Character Entry: Miko: Battleborn
Welcome Traveler,
Today, we have a quick entry from The Last Star in the Universe, a place seen in the Video Game, Battleborn.
Our entry today focuses on the character of Miko, a sentient fungus, a "combat botanist" if their own resume is to be believed.
Miko is the last surviving member of its species, a fungal hivemind known as A. Mikollopria. Typically shortened to Miko, as most characters in the Battleborn Universe seem to have trouble stringing more than two syllables together.
Sexless by nature, being a fungus, in the Last Universe, the character is voiced by a woman, but Miko’s voice lines alternate between androgynous to distinctly female depending on their mood and the current state of affairs around them. An interesting tidbit to be sure.
The character is capable of combat, generating hardened fibrous spikes, coated in a fungal poison to stop attackers, but Miko prefers to focus on healing.
Miko can create healing spores that rapidly rejuvenate cells, inducing healing in selected allies, or producing strong drug-like effects to enhance allied combat capabilities. Being a creature made of a multitude of individuals, Miko can also detach the top of their head to produce an area of healing/enhancement. (Do not worry, this causes no lasting damage to the character, as it rapidly regrows! Amazing!)
Today's library entry is focusing not on Miko's abilities as found at The Last Star in the Universe, but is instead focusing on why you should bring Miko into your own stories/adventures/ideas.
Miko is at its core, an interesting addition to any adventure or story. A creature that is at once a single entity but also just a small part of much larger ecosystem. You could easily incorporate a creature such as Miko in your next tabletop RPG. Perhaps the players in such an adventure need to seek out an “ancient healer” in the forest, stumbling upon a trove of giant mushrooms, only to find that one of those very mushrooms is the healer they seek!
An industrious player could even play as a creature like Miko, searching for their lost home or others like them, perhaps, like Miko at the Last Star in the Universe, they are the last of their kind, seeking the companionship they lost.
If not in a tabletop RPG, perhaps in a story? Maybe you need a wise, mystical, strange creature that is hard to understand its motives? A creature that is helpful or harmful, or perhaps both to the characters? A strange fungus has taken over a building on the outskirts of town, and all that attempt to find the source of the fungus return, poisoned, perhaps with strange spikes in their armor/clothes.
Regardless of how you choose to think about the character, I’m sure that you can probably find an interesting way to fit a Mushroom Healer, a “Combat Botanist” as it were, into your next idea, maybe just thinking about it will give you a short creative boost!
Finally, for those that are more mechanically inclined, a short character sheet for Miko
Name: Miko
Creature/Type/Species: A. Mikollopria (Sapient Fungus)
Sex/Gender: Sexless – Its, We, Us, Them, Plural Pronouns
Height/Weight – Shorter / Light (Mushroom!)
Abilities
Attack – Expelled Fibrous Spike – Low to None Initial Damage, ongoing follow up Poison does low to medium damage, possibly contains extra effects such as paralysis, doziness, or possibly stupefying euphoria (Mushroom effects can be highly unpredictable!)
Defense – Rapid Regeneration – Creature can quickly recover from wounds, including regrowing body parts
Other – Spore Healing – Heals creatures near it of certain conditions, possibly can heal light to medium physical damage as well. Unconfirmed reports of allies using certain mutated spores as a “recreational enhancement”
Other - Creature has a strong connection to nature and surroundings, possibly druidic or other nature based magical abilities. Locals note that the mushrooms around an area inhabited by A. Mikollopria tend to “sing”
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This concludes today’s Library Entry; we hope that you found something you could use!
Until next time, keep your supplies stocked and your pencils sharp, notes are important!