Zanza Coral

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zanza1ki.png
Zanza Organism (click to enlarge).


Zanza coral is found on Gastins World’s protected native wildlife preserve in the shallow inland sea and coastal surrounds. The “coral” is a fleshy giant single celled organism roughly 80 grams in weight making it the largest single celled organism known to ZMI with an adult form similar in shape to a Lironeca, a parasitic Isopod, frequently living in the gills or mouths of terran fish. The Zanza has a 23 year cyclic life cycle based on Gastin’s world’s orbit, and is known to be highly sensitive to environmental conditions specifically oxygen content. The “Zanza” drifts in its early stage until it grows a “foot”, then it waits till it's near a suitable surface and a suitable level of nutrients, Then anchoring itself. At this stage the Zanza may be washed away, but a sufficient number survive to usually allow the creation of a “Zanza bed”. The “Zanza” then begins siphoning nutrients from the surrounding water, including smaller forms of life. In the full adult stage small minnow may even be consumed.

The Zanza, once established, begins to build a protective column about itself in three stages of development: infant, juvenile, and adult.


In its brittle infant stage, the yellow fronds are quite delicate and made up nearly entirely of calcium. During its juvenile stage, the fronds begin to gather and mix the inland seas' high iron content into its makeup, creating red veins of oxidised iron on the fronds which, in the adult stage, meld together in mass of oxidised metal bound in a calcium based matrix. The adult stage lasts 4 years, whereupon near death the “coral” then releases an enzyme that brakes down its shell, releases the iron oxide, and spawns.

Refined Zanza Coral can be used in the production of Zat!, a highly addictive and highly illegal hallucinogenic thats long term use degrades the neural transmitter sites in the brain. Zat!’s uses include the blocking of company control collars and the use in street gang indoctrination. Zat! is classified as a Grade A illegal substance and INT-SEC has an entire department on Gastins world tasked with stopping the trade.