The Crawling MassA gurgling chaotic noise can be heard, from below, gradually changing in pitch and tone until thoughts and concepts can be heard, then a single voice emerges.
Well met, other who are not part of me, I crawl below. My purpose is to create life on this barren ground, to grow and change and create.With that, parts of the crawling mass begin to break off, thick ropes that struggle towards the surface, breaking into smaller parts until they are alone and breach the surface. The small black worms crawl along for a bit then die, splitting open and revealing a mass of strange tube like organs. Some move, twist and plunge back into the earth, drawing minerals and water out, others stretch, grow and reach out towards the sky. Soon great wing-feather like fronds grow from each, sucking in the sunlight of the surface for nourishment. Then each individual changes color, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, brown, teal. And begins to die, cut off from vital resources used in their growth.
They remember the others and reach out, through the ground, linking up into a network that shares the chemicals the others can not produce. The mind-link and minds are gone, but instinct creates cooperation. They grow and flourish and change and compete. Some grow great, blocking out the light from others, some create hostile tubes, sucking out the nutrients from others. Acids and toxins are produced, poisoning the ground and forcing out competitors. Soon in each patch a single type is dominant and can produce new versions of itself. Then it dies back, lacking the means to support itself.
This continues onward and outwards, cooperation, growth, change, conflict, dominance, reproduction, death. The land around the great lake has small frond growths, some areas with great larger ones, and others with dead patches where the competition reached it's climax.
Create a new kingdom of life, photosynthetic fungus, Fronds. They have 8 orders with a dominate color, each unable to produce some vital chemicals and needing to get them from at least 4 other variants. The primary way to do so is through a network of underground tubes linking all the individual fronds in an area. They also use a variety of means to compete with each other, gradually allowing one to dominate and reproduce at a distance, the die back due to poisoned ground and a lack of support from other types. They evolve and differentiate so each order may have many different types of frond.
They emerge around the large lake, and then grow outwards using all my available CE.
If anything is not clear please ask.
A good base life form to build on. Ordered conflict. Chaotic cooperation.