Name:
Velvet LanternAppearance: A bipedal fungus-encrusted tortoise with three additional mismatched arms emerging from holes in his shell and cloak. One is a mammalian arm, another is a tarantula leg, and still another one is currently covered in fruiting bodies and unrecognizable. In keeping with her name, Velvet Lantern is generally seen with a dim sickly green lantern on a staff.
Backstory: As the only surviving child of the late Ylneth matriarch
Velvet Speaker, Velvet Lantern's accession to clan head was relatively smooth and unmarred by the usual jockeying that characterized such events. Always more comfortable in the fungineering laboratories than in the clan square, her term has been characterized by increased attention to the refinement of various fungal strains with special attention to improving interspecific grafts like her three extra arms and the distant goal of replicating some of the mythic creatures depicted in tales of a world above even the highest tunnels.
Clan Name: Ylneth
Clan Specialization: Fungotech for everything from sustenance to insect husbandry. The Ylneth are famous for their export of dipteran milk and wormsilk, both secreted by purring maggots rendered docile by club fungus intervention.
Clan Distinguishing Feature: Living in harmony with tamed (even domesticated) fungi, the Ylneth have grown accustomed to constant exposure to spores of many kinds. It is not uncommon for members to grow clothing or "clothing" from fuzzy molds or decorate themselves with tattoos of glowing mushrooms. Most members sport at least a few actively fruiting mushrooms specially selected to signal some combination of profession, age, and family. Clan members typically wear crude, beak-shaped air filters and cover themselves in oilskin cloaks when traveling abroad to avoid spreading potentially deadly spores to bystanders. This isn't universal by any means, and some members will flaunt their fungal growths outside to Velvet Lantern's chagrin.
Clan Culture: Combined with the the Ylneth wish to lead a quiet life, the miasma hanging around Ylneth passages lends itself to peaceful isolationism with tunnels closed more for the benefit of outsiders than for real protection. Even the Velvet, the moist, edible blend of mildews they use as a turf and wallcover, can be a foul, life-threatening irritant to those not raised in and on it.
A number of innovative members have recently conducted unsuccessful experiments involving communicating with each other using the underlying mycelia of the Velvet as a medium. Notably, they disagree with the common wisdom that the only plausible means of communicating through the Velvet is by casting precise mixtures of spores, or sporecasting.