Tree/ Plant CO Lore

kjames91

Hey there!

Was wondering if there are any plant/ tree race planets that are connected to CO.

Thanks!

bulgarex

Hey, kjames91!

While there are a few possibilities, by far the easiest one to justify using as a PC, and which we have the most info about, are the Prylenish. They're sentient mobile plants from a planet in the Milky Way named Sha-Prylen, with two natural superhuman abilities. One is the power to gradually (usually over several days) "grow" into another shape, making it easy for them to mingle with humanoids. The other is an empathic link with all plant life. While these abilities are limited in most Prylenish, it's possible that they might be much more developed, and combat-useful, in exceptional "super" specimens. Other super-powers may also be possible.

In Earth year 1995 Sha-Prylen was conquered by an aggressive starfaring humanoid race called the Hzeel. Several members of the Prylenish royal family escaped their world during the Hzeel invasion, but their ship was damaged and ultimately crashed on Earth. They were found by the young supers of Ravenswood Academy, who helped them gain refugee status with the United Nations (although their presence on Earth is kept secret). The royals have been working as gardeners on the Ravenswood main campus. There's no reason why another Prylenish fleeing Hzeel oppression couldn't find his way to Earth.

The above is summarized from the PnP Champions RPG source books, Champions Beyond, detailing the space/cosmic side of the official Champions Universe; and Teen Champions describing Ravenswood Academy.

If that doesn't work for you, please explain your concerns and we can explore other possibilities.

kjames91

Thanks Bulgarex! Could both of these races use plant manipulation of some sort?

bulgarex

If by "both races" you mean the Prylenish and the Hzeel, for the former it would very much fit their motif. Again, we're talking about a "super" example, but many alien races can develop super powers as Humans can (although we're better at it in several ways ), and that sounds like one of the likeliest ones for a Prylenish.

For the Hzeel, it's unlikely IMO. Hzeel don't develop super powers naturally, and the examples of their technology follow a less naturalistic motif. But it's possible a Hzeel anticipating facing a hostile super-Prylenish could have been equipped with an experimental prototype plant-manipulating device.

kjames91

Perfect! Thanks!

bulgarex

Those who have read the first post on my Character Origins thread have some notion of the Hzeel; but they are perhaps the greatest alien threat Champions Earth currently faces, even though no one on Earth knows it yet. For years before the Champions IP sale to Cryptic Studios, Steve Long was building to a major Hzeel invasion event in Hero Games books. Then Cryptic decided they preferred to develop the Gadroon and Qularr as contemporary threats, who until then had been little more than passing references from the setting's past. The Hzeel receive an entire chapter in Champions Beyond; I'm only going to draw a small taste from that here.

The Hzeel have been aware of Earth since 1990. Earth lies about midway between Zeel, their home world, and Dorvala, the home of Ironclad's race. The Hzeel have been at war with the Dorvalans since 1997, although since Ironclad left Dorvala before it started, he's unaware of it. The faster-than-light ship drives possessed by both races aren't that fast compared to some other galactic civilizations, so the war has been a drawn-out affair. The Hzeel want Earth as an advance staging area for their fleet, which would give them a significant tactical advantage. At present they're holding back to watch Earth's conflict with the Qularr and Gadroon, gathering intelligence and awaiting the optimal moment to strike.

The Hzeel are short (average 1.2 meter height) humanoids with bluish-grey skin and large red eyes. Their skeletons grow knobs and spurs as they age, giving older Hzeel a rather gnarled appearance. Here is a pretty accurate fan drawing of an Hzeel based on illustrations from Hero books; although they only have four digits on each hand. Despite their smaller size, the average Hzeel is as strong as an average Human, and more dexterous. They heal from injuries much faster than a Human, and can even regrow lost limbs. Their eyes are very keen and see well in low light. OTOH they only live around 60 years on average. No Hzeel has been known to possess super-powers (although I'll address such possibilities below).

Hzeel as a whole are tough, aggressive, and determined. They're very ambitious and work hard to get ahead in life. Those qualities have helped propel them to forge a small interstellar empire with several conquered races. Hzeel are also greedy, deceitful, and treacherous. Government on Zeel, while nominally a democracy, is by Human standards deeply corrupt. Bribery, theft, and extortion are rife in Hzeel society, from the lowest to highest level. No one tries to hide this; it's accepted and even encouraged behavior, as the ways things are and should be done. There are laws against such activities, but they're there to be used by clever people to keep their wealth and power, or to take them away from those who have them. But these traits don't prevent Hzeel from being loyal to their families and clans (the basis of their society), or their people as a whole. They are often brave and even self-sacrificing when the greater good of Hzeel-kind is at stake.

Females are generally second-class citizens in Hzeel society. They're expected to stay home and raise their (typically very large) families. Hzeel tend to have a lot of children, and Zeel is in fact over-crowded. Population pressure is a major factor behind the Hzeel expansion to the stars.

As I described on my Character Origins thread, mingling of Human with Hzeel biology -- whether their partly-biological technology, or actual tissues from the Hzeel themselves -- can have super-origin-generating effects. A human just touching the wrong piece of Hzeel tech might result in super-powers. A few official Champions supers gained their powers from this contamination. At least two Hzeel scout craft have crashed on Earth over the years, and other crashes might have occurred or will occur. Although there are no official examples of Hzeel gaining powers from Human tissues implanted in their bodies, as has been the case in the reverse, the possibilities are intriguing. The Hzeel might try it if they became aware of the effect in Humans. And there's obvious potential in a Human-Hzeel hybrid; the Hzeel have been coming to Earth long enough for such a hybrid to have grown to maturity. (Hzeel sex is mechanically similar to Human, although Hzeel aren't mammals and their females lay eggs.)

nepht

Deepest lore. Turn down the graphics and the trees and bushes vanish @_@

bulgarex

I guess for people with more general interest in the subject implied by the thread title, I should mention the other relevant lore bits.

The supervillain called Thorn was once a human scientist experimenting with curative plant-based medications, who accidentally created a serum changing him to a human-plant hybrid, with a pathological hatred for animal life and desire to "liberate" it from human exploitation. In this form (he can use chemicals to change to human and back) Thorn is superhumanly strong and tough, can project deadly thorn sprays or mind-controlling spores, and can animate and manipulate plant life, up to temporarily creating mobile tree-men under his control. It would be no stretch to expect Thorn to try to create other hybrids like himself. Thorn is written up in Champions Villains Vol. 3: Solo Villains.

One of the universes conquered by the "Empress of a Billion Dimensions," Istvatha V'han, is called Botanoworld. It's atypical in that the dominant life forms on all its planets are plants. Many of these plants have evolved the ability to move, even fly, and no few have developed intelligence and civilization. Their technologies are much more organic than Human tech, and all their civilizations fear fire, treating its use like Earth nations view chemical weapons. As with any of V'han's subject dimensions, it's possible a rebel against her rule might be forced to flee Botanoworld for another dimension. (Botanoworld is briefly described in Book of the Empress, which delves into all things Multiversal as well as related to Istvatha and her empire.)

Unknown to Human scientists, the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was once a planet, called Phytia by its sapient inhabitants. Like Botanoworld its dominant life forms were flora. Two million years ago the incredibly advanced aliens known as the Progenitors experimented on the most evolved species to increase its potential and accelerate its development, as they were also doing on Earth. Within a hundred thousand years the Phytians developed a civilization roughly as advanced as Humanity today. But then the Phytian equivalent of a technological supervillain discovered some Progenitor devices and threatened to use them to destroy Phytia unless the Phytians surrendered to him. But his understanding of Progenitor tech was flawed, and he shattered the planet and wiped out all its inhabitants. When the Progenitors returned to survey the progress of their experiment, they removed all of their tech they could find and altered the asteroid belt so it would look natural to Human astronomers.

Although extremely unlikely, it's not unimaginable (for a comic-book world) that a representative of the Phytian race might have survived all this time in some sort of suspended animation; particularly a super-powered or super-scientist example. And given the fantastic capabilities of Progenitor tech, the explosion of Phytia might even have teleported a Phytian across space and time. (The story of Phytia is relayed in Champions Beyond, which also describes the history and activity of the Progenitors.)

In the antediluvian prehistory of Champions Earth -- the era of origin for the Archlich Takofanes -- various types of mobile plants existed, including the intelligent Treeman, essentially the same sort of creature as J.R.R. Tolkien's Ents. As this was an era of high magic and potent wizards, and in which mythic-style gods walked the Earth and meddled in mortal affairs, a Treeman magically transported to the far future would not be improbable. (The PnP write up for the Treeman appears in the Hero System Bestiary; while The Turakian Age is the book delving in depth into Champions Earth's "high-fantasy" past.)