WHAT IS THE PISTILVERSE?

The Pistilverse is another alternate universe trope that has taken inspiration from the Omegaverse (it also takes some inspiration from the Hanahaki disease), but instead of Cakes and Forks (from the Cakeverse), Doms and Subs (from the Dom/subverse) or Pistols and Pellets (from the Pistolverse), we've got Pistils and Stamens.

The Pistilverse was created by South Korean creator on Naver by user called "Lee" as early as around August 2014. At the start the Pistilverse was mainly found in the BTS fandom, but it has slowly started branching out into more fandoms over the years, and the concept as a whole has been further developed and expanded upon by fans of the Pistilverse with new headcanons and lore.

In the Pistilverse, humans are born as "Calyxes" (flowering buds) and they live their lives as such until their "menarche" (first menstrual cycle) or first "nocturnal emission" (first wet dream). Most who go through a menarche or noctural emission become a "Pistil" and they're identified by a mark similar to a tattoo that appears on their back. The mark will look like a barren tree branch or vine growing along the spine, from the tailbone up to the shoulder blade.

The colour of a Pistil's mark will vary from Calyx to Calyx, but they'll mainly be auburn or chestnut or some other shade of brown or green. The Pistils mark will take about fifteen days or more to fully grow and this process is called "awakening". An awakening can be painful and there is the rare chance that some Calyxes may even die before their marks are even fully completed.

About 30% of Calyxes that go through their first menarche or nocturnal emission can go through an "abnormal awakening" and instead of becoming a Pistil, they become a "Stamen". Unlike a Pistil, a Stamen's mark will be a specific type of flower, instead of the tree branch or vine that a Pistil gets. When a Pistil and Stamen sleep together the same flower mark that's on the Stamen can bloom on the Pistil's tree branch or vine like a permanent tattoo.

When there's no more room for flowers to bloom on the Pistil's back, they can go through a "second awakening" which can take about five or so days, during which more branches or vines can appear on the Pistil's body. The number of flowers that can bloom on a Pistil is propotional to the amount of Stamens they sleep with. It is said that if too many flowers blooms on a Pistil, the flowers can wither and the Pistil can die.

Along with the regular Stamens, there also two types of Stamens that while rare, can also be found. There's the "Venom Stamen" who carry the mark of a poisonous flower. When a Venom Stamen sleeps with a Pistil they can "communicate" venom to a Pistil and form a type of bond that binds a Pistil to the Venom Stamen. This bond prevents Pisils from sleeping with other Stamens.

If a bonded Pistil does sleep with another Stamen the Pistil and the Stamen they slept with can die from the toxins of the Venom Stamen. There are also "Anti-Stamens" and they carry the mark of a scentless flower. They can cure the toxins of a Venom Stamen and in some cases, an Anti-Stamen can even turn a Venom Stamen into a regular Stamen.

Not all adult Calyxes go through an awakening and can stay a Calyx forever. There's also the rare moments where a Calyx can awaken as a "Pistil-Stamen". However, the manifestation of a Pistil-Stamen is incredibly rare, and not a lot of information can be found on them, but it's said that Pistil-Stamens can concieve from other Stamens, when usually only a Pistil can bear a Stamen's seed.

As the Pistilverse has grown, more additions have been made to the lore that hadn't been included in Lee's original post. Anti-Stamens are one of the first additions that had been added to the Pistilverse lore about a month or two after the verse was shared by Lee back in 2014. A Stamen's flower mark being permanent and there being no natural way for a Pistil to remove them is another addition to the lore.

More additions to the lore includes, but isn't limited to; Stamens smelling like the flower marks they possess and Pistils being odorless and having to use special sprays so that they can't be detected by Stamens. Pistils not recieving flower marks if they sleep with other Pistils or if the Pistil "tops" the Stamen. There's also a theory that some Calyxes don't awaken because they're afraid of receiving flower marks or bonding with Venom Stamens.

More theories suggest that bonding is a Venom Stamen's choice, and that sometimes their poisonous marks can disguise themselves as ordinary marks, so Venom Stamens may not know that they aren't regular Stamens until they sleep with a Pistil. Another suggests that when a Venom Stamens dies, the bond with their Pistil is broken and the toxin disappears, but the engraved flower stays marked on their skin almost like a scar.

LapisLazuli13 on Ao3's take on the Pistilverse includes a Calyx being born with the mark of their (Stamen) parent, usually on their chest close to their heart. As they grow up the marks fade and will usually disappear completely after their first awakening. They also include the theory of buds that appear whenever a Pistil feels some kind of romantic attraction towards a Stamen.

The buds can grow smaller or bigger depending on the Pistil's feelings and the buds can wither away if the Pistil's feelings are unrequited, because they don't get to the blooming stage. These withered buds don't disappear and can leave scar-like marks.

You can read more on the Pistilverse on Fanlore.org and LapisLazuli13's interpretation on Ao3.

If you have any questions and such related to the Pistilverse feel free to comment them below