Leichnam

Leichnam is a planet of the Virasana Empire, best known for Leichnam Slugs, Scribba Lobsters and the isolationist ways of its population.

## Climate

Notably, Leichnam has a humidity so high it is completely covered in clouds. Its shrouded appearence is also the reason for the planet's name - 'Leichnam' meaning 'corpse' in the language of the original Grebenstein settlers.

Due to the intense cloud cover, temperatures vary little on the surface, and except for the constant precipitation and lack of direct sunlight, the planet is surprisingly hospitable to human life.

The only drawback is the local fauna - despite a large portion of the plants being invasive terran species, many indigene plants have survived, mostly resembling terran funghi. Their spores saturate the air and can be hazardous to humans if the concentration is extremely high. The only fungus to actually pose a significant threat is the notorious 'Zombie Fungus' - a fungus infecting recently deceased bodies and reanimating them for as long as they are physically capable to. While easily contained, if unchecked, these infestationes can quickly grow into serious pandemics.

Leichnam has no moons.

## History

* Originally settled by members of House Grebenstein, the local population overthrew their liege lords, installing a government of House Quetzal with a gentlemen's agreement of mutual ignorance.
* almost no N'Ptalini population
* Theoretically all serfs. Technically all commoners.

## Culture

Slug Ham and Scribba Lobster are the best known exports of Leichnam, sought-after delicacies all over the empire.

The only notable cultural events on Leichnam are the regular agrigcultural fairs that are held all over the planet to exchange know-how and compete for the best bred snails. Also, villages in the north of the planet hold annual scribba matches, where each village captures a large scribba and pits them against each other - the winning village gets to eat the defeated scribba, the winning scribba goes free and the losing village gets nothing.

## Flora and Fauna

* Dead Men (locally also Dead Man's Fingers or Dead Man's Boners) - large, off-white cylindrical mushrooms, often standing six to nine feet high in clusters of three to twelve, with a diameter of one to three foot. They appear all over Leichnam and are the plant most people associate with the planet. They are technically edible, but entirely tasteless. When ripe, they produce sticky, blood-red ichor that gathers in pearls on their skin, exuding a strong peculiar odour between honey and rotting flesh. That ichor is used in flavouring various alcoholic beverages in several regions of the planet.
* Pile-o-Boils (also Yellow Boils) - clusters of foot-long ovoid capsules carrying a spore-saturated liquid. Old clusters can grow up to nine feet in diameter. The sticky goo keeping the individual boils together is often collected and boiled down to use as glue.
* White Fuzz - see there
* Zombie Fungus - see there
* Red Walkers - Often lumped in with the Zombie Fungus, Red Walkers constitute an entirely different species. They do not infect other organisms, but grow into arm-thick ropes of slightly translucent red goo. Over time, red walkers grow around solid material (ie tree trunks, stones, telephone poles...) and will eventually break them loose and incorporate them much like bones in a vertebrae. Older Red Walkers are known to walk great distances on their mismatched limbs, and even though usually slow and lumbering in their movements, they can move startlingly quick if hunting a prey or to defend themselves. Once they locate suitable carrion or brought down prey, they slowly move it towards their main body node (usually in what would be the ventral cavity in a vertebrae) to digest. They have no relevant sense of hearing, but they can smell a dead body from a mile away and have football-sized clusters of small black eyes distributed unevenly across their body, looking much like frog spawn. Some investigators are known to have smaller specimen with them to help them search for hidden corpses or bodyguards.
* White Wisps - A creeping, indistinct fungal mass that grows near shallow bodies of standing water. It produces characteristic CH4-filled spore pods, prone to burst into ghostly blue flames, often floating across the ground.

## Other Articles on Leichnam

 Bittermoor Demon of Hagermarsh Hagermarsh Schimmelbach Scribba Lobsters Slug Ham Zombie Fungus