This is a close up of SEED Jungle 2. The strange formation in center of the image is a broken up plateau (I'm still working on it's look) where the jungle weaves through the gorges and arroyos and the tops of the pillars rise above the canopy. There will be some interesting ruins and creatures populating this area.
I also decided I would share this. It is one of my botanical creations for the world.
Black Shawl/White Shawl - (M) Anthurium anaboladium1
These epiphytic plants are of the Metisian Araceae family. They consist of a long thin stem that grows along the trunks and branches of trees in the subarctic regions of Metis’s southern hemisphere. They grow to a length of up to possibly 40 meters, and bear a single leaf that drapes radially from the apex of the stem where the anther emerges from within. This leaf persists over the lifetime of the plant and continues to grow as it ages; it does not shed the leaf seasonally like deciduous earth plants, instead the leaf changes color over the course of its life according to it’s reproductive stage as it is consecutively monocious and protoandrous. During the initial male stage the leaf is white. During this period the plant produces pollen from within a flower at the center of the leaf. Once reaching the female stage the leaf turns black.
The plant contains a structure called the geniculum which on earth was unique to the Anthurium genus, hence it’s classification in the Metisian taxonomy. This structure allows the leaf to swivel to catch the sun’s rays and also to bring the long draping leaf into a rosette for the purpose of catching rainwater and falling debris as fertilizer. It has been said that witnessing a group of these plants in their white shawl state perform this action is one of the most beautiful of botanical experiences that can be safely enjoyed upon Metis.
Other than their foliar aspects, black shawls are unremarkable plants when seen against the backdrop of Metisian flora, but they are of note because of their association with the being called Chyss, his domain, and his religion. The plant is considered holy by the Chyssian faith and the two manifestations of the plant leaf is used as a motif in Chyssian architecture as well as in the ceremonial robes of the Gilded Choir (white drapes) and the Templar (black drapes). This relationship has been expounded upon metaphorically by a philosopher and expert of Metisian-theology named Decimus Potelis of Geledia. Potelis suggested some relationship between the, what has been called, “praetextatus white robes of the all young male Gilded Choir” and the “adulta black robes of the all mature female Templar of Chyss” that spoke to a possible aspect of Chyssian religion that has not been revealed outside of the church in that the members of the Gilded Choir, when they reach puberty are transformed into the women of the Templorum through some medical process or magical ritual.
Critics have called this metaphorically based assumption ludicrous citing that no proof has ever been established that the individuals in the Gilded Choir and the Templorum of Chyss are one and the same. “Not to mention,” critic Xeris Telitus, a historian at the University of Gavul, said, “ the actual sex of the members of the Gilded Choir has never been established and Potelis has based his assumptions upon an overactive imagination and psychological need to conjure meaning from the actions of these ‘gods’ and the surface textures of their megalomaniacal self-established doctrines.” Potelis’s counterargument was that it is known from the work of another Geledian historian named Latep Overi that the members of the Gilded Choir are indeed human, as he witnessed personally the wounds one sustained undergoing treatment during a diplomatic mission to the Domain, and that if the Gilded Choir is indeed human, then where is it that these “children” go when they reach maturity. He also cites the meticulous nature in which the being Chyss operated his faith, which is with careful attention to every detail of his church’s actions and words so as no meaning could be derived from them that is not intended.
Chyssian diplomats traditionally refused all questions on the subject.
1note on taxonomical classification - the trinomial name for the white shawl/black shawl plant once included form as a taxonomical rank under the names (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. albus for the young male white foliar state, and (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. negro for the older female black foliar state. When it was discovered that the leaf colors occurred within the same individuals as aspects of their protoandrous states the trinomial names were dropped. New form ranks have been proposed to signify the difference in these states. These being (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. praetextus and (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. adulta, but these have been denied by botanists as the originator of the trinomials had intentions of furthering political imperatives through the usage.
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