On the Myconids of Mystara
by Cab DavidsonFrom the joural of Averyx, Immortal of Time, finder of lost Gods and patron of the Alphatian Expansionist Movement.
Regarding Myconids, Part 1
The idea of intelligent mushroom people seems, well, peculiar, I know. Intelligent flying monkeys, vulture headed sorcerers, big headed lizard men, everyone is ok with those. Cat people? No one bats an eyelid. For that matter bat people wouldn’t surprise anyone. Even halflings don’t arouse too much disbelief, and I can’t for the life of me see what they’re all about. But mushroom people, for some strange reason that’s a step too far for most. And it’s a shame, because in some ways they’re among the most interesting of life forms on Mystara.
I first encountered the Myconoids in the memory files of the lost Mek that drifted in to Alphatian space all those years ago. Ninny, as I called my little metal friend, had extensive information on tall, intelligent, tree-like fungi that had initially resisted the invasion both of Hallucigenia and Carnifex, and they were referred to at the time as Entonids. Sort of like the treants of the modern era, but more resistant and rather more considered in their approach to things. Hallucigenia defeated the entonids but unusually for that particular psychotic entropic he didn’t manage to wipe them out entirely, and in the ensuing wars between Hallucicigenia and Carnifex they were among the few surviving races.
And it is survivability that really characterises the myconoids. Their life cycle makes each species nigh-on ineradicable, and this has allowed them to colonise some of the most hostile corners of Mystara. While able to survive the devastating releases of radiance energy that typified the Hallucigenian/Carnifex era, they were not entirely immune. Indeed, in a few short millennia they mutated into a bewildering array of species that colonised almost every corner of the globe that made for a short but spectacularly strange Myconoid Era.
But eventually their empires succumbed to faster, more adaptable animals. Strangely the thing that had protected the Myconoids during earlier wars was the same thing that held them back later on.
You see, Myconoids, none of them, are strictly speaking mortal. I don’t mean they’re immortal like us, nor that they’re of the fey persuasion and just keep coming back. I mean that the organism itself, the central intelligence, is so spectacularly huge and long living that it hasn’t even got a concept of mortality or immortality. Did you have a fight with those mushroom men? Did you kill them? All of them? Are you sure? Sorry, you’re wrong, you no more killed the Myconoid than you would have killed an oak tree by picking its acorns. In fact to kill the Myconoid you would probably have to extract all of the loose earth and rocks from about a square mile of cave complex, for that is where the bulk of the organism, with an infinitely dispersed intellect, resides. But this lack of mortality meant that no Myconoid ever rose to challenge the immortals or to seek immortal status, which made the early kinds easy prey for Hallucigenia before the differentiation of mortal and immortal realms was defined. So as the other races, with their immortal patrons, grew stronger and inhabited ever more niches within the world, the Myconoids have retreated ever further, and now really only dominate spaces that even the most hardy humanoids fear to tread.
There are four common species of Myconoid still found in the darkest parts of the world. And there may be anything up to 400 mature individuals of each species, and many tens of thousands of immature specimens. Each individual can produce many thousands of Mushroom Men (although they are not, of course, men or women) which are referred to as Myconids (as opposed to the greater organism, called a Myconoid). Myconids are loyal to their parent Myconoid, but not unquestioningly so, they are not drones. They are instructed by the Myconoid using chemical signals, and while they typically obey they may also choose not to, if that seems prudent. Thus they work well together, to fulfil the goals of the overall organism, without falling into the group-think malaise that inhibited so many of the most primitive collective intelligences in the early days of Mystara.
They Myconids are also, incidentally, the way that the Myconoid reproduces, but that’s more of a topic for another day.
Myconoid species have excellent relations with each other, but their interactions with other of the deepest denizens of the world is more complex. I shall detail each of the common species in a little
Regarding the Myconids of Mystara, Part 2
As you know, my initial investigations of Mystara led me to discover the strange creature Hallucigenia in his final moments, but you are also no doubt aware that this was not my only investigation into the world before the Alphatians came here. And Ninnys files gave me a tremendous insight into the primal nature of the species that had inhabited its ancient days. What most fascinated me about the Myconoids was their apparent sense of detachment. They represented a mid point between the absolute single minded group-think of the Hallucigenian race and their Meks and strength through unison of action of individuals of the Carnifex. Or so I thought. Which is why the Myconoids were among the first things included in Ninnys memory banks that I looked for when investigating Mystara.
I will confess that I was disheartened by how few Myconoid species were left by that era. But nonetheless, I established contact as soon as I could.
What you may find hardest to understand about the Myconoids is that they really don’t have a great deal of understanding of whats happening in the world around them, at least in a way that makes sense to us. One can only communicate with a Myconoid by direct mental contact (unless you’re keen to learn the intricate details of communicating via auxins and pheromones – which is both irritating and pleasant). And when you do so, you will immediately discover that you are dealing with a creature of vast intellect and enormous inventiveness – but not in a way that is applicable to anything of interest to anything but the Myconoid. They get reports from their Myconids, about what kind of dangers they face, what opportunities there are, and they can coordinate and control them to an extent, but they expend as much effort in a constant struggle with other creatures of the soil – the bugs, worms, other fungi and lower organisms with which they both compete and cooperate with to gather the nutrients they need to survive. And in effect, through those lesser organisms of the earth, they maintain a loose contact with other Myconoids both of their own and other species. But this is not in the form of any discussion that would make sense to you, it is more like an endless game of Whisper down the Lane but on a global scale. Messages can pass across the entire world in a matter of hours, but not necessarily remain correct or even meaningful by the time they reach any particular recipient. As a result the Myconoid lives in a state of almost perpetual perceived legend, with tales of victories and defeats confused and conflated by passage through lesser minds than theirs.
They have no innate understanding or interest in the matters of the Immortals. The idea that a being may be limited in time is quite beyond them. The notion of travel itself seems alien to them; they understand that there are living things that do this, that it happens is as relevant to them as the passage of stars across the sky is to a squirrel.
Or in other words, they are fabulous repositories of incomplete and erroneous history, current affairs that could be from anywhere but are at best half true, and yet they know intimately and precisely what is happening in their own rhizosphere down to the last microbe or animalcule.
Oh, and you think you know what a big creature is? You don’t. Myconoids may grow to any size, being constrained only by the presence of competing organisms in the soil. There are examples that are many tens of miles across. Indeed in my early experiments I transported some Myconoids to worlds within outer planes that I know well, and within a few years, if not faced with such competition, they will dominate the entire world. The only theoretical limit to their expansion and growth is the scale of the celestial body upon which they reside. That potential is humbling, even to an Immortal.
I consider myself honoured to count many Myconoids, of many different species, among my friends. It would be wrong to view them as followers or worshippers, they really have no capacity to understand such concepts. Yes. Friends. Who see me as being merely another stranger rumour on the global Myco-web.
Regarding Myconids, Part 3
Rarely is it necessary to answer this question, because if I’m honest I think most are usually too embarrassed to ask. So I’m going to save you the red face and just tell you. “Averyx, old chap”, you’re thinking, “I almost don’t like to ask, but these mushroom men, how do they, well,, not to put too fine a point on it... Breed?"
There’s no need to be embarrassed here. The Myconids certainly aren’t. In fact of all species I know, they’re less embarrassed about this than any other. The surprising reality is that none of the Myconoids I have ever talked to have the faintest idea how this works, nor do they care. As far as they’re concerned it just happens. They’re happy making their own Myconids each year, but they don’t give the continuation of their species the slightest thought. And this is a shame, because their breeding habits are perhaps the most surprising of anything on Mystara.
You see, the Myconids are merely magical forms of existing fungi, and they all reproduce by producing spores. The mushrooms you see on the ground are producing spores from their gills and, likewise, the Myconids. The spores of most mushrooms find a place in the soil or dirt and start to grow into a sort of slow, almost inert blob of life. They can persist this way for years, if there is enough to sustain them. And then, if by chance they encounter another of their type and, crucially, of a compatible mating group (that complexity itself I am yet to fully understand!) they will, errrm, do their thing, and recombine into a new, faster growing form. And here’s the crucial part – to form a new Myconoid, a spore released from a Myconid must grow and encounter an appropriate, mature example of its type, one that already produces mushrooms. As you might imagine almost none of the unimaginable number of spores produced by the Myconids ever meet up with the right counterpart. Is this why they are so rare? Well, yes, probably. Although if you run the numbers, and look at the probabilities, its hard not to wonder why the Myconids are not in fact Mystaras most dominant life forms. If you go down to the woods to pick mushrooms, but the mushrooms fight back, this is probably why...
The science bit: Spores are halpoid. They have half the chromosomes of a mature fungus, and they germinate and typically grow quite slowly. When two of compartible mating tpypes meet and cross, you get a faster growing diploid (has all it need to become an adult mycelium). The mating types of fungi, especially basidiomycetes (all but 3 of the above) are a little more complex than I need to go into. Quick version: At least four.
Adding in the twist that the spores of Myconids do their things with the existing mycelium of mushrooms growing in the ground already is there to give a DM a fun way of introducing one of these. "Maman went down to the woods by the river to pick some of the Morels there, the Prince pays well, they are popular here in Averoigne. We haven't seen her since, she and the other mushroom pickers have all vanished, along with the search party..."
Regarding Myconids, Part 4. Myconids in Space
The funny thing about Mystarans... Well, one of the funny things amout Mystarans, because there are many, is that for the most part they ignore the fact that they are part of a wider universe. They care more for planar boundaries than planetary ones, which is odd when you consider that at the heart of at least three of their major nations are alien races and intelligences, and when so many of their defining historical events involve alien visits or the devices they left behind. But be that as it may, this has never been a one-way relationship with alien worlds, and there are several examples of Mystaran people or races that have colonised far off planets, even whole new star systems. But it is testament to the hardiness and extraordinary adaptability of the Mycoinids that it is one of their number, the Geastrid, that has had the greatest impact on the wider Universe.
There are three reasons why that is the case. Firstly, their means of reproduction is ideally suited do panspermia (founding life on other worlds from a first one). The spores they produce are practically indestructible, and can survive for decades, even centuries, without degrading – if they find their way into the void and on to the surface of a rock, they can persist almost indefinitely. Secondly, they are masters of adapting to different foodstuffs, and can utilise a bewildering array of materials as the basic building blocks of life. And, thirdly, remember that a Myconid is essentially a sentient version of a fungus that already has the properties of resilience and adaptability that I have described –it takes only a single spore from a Myconid to find the mycelium of that fungus on another world and turn it into a new Myconoid.
One might assume from these advantages that Myconids have conquered the galaxy! Far from it, in fact, the distances involved are enormous and even with these advantages the odds are always against it happening. But there are dozens of worlds and thousands of planetoids where the Geastrid myconoids have made their home, despite now being extinct on Mystara herself. Well, extinct there for now...
The Big Four
Pilobolus
Omphalotus
Coprids
Cordyceps
The Uncommon Races of Myconids
Marasmian
Muscarid
Morchellid
Myconids of the Hollow World
Arthrobotryd
Craterellid
Myconids in Space
Geastrid