Muphinz
Tineyed Truthwatcher
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a powerful sith virus to give my character Miasmær some unique force abilities
- Image Credit: [X]
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Scientific Name: Laogai Virus
- Abbreviation: LV-1
- Common Name: New Plague
- Virus Family: Gulag
- Origins: A long abandoned and somehow intact tomb in the ruins of Exegol
- Other Locations: A localized outbreak on Loovria has begun to grow, the new epicenter for the disease
- Description: The Laogai Virus is cruely and clearly the offspring of the Gulag Plague, tinkered with by force alchemy to be turned into a truely apocalyptic bioweapon.
- Morphology: The New Plague resembles a sphere with hundreds of grasping fingers sprouting from it. These fingers can sometimes interlace to form complex designs.
- Size: 70 nanometers on average.
- Color: Typically orange in coloration
- Distinctions: The Laogai Virus is unique in that it is somewhat intelligent due to force embuement and can alter its shape and structure to allow for a multitude of infection vectors, adaptation to different species, and ways to fight against various defensive tactics against a host's immune system. Furthermore, every host infected by the Laogai Virus is connected by the force through The Void. This allows force sensitive individuals infected by the plague to feel through the senses of other infected and even give them telepathic orders over great distances while also giving the infected a shared group mind though not a true hivemind.
- Source: The Laogai virus is clearly synthetic having taken the Gulag Plague and tinkered with it using Sith Alchemy.
- Host Species: The Laogai Virus can infect any carbon-based life form and thus can infect most life in the galaxy.
- Host Range: Broad
- Viability: The base variant of the Laogai Virus is meant for typical temperate environments but it is capable of rapidly adapting over a few generations to resist any environment a human could naturally survive in. Freezing ice worlds or molten fire worlds give the virus much difficulty and it typically can only exist in climate controled regions.
- Lethality: Moderate
- Severity: High
- Infectivity: Extreme.
- Modes of Transmission: The Laogai Virus' main mode of being transmitted is through bodily liquids: blood, spit, etc. It is capable of surving and spreading through water and more impressively through the air. The virus is capable of coming together to form pustules on infected organic matter that when burst spread air-born spores manufactured in the host's body into the air. These spores are highly infectous and can feed off dead organic matter. Corpses covered in spores are slowly consumed and turned into factories to produce more airborn spores. Heavily infected areas are often covered in a thick flesh-like slime of spores on any stable surface.
- Incubation Period: The Virus was designed to take multiple days to incubate but is capable of feeding on The Force by a force sensitive concentrating the force into the Virus. Doing this speeds up incubation rapidly as the Virus uses this energy to rapidly replicate. Should the Virus be left to its own devices however it will typically lay dormant for weeks while silently infecting thousands of individuals before beginning to gestate in all of them simultaneously. This event, uncreatively called an Outbreak, is the main reason the virus is so deadly as it effectively 'plans' and 'ambushes' whole societies.
- Re-Infection: The Laogai Virus can infect an individual again, though typically the infection takes much longer and is much less severe unless fed by a Force Sensitive deliberately.
- Vaccine/Cure: No known vaccines have been discovered. Extremely intensive treatments used to cure Gulag Plague have been found to be effective to cure the Laogai Virus over an extended period of time typically lasting a week or more. Though if the Laogai Virus is in its second or third stage it may attempt to kill the host requiring further medical care to maintain body function as the Virus attempts to shut vital organs down upon sensing an attempt to cure it.
SYMPTOMS & EFFECTS
- Stage 1: Dormancy
- Coughing
- Frequent nightmares if force sensitive, often of the future outbreak.
- Host becomes somewhat agitated.
- The Virus begins to form tiny organs known simply as Laogai Organs in fatty tissue across the body.
- Stage 2: Outbreak
- Laogai Organs begin pumping the host with natural steroids, growth hormones, and stem cells while burning fat reserves
- Host suffers from a near un-quenchable hunger to supply Laogai organs with energy
- Muscle mass grows dramatically
- Bone-like growths grow on top of or directly underneath skin in protective plates
- Host becomes incredibly violent actively attacking and searching for the uninfected
- Force-Sensitives who resist the Outbreak phase are prevented from sleeping, flooded with hallucinagenics to bring about vivid waking nightmares which often assure the individual that should they embrace the Dark Side they'll be spared.
- Force-Sensitives who embrace the Outbreak phase become 'commanders' and are able to give mental directives to the infected and rapidly speed up infection in the freshly infected. The infected will bring freshly infected to the force sensitive to grow their numbers.
- Infected are pumped with pleasure endorphins whenever they follow the orders of a 'commander'. Most weak minds break to this but the strong willed are able to resist the effects.
- Stage 3: Stagnation
- Once the Host has not encountered a non-infected individual in several days the Virus will kill them (roughly 70% of the time) and consume the host's body to produce airborn infection spores.
- Non-killed individuals serve as guardians and protectors for the deceased spore-manufacturers and continue seeking out the un-infected.
- The Virus attempts to kill anyone who has resisted its effects for several days
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Strengths:
- It Will Infect: The Laogai Virus is capable of incredibly simple 'if this then that' thinking. This allows it to direct the swarms of infected, many of whom are still fully capable of individual although altered thought, towards infecting others.
- Purpose Fueled Weapon: Sith or other dark sided force users can force their will onto the virus and those infected by it, directing the hordes telepathically towards accomplishing certain goals. Furthermore infected force-sensitives are capable of rapidly developing the virus in their enemies to give them potentially dangerous debilitations.
- Force Weakness: The Laogai Virus is dependent on the force to function. Should it be cut off from the force or infect an organism which is force-dead the virus will lose most of its 'programming' and just begin to rapidly grow and attempt to kill the host similar to base-line Gulag Plague. While still somewhat dangerous in this state its remarkably easier to cure and naturally fight off.
- Know What To Look For: Should you know the Laogai Virus may be active in your community the Laogai Organs are fairly easy to find with conventional technology. Should the virus be caught early in the Dormancy stage it is much easier to cure or delay.
- Gulag Resistance: While the Laogai Virus was at one point a much more horrific weapon, most sapients in the galaxy have developed a somewhat baseline resistance to the Gulag Plague which has hampered the Laogai Virus' capabilities. Those who have recently fought off an infection of the Gulag Plague are able to resist the Laogai Virus much more easily.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The exact history of the Laogai Virus is unknown, but the texts of the tomb it originates from tells that during the initial outbreak of the Gulage Plague the sith who is entombed in the grave attempted to harness the Gulag Plague as a weapon. The Laogai Virus was meant to be a far more devastating version of the Dark Plague, though quickly grew in scope. Ultimately the creator of the virus would be killed by their competitors who saw the Laogai Virus as too dangerous to be allowed to exist as they were being ravaged by the Gulag Plague.
In recent history it has found a new host: a Sith Apprentice named Miasmær who was lured into the tomb of the Virus' creator by the creator's force ghost. It is through this apprentice the Virus will be spread and be used as the weapon it was once designed to be.
