Community The Agaran Menace

Thank you. To correct my former statement. I'm not new to the Starbound over even to this particular forum, but I've been lurking around, coming to this thread just to see the ideas. Finally decided to pitch in.

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My current theory solves the problem of spores not being resilient enough and the fact that spores travel short distances, but the Euglena-Agaran thesis solves this

Inspired by the Euglena genus.

We've been deceived.
These planets we've landed on could be the very spreaders of the Agaran Menace
Meet the Euglena: A bacterial cell that is successfully bonded with a plant
What if on Agaran homeworlds the Agaran fungus attaches and bonds itself with a virus capable of surviving in space. Then like any good disease it attaches itself to dust particles in the air. Eventually trillions upon trillions of fungally infected bacteria do the same. Eventually, that dust covered in bacteria that's infected with Agaran spores makes it into space, where a couple of things could happen.

• A) The solar wind carries the space resistant bacteria to other planets lacking atmosphere, where they terraform it into a mushroom planet
• A bacterium lands on a comet, allowing trans-system travel
• C) Space bacteria land amongst a group of asteroids, coalescing them together and forming a new mushroom planet bound by hyphae.

Novakid Infectability:

Worst of all? This theory allows the Novakid to be infectable. How?

• Spores are resistant to the rigors of outer space, notably solar wind.
• If enough accumulate, it can be enough to cause a Novakid to prematurely die
• All that really needs to happen is a cell enters these gasbags, then replicates, and Novakids are infected as well.

Eventually, the bacteria outnumber the actual Novakid in the host, then they evolve to take down Novakids

The Cure

Wait! Not all is lost, if a experimental bacteriophage (a virus that eats bacteria, like the bacteria carrying the fungus), could eat the Fungus Bacteria, then the Agaran would be successfully culled, no more expansion, and no infections

To Top It All Off: The Missing Floran Link

Here's my final piece of speculation.
The Florans are taken to be harvested by the Agaran, because living plant matter is required for these cells.
But, dryness sedates the Floran to a degree, causing them to feel nothing.
And it feels very much like the Agaran are treating Floran like kings because they dry them out, then give them TONS of water to eat, I guess.
The Florans are reenergized to the point that the harvesting doesn't kill them.
So if we save the Floran, we stop the Agaran from expanding.

Theres two way to stop Agaran Expansion: Create a virus designed to eat the Agaran Fungus Bacteria or save the Florans from these harvesting which allow the Agaran to make more bacteria.

Bonus Round:

Also, I could use my skills to prepare some Peppered duck with vanilla mash, pea & wild mushrooom Agaran ragout
We're all gonna die from infection so I might as well.
-- An hour later --

So what if eating Agarans kills you? In the end we have very few days until the FungApocalypse.
Don't worry though, we can start a guerrilla rebellion against the mush-
Habbahoom! Kissface smashroom! Fry squishfish! Mesti plesti spaceshroom!
-- ERROR: AT TIME 1:24:46 FILES LOST. ATTEMPTING REBOOT --

 

Oh crap, looks like I'm a necromancer. So yeah, hopefully new stuff with the update.

 

Ehh, the longer a thread goes, the longer a time can be waited before it's called necromancy. And anyways, about 4 post were made in between today and yesterday so.


So, no necro, and a partial derailment saying it isn't a necro, all in a day's work.

 

One of the planets I landed on recently was absolutely covered with these mushroom people (along with small apex labs and crystal labs).

 

That's actually pretty cool. We haven't had anything new like that in the longest time.
@Zebe, add it to the megapost! (if you feel like it)

 

So... I haven't found any agaran structures other than villages in unstable yet. Can anyone confirm that they actually spawn?

 

Thanks!
My pontential backing evidence for this is:
1) Spores are highly infectious seeds of mushrooms, but they can only travel short distances.
2) Agaran are never shown TRYING to expand, so the virus could be entering these bacteria involuntarily.
3) Euglena are plants bound with cells, so why not fungi?
4) It explains why they need Florans and not other races.
5) It explains how Agarans could be ~ 1000 light years away from each other.
6) It unifies most theories (like space spores), which is great!
7) It shows that no race *cough*Novakid*cough* is immune, so no race bias.
8) It's great for showing how the spores can live anywhere.
9) It gives us a huge possibility of abilities to cure the Agaran Menace.
10) It coherently explains everything we see about Agarans
Bonus I) Food.
Bonus II) It means we can massacre every Hylotl that wishes to massacre the Florans.

 

...

Urghh... where is the one who dares to disturb my sleep? Oh, this place! When I entered this place it felt I was descending into a deep, underground crypt. Now I see the dead have politely refused to bite the dust and continue theorizing about mushrooms. Or did anyone except me actually die? Meh, whatever.

So, uh, hello, terribly horribly reanimated corpse of @Type1Ninja, you have performed the unholy ritual to summon me. I will proceed to inscribe the requested information to the said Megapost. Long live the Megapost. #117NeverForget

I looked through the theory of @BurningSprite and I think I will put it to the "Personal Theories" -part. I won't give it a place at Theory -part, because: A. Theory is mainly based on real-life biology and physics, not Starbound lore. B. It is not clear if Agarans are even able to infect any of the known races.

Of course, @BurningSprite, do you want your theory to be added to the Megapost aka thread summary?
If yes, what posts I put into the Megapost? If you'd want to sum it all up into one, it would be nice. Also, I need a name to the whole theory. Something that sums up the theory or alternatively: "BurningSprite's [INSERT THEORY NAME] -theory".


Agaran Encyclopedia: The Megapost
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/the-agaran-menace.68061/page-117#post-2066635

 

Sure! You can use my idea in a Agaran theory thread. I just need to sum it up somehow, give me a couple of hours/a day and I should have it figured out.
Also, I didn't know that you could use mushroom to defeat unholy summoned beings.
Note to Self: Use the new 'Smashroom' weapon to defeat the final boss. It should be super effective.[DOUBLEPOST=1419286884][/DOUBLEPOST]Okay: Time to cite my sources and prepare for the ultimate mushriting!

The Agaran Symbiosis Theorem:

This theory states that the Agaran use bacteria native to the world they live on as tiny vessels to carry their spores to other worlds similar to real live symbiotes and parasites. This is achieved by harvesting plant matter from Florans, infesting it with spores, and then naturally letting it corrupt the planet's bacteria.

Link to my original post: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/the-agaran-menace.68061/page-131#post-2349000

Supporting Details:

• This theory explains why Florans are held captive by Agarans.
• It explains the difference between 'Shrooms' and 'Spaceshrooms' (which is NOT explained by space spores)
• It explains why Florans are seemingly happy with their captivity
• This explains how spores (which have no real ability to enter to pierce cell membranes, while bacteria can) infect Floran pods.
• This explains how one pod landing on a planet spells doom for it: Mitosis (when one cell divides into two, and those two divide into four)
• In the story "Fly Away" it describes how the spores eat a Sunborn body to create a new Agaran. The problem is that spores don't create new mushrooms to eat things that they are already consuming, that's what bacteria do.
• There is a fungus that exists that causes problems for amphibians with the help of bacteria, much like the Agarans do to the Hylotls
• This explains how Agaran can adapt to pretty much any planet.
• Asteroids infected by these bacteria could be the cauldrons we find Florans bathing in on Agaran planets

Opposing Facts:

• There's no mention of what Drysap does. Although that may not be related
• This doesn't explain what created the spores or the Agaran in the first place.
• In REAL LIFE, a virus would have evolved to kill the Agaran Menace by now.
• Humans will be disappointed that this means they can't nuke Agarans to death.
• In his discovery, Charlton McVicar describes the gas filling the caves as spores.

Extra Facts:
I have my own theory about the Apex Pods.
Hint:

The most honored members of Apex society are those chosen by the MiniKnog to donate their bodies to furthering the VEP. Those chosen for the experimentation process are rarely seen again

= Apex Pod = Rainbow Villagers

And done! All in a day's work.

Now, back to make my mushroom pizza...

 

I can semi-confirm that they aren't in the game. I can't seem to find them in the files, as most of the surface structures have gone missing altogether.

 

If the Agarans are sread by a disease, then couldn't we put the spores in a stim pack and turn into mushrooms (or start hallucinating)?

 

The menace is being dealt with.....

Disease is not the only spread, spores can still spread the fungus, but just not at as long distances

 

Added to the Megapost. Under the Personal Theories -spoiler. First one there, yay! If anyone else wants to submit their theories, go on. Legacy of this thread must go on!

When I edit the post, it slightly lags. I have no idea how much stuff the post has in total, but anything past 40 000 words will get horrible to edit (tested with my fanfic ), so maybe I have to repost it in two parts. Or move it elsewhere altogether.

 

Thanks! I'm not sure about the lag bit thoguh, we may have to make a thread with the theories and just link it to this thread.
And mine is based off science, see the Euglena which could use mitosis instead of spores since bacteria can (eventually) travel long distances, unlike spores which require you to contact a colony.

Now I'm off to go hunting for mushrooms.

 

I agree with BurningSprite; we need our own theory thread, even if only to keep track of stuff. The majority of discussion can still happen here, but it was mentioned a while ago that eventually, noone will remember page 117/177, and we will lose that beautiful megapost.
You could also edit it in Google Drive/Microsoft Word/Wordpad, and then just copy and paste the entire thing (into its own thread?).
If you DO do this, I suggest you put in there somewhere that it is page 177. Just for kicks. And confusion. ^^

 

Someone just needs to make a mega thread with theorization about the Agarans, (nightly) Moontants, the Colourful People, the Microns, and the Helions.

 

Ok, so I ventured into the horrifying land of unstable assets. As of now, our glorious friend, the Fungus Stim and Shroom Remedy only apply healing. I still have no idea how to get them in game, so... the adventure continues!

 

I spawned them with admin mode (/spawnitem fungusstim and /spawnitem shroomremedy), and can confirm that the fungus stim provides healing. I think the shroom remedy just crashed my game.
The flavor text reads "A stim that triggers -TODO-" and "A concoction that provides -TODO-".

EDIT: Yup, my game crashed. Don't use the shroom remedy.

 

Hang on! The people of Starbound in the game know that the Agaran are a threat. And yet some is crazy enough to make a Mushroom Syringe? The plot thickens, and that also seems to favor my idea, as spores don't typically travel in bodily fluids, but bacteria do.

 

I bet we craft them ourselves.
Because injecting mushrooms into us is totally safe...