[Cyrien]

Originally posted by Jack Simth:

Let me get this straight -
you have a great number of creatures that, from hatching to death, need nothing beyond sunlight; at hatching, they need only their parent and the surrounding planetary material (ice, mostly). There are no predators, and no reason to prey upon themselves

- these plants needed mobility because __________________________________________
- these mobile plants needed an IQ because __________________________________________
- these mobile intelligent plants needed a society because __________________________________________

[/QB]

First. They aren't plants. They are closer to insects. The sunlight development was by necessity and not due to a direct relation to plants.

Right. Mobility was early on. They didn't evolve alone on the planet. Mobility was first as they evolved as an insectoid scavenger. At that point they resembled their current form about as much as the first mammals resemble modern humans.

Next would be a society. Think hermit crabs here(for a bug like example in the real world) or apes, chimps, any number of other creatures in the real world. While each works as an individual they tend to live in large colonies and Groups by nature. When left alone they tend to die due to depression. Close bonds within communities are in existence even before sentience. Note that even at those early stage weak psychic ability exists in the form of empathy(ability to feel the emotions of others), causing far closer community bonds than any example on earth.

Intelligence develops only much later as the atmosphere of the planet continues to burn off. Here intelligence as well as the more extreme physical changes develop all as a means of keeping the species alive in the face of drastic planetary changes that wipe out all other life. The first records for the Alteri occur shortly after total atmosphere burn off well after any remains of previous life have ceased. At this point the various Alteri Groups find each other and now possess stronger psychic abilities(still mostly of the empathic type but with some telepathy as the singular means of communication, no atmosphere after all). With direct telepathic communication there are no misunderstandings. Slowly the Alteri become a united society wherein each performs that which they are best suited for to best serve the society as a whole.

Next the Alteri still have the earlier inherent desire to expand and multiply like so many others. With no enemies the numbers rapidly get outa hand. Thus the drive to expand beyond the planet. Also the instinctual drives of their scavenger ancestors will push them to respect strength and conquer the weak.

Finally, there is other life on the planet... but it is all part of the Alteri. Microscopic life. Single celled and multicelled forming a ballanced and temporarily self sustaining eco-system out of each Alteri. Thus they do not process the radiation but a microscopic organism inside them does and in so doing creates biproducts that feed others and so on and so forth keeping the Alteri going.

Hope that answers your questions.