Floran Physiology In-Depth By Professor Oak ((IC/OOC)) [Khaltor]

A guide to the Floran Physiology by Professor Oak. [Khaltor]

((Everything that's not certain, or a source OOC will be in Italics, normal text is considered IC report by Professor Oak)) ((For example THIS would be IC, THIS would be OOC.))


A quick introduction:

Professor Oak
Hello, there glad to meet you! Welcome to our space sector! My name is Oak. People refer to me as Professor in Xenobiology(,among other things). Various planets are inhabited by creatures referred to as "Florans". To some people Florans are a race of carnivorous and violent humanoids, scorned throughtout the galaxy for their savage reputation. I study the biology of different creatures as a part of my profession. But first let me tell you a bit about the fascinating physiology of the Floran, as there are a lot of misconceptions concerning our race. Though I will be explaining mostly purely biological misconceptions, not cultural ones, as that isn't my field of expertise.


The Floran Gender:

Let's begin with the issue of Gender. How does one determine whether to refer to a Floran as a male or a female?
Technically speaking Florans are neither. Florans are as what you'd refer to as an androgynous species, comparable to most flowers. This means Florans posses both male and female reproductive organs. Although this doesn't mean Florans have a reproducive system compatible with most other organisms, especially animal organisms are very incompatible. Anyone with proper biological knowledge can tell you that the difference between a plant-based lifeform and an animal-based lifeform is too great for them to be able to reproduce sexually.
I'll come back to that later, in the chapter covering Floran reproduction.

In Florans there are two subspecies. Often referred to as Orchids and Roses. The Orchids seem to have what the animal species would refer to as a "Male" body type and the Roses seem to have a female one. So far there seems to be no correlation between strenght and the different subspecies a Floran is from, unlike the gender dimorphism found in many animal species. Gender dimorphism refers to the fact that males are often bigger and stronger than their female counterparts.

Floran type A and type B, depicted as Orchids and Roses in the character creation screen are two options to select your subtype of Floran, as we know from the Wiki that the Florans are in fact a uni-sex race: “Though a unisex race, Floran culture values survival through reproduction and expansion over environmentalism or any perceived bond to Mother Nature.”- Starbound Wikia (Floran - Starbound Wiki).


A: Orchid B: Rose
The reason as to why the Rose subspecies seems to have something similar to breasts in mammals, which are used to feed their young, is something of a mystery. Although they do produce sap, much like any other part of the Floran body, it's rather weird to think that they'd fulfill a similar role considering the negligence most Florans have towards their offspring. It might be some kind of ruse, to lure some foolish prey into thinking the Floran is weak or vulnerable, like many other organisms that have gender dimorphism. I'll have to conduct some more tests on these... For research purposes...

From an RP standpoint you can assume that Florans from type A and B might identify with the terms male and female personality-wise and because of physical form but biologically speaking they’re a unisex race, one just has breasts which may hold sap/nectar to nurture saplings, which gives them an evolutionary edge over the other type, but perhaps the other type is stronger or something, much like males and females in humans.
Hell, as far as we know it’s actually a fruit…
But it is mentioned that young Florans are often neglected at birth and they fight eachother to weed out the weak, as implied by the Sprout armour set (Iron), so having the "breasts" as something that nurtures the younger saplings seems a bit unrealistic, althoug we don't know for sure, as there is no lore to absolutely deny the possibility.


Floran biology:

Many Florans refer to themselves as the trees, uprooted. Florans are a race prone to cannibalistic urges, whether eating other sentient humanoids or even other Florans. They are however not solely carnivorous, as they are able to eat fruits and vegetables, but they mostly prefer meat, either cooked or raw. Florans are also higly dependant on water and can't stand dry climates very well. They also have an instinctive fear of fire, because of it's heat and tendency to burn down forests and plants. Though it is believed that Florans are able to overcome their fear of fire, as they even use lava in their prisons and weird fire or heat generating plants. This fear of fire also makes them prefer lighting alternatives to torches.

From: Floran - Starbound Wiki :
They eat Oculemon, which are either a fruit of vegatable.
Tests have shown that Florans, although they are plants, require both oxygen and carbondioxide. The oxygen is used to produce energy from consumed nutrients, whilst the carbondioxide is used in photosynthesis in the foliage. This means a Floran breathes a mixture of Oxygen and Carbondioxide, and exhales a similar mixture of gasses.
“Florans gain energy and nutrients by a combination of photosynthesis and digestion of food. Photosynthesis would produce glucose while emitting oxygen, to provide energy, and digestion of meat (and possibly plant matter) would provide the nutrients to grow.” Logic also tells us, that plants require a small amount of oxygen as well, and since Florans are more mobile than other plants, they'd need more energy, and they require the oxygen to generate more energy as well.
Minor RP detail.


Floran Reproduction:

According to the community: “butt-rubbing…” No seriously there was a community poll and the result was butt-rubbing… This comic was featured in one of the Starbound newsletters.
I think they highlighted this comic because it was funny and not to make this official.

Back to a more serious note though.
Finally we have arrived at perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions concerning the physiology of a Floran. As I previously stated Florans are a unisex race of plant people. This means there’s no gender distinction thus they have both genitalia. But unlike animal species, where having the genitals located in the crotch is rather common, Floran genitals are located in their Flower, on what others would refer to as the head. Proper names for Floran body parts will be explained in a later chapter as well.
Florans can either choose to self-polinate, which results in either a clone of the parent or a unique, but genetically very similar, as if it were a sibling, to the parent or they choose a mate they deem worthy, thus probably possesing valuable traits, in order to create a new, stronger Floran. This is basic evolution theory. I would like to stress the fact that Floran genitals are completely different from animal-based humanoids. They are unable to breed the same way an animal couldn't breed with a flower.

I quote Flora: “just cause ur a plant dont meen u can grow a dick!!!"
No, just… NO! Idc if that’s what you’re into but it’s unrealistic to think that a race of plant people would have a reproductive system compatible with animal people.

On a side-note: Florans don't have wombs either, when the Flower is pollinated, seed are formed, and these are planted in good soil, which provides enough minerals and is humid enough to provide water to the pod that grows from the seed, which will release a grown sapling-Floran. In the end stages the pod looks a lot like a plant cocoon, thus the name "cocoon-kin". The age or physical maturity of the Floran is assumed physically near maturity, mentally not so much.
The Sprout armour implies that these Florans hatch at early puberty/early adolescensce and mature a bit after leaving their cocoons. And the respawn animation implies that Florans grow from those pods.

 

Florans and Drysap:

Drysap comes from a plant that grows in desert biomes/flesh biomes/bone biomes (anyway it’s a dry climate) and gets its moisture/nutrition from dead corpses around it, presumably. If ingested or injected by a Floran it replaces their sap and heightens their resistance to heat and dry climates. They can also survive without water for longer periods of time. Repeated ingestion/injection is needed for the effects to last, although once the ingestion of Drysap has begun the Floran organism becomes highly dependant on it. It has severe side-effects, they make the Floran more aggressive and violent overall, it messes with their minds. The more intelligent the Floran the more likely it is that the Drysap will cause side-effects to occur. It is very likely that any Floran that ingests Drysap will devolve into madness and perish in some sort of violent outburst. (Sources: notes on Drysap, the Greenguard’s Journal/Diary Entries)


Floran Intellect:

Although most Florans are rather savage and simple-minded,(Source: Floran Peace by Treeio Florstab lore books) ,there are exceptions, such as myself. Although I may have been raised by humans, I wasn't genetically modified to make me smarter or more tame than the regular Floran. I never had very agressive urges, and knowledge gathering came naturally to me. A notable exception, from the Starbound lore, is Greenfinger, one of the most, if not the most intelligent character from the Starbound lore. We know for a fact that he is a Floran and that he didn’t just create the Florans.
(Source: Floran Sandstone Statue - Starbounder - Starbound Wiki )

And despite the cultural ban and thus disability to read they seem to have a mysterious knack for technology, machinery and computers/programming and there’s a certain affinity between them and the Glitch.

(Source: The Curious Glitch ) Quote from www.Starbound.wikia.com/wiki/Floran : “Some Florans appear to be able to read binary. This is most noticed when a player character Floran reads a Geometric Screen: "Floran read words good. Sssay 'ssstab a meatman'. Huh." A Glitch reading the same text will say "Analysis. This display appears to read 'stab a meatman' in binary. How unusual."” So perhaps they can also learn to understand it.
Quote from www.Starbounder.org/Floran : “Florans, who frequently salvage or reverse engineer the technology they bring to enable their colonization of the stars.”Quote from www.Starbound.wikia.com/wiki/Floran : ”Floran technology has mostly been reverse-engineered, such as discovering FTL space travel through an Avian spacecraft which crash-landed on their planet.”


The Floran body structure detailed:


Since the lore is severely lacking in explaining Floran body structure I made this comparison with most other plants. Most of this document is based on the in-game lore or scientific facts concerning the basic characteristics.
We have arrived at the chapter concerning the names of Floran body parts. Florans may be humanoid, but we mustn't forget that they are, first and foremost, plants. This means that I'll be referring to the classification of other plant body parts names for Florans as well. Though some of them can be referred to their animal counterparts in informal circumstances.

Epidermis: Head

The Head and neck with flower and foliage. Has eyes, ears or some other way to perceive sounds and a mouth with sharp teeth and most likely corrosive spit to help digest meat and other nutrition.
Also has an organ to smell, similar to the nose in animals, as Florans have a heightened sense of smell to help with the hunt.
As is implied by multiple “comments” made by a Floran when examining stuff.

Shoot: Torso

Upper body with nodes (joints; elbow) and twigs (arms). The fingers/claws are a product of curved leaves; thorns are essentially curved leaves that are wrapped into a thorn to make them hard and sharp, to either be used as weapons or to be able to climb easyer. Comparable to the spine in animals, Florans have a spine-like stem on the back to provide structural stabilty for the body.
Whether the “breasts” are fruit or nectar/sap holding buds depends on the character, I would think that this could vary from Floran to Floran.

Root: Lower body.
Comparable with the Shoot, the roots diverge from the stem, creating two legs, similar to animal humanoids, which end in stable, thorned feet, to be able to climb easily or to be used as weapons.
Some roots in plants also have thorns, the claws on the feet/toes are also thorns. The legs are essentially two lateral roots. It is possible that they could sense moisture in the atmosphere with these, although there is nothing in the lore supporting this.

Word of thanks:

First and foremost this Floran would like to thank his colleagues, who helped him gather and present this information in an orderly fashion, and I'd like to submit this paper as my first contribution to the scientific community of this Space Sector.
I might revisit this, and update it, as more information becomes available and research has been completed. Next up is the Floran's ability to command plants.
I hope you, the reader, found this guid to Floran physiology enlightening.
With kind regards. Professor Oak.

I would like to thank the staff, for reviewing this guide to Floran physiology, that's supposed to help Floran players RP their Floran in a consistent and logical way that is true to the lore and at least somewhat logical in a scientific way when the lore isn't specific enough. Also a thanks to John, for spellchecking this article a bit, lol, there might still be some typos in there, but not as many. I do hope this clears up some of the aforementioned misconceptions about Florans. Feel free to leave any serious and constructive feedback if you think there are things listed in this guide that are either unrealistic, in a scientific way, or contradict the lore somewhere. Please give the source as to why it woud be wrong as well. Thanks.

 

Thanks, yeah i could change it to the "perfect flower" explanation, because in the back of my head i remembered that part from biology classes as well, but i wanted to keep it a bit simple. I do believe the devs meant Florans to be hermaphroditic/"perfect" flowers because that'd make sense, makes reproduction way easyer, seeing as their whole theme is to invade and expand, devour in a zerg-like / tyranid style.
The wiki says the Floran are a unisex race. It doesn't say the flower is unisex, it says the entire race is "unisex" and because they wanted to circumvent having to say that Florans are hermaphrodites (cuz controversy), they just say every Floran has the same sex/gender. That's what i think they mean with unisex. (Perfect Flower)

 

Adjusting it right now

 

Hmmh okay so under Floran abilities i add a new topic: Psychic power...

 

The Incarcarus Notes:

Context: Big Ape and his Miniknog (the very strict guardians of society) made the regular Apex civilians super timid and weak-willed, because they have been mentally broken by the 1984-dictatorial regime of Big Ape.

But after being thrown into the arena with Monsters and receiving combat training, and succesfully being able to take out groups of monsters (which isn't something normal citizens would be able to pull off, mind you) they are praised for being competent combattants.

Then Greenfinger sent 10 Florans, as was requested, to combat 10 of those Apex, to the death. Results were devastating: 10 regular, bored Florans vs 10 "trained, competent" Apex. 9 Florans remain and 0 Apex.

So we can deduce that this lorebook just tells us that Florans, in a cage-fight or arena are more capable combattants than Apex.
"The Apex may possess great physical strength, but the Floran outmatch them in all areas." - Despite physical devolution the Apex still posses great physical strength, which is probably still quite a bit superior to regular human strength, but it would seem the Florans posses even greater strength, which is accompanied by a much more simple mind and lower IQ.

Ofcourse this is a GENERALIZATION, just like WEAK HYLOTLS, but them being creative in different cultural areas such as poetry etc, if you're gonna create a character keep in mind that you shouldn't attempt to make a super-hero type or overpowered character. If you wanna play a very strong Floran for instance, you are more or less obliged to have him have a simple mind, for the sake of balance.

I don't wanna see Tony Stark type humans either, you're either a scientist, or a soldier, it's not realistic to be talented in both areas. There's a reason why Mr. Stark is a comic book character and not an existing human being...

TL;DR: Yes, Florans are GENERALLY stronger and more durable than most races but also a lot dumber. This is a generalization. Exceptions are possible, but if you are gonna make exceptions in any race, make sure to balance it out by making them less competent in other fields.

For instance: Oak is a weak, but intelligent Floran, while Nightshade is "intelligent for a Floran" (lisps, simple grammar and a bit naive/dumb, but not a total idiot) and a rather competent fighter, but not to the extreme since she has some intelligence, for a Floran.
Basically think of the DND system where you're able to assign your ability scores to different abilities to have a balanced and fair character. (Which is why having character sheets for characters to display their attributes would be very handy to compare)
I'm not adding this to the article untill i've read up on all the other lore where it comes to physical attributes and speculation... Then i'll discuss it with the staff as to how to deal with it. For now just ignore the incarcarus notes, but keep in mind that Florans are fierce, yet slightly dumb, warriors.

Edit: Oak as a scientist still doesn't hold a candle to Greenfinger's genius. So don't exaggerate when you're making a focused character.

 

On a sidenote:

Does this mean that Greenfinger is centuries old or is that just a way to express that he's been hiding an important secret for a very long time? Damn it i feel like a bible analyst...

 

The few, intelligent Florans probably orchestrated that, florans a bit more like Greenfinger or Oak, and not your run of the mill normal Floran...
Edit: they have a strange affinity with machines, but that doesn't mean they're smart in other fields as well; it's just an excuse to make the Florans be relevant on a galactic scale.

 

By Rhopunzel: http://rhopunzel.tumblr.com/post/94379690321/hey-i-have-a-question-about-florans-that-you-may

 

Tbh, Rhopunzel didn't really think that through, reproduction, in the way she described, involved genitalia. Florans being a unisex race is obvious, personality-wise they can be either feminine or male.