B E A C O N
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[SIZE=10.5pt]OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Intent[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: To create a new parasitic/symbiotic species in the vein of an existing canon species.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Image Credit[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]Parasite by Colin Shulver[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] (Exposed image); [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]War Lords by Furio Tedeschi[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] (Host image)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Canon[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: N/A?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Links[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Abersyn symbiote[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Queen of Ktath'atn's Hive[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Brain worm[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Conduit Worm[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]GENERAL INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Name[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Extant[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Designation[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Sentient (Developed, large, colonies); Semi-Sentient (Undeveloped, small, colonies)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Homeworld[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Kasim[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Language[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Dependent on host[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Average Lifespan[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: 200 Galactic Standard Years if consistently able to find suitable hosts; Lifespan of host + 1 additional year if unable to find further hosts; 2 Galactic Standard months without host[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Estimated Population[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Scattered[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Description[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant are a parasitic species which operate in a collective consciousness, growing more intelligent as their "joined" increase. The Extant are similar to the Abersyn symbiote, attaching themselves to the brain stem of their host and gradually replacing the consciousness of the host with their own. Unlike the Abersyn symbiote, however, and like the conduit worms found on worlds such as Coruscant, the Extant attach feelers to the nerves of the host body that gradually converts these nerves into extensions of the parasite, feelers which are capable of also assimilating electrical components such as wires and other such things with the host's body to horrifying and disfiguring effect, and rather than consuming the very thing which provides the parasite with a host, the Extant instead supply themselves with vital nutrients from the host's body - enough to feed itself and remain healthy, but not kill its host as devouring its brain stem inevitably would.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]PHYSICAL INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Breathes[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Type II & III (Without host); Type I (With suitable host)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Average height of adults[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: 0.01m (Mother); 0.005m (Drone)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Average length of adults[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: 0.04m (Mother); 0.032m (Drone)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Skin color[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Translucent (Parasite); Paled (Host)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Hair color[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: N/A (Parasite); Grayed (Host)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Distinctions[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant are small, smooth-skinned, parasites that have ten appendages that act like legs or swimmers and are covered in a number of spiky protrusions along their lower sections, leading up to a tapered tail end. They are equipped with a double-hinged jaw, its lower jaw made up of two mandibles that have several teeth that emerge horizontally while both sides of its upper jaw have two fang-like teeth. These teeth are used to chew through soft flesh and muscle tissue, as well as latch onto the brain stem of its desired host. Each spike-like protrusion along its body house feelers which attach to nerves along its host's brain stem, capable of forming complex networks within its host's body as it assimilates with the host's nervous system and body at large. Like many invertebrates and similar life forms, the Extant are simultaneous hermaphrodites and can both self-fertilize or reproduce normally between two specimen.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Hosts of Extants are distinct from others of their species by graying hairs during the "joining" process, paling or even graying skin upon joining, and black or darkened sclera. Some occasional distinctions may arise if the host specimen is equipped with cybernetic prosthesis or even wearing electronic equipment, as the gradual replacement of the host's nervous system with the tendril-like feelers of the Extant may absorb and assimilate the wiring and electrical equipment into the host's flesh, creating strange monstrosities, not unlike how conduit worms absorb electrical equipment and turn them into organs of sorts.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Extants lay eggs along the spinal column of the host's body which, upon hatching, leech nutrients from the host's body for a period of six to ten days before maturing enough to survive in the outside world, burrowing out through the flesh of its host. These eggs can be kept in nutrient baths, in theory, or any nutrient-rich solution, as a method of storage.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Races[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Drone: Drones are typically smaller in size than the hive mother but perform many similar functions to the hive mother. Drones are capable of self fertilization for reproductive purposes, and each of their offspring are members of the same collective hive mind. Drones are, naturally, incapable of independent thought and share a group consciousness with the rest of the hive, lacking the independence that is reserved for hive mothers. Each drone shares certain genetic markers that separates drones from the drones of other hives, but otherwise appear the same as their counterparts from other colonies of Extant. As drones share a collective consciousness with the rest of the hive, once a drone has obtained information or knowledge, such as the presence of a new target host group (such as humans appearing in their natural habitat), the entire hive becomes aware of this information.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Hive Mother: A hive mother is the central figure in a hive, its leader and the only Extant capable of independent thought from its hive. The hive mother is typically the only Extant which performs reproduction through methods outside of self-fertilization, something which still occurs rarely as these off-spring will be either the next hive mother of the existing hive or a hive mother for a new colony to emerge. The intelligence of the Hive mother is typically attributed directly to the size of the hive, which directly then influences the intelligence and awareness of the hive itself. The hive mother begins, as with her colony, as an extremely primitive creature that slowly gains awareness and increased intelligence as its hive grows, depending heavily on the intelligence of its hosts to this end. It would take hundreds of humanoid hosts with relatively similar forms of intelligence as humans to reach a similar level of intellect, for example.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Strengths[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant have evolved to assimilate with the mind and nervous systems of vertebrates, taking complete control over most hosts (this is open ended for RP purposes, in case a writer wishes to have a scenario where they are infested with one of these) and leech nutrients from their host at a steady pace while simultaneously obtaining the protection of a host body, potentially ridding it of predators depending on the host.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Due to the nature of a hive mind, or collective consciousness, each Hive steadily gains a collective intelligence as the hive grows in number - thought this is directly influenced by what species have been assimilated into the hive, as a more advanced species offers a greater potential than something like a bantha.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The ability to control and infect hosts allows a stealthy invasion of ecosystems, as its host may potentially blend in with the rest of its kind for a period of time.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Extants enjoy an elongated life span if they are capable of finding suitable hosts on a consistent basis, typically surviving for upwards of two centuries.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Weaknesses[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant are completely incapable of surviving for very long without a host, capable of surviving up to 2 months without a host by consuming nutrients from external sources before dying.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant are also entirely vulnerable to nature and the environment at large when without a host, as they are completely defenseless without a host to provide protection and are essentially one of the lowest species on the food chain without one.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]As implied earlier, each Extant colony starts out as a completely primitive collective consciousness with only a vague instinct to survive through spreading as much as possible, as hosts provide an advantage against predators and also provide their main source of nutrients. It takes an impressively large hive to obtain sentient status, living otherwise as semi-sentient colonies with only a single-minded need to expand and survive.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]An issue which arises from the hive mother being the only member of a hive with independent thought, and the only member of the hive capable of spawning a successor, is that if the hive mother were to be killed without a new hive mother being born, the hive itself would dive into chaos and destroy itself, devolving first into swarm intelligence and then into madness as they lose all accumulated intelligence and lack the necessary "head" to dictate thought and direct the hive. A hive without a hive mother will, inevitably, die within the month after losing its hive mother.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]CULTURE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Diet[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Food: Nutrients from hosts or nutrient baths and nutrient-rich solutions.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Poisons: Bacta, Kolto, etc[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Communication[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Pheromones (without a host), host's medium of communication (if hive has grown large enough for a collective intelligence great enough to comprehend this)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Technology[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]level[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: Dependent on hive status, devoid of technology at smallest stages, standard technology at largest stages.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Religion/Beliefs[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]: N/A (Dependent on hive)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=10.5pt]General behavior[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Extant behave, generally, according to their roles designated by the hive as a whole, usually as a role of functionality by the hive itself, other times designated by the hive mother on a personal basis. As a species that are made up of colonies, each of which are in essence group minds, a given specimen might act as a worker drone, scavenging for food or potential hosts - food for the hosts that the hive already possesses and hosts for members of the colony that do not possess one - or safeguarding the hive mother. These roles become more complex as the hive grows, as does the general culture and functions of the hive as a whole, due to the heightened intelligence and broadened knowledge that a colony obtains through growing in number.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The Extant are likely to interact with other species either by blending in with a host, or by attempting to add others to their number - typically done by a joined host through force. Typically sufficiently grown colonies will make the effort to explore further beyond their territories, usually in an effort to find more hosts to add to their number, but also for food and resources to sustain their current hosts. Extant are cathemeral, their activity adjusting depending on their environment, available food sources for their hosts, and other factors. As a strictly hermaphroditic species that, outside of the hive mother, reproduces almost exclusively through self-fertilization, these parasites do not seek out mates. Hive mothers might find a mate, but it is typically out of convenience and with very little regard for any preferred features.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The actual "personality" or culture of a developed hive will usually be broadly influenced by either its hosts or its surroundings, varying greatly from one colony to the next in the same way an individual might vary in behavior in humans from one to the next. Most colonies are potentially worlds apart, so it isn't unusual for one group to be radically different from another, as they typically do not communicate between hives unless situated in a close proximity to each other.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]HISTORICAL INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The evolution of the Extant species begins some several hundred million years ago, originating as a simple parasite on the jungle world of Kasim that embedded themselves deep in the skin of the unwitting wildlife that grew alongside them, typically sapping much of the nutrition from its prey's diet. As nature took its course, and the wildlife adapted to the nuisance that were the ancestral species that later became the modern-day Extant, the population of this ancient species dwindled until forced selective breeding, in that specimen without necessary traits and mutations to survive were eliminated, took a strong hold on their evolutionary progress. The Extant were forced to rely on mutation and requisite inherited traits to survive, and they were forced to find more and more vulnerable places on their host's bodies all the while in order to avoid detection from natural predators and to create enough risk for the removal of the parasite as possible for the host to dissuade immediate action from those with enough sapience to comprehend their threat.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]This culminated, over countless generations of radical shifts, changes, and mutations in the Extant species, with the traits seen in the modern era - a parasite that burrows into the host's brain, typically the brain stem, and usually in vertebrates, and acts with a collective group intelligence and conscious, an adaption not dissimilar to the killiks far to the galactic north. In nature, and essentially only in their native world of Kasim, the Extant species lived mostly kept in check by their rather unintelligent, most non-sentient and occasional semi-sentient, neighboring species. It is precisely the lack of intelligence of the collective fauna on Kasim that had prevented the, rather decidedly, non-sentient-by-nature species from truly seizing a dominating position on the natural hierarchy of the jungle planet. While this isn't to downplay their large numbers on the world, they were still subject to predators as they lack the natural intelligence to utilize their ability to control their hosts in any meaningful way without first assimilating more intelligent hosts with their hives.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]By eight hundred and forty-eight years after the battle of Yavin, in the modern era to be precise, however, the world of Kasim has seen the arrival of nomadic species that have finally arrived at their proverbial doorstep, exposing a very delicate ecosystem to species with a far greater intellect, a species that none of those present on the world have adapted to - more specifically, a species intelligent enough for the Extant to have their chance to rise as a dominant species, as humans and Chiss are on other worlds. While only a small expeditionary group, numbering in the hundreds, managed to make landfall on the planet before their ranks were infected with these strange, alien, parasites, their attempts to reach back to a larger exploration group waiting in a nomadic fleet created the perfect storm for a sentient Extant hive.[/SIZE]
While much of these expeditionary groups belonging to this nomadic species were able to escape without facing the same fate as their brothers and sisters, those that fell prey to the parasites of the world of Kasim changed the Extant hives forever. Hive after Hive grew in both number and collective intellect, achieving sentience - now at least a dozen of these hives, though relatively small when compared to, say, the countless humans that dot the stars, threaten to expand outwards from their secluded world and into the galaxy at large, kept at bay only because of their remote location in the edge of wild space in the outer rim and a general lack of the means to migrate.
Some years later, the largest hive, during their first attempt at an outbound flight using a salvaged ship left behind by the nomads that made up the majority of their hosts, the Extant came across the Bryn'adûl. The threat an Extant pandemic poses aside, the infancy of a sentient Extant hive forced this advancing hive to cooperate with the Bryn'adûl in a collaborative effort to align their views - with the Bryn'adûl offering them a sort of manufactured host, and the hive cooperating with them to quarantine the system to reduce the threat retribution and to stifle other hives that would theoretically become rivals to those in contact with the Bryn'adûl.
