Triffid

Drawing of a Triffid by John Wyndham

Triffids are from John Wyndham's 1951 post-apocalyptic novel, "The Day of the Triffids."

Description

TODODescription
— John Wyndham, Day of the Triffids

TODO

Heresies and Controversies

• Triffids have some form of rudimentary intelligence, at least equivalent to packs of hunting wolves or dogs, and perhaps even greater. (implied by the original 1951 novel, and discussed by characters in their speculations)
• The origins of Triffids are hazy, confused, and conflicting, and might never be known for certain by anyone. (implied by the original 1951 novel)
• Triffids were in some way specially bred through Soviet super-science in the early 20th Century, presumably for industrial, agricultural, or more sinister purposes, and were accidentally released all over the world in the mid-20th century when a plane carrying a defecting double-agent carrying a box of seeds was shot down, scattering the seeds to the wind. (speculation from the narrator of the original 1951 novel)
• Triffids were carried to Earth from space in a mysterious meteor shower. (1962 Film)
• Triffids were found in the jungles of Africa and exploited for industrial/agricultural purposes. (2009 BBC TV serial)
• Tcho-Tcho tribesmen worship bizarre carnivorous plants they call Klaaktuk, especially the monstrous "Buna Klaaktuk" ("King Triffid", "Old Man Rattler" or "Great Witch-Doctor"). Tcho-Tcho regard the plants as gifts from the gods, as family, and as beings as intelligent as men, and Tcho-Tcho colonies in Asia often cultivate these plants. Tcho-Tcho are immune from the plant's blinding sting; share the plant's diet of rotting human flesh; produce from the plant clothing and ornaments from fibers, dyes from the flowers, high-grade vegetable oil from the stems, poison darts from the stingers, musical rattles and blow-guns from the plant's "clatter-sticks", and ritual hallucinogens prepared from mashed seeds (said to be especially potent when harvested soon after the plant has consumed a powerful witch-doctor). The mightiest and wisest of Tcho-Tcho "witch-doctors" wizards are spared from being eaten in cannibal feasts upon death, and are instead fed to Klaaktuk, especially the legendary, gigantic Buna Klaaktuk, oldest and wisest of the plant's kind, which wades through the primeval jungles of Asia consuming the carcasses of monstrous beasts. Buna Klaaktuk is said to be large enough for the Tcho-Tcho's ancestors to have either carved caves or homes into the plant's vast bole or otherwise been absorbed into the cavities in Buna Klaaktuk's stem, or (in other legends) for Tcho-Tchos to been swallowed alive and whole by Buna Klaaktuk, and then slowly digested for generations, until their spirits or souls are reincarnated into the plant, which the Tcho-Tcho claim to be a great honor reserved for the greatest of their race. (home-brew scenario premise by Y.Whateley)

References

• Fiction: The Day of the Triffids (1951, John Wyndham), Night of the Triffids (2001, Simon Clark)
• Call of Cthulhu Scenarios
• Film: The Day of the Triffids (1962), The Day of the Triffids (1981 TV Serial), The Day of the Triffids (2009 TV Serial), The Ruins (2008), Little Shop of Horrors (1960)