I am just thinking here and doing my best to read up on and understand the blob better. I love this subject:
Fungus is highly flammable. Without sufficient
rainfall the fungus would eventually catch on fire and
be burnt out by weather , heat, and thermodynamics.
Natural forest fires have been torching the earth for
billions of years before humanity even mattered. Not
counting the natural evolution of earth microfuana. We
are currently facing the threat of antibiotics being
rendered completely ineffective within 50 years due to
evolving resistant bacteria.
There would be a legitimate chance of multiple earth
bacteria/virus evolving to compete against the fungus, triffid and blob.
Both being organic, there are chemical elements that
are poisonous to them. And compounds that will killthem.
Seeing as the very atmosphere of Earth is deadly
to the Blob I donât see them being able to compete
against the earth, triffids, and fungal to terraform
the atmosphere quick enough to survive on earth long
term.
The fungus would probably find an equilibrium with the
environment overall and completely dominate certain climates.
But by their design and biology they would also be
incapable of overrunning large portions of the globe
Some flora would, as with any fungus, develop resistance to the fungals .
As fire and commercial fungicide are toxic and deadly
to them, a small organized group with even salvaged
generators, combustibles, makeshift gas masks and/or
fungicidal products and medicines could fight back
against the fungals and easily keep a perimeter
secured.
The blob/nethrerum can only exist inside the bodies(50kg or
larger, if I remember right) of earth fauna due to the atmosphere being
toxic to them. As evidenced the bodies it inhabits rot
and break down. So with 99% of the population being
immediately consumed there is literally no way for the Blob to survive more than a few years.
Canât the blob just enlarge the host bodies as seen with insect?(And spiders)
Given that there are more insect than humans(by weight), I would roughly estimate that even if all zombies spontaneously combust 90-95% of the blob will be unharmed.
Also, the dead body will spawn Roaches.
From what I can gather from reading about the blob, humankind though largely decimated, is only clinging on by itâs fingernails because weâre not even a blip on the radar worth recognition.
If the blob decided we were any threat or even a big enough nuisance, it would just flood our world with untold numbers of horrors from untold numbers of other dimensions. Sure theyâd kill each other off as well, but weâd be obliterated in the process. It wouldnât need to fight us directly, just make the world completely toxic in every imaginable possible way.
Humans are just here, for now, because we were forgettable.
I get that the blob is powerful but it canât just be because humans are âforgetableâ that it doesnât flood the planet, the blob also seems to be at war with fungals and triffids and those certainly arenât on the decline.
I skipped about 50 comments because Iâm out of reading time rn. But are any of you familiar with the lovely concept known is existential horror?
We as a race quantify and create comparisons to various formations of matter. It becomes familiar in this way and we begin to understand it.
In the scientific community we acknowledge this has its limits. We adapt the information so that we can quantify it. 1.492Ă10^19 seems manageable right?
14,920,000,000,000,000,000,000
Can you tell me what that number is? I dont even know what to call it., incomprehensible maybe.
For the record, that is the distance to the Andromeda galaxy in miles.
Now humanity is a powerful entity, not a push over by any means. But if we didnât exist in our happy little safety bubble in space I promise you weâd be slaughtered by the unforgiving void of the cosmos. One rock sent our way, one little ball of plasma ejected from our sun, the great unyielding light of a dying star.
All of these would destroy us, and there isnât a darnned thing we could do about it.
This is the scale at which the Blob comes in.
By our standards, it is invincible.
Its size, immeasurable.
Its mind, omnipotent.
As pawns on the great chessboard, we let it into our world and allowed it to feast on our bones.
It is Ragnarok, The Book of Revalations, our end as we know it.
Those who remain will be doomed to suffer.
Who knows, maybe decay will allow new life to form over another eternity.
But itâs looking rather bleak.
No, theyâre not. But for all anyone knows Earth is just some podunk, backwater clump of dirt that was worth a look for now. Maybe staking a claim to deal with it later. What if all weâre seeing are just minor skirmishes so far? Maybe all thatâs here (from any of the factions) is just the tip of the tip if the iceberg?
As I stated above,
The same also goes for writing an omnipotent entity.
You either write it logically and any reasonable person can follow and infer meaning⌠or you donât and it come off as poor writing. Even if the blob has access to information that we donât (it almost certainly does) that doesnât stop itâs actions being understandable on a conceptual level and meaning being infered. It either wants Earth because it needs it, because it benefits it in some manner or just because, none of these options are beyond understanding. The only other would be it wants it because it actively hinders it, something that is illogical but still understandable.
The example you gave is actually pretty good, itâs on a scale no human can actually imagine and yet we still have a way to convey its meaning. Another one is the concept of eternity, completely unimaginable to a mortal being as all of us have experienced a âstartâ but still something that the meaning of can be passed on conceptually.
@Sediment
I could actually accept that, it makes good sense. A grand scale muti-dimensional war on many fronts directed personally by a hyper intelligent being is reasonable explaination. That also gives humanity an edge to survive though, by working at playing sides off against each other and/or by making invading our little dirt ball unreasonably costly.
You stated both the thesis and antithesis here. Yes one can burn down a stand of trees with sufficient effort, especially a young one, but that doesnât mean forests are spontaneously annihilated by fire. The same would be true of fungal forests, outside of concerted effort, they would weather fires, possibly facing setbacks, but overall continue to grow.
This isnât the first rodeo for blob, triffids, or fungus. All of them would by necessity be highly adapted to resisting infection from native threats, and as all of them are intelligent, they would be able to respond to new threats rather than just passively enduring.
Youâre conflating the alien fungus with terrestrial fungus. How it interacts with weather, humidity, radiation, terrestrial defenses, etc is an open question.
Keeping a perimeter secured is a far cry from thriving
What âas evidencedâ are you talking about? Zombies in the game certainly alter their appearance, but if anything they become more robust and integrated over time.
In general, youâre applying some very superficial knowledge of how these organisms work, and extrapolating far beyond what is reasonable.
I think people are seeing rotting zombies and assuming that means the bodies decay⌠In fact those bodies started out rotten.
Over time we get things like skeletal zombies, brutes, feral predators, and necromancers. Zombies donât seem to be rotting away at all.
I might(probably) be ignorant, but I canât find any evidence that the ants changes are affected by the blob. Seems more like fallout like radiation mutation. And speaking of which, if radiation can cause mutations than not every mutant(human or otherwise) is susceptible to the blobs control, as not every mutation is caused by blob based mutagens.
Are the roaches blob based? I figured they were just rad-roaches
https://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php?title=Skeletal_juggernaut
âThis hideous golem of plated bones and misshapen flesh drags its heavy, pointed limbs behind it like an unwanted burden. Formerly soft and vulnerable, bones grew around its form to protect it - only, they kept growing. And growing. And growing.â
Perhaps theyâre a bit like shoggoths, seeing as they grow they have to be absorbing mass from somewhere. (Bees, ants, humans, animals, other zeds)
But theyâre still vulnerable to pulping once downed.
So even though the blob can change and grow in/upon a body it still canât overcome the earth atmo once exposed to it. If Iâm understanding here, the rot still happens but the blob sustains/rebuillds/grows an organic shell, that once broken/pulped, it canât repair on itâs own.
âYou stated both the thesis and antithesis here. Yes one can burn down a stand of trees with sufficient effort, especially a young one, but that doesnât mean forests are spontaneously annihilated by fire. The same would be true of fungal forests, outside of concerted effort, they would weather fires, possibly facing setbacks, but overall continue to grow.â
Camp/Paradise Fires as two examples A discarded cigarette butt can and has burnt down old forests and do just that almost every year, spontaneous annihilation of forests happen on the reg, in spite of organized and well equipped fire prevention organizations. Being other-dimensional Iâm ignorant of their full resistances to be sure. Can only go off of in game.
But in game one person with a lighter and rifle can ignite a massive fungal fire stretching for miles, an area that even modern fire forces couldnât contain with the rate of spread, and kill the center cores. It could/will weather fire in climates that work in favor of the fungals and without intelligent resistance to take advantage of any situation. As with rain forests.
âThis isnât the first rodeo for blob, triffids, or fungus. All of them would by necessity be highly adapted to resisting infection from native threats, and as all of them are intelligent, they would be able to respond to new threats rather than just passively enduring.â
Nor is it the first rodeo for earth based bacterial/fungals. But how would they have, right out of the gate, resistance to a biospere theyâve never been exposed to before?
And neither do ours just passively endure. If that was the case we wouldnât be on the cusp of returning to sulfa-drugs by 2060 due to evolved resistance. Hospitals are working hard to contain the anti-biotic resistant bacterias currently existing. Flu evolves every year if not more and the vaccines are sometimes about 30% effective, and thats with the ISS testing on them.
" Youâre conflating the alien fungus with terrestrial fungus. How it interacts with weather, humidity, radiation, terrestrial defenses, etc is an open question."
Nien, Pre-Cataclysim antifungals kill the alien fungus and itâs infections just the same as terrestrial fungals. So they have must have very similar chemistry to find the same compounds just as lethal?
âKeeping a perimeter secured is a far cry from thrivingâ
Its essential to surviving, and essential to allowing the people and land behind the perimeter to thrive. Securing a perimeter is the first sign that humanity is capable of, at the least, of securing its own survival and adapting.
âWhat âas evidencedâ are you talking about? Zombies in the game certainly alter their appearance, but if anything they become more robust and integrated over time.â
The fact that once killed, before and after repurposing, the bodies rot. Along with skeletal zombies, unless the blob is capable of putting together full skeletons from the pieces on its own. perhaps Iâm wrong but many enemy descriptions reference to various states of decay taking place. Headless and damaged corpses that donât heal. That any evolution is susceptible to damage and pulping. The blob may replace and grow organic matter of and with sufficient condition, but beyond a point it cannot. And it dies/ is killed.
âIn general, youâre applying some very superficial knowledge of how these organisms work, and extrapolating far beyond what is reasonable.â
You, being the creator, I cant argue with you on my ignorance of how the blob works or the in-game universe(s) but I believe Iâm not arguing outside of reason or on just superficial knowledge.
Excellent question. and now I shall provide answers!
From the lab notes(which you can also find under json/snippets/snippets.json):
âAfter our curious results with testing XE037 on non-human mammals, we decided to introduce the substance to some of the insects which have found their way into the lab. Horrifyingly, XE037 caused near-instant mutation and gigantism in the insects, and security intervention was required.â
âExposure of large quantities of XE037 to various types of radiation have shown promising results, stimulating activity and forming interesting structural changes in the subject being tested. Exposure to radiation on living subjects scheduled.â\
âAs in the tests of isolated XE037 samples, prolonged radiation exposure of T3D has resulted in significant structural changes. These do not appear to be random. T3D appears to be in immense pain as a result of these changes, but the lack of an oral opening has rendered him unable to vocalize.â
âSubject T3D has succumbed to radiation poisoning, but not before undergoing several more physiological changes the lab boys are referring to as âmutationsâ. They do not appear to be truly random, and may be an attempt by XE037 to adapt its host to an unknown stimulus.â
As discussed multiple times above, radiations and mutagen does not cause mutation itself - they cause the blob inside the subject to mutate.whatever the cause are - the source of the mutation is the same.
So what you are suggesting is other way around. If a creature can be mutated via radiation, that creature is already infected by the blob.
Omg, I must have plain not paid attention. Nioce.
The ants are blobbed. So the blob can find means of âreproducingâ by enlarging otherwise too small creatures to appropriate size. Oooh, hence enlarged flies and spiders. Dang you Fallout, you obscured my thoughts. lol
Am I misremembering, or did they come up with a tentative cure for the blob pre/just after the Cataclysm?
What about purifier? Says its just a stem cell treatment(Mr. Stemcell) but reverses/removes blob mutations.
Can that mean that genetic therapy can kill/neutralize the in-body blob? That would seem to suggest that either the blob itself or human stem cells can remove/reverse/kill the blob. If stem cells than it would seem, by my limited knowledge, that humanity itself can be made toxic to the blob, in the proper form.
Stemcell/genetic treatments for blob purging/resistance/vaccine?
IIRC there are two âcuresâ, one is some sort of treatment similar but not the same as purifier, the other is rapid teleportation. Neither is represented in the game but from what I remember the first is prohibitively expensive and/or hard to make, the second is⌠well, insanely dangerous and causes its own problems.
This is all from half remember computer enteries so I could be wrong though.
Teleporter route sounds like it would become the old Native American âGauntletâ, to some extant. What do you remember about the other?
Pretty much what I already said, those enteries donât come with a lot of details. It was something they came up with late after discovering the blob had infected the water supply and they couldnât hope to produce enough for everyone.
Next time Iâm grinding a character up to computers 9 Iâll have a go at screenshotting them all, I tried before but the game jumps out of certain menus when you tab out for a screen shot, Iâve found a work around since then though.
Nice, look forward to seeing those. Iâll look around for that type of lore too. Iâm curious on the specifics. Still seems to sound like the blob can be defeated on the genetic level with tech. With most people dead the cure doesnât have to be available to everyone in the beginning to make a difference. It just has to exist and be utilized.
" Iâd like to share a revelation that Iâve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that youâre not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. Youâre a plague and we are the cure."
And this is why I have faith in humanityâs survival. We are a cancer, a virus. Ever adapting, ever multiplying, ever consuming. Always surviving if not thriving. Same goes for the bacterial, fungal, and viral species we continually compete with.
The medical sciences are devoted to killing that which kills us. The reason we are fat and slow is because those before us killed and subjugated everything that had killed us. So much so that we turned to preserving what we have been too good at killing.
I guess humanity is screwed, and so all the life on Earth.
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Blob infests biosphere and turns large animals into raging monsters. These animals fall out from natural foodchain - primo, they could be considered âdeadâ as they donât reproduce or make biomass for next steps in the foodchain; secundo, they actively hunt on other animals, killing them and turning into zombies. Normal animals turn into zombies after death due to starvation, wounds, injuries et cetera, causing more deaths after reviving (and they revive again and again). So we have zombie-apocalypse in the woods (aaand there are large animals in oceans too!). Large animals die out (at least their population reduces to a point of no return), small animals almost die out, ecological balance is ruined, everything goes south.
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Mycus infests the land, ultimately turning everything it touches to a fungal matter. Even if it has some limiting mechanism, it still consumes vast amounts of biosphere. If there are no restrictions, it just transforms the land in exponential progression.
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Even if people find out a way to prevent further zombification (obligatory funeral fires, quarantine measures, isolated settlements etc), the humanity will be like a starving island of life in a wast sea of dead forests, animal corpses everywhere with alien fungus as an icing on a cake.
There are actually three, the third one is even implemented in the game, joining the Mycus permanently purges the blob from your body, just not everybody considers using it.