Leyshroom Kin

• Composed of spongy fungal tissue over tough fibrous cores.
• Thick stalk-like legs root into the ground when they rest, drawing up nutrients and ley energy.
• “Gills” under caps exhale spores loaded with chemical signals and tiny arcane resonances, forming a kind of local telepathy.
• Cap frills ripple in the wind, resonating with ambient magic like living antennae.

• Leyline Resonance: Naturally channel ley energy. Their bodies flush with color and grow more complex cap structures when lines surge.
• Spore Telepathy: Exchange thoughts and memories as pheromone-laced spores that drift short distances. Strong emotions or secrets are shared via direct cap-to-cap contact.
• Arcane Tuning: Each colony tunes itself to a slightly different harmonic of the ley currents, making them collectively responsible for regulating magic across the Vale.

• Release specialized spore flares during leyline peaks, which drift into nearby soil.
• Where multiple spores land together, they fuse genetically, creating richly diverse offspring.
• Some merge directly with other mycelial beds, sharing not only genetics but vast archives of ancestral memories.

• Sporeling: First 10–15 years, tiny thumb-sized fruiting bodies learning basic resonance.
• Sap-kin: ~15–50, adolescent myconids exploring personal identity and first minor resonance work.
• Leyward: ~50–120, fully grown, integrated into colony decision-making and energy regulation.
• Elder Spire: ~120+, developing large fluted crowns that house complex resonance nodes — serve as living ley regulators.

• Found wherever ley lines cross or ripple, usually in the Vale’s mushroom groves and phosphorescent undercanopy.
• Will slowly migrate entire colonies along shifting ley currents over decades.

• Digest decaying organic matter, channeling part of it into underground mycelium.
• Feed also on raw ley energy, which they convert into subtle magical nutrients that enrich the surrounding soil.

• During high ley tides, glow intensely and enter mass trance states to store excess arcane energy.
• In times of ley drought, slow down metabolism dramatically, sharing stored energy through colony roots.

• Move slowly, speak rarely in non-spore ways, preferring long thoughtful silences.
• When threatened, can release defensive spore clouds that confuse, disorient, or even lightly paralyze aggressors.

• No true hierarchy. Decisions emerge through “Spore Councils,” group meditations where pheromones and resonant hums steer consensus.
• Elder Spires act as memory anchors and decision moderators but do not rule.

• Faces are vague — clusters of shifting pores, slight openings that release glowing mist or sighs.
• Expressions shown through cap rippling, light pulsing, and changes in scent.

• Primarily deep in the Vale’s lushest, most mana-soaked groves.
• Maintain subtle “outposts” along ley lines, tiny clusters of lesser myconids that help keep magic balanced.

• Highly intelligent but alien in thought — process ideas through communal fungal logic, often considering many perspectives simultaneously.

• See light beyond mortal spectra, sense ley pulses directly.
• Can detect emotional residues left on the land or by visitors, tasting sorrow or anger like faint mineral traces.

Names formed by complex combinations of scent signatures and harmonic pulses. Translated into Sylvanelle as poetic images like “Veil-of-Rising-Spore” or “Echo-in-Starlight.”

• Value intricate cap frills, rare bioluminescent patterns, or harmonic voices that hum perfectly in tune with certain ley flows.

• Have no gender.
• See themselves as embodiments of cycles, able to produce spores with any compatible partner or by merging mycelia communally.

• Bond by entwining mycelial rootlets, sharing memories and ley impressions directly — considered more intimate than any verbal confession.

• No metal, but masters of living fungal architecture, shaping giant mushroom towers that regulate ley energy like natural arcane pylons.

• Primarily communicate through spore pheromones and resonance hums.
• Use Sylvanelle with difficulty, often slow and melodic.

• To walk quickly through a myconid colony is rude; one is expected to pause, breathe, and allow subtle exchanges.
• Touching a cap without consent is deeply taboo.

• Do not wear clothing, but cultivate decorative lichens, moss braids, or tiny flower colonies on their bodies.

• Hold Ley Festivals during major surges where entire colonies sing harmonic ley songs that stabilize local currents.
• Maintain spore archives, deep mycelial beds housing millennia of ancestral memory.

• Spore Councils: Commune by releasing carefully tuned pheromonal clouds that shape group consensus.
• Ley Bloom Ceremonies: During powerful leyline peaks, send up great luminous spore towers that stabilize magic.
• Dream Rooting: Rest entwined in massive shared mycelial beds, entering deep communal dreams that process memories across generations.

• Burning fungal structures is a profound sacrilege.
• Stealing ley-charged compost or soil from around an Elder Spire is met with quiet, implacable retribution.