06 - Finger Rice

One of the very few cultural staples that crossed the ocean with the first Eiyudi survivors were the cargoholds packed full of rice seeds. If not for the early meals of hermit crab meat and finger rice the people of the coast may not have survived. This long-grain rice is a significant supplimentary source of nutritian for the Eiyudi people and has been used for many different purposes over the years. The original seeds that crossed the Parenfar Ocean are long gone and it wasn't a simple transition for a community of sailors and mariners to propagate the species in the coarse cavern dirt fed by saltwater.

Localized Adaptation

The seeds used by most Eiyudi farmers to grow crops are directly descended from the same seeds that made the ocean voyage centuries ago and are essentially the same food their ancestors domesticated and farmed. Among the handful of farms deeper inland there have been some completely unprecedented changes in the plants, in both anatomy and behaviour.

The Undine Commune is the largest farm and furthest farm that has brought these mutations to the attention of the Town Council. Currently operated by two families descended from settlers that arrived on the same ship, the Undine, this is the only large collective of Eiyudi living together aside from the town itself.

The seeds harvested from crops grown in the freshwater pools only begin to grow when planted near another root system. It then attaches to the other plant but only feeds off non-living parts of the host and other available matter. The host plant grows normally and seems in every way like a typical plant of its kind until it would begin its usual reproductive cycle.

[in[The mutated rice seeds somehow override the normal reproductive process of the host plant and instead it will grow numerous branched panicles that contain the rice seeds that sprout from the main body of the host. Depending on the type of host plant this can potentially ruin any harvestable seeds but by carefully selecting which plants the rice bonds with the farmers from Undine have had some... innovative crops.

Scientific Name

Oryza eyud