by Affan das Hudfor, Monstruwacan
*Possibly Dangerous Data -- For Distribution to Members of the Monstruwacan Order Only*
Dated the 9,235,089th year of the Great Redoubt
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Well, as for the latter, they don't. The moss-bushes reported in the Night Land are certainly not photosynthesizing plants. They are fungi.
Throughout the Night Land, volcanic phenomena are quite common. Therefore, sulfurous compounds are common in the soil, and a few hundred feet below the surface, great heat will be encountered in many locations. These can form a source of energy for life, through chemosynthesis, an analogue of photosynthesis using chemical energy instead of radiant light energy.
The moss-bushes are in fact clusters of fruiting bodies of a vast subterranean fungus that lives off the geothermal heat and organic compounds in the soil formed by the decay of chemosynthetic life. This moss-bush fungus most likely has a symbiotic relationship with chemosynthetic bacteria, just as lichens are formed by a symbiosis of fungus and alga, but we have insufficient samples. So far, no one has volunteered to dig a hole several dozen or hundred feet deep in the Night Land. We await those willing to take risks for the benefit of science.
The chemosynthetic bacteria themselves probably inhabit most of the Night Land's soil, though at low densities. They almost certainly use sulfur and iron as their energy source. There is great quantity of iron in the Night Land's soil.
Another source of energy in the Night Land is provided by the fire-holes. These support a much thicker density of chemosynthetic bacteria than the general soil of the Night Land, since there is much more sulfur. In the water pits at the bottom of some of these fire-holes, forms of algae adapted to photosynthesize in red and infrared light have been found.
These fire-holes are often the sources of great concentrations of life. The algal and bacterial scum is eaten by insects and other arthropods, which are preyed on by snakes* and larger arthropods. An omnivorous rat also feeds on the scum and any animals smaller than itself. The top predators of these fire-hole faunas seem to be a four-armed abhuman type and a gigantic yellow spider-like creature unscientifically referred to as a "Yellow Thing" in the reports given by Naani and her rescuer.
*In the absence of a physical specimen, it is impossible to determine whether these are true members of the possibly extinct order Serpentes, known from fossils as late as 6 million years pre-Redoubt.
In the reports alluded to above, a "Land of Fire and Water" was described. With no specimens, however, I can only state that the ambient light must be sufficient to allow photosynthesis, albeit shifted toward the red and infrared end of the spectrum.
On the more extreme end of speculation, it might be noted that this Great Valley was once the bottom of a sea; in later ages a shallow one. Great amounts of biomass would have accumulated and become hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane, butane, and other alkanes and cycloalkanes, forming the unpleasant mixture referred to as 'petroleum', used as an energy source as late as the Fourteenth Dark Age. However, it seems that this Valley's reserves were never tapped. Some deep-soil bacteria, archaea, or other microorganisms may have adapted to use these as an energy source. Due to the immense metabolic differences this would entail, it may be appropriate to classify such organisms as an entirely new branch of life, equal in rank to the Bacteria, Archaeans, Eukaryotes, Vapor-Life, etc
.
In this all-too-brief summary of the biology of the Night Land, many may wonder that I have made little mention of the dreadful Forces of Evil that so occupy our attention.
This is because, in all honesty, I know little of these beings. For obvious reasons, close observation is nearly impossible, to say nothing of sampling.
For what little validity it may hold, however, I give the hypothesis subscribed to by many (including myself) that the dangerous creatures that we call "evil Forces" hold no relationship to terrestrial life and are native either to another world or to space itself. They appear to be composed of thin plasma rather than the solid and liquid components of life native to Earth.
The method by which they destroy the human spirit is best not to investigate too closely, but it is generally suggested that either they somehow absorb the electrically charged particles from a mind, or else the powerful electrical charge of the Evil Force permanently and fatally overrides the weak electrochemical signals which make up the human mind. In either case the mind is irretrievably wiped blank and even its electromagnetic pattern destroyed.
The popularity of this hypothesis, however, is probably due less to its validity than to the almost total lack of competing ideas.