False Garden

Living Islands

Written by Endrise

If you see an island breathing, please do not jam a sharp flagpole into it. Last time some buffoon did that we lost half our crew fighting one of these things.

— Airship Captain

False Gardens, also known as Living Isles, are creatures roaming the Plane of Air. They are massive behemoths carrying entire ecosystems on their backs, forming a symbiotic relationship with hundreds of other species. For some, the cultivators of life in this realm.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The floating mammals are a distant relative of the material plane’s whales, sharing a similar skeletal structure and other traits. Differences lie in their proportions, as Gardens have a much larger head-to-tail ratio, making up a large part of their bodies.

Their tail and fins are often too small and even underdeveloped to function for movement, instead relying on blowholes around their body. By expelling a ton of air, they can propel themselves through the sky with the lack of gravity. Something that can make them quite fast at that.

Adult specimens have a large quantity of blubber surrounding their cranium, at some places several feet thick to provide a protective layer. This layer is both used to provide warmth in colder air currents and protect against infections from burrowing plantlife growing on them.

Reproduction

False Gardens reproduce slow and infrequent, as the average pair has only two calves at a time. Most give birth to multiple children throughout their lifetime, with some becoming a mother of five. Though the period between pregnancies can span years, if not decades.

They carry their young for twelve months, with on rare occasions having twins. A False Garden calf is reliant on their mother for the first two years, afterwards it seeks out its own food to survive. Though most hang around other members until adolescence for protection.

Dietary Needs

Herbivores by nature, most False Gardens grace around other floating islands and feed off hanging vegetation or grass that is found there. Due to their immense size, they need to eat a lot and spend most of their time sleeping to preserve as much energy as possible.

Their symbiotic relationship with their own ecosystems allows them to tap into the photosynthesis of certain plants. With it, they can get sugars and other nutrients even while asleep. Though if needed, they can resort to eating their own plants.

Ecology & Habitat

The Plane of Air is where False Gardens thrive, as the lack of proper gravity allows them to move without issue. Anywhere else has them become unable to even move, as the weight of their bodies becomes a burden for their skeleton. Hence why few remain alive for long when displaced.

Their ideal environment is vast open areas close enough to floating islands with enough plantlife to survive. As a social creature, they do like hanging around with others of their kind, sticking close to their groups whenever possible. Lonely Gardens often show little chance of survival.

Lifespan

400+ years

Average Height

120 ft.

Average Length

200 ft.

Geographic Distribution

• Plane of Air

Related Materials

• False Garden Blubber

Living Ecosystems

The False Garden is the definition of a symbiotic relationship, home to hundreds of other species that grow upon its body. Plantlife roots itself into the blubber of the gigantic beings, tapping into blood vessels and fat reservoirs to help their own growth. In return, they help disguise them amongst the surrounding islands, as well as provide many additional benefits, depending on what bonds they form.

These plants can hop onto them when they are gracing, sticking to their hide and nestling deeper over time. Depending on the diets that a False Garden consumes, its own botanic garden can vary drastically. Some designed to blend in, others to fend off threats.

The Garden variations

The common classifications of what types of gardens grow on them get broken down into three main categories: disguises, supplements and arsenals. While they may specialise in one category, it is not unheard of for False Gardens to utilise all of them in some variety.

Disguise

Disguises are the most common ones found, making their vegetation allow them to blend amongst other floating islands. From afar, it makes them hard to distinguish from other debris, with some downright buried beneath their plant matter as it keeps growing.

Supplements

Supplementary plants evolve as a secondary provider of nutrients for a False Gardens by sharing their own excess. While they do not provide a complete meal, they can provide things such as sugars, or even eaten whole as an emergency meal during travels.

Offense

A less common one is an offensive garden, often home to multiple poisonous or hazardous plants that protect against predators. Tangling vines, hazardous thorns, irritating coating or even fruits that are toxic for anyone except them.

In The Eyes of Civilisation

Natives from the Plane of Air see False Gardens as a highly valuable creature, providing people everything from fertiliser to oil of their airships. With it comes a long-lasting hunting culture surrounding the creatures, with specimens getting killed by the couple hundred every year or so.

These attempts at hunting them have driven many False Gardens further away from civilisation, or even become tactical with their protection. On rare occasions, it even forced a few to go on the offence, making them harder to hunt. Others also question whether the hunt remains as necessary as old times, with advancing technology and new methods to get what was harvested from the creatures.

Products

Even from one False Garden can one collect a multitude of goods and wares sold across the realm. Almost every piece of their body gets used in something somewhere, from the oil found in their blubber to their bones for structures. Nothing gets wasted.

They're a walking ecosystem, you hunt one of them and you have enough to provide for a hundred men. Fertiliser, construction, medicine, you name it.

— False Garden Hunter

Elderly Gardens get hunted for their bones, while younger ones who cannot grow a garden yet get caught for their blubber. Some do debate how ethical it is to hunt their young, as it lowers their numbers and makes survivors more cautious.

Nowadays though there are some preservation attempts to keep people from overhunting them, but poachers still exist. And with each one slaughtered, False Gardens get more aggressive.

Myths & Legends

Their long association with plants and agriculture makes False Gardens be seen as fertility gods in some cultures. Beings who, during the early ages of the Plane of Air, seeded life across the realm, spreading from one island cluster to another.

Other legends speak of False Gardens massive enough to be entire continents, ancient beings so large in scale they form their own gravitational mass and house multiple ecosystems. Rumours that their fossils broke apart into the floating islands across the Plane of Air, or that they hide amongst massive storms no Airship can penetrate. But with no fossilised evidence, these megafauna versions remain pure myth.