Today I write about... something I'm really uncertain how I should feel about.

It started when I heard rumors about a crashed spaceship in the far north region of Orokol, which is mostly abandoned - starships shouldn't be allowed on Sedd due to the planet hiding itself from non-magical travelers unless invited, so I'm not sure what might have happened that resulted in finding this place. When I went to go investigate myself, I was met by a cavalcade of bizarre plant-animal hybrids of every stripe you could imagine, seemingly setting up a small temporary town. I saw Spinosaurus with their fins replaced by cacti, an Alligator with a Venus Flytrap for a head, and then I was approached by this strange fellow, who introduced himself as Tecari, a "Dipla".

Though they spoke a different language, my magic helped me understand them without any trouble as this little rose-Raptor began to ramble at me, giving me friendly and eager greetings and salutations. I was a little disarmed by how quickly he was trying to befriend me and how I genuinely sensed no malice at all in him as he shook my hand and began bombarding me with questions. Once he -finally- gave me a chance to speak, I asked a question back, namely... what was he, and what were his people?

The answer he gave me was "Florepta", explicitly a species of alien origins who migrated across the stars to many worlds. The fact that they didn't know where they were told me landing on Sedd was likely some kind of fluke, but they were happy to make the best of it. He confirmed my original thoughts that the species were some kind of perfect hybrid of plant and animal - specifically only reptiles for some reason I noticed as a turtle with a shell made of tree bark hobbled by carrying some lumber.

And then, to my confusion, I saw a human walk out of the ship with a flower growing on his back, and something immediately felt... off in my head. I looked at him curiously and he smiled brightly, before explaining to me the part that I am... not quite certain how I feel about.

Florepta are not just hybrids, they're an assimilative hivemind; their numbers grow by taking other species and turning them into more Florepta, who live with and commune with a "Chorus" of telepathic voices that span the whole of the galaxy in a hivemind. My trepidation was only eased somewhat when Tecari told me a few rules outright: every Florepta who was changed into one did so willingly and quite happily, coercion into the change is biologically impossible, and they are firmly and strongly against any kind of hostility, aggression, or overexpansion, with rules and laws in place to prevent anything of the sort from taking place.

I sat down for a while, curious and intrigued, but also wanting to make sure this new species wasn't going to cause any kind of issue. The longer we sat and talked though, the calmer I got and the more I realized how sincerely they seemed to believe in the joy of being one of their species, but that they would wait to establish contact with society (in this case, Orokol) before they made any kind of moves or made any kind of offers or scouting out for people who may wish to join their kind.

When I asked what he meant at the start when he called himself a "Dipla", he thought for a second - in fact, he totally seemed to ignore me, perhaps communicating with his hivemind - before telling me the best approximation was a "diplomat", his role was to do... basically what he was doing with me, talking and re-assuring people his species came in peace, assuaging concerns about their nature, and then eventually convincing people who would want to become Florepta to come back to their colony to test the waters. Realizing how disarmed I had become from talking with him, I could see how well he fit into that role as I was talked into trusting him and seeing the merits he discussed to becoming a Florepta... though I doubt I could, or if I did, I'm sure I would reform to my normal self in days.

I don't know how well this species will be welcomed on Sedd, I really don't. This is a world of Gods and Pantheons, I'm not sure how they'll regard an alien species that grows their ranks by assimilating what could have been potential worshippers. But doing what I could, I put in a good word to both Master Death and to Xecatl of the Orokol Pantheon to try to give them a through-line to establish communication. Perhaps Tecari and the other Dipla that were with him can come to some kind of agreement.

- Veluren Thanazel, The Sights and People of Vakkert Sedd.

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It's tiiiiiiiiime.

So back during my birthday, I was utterly consumed by the thoughts of making a custom species all my own, one that's totally open and totally customizable, but has some guidelines and such to help guide them along. This combined with growing love of the idea of assimilating hiveminds... but wanting to take a gentler twist on the idea. And thus from that, the Florepta were born.

I've been sitting on and refining the idea for a while, while I waited to commission an artist to make my own personal-use one and so he can be a kind of "mascot" for folks to use as a baseline to show off the general idea.

Edit: Due to google deciding to nuke the doc, the full species lore information is currently pulled down, I'll recover it soon.

Tecari and the Florepta species belong to me!

Artwork is by  Shadoweyenoom Thank you again so much for helping design this lad, and getting this concept going!