Due to a new arrival in the family, our baby sitter has had her hands full so we didn't have a play session two weeks back to inspire the next chapter of Draconic Shenanigans. Therefore, as we are approaching spooky season, we will have another Creature Feature of the now-freak-out-and-panic type. The Locutians are hungry... (can you guess where they attach to Draconic Shenanigans.)
Creature Feature
Type: Humanoid Cephalopod Parasite
Location: In terms of territorial spread Locutians are highly secretive but it can be gleaned from appearance, physiology, life cycle and what of their history they have been willing to share that their settlements, known as Hives, are coastal in nature and at least some distance from those of other sentient beings, though never too far due to dietary need and inclination. They seem to be most common in the warm tropical seas and there is evidence for at least two Hives for certain in the waters around Jamhodan. As such the coastal areas of Jamodan are home to some very disturbing rumours, legends and folk tales. Dismissed by authorities as peasant superstition, the Locutians watch the shores with calculating eyes, using ignorance and arrogance as their weapons of choice.
Appearance: The Locutians are taller than average humanoid beings of an anorexic bent but there the resemblance to humans ends. Locutians have bony, scaly feet, marked by having three toes of which the middle toe is the longest and broadest, with the other toes flanking it. Each toe is equipped with a large horn like nail that is some where between a talon and a hoof. The toes are also webbed and can spread in water to aid swimming, giving a clue as to the Locutians amphibious life style. When on land Locutians often wear boots to disguise their nature.
Only their feet are scaled, above the ankles a Locutians flesh is rubbery and smooth in texture, unmistakable to anyone who has seen it before. They lack gender or reproductive organs as understood in other species, instead being a hermaphroditical race but the act of mating appears to have no emotional connection for them and neither does mating bring any pleasure to them. To Locutians mating is nothing but a moment needed to seed the next generation.
The anorexic appearance and destain for physical exertion that Locutians display is actually misleading as they possess a speed and strength at odds to their appearance. This is due to their physiology having been reduced down to pure twitch muscle during their metamorphose into their adult form. Their fingers are longer and more delicate in appearance than most humanoids. Again this is a deception as their fingers are immensely strong and end in long, moon curved nails. These nails taper to a very narrow point and are thicker and more horn like than human nails. Though useless for the slashing damage of true claws these nails are highly adapt at gouging damage. If a Locutian is forced into a corner and all other weapons have failed it will come out swinging at its attackers face and neck, aiming to either puncture an eyeball or at least collect a large amount of genetic material under its nails.
The most distinct changes in appearance and physiology occur in a Locutian's face and head. The skull of Locutian is elongated to resemble a cuttlefish. The most distinguishing feature of this skull is the fact that the sutures between the bones are not fixed. Indeed the skull structure of a Locutian is similar to that of a human infant, being comprised of mostly cartilage, although they lack the open anterior fonanelle (also known as the soft spot) of an infant. This is due to the fact a Locutian's brain continues to grow throughout their entire life span, requiring a skull that can continue to expand to contain it.
In older specimens that have absorbed more experiences the head develops protective plates of chitin on the skin starting above the brows; these plates also helping to balance the head over the neck by adding weight to the front as it continues to elongate out the back. A Locutian's brows are heavy and broad above eyes that are further apart than a humanoid's. Despite this Locutian's have excellent depth perception and periphery vision as the eyes muscles joining the eye to the skull are stronger and more numerous. Indeed, Locutians regularly seem to be rather bulgy eyed but this is so that the eyes can swivel forward for enhanced depth perception or side ways for greater field of vision. They also have a higher number of retinal cells as well as the tapetum layer to enhance low light vision. Their pupils are also horizontally slit, allowing greater vision field. Despite the rather goatish look this 'letter box' pupil produces the Locutians are most definitely carnivorous.
The mandible is fussed to the skull in an open position and lacks teeth in the jaws, with the Locutian mouth being akin to that of a hag fish. Where the jaw should hinge to the skull Locutians possess a set of siphons, one to each side, which exhale the air or water sucked in through the mouth. Internally Locutians possess two sets of lungs, one designed for air breathing, which collapse at depth to make way for the other set of lungs which are more adapted for fluid respiration.
Around the Locutian mouth is a set of face tendrils. These are fully mobile, being structurally similar to an elephant's trunk, although lacking in nostrils. Instead the underside is studded with suckers like the legs of a starfish. All save one of these tendrils can also flatten at the end to make a pad about the size of a human palm. At the centre of this 'palm' is a barbed thorn of chitin that is hollow and only loosely attached to its flesh. When a Locutian slaps with this 'palm' the thorn lodges in the flesh of the target and is left behind after contact breaks. At the base of the thorn is a membrane sack that contracts on contact with oxygen and forces a dose of neurotoxin into the target's blood stream causing instant paralysis. However, this is usually only used as an attack of last resort as the toxin is energy intensive to produce.
Lastly, it should be noted that Locutian skin contains pigment sacks that are under the control of a highly developed nervous system. The expansion and contraction of these sacks results in many different shades being exhibited on one individual. These shades do seem to have an emotional tie and can be used to judge the Locutians general emotional state, though there is the possibility that they could potentially lie with their skin pigment. Various shades of purple appear during a resting or contented state. Blue is a show of frustration and annoyance. Acid yellow reveals a deep disgust or apathy towards the focus of the Locuians attention. Throbbing red is tied to outright anger and aggression while pulsating green exposes deep fear and maybe even terror. Grey is rarely seen as a skin tone among the Locutians but is considered to denote a deep despair.
Diet and Hunting Techniques: The Locutian diet is unfortunately tied to their psionic ability and extremely short gut. For a Locutian to survive they must feed upon a source of highly concentrated lipids, proteins, enzymes and vitamins that is psychically active. In short they have to feed upon the living brain issue of intelligent beings that have sentient level thought patterns. This unfortunately rules out most animals, though some are suitable.
This diet immediately stokes a source of conflict with other sentient races and is one not easily over come for obvious reasons, though some Hives are experimenting with trying to create psychically active animals that have a large enough brain mass to be a suitable replacement.
When it comes to hunting Locutians use their psychic abilities to stun, confuse or disorientate their chosen prey so that they can close within striking distance with little to no risk to themselves. Once within striking distance the Locutian wraps two tendrils around the target's neck to control them while the rest engulf the head. The mouth rasps an injury through the scalp, enabling the face tendrils to burrow underneath the skin and secure a grip directly on the skull. The skull is then pulled apart at the sutures, like a starfish prying open the shell of a mussel, before the brain is extracted and devoured. Not only does the Locutian digest the physical matter of the brain but it also absorbs the thoughts, memories and knowledge of the brain, though this does not seem to lead them to understanding the emotional lives of those that they feed upon.
Lifecycle: Locutians, as mentioned before, lack reproductive organs as found in other animals. Instead the face tendril that is thornless acts as the producer of their seed and they engage in extremely brief hermaphroditical relations to pass their seed between individuals. Both individuals will then produce a batch of eggs that is deposited in a nursing pool under the direct care of the Grand Director of the Hive. These eggs then hatch into larvae that will feed upon each other and what food the Grand Director gives them. This results in only the strongest and most mentally dominant surviving to maturity. During this time the Grand Director will psychically mould the larvae's personality and loyalty o the Hive.
Upon maturity the larvae with be implanted into a suitable host via the left nostril. That ensures that the larvae have the shortest distance to reach the left frontal lobe and begin the metamorphise into adult form. By this stage the larvae's body is primarily brain mass, its other organs having atrophied to make way for neurological tissue. Upon implantation its outer layer disintegrates and is absorbed while the neurons unravel, where upon the larvae's bodily tissues act more akin to a fungus, spreading out, infiltrating the host's brain and replacing their neurons with its own.
At the same time it is releasing stem cells and chemical markers that totally override the host's DNA, remodelling the body into the Locutian adult form. During this time the host's body will neither eat nor drink and it can take as long as month, hence why the body is reduced, one could say consumed, down to pure twitch muscle. It is also why Locutians favour heavy, one could say over weight, hosts as the extra mass gives the best chance of the body surviving the process. Indeed, death by starvation during metamorphosis is a risk factor the Locutians have to consider when attempting to reproduce.
The adult Locutians, for the most part, will have access to the host's original memories but they will be a separate set of data from the Locutian's personalty, the host's personalty having been shredded and destroyed by the process of metamorphosis. In many cases the host's original memories are forgotten quickly.
History and Society: The Locutian's have a history stretching back millions of years for the simple reason that they were a created race, the source of the oddities in their appearance and life cycle. Their creators, from what we can glean from Locutian racial memory, were a truly ancient civilisation that was never the less riven by war. Indeed it appears that the Locutians were created to be infiltrators and saboteurs of enemy personnel as well as resource gatherer's of biological matter from the deep sea. This was done in as practical and brutal manner as possible - the Locutians were a food source for their creators. Indeed, it can be implied from what they have been willing to share that they were considered the 'poor man's delicacy' by their creators. Instead of being resistant to this fact of life, the Locutians whole heartedly embraced it. One cold say that they are the living embodiments of two scriptures, the first being "the clay has no right to say to the potter - why did you make me like this?" and the second being "you should honour your father and mother all the days of your life." Indeed the Locutians revere, one could say worshipped, the very memory of their creators and hold them in the highest esteem.
Therefore, it was a great racial trauma when their creator's civilisation died.
It is unclear whether it was an accident or deliberate act but it appears that a super weapon was developed that pulled an asteroid into an unstable orbit around the planet, ultimately resulting in it crashing down into a shallow coastal sea, resulting in massive tsunamis tearing across the globe, earthquakes and a debris field that blocked out the sun for several decades. The way that it has been described by the Grand Director who was willing to share the knowledge of their racial memories is "As if billions of voices cried out at once and then, one by one, fell silent."
For the Locutians who survived in the deep sea there was a time period of close extinction as population pockets turned on each other in the desperate need for resources. It was during this time that the position of Grand Director came into existence. Grand Directors are Locutians mentally strong enough to dominate a group of other Locutians around them, thus creating the Hives. When a Grand Director is dying, be that from old age, injury or on rare occasions disease, there will be a brief but intense mental war as the surviving members of the Hive battle for dominance. The conqueror will devour the previous Grand Director's brain gaining access to all of the dying Director's memories. Thus was established legacies of generations of Grand Directors. However, many further upheavals and disasters have resulted in the number of Grand Directors who can remember back to the birth of their race to being only a handful.
Eventually the Locutians were able to organise and rediscover the surface world, along with many of the ruins of their creator's civilisation. As they exploded they regained much of their creator's science and technology and this drove the resurgence of their own race. They finally mastered the process of creating new races, just as they themselves had been created. Finally the Locutians were able to control their own destiny as well as the destiny of others.
First were the orcs - strong of back, tough, resilient to damage but with minds easy to dominate, the perfect bulk lifters to harvest the raw stuff that empires are built on. After them came the dwarfs - smaller in stature but equally hardy, minds and fingers more nimble, able to take the raw stuff orcs harvested and form it into art and archeture, device and relic.
The humans were in many ways the Locutian's greatest achievement, rapidly breeding but with minds flexible enough to understand agriculture and basic metallurgy to support their artificially increased population, thus providing the Locutians with a stable food source. The elves were the last - highly intelligent, with superbly increased lifespans, the perfect hosts for the larvae.
Even after the first few decades, during which the Locutians had to husband their new stock carefully, they were still careful to glean what they needed with great restraint, selecting the specimens least likely to cause disturbance to the populations. Indeed, despite their physical needs, many Locutians display attachment to members of the stock they have under their direct care. When one considers the attachment displayed by a human farmer for his favourite prized bull or a favoured old hen in the yard that does not end up in the pot one has to ask if the sentiment is not much the same.
Thus the civilisation of the Locutians increased and flourished, with many Hives becoming so large that they were able to split and seed new ones, or some Hives banded together to found semi aquatic coastal cities. These cities were eventually connected by great thought resonating chambers, founding the great city of Locutus, a city of many locations.
Beautiful and mathematical, it was the central hub of a civilisation that had no less than two thousand years of peace.
To the Locutians' horror they were to face a second extinction event.
It is still a source of pain to the Locutians that their creator's true and natural descendants have lost not only their hands but also their minds. They are clever enough to learn to mimic sentient speech but with no understanding of what they say. Therefore, it was logical to the Locutians to expand their creation program to attempt the recreation of their own creators.
When the project was deemed a success some Locutians believed that they had improved upon the original design. Vast in maturity, naturally armoured, winged and able to harness elemental magic instinctively, the dragons took to the skies the same way the Locutians ruled the waters. For the Locutians it was their golden age - they drove to the depths of the sea to build vast underwater palaces and soared to the heights on the backs of the creators reborn. To have a again their creators, minds equal to their own, true companionship... none of the younger races may believe it but Locutians are capable of love and they loved, wholly and completely their creators reborn.
And it was the dragons who fomented and led the rebellion against the Locutians.
In a single day and night of misfortune the city of Locutus fell beneath the waves, never to rise again.
A Special Note: Lastly one must mention the Locutian Apostates. These are individuals who suffered a malformation during the metamorphosis into adult form. They are rare, only about one in a hundred metamorphoses will be damaged in this way.
Instead of the Locutian personality completely dominating and erasing the hosts original personality, pieces of the original personality remains. This can be as little as the subconscious humming of a snatch of music, a habit easy enough to suppress and repress, or it can be as devastating as a near complete mental survival.
Those able to repress the original host's personality are able to remain within the Hive but are often the ones sent out on the most dangerous assignments as they are not wholly trusted by their fellow Locutians and are therefore seen as expendable. For those where the majority of the personality survives then there is only one fate - exile from the Hive.
Often able to disguise themselves to begin with due to survival mode, eventually the Hive will track the source of mental disturbance it sense and the Apostate will be discovered. What follows is harsh in the extreme.
The Apostate's barb-less face tendril will be clipped off at half length with a none too sharp pair of sheers and then capped with a golden cup screwed into the end of the tendril to prevent it from regenerating. They will then be driven from the Hive, cast out into a world that will welcome them no where.
Many run mad. The Locutian personality, moulded from the moment of its hatching to know that to be without a Hive is the worst thing that can happen to a Locutian, struggles to adjust to being disfellowed from its collective of birth. The Host personality, torn from home and family, having run on survival mode, possibly for years, struggles to adjust to the changes in instincts, urges and the fact that to look in the mirror is to see horror looking back at them. Those that go mad will kill and feed without thought of consequence or method and are usually hunted down eventually by the prey settlements and destroyed.
This has lead to a negative feed back loop. Because to Locutians are so secretive the only regular contact the younger races have with them are the insane Locutian Apostates. Because the only contact with the Locutians is via the Apostates gone mad, the young races hate and distrust the Locutians, often swearing vendettas and vengeance on them, forcing them to be more secretive. Because of this secrecy the only contact with the younger races is through the mad Apostates and so the cycle repeats.
There are reports of at least one Locutian Apostate that has managed to maintain their sanity after exile but at the moment the Grey Clerks have been unable to ascertain the truth of the existence of Louis Mahroe. Investigations are on going.
No comments:
Post a Comment