Uduge

**Uduge** (literal translation: *Serene Island*) is a collective intelligence that functions very similarly to a nation in the Overworld, it is located in the middle of the *Mara Calma Sea*. Effectively having ignored the outside world until very recently, the nation has developed some uniquely curious customs, ideas, and inhabitants. A strange sickness that results in painful death afflicts any non-native intelligent organic creature, as well as rumors of deer which eat the bodies of the dead keep most travelers away, and those who ignore those warnings are never heard from again. The nation's motto is "Uduge uju" (literal translation: "Serenity for the world.").

## History

Roughly 50mya (million years ago) a parasitic fungus arose on the central island chain, when the mass was still a single large island. As the land began to split into smaller islands (20mya) the fungus had developed into a symbiotic organism that connected most of the flora of the island, its relatives on the other islands died out. By the time the fungus was symbiotic it had been widely infected with a naturally occurring virus which expressed itself as a rapid change in the fungus's capabilities - the virus functioned a dna altering retrovirus. Around 5mya the Uduge network had bridged the flora-fungal-fauna gap, and developed into a highly structured and organized organism that kept the jungle alive and thriving, while also displaying many "out of place" or "freakish" evolutionary lines. Perhaps as recently as several hundred years the seemingly humanoid deerfolk had arisen, and with this change Uduge quickly became self aware and curious. In the recent decades the island has seemingly been more alive than ever, with what seem to be structures that appear overnight.

## Indigenous creatures

This is where things start to get interesting.

## Collective Intelligence (Mycelial Network)

Here's a quote that I need to clean up and format properly. . . but it probably conveys a lot of what I want to say

> "Uduge as an organism, and i'll explain why it should be considered an organism in a bit, is mostly interested in remaining self-consistent. It unifies all of the organisms in the jungle, from the microbes in the soil, to the leaves in the trees, to the animals milling about. Much like the mycellial network in the real world, the fungus transfers information and nutrients to the various life forms to which it is connected - in this way it functions nearly identically to a nervous system. Further the organisms in the network keep it operational and build it up. Each new plant that grows, each animal that is born, innately has the fungus inside its body, and has been connected to the network since inception. The entirety of the biomass of the island functions in many ways as a single organism. Keeping the above in mind you can think of each plant or animal as more a cell than an individual. Uduge will let something die if by doing so it becomes stronger. The network shares information between individuals, including what is effectively an immune response - this is both why it is hazardous to other organisms who visit the island (particularly creatures, because we are an rp focused game and most players play some kind of creature) and why individuals from uduge cannot survive without the island.
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> So, working from this, things like arts, music, hunting for food, even photosynthesis are not really required for the network to keep functioning. By being invested in so many different forms of energy consumption and self-repair Uduge can let certain parts die out entirely yet continue on more or less as it has for millions of years.
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> The fact that it's recently developed an upright mammal with appendages that can manipulate the environment is rather showing of its growth towards a more global mindset. It has likely observed other upright creatures over the millenia, and has recently decided to take strides to understand that mode of existence. It, uduge, does not understand language because it has shared information through itself without the need for words (or really even thought as we understand it). It does not understand arts, or the fact that death and injury can be seen as a big deal to other sentient creatures."
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## Politics

Mostly details about it's current actives to reach out to the rest of the world.

## Psychic and Magical Abilties

Another quote for now

> "As mentioned they are already effectively psychic, but something that uduge will begin working on once contacted is teleportation. There's a reason I base uduge on fungus, and it had to do was the how fungal cells operate. They share nuceloses, which is how they "entangle" particles for quantum entanglement. This entanglement functionally allows them to effect the remote particles (cells) by manipulating the local particles. This manipulation will allow the transfer of not only information, but matter. Though admittedly it will only work in areas where the network has spread to.
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> They will be able to teleport, and will also be able to launch psychic, physical assaults, and energetic assaults without appearing to do much of anything."
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