Agarican

Creatures of toxic intelligent fungus, agaricians are rarely seen outside of the forgotten, moldering depths of ancient forests. There, they live in great cities called blooms, carved out of the flesh of massive exotically hued shelf fungus, lit by a gentle rainbow corona of phosphorescence. Agaricians are comfortably isolationist, seeing little to be gained from dealing with aggressive races who would be made sick or even killed by being in the presence of the agaricians. Those brave enough to venture into their world find the fungal folk to be cautiously curious, but capable of peaceful interaction.

Although their language, Agaric, is impossible for most species to imitate naturally, based as it is on the modulation of their own bioluminescence, it can be learned if a teacher can be found. ‘Speaking’ can be approximated by the method of using one’s hands to manipulate the shadow of a candle or other light source. Recorded Agaric is also quite inaccessible to most, being less a series of words and more a delicately painted pattern of blended and diluted toxins that is visually hard to tell apart from the trail of a snail. Those who have communicated telepathically with the fungal folk describe the experience as intensely colorful, but sometimes disturbingly alien.

Agaricians vary wildly in body shape, abilities, and intelligence—they are grown to fill a role within their bloom. Their culture is extremely group-minded, seeing the continuation of the bloom as insurance for the reincarnation of the soul. It is for this reason that their death rites involve the returning of dead agaricians back to their blooms, where the wisdom of the dead can be absorbed by and reborn into the new agaricians that rise from the spore chambers. Although their apparent mental connection with one another is poorly understood and often mistaken for some sort of rudimentary hivemind, it is actually far less intrusive or constant than most would imagine. While it does allow for large-scale, wordless coordination, it does not function as one singular entity with multiple bodies.

Agaricians use parts of giant insects when they need harder materials, preferring this over metals, finding it easier to work with for construction, decoration or even weapons, and armor. Rainbow chitin features prominently in their dwellings and jewelry, and its polished surfaces bathe its surroundings in an underwater-aurora-like reflection of the light cast by the agaricians themselves.

Amanites are unique among the agaricians in that they do not glow, being instead capable of dimming ambient light and creating brief but bright flashes of light. Tall, thin beings of ghostly white, the amanites serve their blooms as spies and assassins. They are skilled at slipping unnoticed through seemingly well-guarded areas by creating artfully hidden corridors of poor lighting and helpful shadows. More than any other agarician, their humanoid structure seems to have been a deliberate choice and not an afterthought—in poor lighting, a clothed amanite’s silhouette could be mistaken as belonging to one of several far more common races. The long, ropy tendrils branching from each of its shoulders would ruin this illusion, but they fit quite well along the creature’s arms and can be easily hidden within the sleeves of any clothing they wear without hindering their ability to lash out at foes or wipe their toxic spores across the amanite’s weapons.

Unless a bloom is facing some dire threat, it will only have a handful of amanites at any given time, and most of them will be serving as defensive scouts and perimeter guards. In times of need, amanites are dispatched with specially selected kits of poisons & gear to eliminate targets.

Amanites find themselves drawn to martial disciplines in a way that other agaricians typically aren’t. Only they and bolites prefer the use of manufactured weapons; most amanites carry a pair of thin blades that glitter like jewels in the dark, and some have been seen with exotic rainbow chitin weapons that clearly mimic the styles of foreign lands.