Umeon

Stats

Etymology

Kin's ilk

Diction

nihn

Group

Colony

Family

Nin

Biome

Many

Size ≅

30 m — 20000 m
roots span almost globally

n/a

A sentient oak-like tree with the power of the stars, the first life form on Umeon. It changed over the billions of years, originally presenting itself as sheets of algae, slowly creeping onto land and becoming grass-like plants spread out across most of Umeon, before finally evolving into the trees known today. They were free to reach as far as they wished, with nothing else around to hinder their growth. As their roots clawed through Umeon, it began to gain its wisdom and power, tapping deeper into its source, discovering they weren't alone, realising another kind of being was among it.

The Empyreans were tiny and fed on nin algae and leaves for the longest time, till it no longer seemed like enough. The creatures forms changed dramatically in a short time, and began feasting on more than leaves, but roots and trunk as well. Other plants began showing themselves, wanting their own land, new animals emerged in the ocean, but those ocean creatures wanted the land too, and started taking over. Gone were the days of the collective solitude for Nin.

When other aeons evolved, the nin realised they could affect them with their power, and the aeons actually affected them back, unintentionally giving them another food source when they died. This gave the nin a new power, one that affected its oldest living trees, causing them to grow to new heights. Eventually one tree would absorb most of this power and grew to an extraordinary size. When taothomet arrived and developed language, they usually referred to this tree as a world tree, but they only ever knew Ileli and her offspring, knowing nothing about the nin before.

They are a clonal colony plant and only one tree can become a world tree, growing to extreme sizes only once the previous one has died, gaining its heka and sentience. New saplings can spring up anywhere in the world where it has reached with its roots, which includes just about everywhere. Nin can collectively think as a group, regarding themselves as a single entity, and would never attempt to usurp itself in power as it has no comprehension of such things to itself.

Nin have the ability to use all kinds of heka, and have been using it in defence since they were bacteria, wiping out most other kinds at the time. Nothing stopped their rapid evolution, but they couldn't stop others once they were so much larger, losing track of how many creatures there were. Along the way they developed latex that is blood-like in appearance, having absorbed the star’s neutrinos and converting it into its heka. Aeons do not touch or consume this liquid as it causes hallucinations, sickness, and death. Nin have natural pathogens they can send out as spores produced by their leaves that can make a subject obey their will for a short time.