So... I basically watched all three Avatar films back to back to back and I have to say, some of the concepts for the endemic life to pandora are pretty interesting, but it's nothing I haven't already thought about.
I will say this once and I will probably say it again, but Avatar--despite being about ten foot blue cat people who can commune with fungus--is very tame and has made sure that it is palatable to the general audience. There are times when the na'vi feel too human and I wish that James Cameron had taken some of his more out there concepts further.
Some of the idea's I'm referring to are the na'vi's ability to neutrally connect with the roots of trees and mycelium and store memories and entire people in there. In the more recent films it seems to me that Ewya is less the trees and more the mycelium that is scattered everywhere within the planet's crust.
I had an idea about this with an original species I made called vycotans which were metala-mycelic organisms whose life cycle included breaking down into mycelium when they died which could then go and produce more vycotans.
So basically my frustrations with Avatar and my current head canons for the na'vi are a giant inspiration bomb thrown right into the heart of my mind.
SO I have once again decided to revamp my vycotan lore, it's been a couple of months since I have really thoughts about it and there have been some changes as I think more and more about it.
More on that below the cut
Things that have stayed (relatively) the same
vycotans still have metal as a major component in their bodies
vycotans still have patches of armor in their bodies which protect vital body parts from damage
when a vycotan dies their body breaks down into vycelium (which is mycelium but specifically their mycelium so it has a special name) acting as a second stage of life
vycotans are able to reproduce as individuals (which follows the quality over quantity principle of reproduction) and they can reproduce as vycelium (which follows the quantity over quality principle of reproduction)
vycotans have strands of vycelium within their bodies but they are incorporated to act more like a nerve structure.
vycotans breath through two breathing systems, vents located on the sides which can be closed in order to prevent foreign objects from getting into them and an airway in their throat which is located in separate nostrils that the ones used for smelling.
Vycotans talk out of both a voice box in the throat and through vibrations and the pitch and speed of air coming out of the side vents.
Things that are now different but have been translated
*I wanted to give vycotans are more uniform appearance, previously they would have multiple body types in that ranged from having two to ten limbs, walking bipedally, quadrupedally, or even a hexapodal or octopodal stance. I wanted to create a species and not a conglomerate.*
I decided to take a page out of Cameron's book: so they are cat people who stand between ten and fourteen feet tall (they have a muzzle and some subspecies are covered in fur from head to toe and others only have hair in certain places: the ones with full fur coats have cat fur patterns)
the armor on their bodies are located under the skin and while separate from bone and also anchor points for muscle groups.
the armor in the vyctoan bodies is made of metal, however the bones have metals mixed into the hardened structure which reinforce them.
Vycotans have a process far metala-sythesis where they are create metals using a catalyst reaction.
Vycotan organic bodies have a symbiotic relationship with a certain kind of fungus (at this rate if you removed the fungus from the body both organisms would die they cannot live without the other, this is true for all organisms present on their homeworld)
there are two main neurological systems which act like back ups to one another. The brain is the main one which is located within the skull. The second is the mecelial knot which is located in the chest behind the heart and in font of the spine which can be a backup system if damage were to come. (if the head is removed the trauma and blood loss will likely result in death, but if it does not the subsequent lack of ability to eat would kill them, there are some cases where you can put processed foot into the opening but it's not a quality life so many don't try to save if the personality (brain) is destroyed)
