Culture
Commune and community
Cnidarans live communally. With the practices of mass mating and random dispersal, no single medusozoa knows which individuals are their parents. In fact, the entire concept of ‘parentage’, ‘hereditary titles’, and ‘inheritance’ is foreign to most cnidarans.
When a cnidaran medusozoa reaches maturity, it is given the choice to leave the reef with the blessing of the whole community, a once-in-a-lifetime event known as the uko’fa (the ‘time of exploration’). Individuals that start on the uko’fa do so for a multitude of reasons. Some seek to bring back treasures from the world beyond and enhance their own community. Others feel a need to disperse, finding other reefs to join or even forming new reefs with like-minded medusozoa met on their travels. A very few become enraptured by wanderlust and spend the rest of their days among winding ocean currents, delving into damp dungeons, and cavorting in ports with other seadogs.
Home
Cnidaran settlements are alive. Made of the bodies of millions of calcified polyps—cnidaran ancestors—a reef is more than just a home; it is the collective memory of a thousand generations, a traceable web of genealogical history, and an esteemed and holy sanctuary. Intentionally damaging a reef carries grave consequences: death, exile, or declarations of war are all sanctions a cnidaran colony might employ. It isn’t unusual for trade unions to pay handsome reparations if a ship damages a cnidaran reef when blown off course by wild winds. To do otherwise might result in ships foundering even in fair and pleasant conditions, such is the whim of an enraged cnidaran reef.
Characteristics
Physical features
Aging
A cnidaran medusozoa reaches maturity at around 20 years of age and can live up to 200 years.
Biology
Cnidarans have two distinct phases to their lifecycle: the medusozoa and the polyp. An adventuring cnidaran—one that can speak, has a vaguely humanoid shape, and can manipulate tools—is a medusozoa. These individuals are responsible for interacting with the outside world (in other words, anything beyond their home reef).
When medusozoa mate, an event that can involve dozens of individuals, the thousands of larvae that are conceived settle on the nearest substrate, often the cnidarans’ own coral home. Once rooted, the larvae develop into polyps with two tasks. The first is to grow a single new medusozoa over a single moon’s cycle and then birth this inch-long, instinct-driven youngster into the waters surrounding its home. The second is to secrete a calcareous exoskeleton, fusing their body with the reef and growing the cnidarans’ coral home.
Life for a young medusozoa is tenuous; it must fend for itself, drifting in open waters and feeding on plankton and other medusozoa until it reaches at least a foot in length, usually by the end of its third year. During this juvenile stage, a time known as the uko’ulush (the ‘wild time’), a medusozoa is largely ignored by other cnidarans, who believe that “trial by ocean makes the hardest pearls.” Once a cnidaran completes this juvenile stage, it is brought into the reef, a utilitarian and communal space where the customs, culture, and values of that reef are passed on, the uko’malang (the ‘time of waiting’).
Notable members
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