Disclaimer: Oh, please, let's not repeat it...

Lesson 3: The Spirit Kingdom

I hope you all went to my second lesson on the Koopa Troopas, Paratroopas, and Lakitus. Hey…wait…my attendance list says that Bomberio, Koovan, and Lakisamuel haven't come to this class for the last two weeks! Lakisamuel, you'd better catch up.

Anyway, we are doing the whole Spirit Kingdom today. This includes the Boos, Duplighosts, Podoboos, Shades, and one other surprise member I won't tell you about yet. Here's all the taxonomy that is common to all its members:

Kingdom: Astralia

Yes, that's it. The Podoboos belong to a completely different phylum from the other four members. With that, I'll explain the Podoboos before I explain any of the other ones.

Here's the rest of the Podoboo's taxonomy tree. Write it down!

Podoboo

Phylum: Spirita

Class: Feuria

Order: Pyrona

Family: Ignidae

Genus: Ignis

Species: ignis

The Podoboo's genus and species are both Ignis because their discoverer, Goomfrank, wasn't creative enough to make the genus and species different. Goomfrank also thought that leaving the genus and species the same made it easier for people like you to remember. As for why it is called "Ignis", it is because the Podoboos are eternally aflame. They are made of extremely flammable materials, so they don't last very long. But they can sure create more fires in the process! They also can't last long enough (and don't have enough of a language facility) for scientists to make any certainty that they are sentient.

With that, we'll move on with the rest of that taxonomy tree. Here's what the other three members share in common:

Phylum: Spectrala

No, really, that is all what they share in common. As the Boos and Shades are in a different class from the rest of them, I'll talk about them first.

Here's the rest of those two's taxonomy. Write it down, guys!

Boo

Class: Aera

Order: Deimia

Family: Phobidae

Genus: Invisio

Species: levitato

Shade

Class: Aera

Order: Achluia

Family: Skotaridae

Genus: Skotaros

Species: elementaria

The Boo's genus is called Invisio because they have the ability to become invisible. They do this by changing their constituency. Boos can diffuse and spread their molecules out so they seem to be made of air. However, they still maintain their structural integrity while in this state. With that, if anyone comes too close to a so-called "invisible" Boo, the affected Boo is forced to contract to a normal state. This diffusion ability is also why many Boos can fuse to become one, then still be able to split apart afterwards.

The Shade's genus is called Skotaros because the prefix skoto- means "darkness" in Greek. Shades have the ability to become one with darkness, thus travelling in the shadows. Through this method of locomotion, they can be much faster than they can without using this ability. Unfortunately, a strong flashlight can sometimes stop them in their tracks when they are travelling this way.

The Boo's species is called levitato because they float above they ground. Now, why do they do that? They do it because they are less dense than air. You should have learned from your elementary physics lessons that things that are less dense than fluids float on top of them, right? I hope you all have.

The Shade's species is elementaria because they can be aligned with various elements. Shades of fire, lightning, wind, darkness, and ice are common. Less common types of Shades contain the powers of the elements of water, earth, poison, and even light. The Shades of light are, thankfully, quite rare, as they often cause the detriment of their fellow Shades.

With that, we shall get to the last two members of the Spirit Kingdom. One of them is the Duplighost, and the other is (surprise, surprise) the Puni. Here are their taxonomy trees. Please write them down, or you'll do badly in the exam!

Duplighost

Class: Materiala

Order: Wispia

Family: Transformidae

Genus: Metamorpha

Species: horlorii

Puni

Class: Materiala

Order: Bestia

Family: Borealidae

Genus: Ovophile

Species: ranserii

The Duplighost's genus is Metamorpha because Duplighosts have the ability to shape-shift into anything that is roughly its size. After they take a good look, they can change their colouration and form into that of their victim. Of course, they can change back, and it is quite easy to convince them to do so. It takes strength of mind to assume such an unnatural form, and if you frighten a Duplighost (or create any other strong emotion within them), its emotions can override its mind and it may change back. When they have not transformed, they can jump amazingly high, and they can easily dive down upon an unsuspecting victim.

The Puni's genus is Ovophile because they especially like eggs. They can eat or keep the eggs. They tend to keep them if they are especially beautiful. Whole hoards of eggs have been found in some Punis' village-trees.

Another not-so-well-known fact about the Punis is that they can easily change their size. Although they can only maintain their size change for a few seconds, this ability makes them not to be underestimated. The older a Puni is, the bigger or smaller it can get, and the longer it can maintain that size change. The ease in which they can change their size has made many a taxonomist confused about their classification, so they have only been properly classified now.

The Duplighost's and Puni's species are horlorii and ranserii, respectively, because they were discovered by those two scientists. Horlor T. and Ranser T. co-discovered the two species, so the Duplighost has been named after Horlor and the Puni was named after Ranser. (It would have been too long to name both their species names horlorranserii, anyway.)

And with that, class ends. I hope you wrote all of those down, because you'll need those notes! Tomorrow, I shall talk about the members of the Craw family. Have a good day!