The popular perception of archeology has always been one of discovering of ancient treasures or hidden temples or the bones of some exotic beast. The more dull truth of the matter is that history is often written in the dirt.
If it weren’t for the dirt, you would never know that human beings once lived in this now-desolate place. But my soil samples show deposits of phenocrysts--crystalline impurities that indicate that thousands of years ago, the people who lived here grew crops. (Methane deposits indicate animal husbandry as well.)
The only thing that grows here now are the mushroooms--the infamous Mordantia. Vast plains of them as far as the eye can see, eerie and translucent-white. No Usanian structures remain here; all evidence shows that this region was more of a “bread basket” for the empire than a real population center, and for the most part, the Usanians were not known for building things to last. But the mushrooms themselves tell a story.
Most scholars agree that there was no one cause for the fall of the Usanian civilization. Environmental changes, a series of destructive wars, societal inequities--all of these things played a part. But my research has led me to the (somewhat controversial) conclusion that the tipping point of their demise was the evolution of the Mordantia fungus. My analysis of Mordantia’s DNA reveals it to be a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus (this rapid mutation was most likely brought about by Usania’s unusually high levels of atmospheric radiation).
When the spores of the Mordantia mushrooms encounter a human host, the mycelium invades and eventually replaces the host’s brain tissue, causing extensive neurological damage. Various written accounts describe infected Usanians as “crazed”, “suicidal”, “terrifying”, and “cannibalistic.” While it's impossible to be certain about this, my educated guess is that the last remaining Usanians were wiped out by Mordantia--either because they were infected or because they were murdered by their infected neighbors.
Needless to say, I have not removed my isolation suit once since arriving here. The risk of Mordantia spore contamination is the reason why I cannot bring any Usanian artifacts back to the University. And why I was the only one out of a class of one hundred archeology doctoral candidates who had any interest in doing field work in Usania. (Well, one of two doctoral candidates. I was originally supposed to conduct this study with a partner, but he had to he decided to cancel our his plans at the last moment.)
But there are some advantages to being a solo explorer. As the first person to set foot here in two millenia, I have the distinct honor of naming this place. I am calling it the Mushroom Kingdom.