthy, so so the logic goes, and they are also managed by the Undernet, which doesn't incorporate outsiders. Red Guineas are negative values, if that helps, as in "I ougtta pay 'er two red guineas." You can easily have red Guinea (owing a favor to someone specific) and regular/black Guinea at the same time. The 'net keeps track of all thing Guinea - one just knows one's current value and often has a fairly good idea of where others stand.

The history of the Mistflower Conflict is vital to understanding current Ffolk culture. There are three regions within the Jungles, Threefalls, the Tepuin and the Highlands. Threefalls is the home of Flowerfolk civilization, whereas the Tepuin once hosted the !Fusuliashi, aka the Savage Elves. The Flowerfolk of that time were pacifistic and used a fairly simple magicotechnology. Over the eons, the Macaws of the Tepuin used eugenics to enhance their psychic abilities. Some 10,000 years ago, they launched a revolution that is now referred to as the "Tepuin Genocide". Though the war lasted for millenia, the Savages lost and fled from the Tepuin into the Threefalls region. The fleeing Savages were armed from their millenial struggle with the fledgling Macaw Nation and hit the delicate Ffolk like a huricane. Many fled to the war-ravaged Tepuin or far Ehlondia. The Occupation has been ongoing for 8,000 years, during which Flowerfolk civilization has blossomed. This irony is recognized by Queens. Study of the Savages has confirmed their inevitable cultural decline - there were four times as many Savage cities originally. Most theories predict that the remaining redoubts will be abandoned within 10,000 more years, leaving only Serenity. Flowerfolk do not attack or retaliate against the Savages - that would be like getting stung by a bee and then thumping the Hive.

The Flowerfolk treat their cities like a population of an ecology. They are aware of their death rate and contrive to have thier birth rate exceed that, but only slightly. The settlement death rate is 1 per 192 years - there are currently 12,987 villages and 1,546 cities in 1,438,567 square miles, with a near ideal density of one settlement per 100 square miles. This also relates the the limits of the Net, which can span about 40 miles at maximum between nodes. The Savages are predators, of course, and the equation is balances at the high-prey/few-predators equilibruim (rather than the few/few - see Lotka-Voltaire). The death of the Faerecophyte center of a village is a traditional ending, but Savage raids and natural disaster can also damage a village beyond repair. Flowerfolk technology is fully capable of moving adult trees - this is how new villages are founded. New villages are always built on the outward fronteir, as far from Savage cities as possible.

Like most cultures on Worldstree, the Flowerfolk have a fairly nebulous concept of religion. Mythologically, they believe that there were four previous Ages, each of which had its own sun. Those suns, when they fell to earth, became the Four Sunbeans, which are also the Four Directions. The Mirror Sun (Betel nut palms) is the reflection of the current Sun in water. There is an idea that the current sun will someday fall to earth and become the Fifth Direction, but modern Ffolk take all of this as mostly allegorical. There is a certain mysticism associated with Itz, and Ffolk culture has its share of Witchdoctors and Sorcerers. Their holy book is the Thousand Petals Falling Book, which contains a lot of really weird mythology, tales of the Hero Twins and Seven Macaw, some of which might be construed as godlike, if anyone actually worshipped them (they don't). The Ffolk are fully aware of the great powers that be in Worldstree: Solaris, the Handmaiden, Eaglemoon, All-Devourer, the various Celestial Dragons, and the game of Zodiac is well known.