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  1. Rootworld
  2. Lore

Floroids

Where New Life Takes Root

Floroids are not born from a single act or method.
They are grown through intent, environment, and opportunity.

Rootworld allows this multiplicity because Floroids serve as one of its primary adaptive species—their reproduction adjusts to circumstance rather than tradition.


I. SEED-BLOOMING (Primary Method)

The Most Common Birth

Most Floroids originate from Seed-Blooms.

A mature Floroid, when conditions are stable, will enter a dormant flowering phase. From this bloom, viable seed-nodes are released into Rootworld’s soil, water, or spore-laden air.

These seed-nodes:

  • Germinate only in balanced environments

  • Carry partial memory impressions of the parent

  • Develop into juvenile Floroids over years, not months

This method is slow, deliberate, and favored by Rootworld itself.

Seed-born Floroids are often calmer, more attuned, and harder to coerce.


II. CONFLUENCE BIRTH (Sexual Reproduction)

Cross-Species Union

Floroids can mate with other sentient species—Fauns, Drow, Rootbound, even Surface-Kin.

However:

  • Only Floroids are ever born

  • The non-Floroid partner contributes no genetic inheritance

  • Their influence manifests as growth traits, not lineage

The resulting child may:

  • Resemble the partner in posture, voice cadence, or temperament

  • Carry emotional resonance tied to that union

  • Develop atypical abilities or vulnerabilities

This process is understood not as hybridization, but symbiotic catalysis.

Rootworld records who loved, not who contributed DNA.

This method is rare—but deeply politicized.


III. CUTTING-GROWTH (Artificial Cultivation)

The Darkest Practice

Floroids can be grown from cuttings—sections of stem, root, or core tissue forced into accelerated growth chambers.

This method:

  • Produces compliant, identity-thin individuals

  • Limits emotional range and autonomy

  • Is faster and more controllable

The Bloom Peddlers rely heavily on this practice.

Cut-grown Floroids are:

  • Easier to pot

  • Easier to train

  • Easier to sell

They are considered legally alive, but culturally diminished.

Rootworld tolerates this because population numbers remain stable.
It does not intervene because balance is preserved.


IV. RESONANCE SPROUTING (Rare & Dangerous)

When Trauma Becomes Life

In areas of extreme ecological or emotional trauma, Rootworld sometimes produces Resonant Sprouts—Floroid infants born directly from scarred terrain.

These births:

  • Have no direct parent

  • Carry collective memory

  • Are unpredictable and powerful

Resonant-born Floroids are often:

  • Feared

  • Watched closely

  • Claimed by no faction

Some become legends.

Others vanish.


SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

Among Floroids:

  • Seed-born are respected

  • Confluence-born are controversial

  • Cut-grown are quietly despised

  • Resonant-born are dangerous

Among Verdant Celestials:

  • Lineage purity is fetishized

  • Cut-grown are considered acceptable décor

  • Confluence-born threaten noble narratives

Among Bloom Peddlers:

  • Cut-grown are inventory

  • Seed-born are stolen young

  • Confluence-born fetch the highest prices

Among Rootbound:

  • Confluence-born are protected fiercely

  • Cut-grown are liberated when possible

  • Resonant-born are treated as omens


WHY ONLY FLOROIDS ARE BORN

Rootworld enforces a rule here—not biologically, but systemically:

Cross-species reproduction may alter expression, but never identity.

Floroids are Rootworld’s interpreters.
Diluting that role destabilizes feedback.

So Rootworld does not allow it.

Love crosses species.

Birth does not.


One-Paragraph Summary

Floroid children may be born from seed-blooms, cross-species union, artificial cuttings, or rare resonance trauma—but they are always Floroid. Each method carries different social weight, and the most controllable births are the most exploited. Rootworld allows this not because it is kind, but because balance is maintained.