Starting locations for player set 1:
Huvvies: You begin inside the Eastern Island Chain, the more flat and continental of the two major island chains. Your kind used to inhabit the graveled beaches of the islands, but aggressive animals burrowing in the sand have forced you out of your old home. You could perhaps inhabit some of the shallow pits of the plains, facing down considerable competition, or you could migrate further to the craggy mountains, where you could (likely) gain a safer habitat at the expense of greater difficulty in finding food.
Crazits: You are inhabiting a small island shard in the Western Island Archipelago. Your race has colonized this rock thoroughly, and your ranged spike-based defense has enabled you to keep any predators at bay. The island is, however, drifting closer and closer to a much larger landmass. Once it makes contact, defense will become much harder, and your population will be a major incentive for some truly terrifying predators. You could simply wait for the collision, or you could leave early and strike out into the unknown.
Hytel: Over time, your colony has migrated higher and higher in the gaseous sea. You have had difficulty with winged creatures from above 'diving' into the deeper sea and devouring your kind; however, this area is much more rich with consumable organisms. You could establish yourselves well here, but you will need a way to keep the winged creatures from attacking you...
Thrallfish: Your kind has nested in a crag struck into a very low-flying island shard. Your race is a curious triple-point of land creature, gas-sea creature, and aerial organism, living in a location to match. To sustain yourselves, you have been preying on some jellyfish colonies, but surely that won't be an open food-source forever. There are some larger herd animals on your little island, but they are thickly armored with a strong hide. You would need a way to pierce their leathery skin first-alternatively, there are several small organisms that feed on the sickly light filtering through the gaseous atmosphere, but your race is not well-adapted to filter feeding.
Harka: Things are usually peaceful on your slice of the core, but you have a large problem. A parasite has started to feed on your surrogates, destroying their minds and often causing them to lash out at their mother plants. They aren't causing too much damage, but some other predators have started to notice the unusual weakness of your defense. You need to deal with this parasite; as it burrows in through the creature's head, you could block it out, or alternatively you could find some way to purge the parasite once its present. This problem may take some time to fix, so perhaps you should come up with a temporary defense solution to dissuade any ambitious predators.
Angel Newt:Your species has long been at home bounding from island to island in the Western Archipelago. The vertical "glass-shard" shape of these islands means that you've been able to locate 'chokepoints' in which all the various aerial predators of the area are squeezed between two islands. In one such chokepoint your species has grown prosperous, devouring a great variety of prey with your fishing tentacles. Unfortunately, this area is devoid of plant-life for the most part, and your omnivorous diet requires plant consumption. The resulting malnourishment has become a problem; however, on top of this island shard you inhabit there are a number of fruit-bearing trees. These trees will likely have hostile predators in their vicinity, and because of that it may be safer if less prosperous to dig roots out of the island walls.
Magus: Your race has established a small colony in the underside of a large Eastern island. Your magnetic flight has afforded you tremendous success in evading the less-agile winged predators, and you've managed to make a good diet and living picking roots off of the side of the island. Everything seemed excellent, until you discovered that the island was held aloft by a large magnetite chunk in it's center. The rest of the soil is devoid of magnetite. Your scouts have reported that a nearby island has soil richly colored by magnetite deposits, but that it is patrolled by a large number of angry gulls. They could be overcome and pushed off the island, but the eating will never be as good. You could raise your young on the small island only to develop their flight and then to leave, but that would divide your species geographically. It is possible that you might find some way to chip off pieces of the center magnetite chunk and bypass the problem altogether.
Swurm: Your race was once the most numerous of the area, but a recent famine has devastated your population. Your kind would fell the large stalks for nutrition, but now many of them have evolved defenses. You have noticed that one particular species has seemingly lost control of it's defensive organisms; perhaps this could be the perfect opportunity? One fallen stalk would feed your nest for years, or at least at the current population. It might be worthwhile to find some other source of nutrition, though. There are several layers of heat-synthesizing organisms covering the area you inhabit, but they are currently poisonous to your kind. Maybe they could be rendered edible?
Aeromanta: Your kind has followed the Great Storm for as long as memory can stretch. This endless maelstrom has generated enough energy to raise several generations, each tracking it across the boundless sky. For the the first time, however, the storm is approaching land; the Western Archipelago. What will happen when it collides with the floating-islands, it is impossible to guess. You could simply follow the storm and hope that it continues on through the islands, but to near the islands would be to expose your vulnerable bodies to more agile and dangerous predators. It is possible that you could abandon the Great Storm and live on individual tempests, as your ancestors doubtlessly did, but that carries it's own risk of a large and unknown world.
Gutterflue: You have made a wonderful go of life preying of the stalks for generation after generation; after your species grew strong enough to descend on them from the rest of the sea, they became your primary food source. Recently, however, the stalks have began to fight back. Everything from poisonous spines to fiery exhalations have killed scores of Gutterflue. With the stalks quickly becoming an unreliable source of food, you are at a juncture of evolution. Do you increase your capacity to descend, preying on the core species and retreating to safety in the gaseous sea? Or do you return to your roots in the gaseous sea, abandoning the known and hostile core for alluring open seas filled with possible prey? There is the third option; do you engage in an arms race with the stalks, trying to out-compete them and gain access to the largest food source in the planet's depths? Any way you attempt to solve this problem, famine will remain a lurking enemy.
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Topic: Dawn of Evolution-Natural Selection Edition (Read 9924 times)