Local Guidebooks, Abridged: Unending War on Derom-Pag
The atmosphere of Derom is thick with war. Not the smell of blood, or rot, but actual physical war. The not-quite-microscopic species held aloft by air currents and Brownian motion live their lives in constant combat, attempting to gain an edge in their near invisible war. What little control they have over their motion is used to push opposing species towards the ravenous larva that covers the ground in mats. The larva, doing their part in the war effort, either consume the enemy or propel their parents back into the air by expelling air or flapping external body parts (depending on the species).
Hatching season is the most treacherous part of their year. Balloon-like eggs, floating high above the battlefields, start to deflate and fall slowly to the ground past the tiny combatants. Not only do the adults need to ensure their eggs land in their proper larval mats, but they need to avoid the mouths of the enemy larvae peaking from their eggs while pushing them towards their own larvae’s hungry mouths.
Eventually, those larvae will grow until they are ready to expel concentrated nutrients to feed the newer larvae. The now empty larva will dry up, its skin crumbling to dust, leaving their adult form able to be swept into the air to join the fray.
