The world is recovering.
One million years ago, the greatest challenge that oxygen-breathing life ever faced had finally been conquered. The Gelidian era ('frozen') has finally ended. The glaciers, after 400 million years of grinding the newly-born continents into rubble and dirt, have joined with the sea, and their cargoes of minerals have arrived in the waters. Trillions of photosynthesizing cells are pumping billions of tons of breathable gas into the air and ocean. Oxygen and nutrients are available in vast quantities, and multicellular life has begun. Most are simple creatures, focusing only on taking what they need from the blue-green liquid soup that surrounds them. One of the most prolific of these is the seafloor blob, a tiny organism that feasts off of the organic matter in the ocean's waters. They cover the floors of the ocean. For now, life is good, but competition is starting. One of them is destined to become great, though. And its form of life will survive, no matter what.
This one reproduces, and then dies, like the many other blobs of the reef. But its descendants are evolving. How, though? Will it evolve muscle and dig, or feast on fellow members of its species? Will it let itself free from the ocean floor? If there are a million different choices it could take, which is the choice that it will follow in the end?
That choice is up to you.
That past is past. Life as we knew it ended following the rise to sapience of Sophont nightmace, as they spread throughout the dying planet faster than the environ could support the population. Educated as they were, natural resources quickly died from misuse and lack of understanding, and the ecosystem collapsed on a planetary scale.
Three million years following the death of the last Sophont nightmace, and with that death all lifeforms on the planet, the world began to heal. For the first time in eons, oceans formed, and organics began to return to the land- or should I say, waters. Organic lifeforms must begin again from scratch, and must be cautious lest they suffer the same fate twice.
Who knows if the planet would last through such another devastation...
Competition II - New Life is the sequel to the original
Competition game. The first game ended with the rise of the Sophont Nightmace to sapience. This game begins millions of years later after the utter and total collapse of the entire ecosystem, then slow rebuilding of the planet naturally.
The flow will run the exact same. For reference, or for those who weren't here for the first:
The creature will evolve generation by generation. Each generation is calculated when I post. In between generations, everyone has to post ideas as to what we should evolve the creature with next. For an example on how that works, see the first thread.
An idea needs a minimum of 3(ish) votes to be considered, then a diceroll will determine whether or not the evolution occurs.
Dice rolls 1: Evolution happens, but in the opposite direction.
Dice rolls 2-3: Nothing changes
Dice rolls 4-5: Evolution occurs
Dice rolls 6: Significant evolution
If your idea is categorized under another already existing idea then I'm adding both together under the more descriptive one.
EG:
Suggestion 1: Develop movement 1 vote
Suggestion 2: Use tentacles for movement 1 vote
Result: Use tentacles for movement 2 votes
Should for whatever reason I can't continue or I become slow or inactive in posting I'll let someone else take over the reigns. I plan to post daily but if I get slower than around three or four days posting then I'll probably hand it over.
Please boldface any suggestions you make. This makes it easier for me.Other than that, keep the ideas flowing and enjoy!
GENERATION 1:
Seafloorum blobum
A clear jelly blob. They absorb food through the skin, and is dissolved in the inner body fluids. It is around a centimeter in length, width, and height.
SOCIAL: Completely socially
awkward detached.
SENSES: Completely senseless.
REPRODUCTION: Budding. The buds detach after reaching about 3 millimeters in dimensions and then float to a short distance away before
MOVEMENT: Completely immobile.
EATING: It absorbs cells floating through the water.
PREDATION: No predators or meaningful prey.
SYMBIOSIS: No symbiotic relationships developed.
COMPETITION: Our blobs are the only ones that live on the bottom, but competition for space is fierce. Most only live for a short time before they are covered by the next generation.
INTELLIGENCE: No form of intelligence. At all.
ENVIRONMENT: A shallow sub-tropical sea. Layers upon layers of seafloor blobs have built massive networks of flexible reefs. Fronds grow above the rest, filtering food from the open water. They grow from their stalks so that they don't get covered by the bottom layer. Their underground sections form a complex root system that feeds off of the corpses of blobs that were buried.
Current environment: Shallow sub-tropical sea.
Nearby environments: Beach, deeper sub-tropical sea, river delta.