Hiemacene

The Hiemacene

After the relative stable conditions of the Auroracene, things were about to change drastically. The little planet of Pisceria has been drifting a bit far off orbit, causing global temperatures to drop by 5 degree Fahrenheit. Though this wasn't enough to drive most creatures away, most of organisms migrated to the warmer climates especially polar creatures. However the colder temperatures would kill the polar trees, causing the massive leaves of the anubia forests to freeze. As the polar forests died, a new competitor from the cold mountains arrive. The Moss-towers.

These massive towering plants are descendants of java moss, conquering the cool polar mountains without much competition. Their secret was due to layers, more specifically an old moss trees having hundreds of layers of hard moss. The first moss-towers were only around as tall as a person, however soon they grew to impressive sizes, even challenging the heights of redwoods. At first restricted to the polar mountains thanks to the faster growing anubia trees, the disappearance of their rivals and the cooler temperatur was a success. However for the planet this would change everything.

Their growth tends to take a lot of CO2 away from the environment, which in turn drops the temperatures even lower. Now the planet's polar regions have dropped by 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which encourage more growth causing a positive feedback loop that is only stopped by the warm equator. Due to the abundance of biodiversity in the equator, they tend to produce a lot of CO2 which keeps the planet at a decent temperatures for more endothermic fauna. Though the moss-towers would face a new challenge, megafauna.

The bony-ridges on certain soarer species' tongues such as the forest croaker are great at chewing up moss. Allowing them to spread all over without the competition of large insects, as their flying lifestyle tends to generate a lot of heat. They were the first major consumers of both grass and moss. Most centaur species were too ectothermic to survive, so they migrate down to the equator. However a few species that were larger, along with having large warming noses survived, quickly thanks to their complex chewing and breathing proliferated. Becoming towering gluttonous beasts, constantly devouring the various plant matter. Weak moss-towers can be quickly eaten away by herds of these beasts, as the moss-towers are eaten a new type of plant also grows: grass.

The grasslands quickly spread across the continent, the open plains encouraged the evolution of bipedal critter. The semi-bipedal sniffaloos migrated from the mountains to the plains, quickly radiating into a variety of niches. From little burrowers to lithe predators. The parasitic sailshiners thanks to the spread of their hosts, the sniffaloos have spread to all other terrestrial life. Giving rise to many horrors, bordering on the line of eldritch.

Smaller terrestial players are at play, various neotonic dragonfly nymphs have diversified into many insect niches. While the adult dragon flies diverge into various flying niches. The reed-slitherers become more derived and may soon join the ranks of large fauna. Along with them are a recent terrestrial player who's origins are also aquatic, however may take alien forms for terrestrial creatures. Though another player may come into play, from distant worlds apart.

Come join the Hiemacene, winter is coming.