Gaerath had a native biosphere before the catastrophe. The catastrophe caused a massive surface ecological collapse but did not necessarily sterilize the planet. Candidate survivors include iron-rich microbial mats, mineral-adapted lichen analogues, fungi, burrowing organisms, cave fauna, permafrost ecosystems, and geothermal-refugium life.
The important ecological structure is: surface ecology collapses; refugia persist; Gaian populations retreat into some of the same surviving underground systems; and post-catastrophe Gaerath develops in relationship with a radically reduced biosphere.
Exact species and taxonomy remain undeveloped. Older faux-Latin names may serve as an idea bank or later Earth-scientific classifications, but they are not established Gaian taxonomy. A possible cultural artifact, the Chronicle of the Last Bloom, could preserve memory of the final flowering of an extinct surface species.
Open questions
- What plausible food webs could persist in Gaerath’s subsurface refugia?
- Which pre-catastrophe species survive into the present story?
- How did ecological loss shape Ma’at and Aegir ideas about stewardship, survival, control, and balance?
- Does the Chronicle of the Last Bloom become an established cultural text?