Intaglio Flora and Fauna

Intaglio's Outorra is covered with thick vegetation and megaflora that has a yellow, red or purplish coloration due to containing xanthophyll rather than the more common chlorophyll found elsewhere in the sector. It is entirely habitable with plentiful and varied life inhabiting its many swamp-like forests and long snaking rivers. Most of this life is edible and as such Intaglio has been a place where human populations can flourish since its colonisation. Nutrient rich environments on the world have allowed plant life to grow far beyond what it does on other worlds. There is also a large presence of modified flora on the world, most of which is crops including wheats, rices and teas.

Fauna on the world is largely concentrated amongst the huge numbers of Ichthyesects that dominate the world’s oceans and rivers. With diversity and concentration of these creatures becoming even greater on the coral coast. On land there are two main types of creature, the Avephibians and Xemammalia, the former also comprising the world’s flying creatures. Of the two Xemammalia have proven in particular to be very tameable and as such many species have become livestock or pets.

## Parasitic Moss

Technically at the top of both the moss sea biome and the rivers that feed into it (including the Orontes) parasitic moss is a term used to describe a variety of aquatic moss species on the world. The moss spreads through spores in water, they dry out and die very quickly in air. They attach themselves to roots of trees and creatures unlucky enough to be in the path of the floating spores. They come in a variety of colours mainly greens, blues and blacks.

The life cycle of the mosses is simple, after sporing they will attach themselves to a plant or creature. Over the next 1 to 3 days they go through “rooting” where the spore their rhizoids burrow deep into the root, carapace or flesh of their host. During rooting the spore can be removed by hand however after it finishes it will fuse with the host and become irremovable except by complete extraction of the rhizoids. This becomes more complex as the rhizoids burrow so deep that in human hosts their base is at the bone. Having fused it will spread across the host, normally very slowly, and will sap nutrients and moisture. If the host should die or begin deteriorating in health the moss will go into a survival mode where it will expand rapidly and attempt to consume as many nutrients as possible before sporing. Thus illness can prove fatal to an afflicted host.

Ichthyesects are highly resistant to the mosses and can go their entire lives without being noticeably negatively affected, some even have a hybrid relationship where they use the mosses as camouflage. Avephibians are very vulnerable however and will die fast after the parasite fuses with little preventative measures to stop it happening, this is largely why Avephibians are rare outside of the coral coast. Xemammalia manage the moss through thick protective fur or constant grooming to remove spores but upon falling victim to the parasite can survive albeit with reduced vitality.

Humans are vulnerable to the spores however simply thoroughly washing can remove young spores. Further to this many mosses are simply incompatible with humans and so after the initial rooting will die. However when a human fails to prevent a rooting spore they are left with few options. A parasitic moss will cause dehydration and tiredness in a human and should the human fall ill, which is likely in such a state, it can kill them in a few days through rapid growth. Removal of affected limbs is a method that is cheap and effective. However there are treatments that can be used to kill most mosses, provided it is only recently (within weeks) fused with the host, after too long the treatments have too drastic an effect on the host. Complex operations are the safest and least damaging method for long term growths but also expensive and not always available.