Racemic Verdial

A racemic verdial is a hypothetical successor to the current verdial species. A racemic verdial is a variety of verdial who, due to mutations (or intentional augmentations) in their Caudal lichen symbiote, is capable of subsisting in both terrestrial and Distal biospheres.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Racemic verdials are expected to be morphologically similar to modern verdials. The pancreas, liver, and kidneys may grow to incorportate regions associated with handling opposing amino acid chiralities, as the near-human host will likely still operate on dextro-amino acids early in the species' existence. The abdomen and chest cavity will have to expand to protect the new volume of tissue. The Caudal lichen will likely see the most expansion of any organ in racemic verdials, perhaps taking the form of a complete shawl of dark, leafy tissue, to better absorb Distal sunlight and supplement the host's increased metabolic needs. Overall, this means early racemic verdials will likely be more robust in build and leafy in appearance than their modern day counterparts.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While terrestrial life under the Manifold Sky uses dextro-amino acids in biochemical processes, Distal life uses levo-amino acids. For most species, the difference is crucial, as consuming food based on the opposite chirality of amino acids is useless at best and actively harmful at worst. A hypothetical racemic verdial would possess an extremely evolved metabolism which would feature either the ablity to make use of both levo- and dextro-amino acids or photosynthesis so efficient that such dietary decisions would be rendered meaningless.

Civilization and Culture

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

The versatility offered by racemic verdial traits would likely allow the species to outcompete all other sentients. The otherwise intractable Distal-associated regions of the Manifold would become open to verdial expansion and exploitation.
Because of this, in Vale Verdial society, overly-enthusiastic rhetoric about a racemic verdial future is often associated with expansionist and ethno-nationalist groups like the Verdant Order. Indeed, individuals like Dr. Julian Pelforth are actively involved with research into the 'racemization' of stock verdials and exploration to recover the purportedly racemic (and likely mythic) Horror Dusk Homunculi. In opposition to these groups - and fearing the possibility of biodiversity loss in a post-racemic verdial world - the Manifold Conservation Society is engaged in covert operations to either forestall the advent of racemic verdials or, should they be discovered, contain their growth to the Distal Tesseract.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Caudal Lichen
• Verdial

Origin/Ancestry

Verdial, whether congenitally or by verdialization

Geographic Distribution

• Distal Tesseract

Related Ethnicities

• Vale Verdial
• Voluntarist Verdial