Living Houses

The living houses phenomenon is a biological oddity. In Dalmeran there are regions of land occupied by strange organisms that resemble buildings, that when in groups resemble towns. The “towns” are indeed colonies of organisms resembling residential and commercial buildings. The buildings form blocks much like in a city, these buildings are in fact juvenile organisms in diverse stages of maturation. 
== Life cycle ==
The buildings, before reaching maturity are locked and any potential entry ways become barricaded by the furniture inside. Inside immature living houses the atmosphere is hot and humid, and the furniture and items inside act like white blood cells. 
Buildings that reach maturity will detach from any foundations and ascend into the air.
Mature buildings ascend to a maximum height of a minimum of forty-five meters. 
The buildings will cease suspension after a period of ten to fifteen weeks. The buildings are not particularly durable, and upon impact with the ground destruction of the building is commonplace. 
After this the wild buildings roam the world, often finding shelter inside towns where they blend in with other buildings and living houses, where they are inevitably known as haunted houses. Living houses also form their own colonies in the wild, which in turn turn into sprawling towns and cities.
== Conglomerates ==
After impact, the remains of the building will contain an ovoid object composed of materials consistent with furniture found inside the home. The object will then begin to locomote on its own accord.
The object then begins to form a conglomerate with nearby materials, including debris from other buildings, flora, automobiles, and any other junk found nearby. The object will continue to attract objects until it forms a body of material nine meters in height, at which point the body will animate and appear to take on levels of sentience. The conglomerate normally resemble animals, humanoid forms and forms that do not resemble any known animal. They are primarily docile, and normally do not display hostility unless provoked. However, some have been known to form with innate aggressive and territorial behavior; this behavior has also been observed to develop following the accumulation of certain items, such as firearms or bladed weapons.
== Houses ==
The houses that survive the fall, are autonomous and adopt animal like behaviors. These are the real living houses known in Dalmeran. They quickly flee the “birthing grounds” as they are preyed upon by the debris piles for their material and go into the world, ensuring the strongest species survive. 
== Reproduction ==
The conglomerates act as parents in the colony, paving roads and giving birth to the new organisms in vacant lots left by recently matured living houses. Conglomerates prepare for the creation of new living houses by extending the colony by constructing roads, sidewalks and fenced lots where they birth the new living house using the materials that compose the conglomerate. Conglomerates “give birth” by dispersing their debris into a vacant lot, which will create an entirely new living house from the debris. Using this method, larger and larger buildings are born from the larger conglomerates formed from multiple living houses crashing at the same time into the ground. 
Some living houses explore the world gathering materials such as wood and stone, and return to the birthing pool to repeat their lifecycle. These are known as hoarding houses they very often are destroyed from the fall, but those who do use the material stored within and become enormous buildings such as apartment complexes, mansions and in some cases, castles. This way, long lived living houses naturally undergo metamorphosis, generally from house to mansion or from church to cathedral and so forth, turning towns into sprawling cities. 
== Death ==
Dead living houses are no different in a structural and architectural sense to other houses built by the other races, and as such are widely used as habitations. In fact, colonies that die due to a lack of conglomerates or available materials are easily usable as hamlets with buildings for habitation and business and recreational areas such as parks and lakes in the colony. 
== Biology ==
The basis of the living houses are the organisms known as fungal bricks.
Fungal bricks, when left lying on a flat expanse of soft earth will begin to multiply. 
A lattice of fibers in the shape of the original brick will appear, which then fills and solidifies with a soil-based mixture until it attains the proper mass, with microscopic root structures 'mining' minerals from soil in the immediate vicinity. 
Given a large expanse of earth to work with, the fungal brick produces highly complex but theoretically stable freestanding structures, including floors and ceilings. Structural integrity is very high, as the bricks of material orient themselves to be as level as possible and fit together almost perfectly. 
The original fungal brick must be attached for growth to occur. Once removed, the structure begins to decay, and all secondary bricks crumble to dust at a rate roughly equal to their rate of appearance. Each living house contains one fungal brick, that, if removed, will crumble the building. Naturally, the living houses defend these bricks with their life and will often use violence to achieve this goal.
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Category:Flora and Fungi of Welt