Kasvisto

## Geography

Kasvisto has a relatively high axial tilt compared to other planets that harbor life, meaning that the area near the equator is the only part of the planet with regular enough temperature to harbor life. There are some species of animals that live out on the polar ends of the planet, but the majority of the life on the planet lies with 5 degrees north and south of the equatorial line. Due to the high ratio of ocean to land in the habitable area around the equator, the majority of the land is filled with tropical rainforests and has an extremely high density of plants and animals.

## Speciation

Due to a loud whine that constantly emanates from the center of the planet, sound is effectively a useless, even detrimental, sense and thus all of the fauna have evolved without organs for talking or listening.

### Florins

The most prevalent intelligent species on Kasvisto are the Florins. They are a race of what humans would describe as flowers, except for rudamentory organs that act as eyes and the fact that they are mobile. Without the need for mouths or ears the florins have not developed them at all, and so their major form of communication is through smell. The large flowers on top of their stems both produce and can sense smells from other Florin, as well smells from the surrounding world. Florin have rudamentary sight, but do not rely on it for any forms of communication. Something analagous to tone and meaning are found solely through the combination of smells a Florin produces to communicate. These smells can partially convey their meaning to humans, in the sense that a negative emotion produces a scent that smells bad to a human, but we do not understand the wide array of emotion and meaning that it means to another Florin. Some of the most expensive perfumes in the galaxy are distilled from the unbridled emotions of the Florin, the ultimate of which is the rich, complex mixture that is released by two Florin who are in love. They are an extremely peaceful people and choose to pacify potential predators with a potent chemical mixture, and will not resort to violence unless extremely pressed. This has led to a peaceful co-existence with spacefaring species that have found their way to Kasvisto and are perfectly willing to trade for their scents as long as they are not threatened in any way. Different races of Florin can be identified by the different kinds of flowers they have on top of their stems, but the differences between them other than the physical are unknown.

### Tunne-Vika

The only significant predator to the Florins are the Tunne-Vika bugs that co-inhabit the dense jungles of the equator. Earth-centric terms such as carnivore and herbavore tend to fall apart in this case because the Florins are technically made of plant cells, but have many characteristics common to animals, such as motion and intelligence. The technical category, then, for the Tunne-Vika are predatorial herbivores. It is difficult to imagine how an insect can pose a legitimate threat to a sentient species, but the Tunne-Vika have evolved to prey specifically on the Florin. They are small bugs that have a large sac on their thoraxes, similar to a tick. Once they find their way inside of the large blooms on a Florin they explode, releasing a potent chemical mixture that is equivalent to a flashbang exploding near a human. It completely overloads the Florin nervous system, causing a powerful grand mal seizure that almost immediately knocks them out. The Tunne-Vika then lay hundreds of eggs in the unconcious, or dead, Florin that hatch in a matter of days if left untreated. There are many species of Tunne-Vika, some of which have evolved in a totally opposite manner to the deadly species and are cultivated by the Florins. These species, when popped, have a strong, positive emotional effect on a Florin that is analogous to drug usage by humans.