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Author Topic: Trees or plants in the underhive?  (Read 3764 times)

Offline Bahir

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Trees or plants in the underhive?
« on: December 15, 2018, 10:29:18 PM »
Advice requested comrades,

Has anyone used foliage in the underhive? Maybe some intelligent hive dwellers figured out that plants can help purify the air and could provide other benefits (such as food).

I’m trying to wrap my head around what a hive hydroponic area might look like or how hive dwellers would grow things. Maybe some plants are infesting little used portions of the hive... Any advice?

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2018, 11:14:42 PM »
Well... In the fluff snippets in the original Necromunda books, there are many mentions of sludge/fungus pits, which is where most of the nutrition in the underhive stems from. There is even reference to farms!

I don't think there would be much in the way of plant life down there though, bar fungal growth. Considering most plants (or what we refer to as plants anyway) require sunlight to produce oxygen and grow, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find any suitable location in the underhive, or even on the whole of Necromunda, where plantlife might florish.

There may be some places in the upper Spyre, above the eternal, toxic cloud layers, where the absurdly rich might keep an arboreum, or something along those lines, to show off their wealth, but I reckon it would be considered an absolute decadence.

On the other hand; there is always an explanation to be found:

Quote
Some long forgotten, past Spyrer lord used to maintain a closed off dome deep in the underhive, where incredibly rare and unimaginably expensive imported plants were able to grow in actual sunlight, through an ingenious system of mirrors, lenses and large pipes reaching all the way up to the very top of the Spyre. What his motivation was to hide this artificial forest so deep in the lowest reaches of Hive Primaris was lost to the sands of time long ago, but for millennia, it had stood testament to its creator's wealth and determination.

This dome had been sealed off from the rest of the Underhive for many dozens of centuries, its flora and fauna maintaining a delicately balanced ecosystem, of which its founder would have been proud. But a recent hive quake finally crumbled a small part of the ancient, slowly corroding walls, and for the first time in uncounted millennia, unfiltered sunlight blazed out into the eternal darkness of the underhive, chasing   slithery and scuttling things further away into the security of the reassuring darkness.

And so, for a short time, it brightly shone its warming, bright light into the gloom of the underhive undiscovered. It didn't take long for fortune seekers, scavengers and less savoury characters to stumble across this wholesome, unimaginably valuable treasure though, and start carrying parts of it off, to be eaten, sold, or wither away as some clueless hive dweller attempted to make it take root in that dark, light deprived hostile environment.

Of course it would be a mere matter of time till people with connections would be made aware, and news of the discovery would work its way up the Hive and maybe even the Spyre itself. What would happen then, is anyone's guess...
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
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Offline commissarmoody

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2018, 12:31:08 AM »
 "fungi are adept at living in dark places. Fungi thrive especially well because caves are full of nutrient-rich bat guano, a perfect soil for mushrooms. Algae can also live in the darkest parts of caves. Instead of using photosynthesis, these algae can use a different metabolic pathway to produce their energy."

As long as the fungi has access to some kind of energy "Food" source they can grow with out light. Given time, you might have whole "mushroom forests" with the only light being from a few bioluminescent fungi and still running emergency floor lights.
"Peace" is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.

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Offline AWu

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2018, 12:34:18 AM »
I agree plant life would be hard pressed.
Some Eschers are probably farming some plants for toxins and medical purposes uphive
Although known farming is fungal based.
Light is light. Plant need certain wavelength to produce photosynthesis not sunlight.
I can imagine crappy hydroponics akin to shady cannabis plantation hidden in places where marihuana is banned drug, but agricultural territories available are Spore cave, Stinger mold sprawl and Corpse farm.

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2018, 08:39:31 AM »
Back in my youth I used to work in Glasshouses growing cut flowers. We used to use daylight bulbs and shades to fool the plants into flowering at the wrong time of year by artificially altering the length of daylight hours. So with the right types of daylight bulb you could grow plants in a non sun-light environment.

Having said that we are all assuming that all plant life across the galaxy uses the same survival systems as the plant life of ancient terra. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine humanity discovered new plant life that evolved to grow in no light situations as it spread across the galaxy.

Offline Inso

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2018, 10:50:45 AM »
I reckon there might well be hydroponic green houses... and if that was the case, they would be 'sterile' and very organised like the ones in my google link:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hydroponics&rlz=1C1CHBD_en-GBGB745GB745&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGncrAlqTfAhU2VBUIHbvDBjkQ_AUIDygC&biw=1600&bih=789

I wouldn't expect too much random plant growth... it would be purely for food and would need to be regimented.

Mushrooms and fungi would be the way to go :) .

Offline Vanvlak

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2018, 10:55:02 AM »
Just assume one of the upper crust of Necromunda society has a hidey-hole down in the underhive (or a den in the upper hive with a long shaft down to the underhive which the gangs discover), where she or he cultivate dangerous plants for their outlawed toxins or drugs - to link it to the fluff, the Escher could be linked to this and guard it - or going the opposite direction, raid it.

Offline AWu

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2018, 12:35:36 PM »
I reckon there might well be hydroponic green houses... and if that was the case, they would be 'sterile' and very organised like the ones in my google link:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hydroponics&rlz=1C1CHBD_en-GBGB745GB745&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGncrAlqTfAhU2VBUIHbvDBjkQ_AUIDygC&biw=1600&bih=789


Thats soo upper hive
I see it more like this

Offline Bahir

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2018, 12:48:13 PM »
Thanks, Guys, great feedback. A fungi patch would be a great start and then some type of ordered/hydroponic/weed grower/ type thing to add variety.

Does anyone have a guide on making mushrooms? Inso, didn't you make some mushroom men once?

Offline Inso

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2018, 01:27:41 PM »
Does anyone have a guide on making mushrooms? Inso, didn't you make some mushroom men once?

I did. It depends on how big you want your mushrooms.

A disc of plasticard. Drill a hole in the centre and add a length of wire through it. Secure the wire... you now have a stem and crown.
Pad out the wire, with putty, to the thickness you want the stalk to be and let it dry.
Put a thin layer of putty around the underside of the disk and then mark it (like spokes from the centre, outward), with a sculpting tool... let it dry.
Add as much putty as you need to the top of the disk and smooth it down (into a dome shape) and over the sides slightly (to cover the end of the spokes on the underside of the disk)... let everything dry and mount to a base for painting :) .

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2018, 03:01:03 PM »
I make small mushrooms out of Green Stuff or ProCreate every time I sculpt and have some putty left over. And since I tend to always overestimate the amount I'll be needing, I've made a lot of them over the years... ::)

It's really simple; take a small ball of putty, and push the back of a small diameter brush (or other smooth, rounded tool of an approrpriate diameter) into it, creating a hole, that can be widened by pushing the edges out.

Then roll a thin sausage of putty, and insert it into the hole.

Done.

I leave the stem as long as possible, so I can cut it to the appropriate size later, when I glue down the mushroom. I usually let them dry, and then put them into a zip-lock baggie for storage, ensuring I always have a bunch of them handy, should I need them. :)

Offline 6milPhil

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2018, 04:46:12 PM »
For quite small mushrooms I've used pins before, no sculpting needed, just prime and paint.

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2018, 05:47:36 PM »
Spores!

 :D
cheers

James

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Offline Dezmond

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2018, 06:18:35 PM »
I feel certain that hydroponics in Imperium of the Emperor of Mankind involves vast subterranean wrought iron greenhouses.



Probably lit by, like, a mini sun contained by void shields. A great big open core fusion reactor emiting hard radiation that gives all the agri-servators skin cancer.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2018, 06:20:31 PM by Dezmond »

Offline AWu

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Re: Trees or plants in the underhive?
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2018, 07:21:22 PM »
I brought your holo pict to proper imperial standard citizen..