#its such a cool fungus!!!!

[mushroominaforest]

opinions on the honey mushroom? (biggest organism on earth)

I think it’s so cool!!!

For those of you who don’t know, there is one mycelium system in Oregon that covers approximately 3.7 square miles, making it the (presumed) largest living organism on earth, both on land and in the sea. The fruiting bodies of this massive network are a type of honey mushroom, the Armillaria ostoyae honey mushroom.

[serpentface]

What exactly are living gods in the blightseed universe?

Ok here's the (DANGEROUSLY vestigial at this point) Meta Deeplore:

There is a material form of energy that is utilized by biological bodies essentially as an animating force. This IS the vaguely defined, extremely ambiguous magic in the setting. It is what produces the actual experience of Consciousness and can be basically considered 1:1 with conscious experience. All life utilizes this energy (whether actually conscious life in the traditional sense or not).

It cannot be created or destroyed, and rather follows pathways of dispersal between one material plane and a parallel plane. This parallel plane is 'the ether' 'the dreamlands' etc, and has its own matter. Discrete entities from the dreamlands are essentially formed as a byproduct of consciousness and, when interacted with, are deeply susceptible to the influence of conscious Thought (they are essentially matter organized By consciousness and can be reorganized by consciousness)

These are the entities that can become living gods. Dreamlands fauna occasionally slips into prime material reality, at which point they are directly under the influence of consciousness and can be transformed. Dreamlands fauna in of itself is not directly perceivable but produces a sense of Presence, like the feeling of being watched when alone in the wilderness, a 'third man effect', a sense of inexplicable awe or fear, seeing shadows from the corner of your eye, etc. The combination of their tangible effects and their susceptibility to consciousness creates a self-reinforcing cycle that produces living gods.

IE: if one is on a forest and people experience the sensation of its presence, belief that there is some entity there may develop. This will follow the lines of the cultural worldview- say there are already beliefs in spectral hounds that encounter travelers at night, it might be interpreted as a location-specific hound, given a name and identity through stories. This in turn causes the dreamlands fauna to physically embody that form and the assumed qualities, and people will start having absolute materially real encounters with it, thus reinforcing the initial beliefs that created it and generating new elements of the mythology. This is what a living god is.

They need persistent, localized, and coherent beliefs to hold their forms. If a village creates a living god and is then wiped out in a disaster, the god will gradually lose its form and return to its initial state of a sense of Presence. This is also a limiting factor on the 'size' and power of a living god, if an entire religion formed around it and became a widespread phenomena, the living god itself cannot 'keep up'. It is sustained on direct and localized interactions, so belief becoming widely dispersed (especially if the localized belief is lost) will cause it to gradually become less discrete. The effect of this property is that living gods are almost always minor deities or spirits tied to a specific location by a specific nearby culture. A lot of deities in larger religions may have once had a living god component that is now indiscrete.

The living god of the Ur-tree is an unusual exception in that it was created over millennia, basically by the survival instincts of the Plants it interacts with, and has held its form over hundreds of millions of years due to this being ubiquitous and un-susceptible to cultural change. The only thing that could 'kill it' is if its forest was entirely destroyed.

So 99% of living gods can be described as thoughtforms created by the process of folkloric/religious development. They are created BY people and not the other way around, and nothing about their nature confirms or denies the existence of other deities or etc.

And yeah I'm going to be 100% real I am REALLY tempted to dump even this extremely ambiguous magical element like it is soooooooooooooooo fucking NOT important to the setting at this point. I've kind of allowed 'literal god entities created by mortal belief' to be just a tiny part of the world's fabric by their nature, like it works within the worldbuilding for such a hugely significant concept to ultimately be insignificant in the overall framework, so I COULD just Leave It but idk. If it were not for me wanting to still have my big fucking god tree and a talking dog as an actual character it would be out of here soooo fast..........

[octoberr-rust]

i think we are too chill about zombie fungi.... that shit is horrifying and beautiful

[nixierain]

I'm kinda just realizing how fucked up my house is

Mice in the basement Mice in my celing (Think thats taken care of.. Havent heard them in a while) Water Damage in the bathroom celing.. and fungus Theres a dent in my bedroom celing and I think there might be a little water damage there too Mold Lost of spiders in the basement >:3 (Mostly cellar spiders) We've had ants multiple times Hornet problem (Were solving that.. ish) We once had a basketball sized yellow jacket nest in our basement wall Other bugs in the basement The laundry room scares me (Its in the basement... so yeah, the main part of the basement doesnt scare me tho.. Most of the time) Deck ain't lookin' too good Pretty sure its a bit old siding needs to be changed Bats in the eves outside

Sure we've renovated a few rooms... But yeah, theres still some things bad about it...

[kudzucataclysm]

Hello! Shattered earth sounds like a really cool project, I'm very curious about it :) What are your inspirations for it? And how did it start?

WOWIE what an ask TYSM….ngl i think my initial inspiration that made me want to actually create the world of SE was Venture Bros, mainly cuz a lot of what SE started out surrounding plot and story wise was heroes vs villains….and the protags were the villains. since FOREVER i had wanted to have a cast/story consisting of horrible people who did evil stuff and SE was IT…i thought i was doing something new and cool lol but everything regarding the plot, characters, and world itself has changed like crazy since then. especially now with all the overhauling…

more recent iteration inspirations tho? Hunter X Hunter, Dorohedoro, Disco Elysium, MFKZ, Adventure Time, Gangsta., Star Fetchers, War of the Worlds…the whole list is right here!! :D

[moonssugar]

shout out of the penicillium mold that is the basis of making penicillin, i was hoping it would make an appearance especially in the last of us. cool fungi fact! did you know penicillin is made from a fungus that grows on spoiled food that is fermented in a specific way and then separated from the mold and purified for medical use? the more you know!

[mushtoons]

tf is wrong with your anons -Manic of Sega Genesys

brain fungus

[thetoxiccupcakes]

Throwback Thursday! For today I redrew some old art. Little mushroom creature in a children's book artstyle

[minimoll7]

Websites that make you pay so you can read articles is really dumb and stupid if I’m going to be honest here

[maythray]

god i love getting assignments where i can just draw my ocs... baby we are getting the prophecy 4 in this!!!!

[biocheminpics]

Decay exists as an extant form of life. And we just gave it legs.

"This robot is part fungus, part machine" and it's so happy to see you.

[miraclecherryblossomsblog]

I DON'T KNOW IF I OTHER ASK SENT

BUT

My new spidersona is inspired by this

TW SPIDERS + FUNGUS!!!

The spiders in the pictures are basically half alive half dead, they're covered in fungus/spores and basically are controlled to spread the spores onto other spiders

In the past she was a golden orb weaver, has a witch theme and an orb she fought with, but now she's basically a walking virus. Her webs are coated in the fungus her body produces, they can induce a paralyzing effect but since her webs aren't making contact with skin directly it's a lot slower. Which is why her suit has claws, the tips have her venom as well and the smallest cut could paralyze someone if their heart is pumping fast enough

I'm not sure how the brain control works yet but everything else is interesting :))

She wears a baggy sweater, on one hand to hide her vital organs but on the other hand she's shy about her body in skintight clothes. Her costumes are kinda like the pictures of the spiders, she has white puffs on her costume (the sweater, her knees, feet, and knuckles) which act as protection really. If someone attacks her and rips her clothes they get a face full of fungus

I'm sorry if this is kinda gross, idk how you feel about fungus and stuff😅

HOLY FUCK????????? THIS IS FUCKING COOL?????¡??????¿?¿?¿¿¿¿? MY GOD??????

The pictures giving me ghibli vibes ngl

Nah cuz thats such an interesting idea! The pictures making just imagen how her suit looks like an stuff!!!

AND CLAWS???? SOME GOOD SHI MHM YES YES CLAS SHARP POINTY ASTHETIC STUFF RIGHT THERE, honestly baggy sweaters on tight clothing is such a look fr i love her sm already!

It has nothing to do but I'm chuckling because the fungus part reminds me of a the last of us meme I watched a few days ago 💀💀💀

[azzayofchaos]

Since my other Nether worldbuilding post was received pretty well... I'm back on my bullshit!

This time featuring zoning and biomes of the Neath: Lore below cut

Nether (noun): the formidable hellscape straddling the boundery between the Fragments of the Overworld and Death's Realms.

Derived from Beneath -> Neath -> Neth -> Nether.

The Nether is most easily accessable through outer regions of the nether, regions that are comparatively closed-off, and lacking in biodiversity compared to the Deep Nether where most Neath civilizations are centered.

The Neth is divided into three primary zones, distinguished by altitude and general climates.

The Calfactory Zone: the largest and most iconic of the three, the Calfactory zone is blisteringly hot and bone-dry, it's most prominent features are its abundant seas and lakes of magma, and the massive Supermagmas atriums that are common above the magma. In the largest of these atriums, the ceiling may be so high above as to be completely invisible from the ground, obscured by an ever present smog of toxic vapor and minerals formed in the self-generated micro-climates that are generated from the rising heat of the lava that begins to cool at a higher altitude.  

In the Basalt Deltas and other biomes around the edges of these lakes, massive pillars of rock and crystals bulwark the more-visible ceiling. 

The most common of this zone’s biomes is the Crimson woods, home to hearty thermal-philic fungi and plants that grow on the minerals and vapors of the lakes. Many are carnivorous in their lack of access to water or sunlight, and these forests contain many sub-biomes and ecosystems of flourishing life. 

The Wastes are perhaps the most desolate regions of the Neath, irradiated deserts of red-rock, brimstone, and sharp sand. Even the vast majority of nether-folk avoid these deserts due to the leftover radiation that rots and destroys anything that waits too long. The only forms of life are particularly robust lichens and bacteria that are happy to sit by the boiling pools of sulfur and mud and toxic sludge that dot the landscape. Growing within the rocks themselves are colonies of amorphous fungus, called geocorpus molds, they get their spores into cracks in the soft netherack and slowly feed on it; the ‘rock meat’ is considered a delicacy in nether cuisine. 

The Temperate Zone: Cradled in the heights of the Neath’s atriums and sat below the roof is the temperate zones; the rising heat of the zone below begins to cool and by doing so, distinct weather patterns form within this zone, leaving it, while still sweltering, a cooler though much more humid climate.

The main biome are the luminescent warped-fungal rainforests that collect the high-rising minerals and odd moisture from the lakes. Liquid is actually present here, though, if it’s not safely filtered through the innards of the various plants and fungi, this water is usually aggressively corrosive, and it is best to shelter from the acidic precipitation to avoid chemical burns. The nether folk and ender local to these rainforests are suited to deal with these conditions and the ender especially do not have trouble with the extreme pH of the water here like they would in the overworld. The zone is lit almost exclusively by the biolumincense of the organisms there and have often been described as false-stars.

In the Deep Nether, the ceiling may give way, allowing one to pass onto the plateaus of the Nether Roof and the yawning void above. The bedrock of the nether roof is jagged and layered in huge slabs, sometimes broken up my mazes of pillar-like structures and shallow, thermal pools of crystal-clear liquid. The kind you don't want to touch of course. fogs may hang low to the ground, but when its clear, or above the fog, the entire universe seems to spill out into the sky. The nether roof was culturally significant and a source of much knowledge and inspiration in the early days, but I'll get more into that in a later post 0.0

The Rime Zone: Plunge deep enough and one might find themselves bellow the lava beds. Here, where the heat can't quite penetrate, the temperatures will drop rapidly to sub-zero.

Namely, the Rime Zone is made up of the soul valleys, flat steppes of cinder and clotted sand, you can imagine it almost with the blindness effect, a fog that pools by your feet, and a heavier darkness hanging from the sky, it feels massive and endless and claustrophobic all at once. Frost collects as crystals on the irradiated, soul-soaked barrens, and the bones of the massive nether wyrms lie fossilized, breaking up the landscape. The sands are also split with patches of crazing on the ground and vents of blue fire that spills out and sets the sand ablaze.

These same wryms can be found sometimes, ancient things that dig through sand and soft rocks and the magma lakes, far and few between and treated with both fear and reverence.

And in the deepest pits of the Neath are the glowing frozen lakes that are colloquially and rightfully called the Gates to Death, glowing blue from beneath their surfaces. Indeed, any further down and you pass into limbo, the edge of Death's Realms.

Extra Notes??:

Soul sand/soil is tread on carefully or not at all, is one form of remnants from the apocolyspe. Like the general radiated rubble present through the Nether, it's a fault of nuclear fallout. Unlike other areas of radiation, its also been infused with the souls of those who didn't survive the joining of worlds. That said, unlike soul sand, soul soil is used productively to grow certain nether crops. It’s minerally and magically dense.

This infused quality is also precent in Nether Debris, resulting in a material that takes magic particularly well.

Iron cannot be found in dense veins and crystals like gold or quartz in the nether, but it's a pretty rich mineral a lot of netherack, giving it its ruddy coloring.

Sorry for this massive rant that no one asked for. If you have questions please feel free to send an ask, I may not have an answer yet but I'll certainly come up with one if I can.

I'm also hoping to do a pass on my headcanons about history and culture in the Nether and then we might start talking about character headcanons since this is also an actual AU.

If you read this far, here's some notes on striders and ghast

[ghostlypawn]

i fucking love the tlou intro so much

[eddie-van-munson]

Warnings: Insomnia, Cursing, Brief Reference to Stomach/Period Cramps

@1andonlygracie Sorry this took so long!! <3

**********************************************

You'd tried so hard not to wake him with  your incessant tossing and turning. Nonetheless, you felt him stir ever so slightly beside you as the glowing numbers on the night stand clock reached 3:00 am. Angry tears welled in your tired eyes. You were so fucking exhausted. Why couldn't you just sleep? You just wanted some goddamn sleep.

You scrubbed your tears angrily from your cheeks, squirming a bit in his arms to flip your pillow over onto its cool side again. He shifted a little, his muscles naturally re-melting around each contour of your body's newest position with ease. You wouldn't have known he was awake if not for the lazy movements of his guitar-callused index finger tracing tiny pictures against the back of your hand.  

His nose buried against the back of your shoulder as he held you, his lips grazing cross the bare skin there as he mumbled drowsily. "What hurts, baby?"

His voice was barely audible over the drumming of rain against the roof of the trailer. His free hand trailed over your hip and beneath the hem of your tank top, his palm finding purchase against your lower belly where you'd often cramp.

"Nothing hurts." You sniffled, though you admittedly welcomed the heat of his gentle touches against your tummy. "Just..."

"Jus' can't sleep?" His voice was deep and groggy. Just hearing him speak was enough to soothe the upset that had knotted up in your chest.

You nodded, giving a pitiful hum in response, " 'm sorry I'm keeping you awake."

"No... No, pretty. You're not..." His words slurred slightly as he pressed lazy kisses against the back of your neck. "Well, maybe you are a little, but I don't mind it."

You'd groaned, pulling a sleepy chuckle from Eddie. You could feel his breath against your shoulder as he pulled you closer, yawning. He snaked his hand up between your bodies to scratch gently at your scalp. "What'cha got goin' on up there, huh? What's keeping you awake?"

You only hummed in response, so miserably tired that even carrying on conversation felt laborious.

"I bet..." Eddie's lips trailed from the back of your neck to the shell of your ear. "You've got a brain eating fungus. You want me to look?"

You nodded, staring up at him with bleary eyes.

Eddie mimed opening the top of your head like a lid, making his own sound effects to mimic the squeak of the hinge. "Yep. Just as I suspected. We're going to have to take the whole thing out."

"My whole brain?" You mumbled. Eddie could tell you were getting sleepier and sleepier. You rubbed your eyes, lashes batting.

"Yup. And it won't hurt a bit." Eddie placed his palm flat on the top of your head. "This is the brain sucker. Ready?" You nodded, eyes fluttering shut.

Eddie squeezed the top of your head lightly, making a sound effect that you could only assume belonged to the brain sucking machine. You smiled softly as he politely mimed closing your head again, pressing a kiss to its center.

He must be been right, because not ten minutes later, you were asleep.

****************************

[faerybella219]

I just think Gale would be so warm.

The type of warm where you sit next to him and just feel the heat radiating off his body. It’s cold when the sun goes down and all you want is heat. You bundle yourself in layers and sit next to the fire as Gale chops up vegetables and roasts meat in a pot for dinner. Every now and then your knees brush together or bump elbows. The first time it happened he lets out an “Oop, apologies,” to which you hastily reply “Oh, its alright.” Really, you thought, it’s more than alright. Since then he stopped apologizing when it happens, seemingly not paying any mind to it.

You can’t help feeling you’re a bit in the way, but your tent is a chilling place- literally. He hasn’t said anything about you being next to him, and the warmth and smell of stew is a great comfort right now. His velvet pajamas seem so comfortable in the firelight. The purple fabric, the embroidered collar and cuffs, and the matching belt which seemed to pin back an excess of fabric reflected a cool hue onto his concentrated face. His gaze seemed to drift off into the flames, the fatty pork leg you found earlier sizzling.

“Smells good,” you remark, a smile quirking your occasionally shivering face.

Gale seems to be pulled from his thoughts when he looks over at you. “Yes, it’s not everyday we’re blessed with good meat. Hopefully this fills us up tonight.”

You nod, a shudder running through you. He glances you over in concern. “A bit cold?”

“You don’t feel it?”

“Ah, no. My body tends to run a bit on the warm side. Always has. Makes me a good bed for a tressym!”

You laugh, and he continues reminiscing. “Tara loved to sit on my stomach while I read in the library. Sometimes she would even have me read to her… don’t tell her I told you that though,” he barks out a laugh before murmuring, “she would be quite embarrassed.”

You think about meeting his cat- tressym. Hopefully she likes you. You think about his library in Waterdeep. Sitting on a chaise lounge with him, your back against his warm chest while he reads to you. His hands on your waist holding you close. Would you even make it that far? The sudden silence that falls between you means Gale wonders the same.

Gale clears his throat. “Well- erm. The stew still has a bit until it’s done. Hopefully that will warm you up.”

Your backs are propped against the wood log which lays behind you. He inconspicuously scoots a bit closer and opens a book which laid on the log. You try to peer over his shoulder to see what he’s reading. There’s nothing else for you to do, and you wouldn’t mind being closer. Your gaze does not go unnoticed.

Gale glances between you and the page, and you almost notice a pink hue creeping across his cheeks. No- probably just the firelight.

“Do you happen to be interested in Menzoberranzan horticulture? I find their uses of the Green Sleep fungus especially titillating.”

You’ve never heard of it before. “Sounds interesting.”

“Oh, that’s only the beginning. Would you.. would you like to read with me?” Gale extends the book further in your direction in offering, looking at you expectantly.

“Sure,” you say. Scooting closer you try to remain casual and unaffected. Your sides are touching now, his on the ground with the book propped open on his legs. Gods, he’s so warm. You feel as though you’re thawing just sitting next to him.

Every now and then he looks at your face, silently asking if he can flip the page. You always just nod, finding it hard to concentrate on reading. His chest rises and falls steadily, his freshly calloused fingers occasionally point out especially interesting passages, and you relax (trying not to melt) into his side. At one point you think you might start to drift off right there, your eyes half lidded.

Suddenly the air starts to smell yummier- fuller and flavored. You realize your eyes are opening to the sight of Gale checking the contents of the pot simmering on the fire.

He turns back to you, “Well, the stew is done.”

Just as you straighten up, he hands you a full bowl. A sheepish smile crawls across his face, and surprisingly he doesn’t say anything.