Background + Lore, and the One who Started it All
I've been putting this off for the surprise-factor, but I feel like it's better to share this now rather than never
How Floserds came into existance
It all started on one special day, nobody knew the exact date specifically, but there was supposed to be an eclipse during the middle of the day. All the humans were excited, with their fascination of the moon going over the sun, but sadly, it began to rain. The clouds covered the eclipse, and they were all sad.
However, somewhere else on the world, in a large sunflower field, the rain was watering all the sunflowers, including a large sunflower, with yellow and a hint of orange and red in its petals. As the rain fell, and the clouds shifted, a rare moment happened: A raindrop was hit with a ray of the eclipse light, making a Solar Drop, which landed on the large sunflower, and absorbed by its leaves.
Eventually, as time passed on days later, the already-large sunflower had begun to grow more, getting larger and larger, until one day... the ground shook. Nobody knew what was happening, but as the ground shook, it began to crack in that field. Something was emerging from the soil. As it struggled to crawl out, eventually it made it out, revealing a large, unknown creature.
It looked like that of a cow, but stood like a human, and had a large sunflower tail. Nobody knew what it was, most people didn't even know it existed yet. The creature stood there, confused, not knowing what or who it was, but knew it was alone. To solve that, it decided itd travel the world, and pollinate other flowers around the world, in hopes of making more like itself
It started off with the sunflowers in its field, and pollinated them using its tail, and shaking pollen off onto them. It waited and watched, before eventually, they each crawled out of the soil too, and more of these flower cows came to be. The large one, excited, got back up, but on all fours instead of its hind legs, and began to wander the world, spreading pollen as it passed through the whole world.
It passed through forests, fields, and plains, though it did try to avoid civilization, as most humans seemed to not like its presence. It passed through water, being large enough to not have to worry about sinking. It went everywhere around the world, even accidentally pollinating underwater plants, as its pollen washed through the waters. It even accidentally pollinated parasitic plants, but it didn't notice.
Once it was done, it went back to the place it was born, exhausted, and found a cave that it rested in ever since. Nobody knows if that giant flower cow is still alive, but the other flower cows always remember the deed of that cow, and how they wouldn't be alive without it, and celebrate it whenever they sense a Solar Eclipse
This cow has been referred to by many names, none of the other flower cows knowing its real name. Some call it Soliflos (sōl - sun & flōs - flower), others call it Eclipse, some just call it the One who Started it All, some call it Flare, some call it the Eclipse-flower or the Solarflower, but the name it goes by itself is...
Helian!!
Helian (short for 'Helianthus annuus') is very tall (another image w/ Chamomile beside them for comparison:)
They don't know too much about how Floserds have grown to be, as they rest in a cave hidden off from most entities (except for the sunflower Floserds, who have kept the secret of the cave's location), but one day they may reawaken, and go to explore the world.
Helian would use they/it pronouns... if it knew what pronouns were. Floserds never really had pronouns originally in their language, but once they also began using human languages, they incorporated it into theirs to portray identity a bit more
Not much is known about Helian, however, since nobody (again, except the sunflower Floserds) have seen them, or even know where they are.
But yeah, thanks to Helian, a lot of Floserds (or at least the land ones) (and also not the parasitic ones) celebrate 2 holidays: fēstus sōlis (the Festival of the Sun), and umbra lūnae (the Shadow of the Moon)
The Festival of the Sun is basically when they celebrate how they came into existance, and it's celebrated during a Solar Eclipse. They collect berries and fruits that they give as gifts for their family and bouquets (the new name for Floserd herds instead of herds), and they share stories with either other bouquets of Floserds, or other species.
The Shadow of the Moon, meanwhile, can sometimes give a different energy than the Festival of the Sun. The Shadow of the Moon is celebrated during a Lunar Eclipse, and the Floserds decorate themself with flowers that strongly represent them (ex. Chamomile would have a flower crown of chamomiles, and chamomile bracelets), as their tails stay open instead of closing at night like usual, and they play games in honor of how far their species has come. They race one another, moo together, and eat feasts of berries and grass and hay and whatever other foods are a part of their diet. The Shadow of the Moon is a festival meant to celebrate how far they've made it, and to honor those they lost.
Anyways, I feel like that's enough info for now!! :3