[SKOR]
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Parasitic Creature
- Image Credit: LINK
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links:
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Name: Skor
- Designation: Non-Sentient
- Origins: Dagobah
- Average Lifespan:
- 6 - 10 Months (Outside of Host)
- 15 years (Inside Host)
- Estimated Population: Planetary
- Description:
- Skors possess a heavily segmented, armored body and a tall, layered carapace rising like stacked stone plates. Multiple jointed legs extend outward and downward, ending in sharp, clawed tips, while thinner appendages cluster near the front like probing feelers. The overall texture is rough and organic, giving the parasitic creature an unsettling presence.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
- Breathes: Type I
- Average Height of Adults: 2 millimeters
- Average Length of Adults: 3 millimeters
- Skin color: Yellowish - White
- Hair color: N/A
- Distinctions:
- These creatures are distinguished from other parasitic organisms by pronounced sexual dimorphism expressed through structure rather than coloration or size alone: females are defined by the massive, layered dorsal carapace that rises in stacked, shell-like plates, forming a protective, brood-bearing architecture that suggests a largely sessile or anchor-based lifecycle. Males, by contrast, are inferred to be leaner and more mobile, with reduced carapace layering and proportionally longer, sharper legs and feeding appendages adapted for movement, host-seeking, and rapid attachment. The female's broader body and reinforced segmentation imply nutrient storage and reproductive specialization, while the male's narrower profile and exaggerated grasping limbs point toward a transient, aggressive role focused on survival and long-term parasitism.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
Strengths:
- Parasitic Bite
- Once a parasitic creature infects a host, it begins a relentless internal migration, burrowing through tissue to reach vital organs such as the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. There, it feeds voraciously on blood and cellular material, often evading the host's immune responses with chilling efficiency. This hidden invasion allows the parasite to establish itself deeply within the body, making external detection nearly impossible until severe damage has occurred.
- If the infection is left untreated, the consequences are almost always fatal. The parasites' feeding disrupts critical organ function, leading to systemic collapse. The liver and spleen become substantially swollen, the bone marrow is depleted, and the host's body is drained of vital nutrients, leaving it increasingly weak and unable to sustain itself.
- The disease caused by these parasitic invasions is known as the Black Sickness. Early signs include fever, fatigue, and unexplained weight loss, accompanied by progressive anemia as red blood cells are destroyed. As the infection advances, the hallmark swelling of the liver and spleen signals the worsening condition, often culminating in death if intervention does not occur swiftly and decisively.
- Hatchery
- A single female of these parasitic creatures can lay several thousand eggs, ensuring the potential for massive population growth. However, not all eggs reach maturity, as many fall victim to predators, environmental hazards, or the voracious hunger of their own kind. This reproductive strength balances their high mortality, allowing the species to persist despite constant attrition.
- Speed
- These parasitic creatures move with a speed so extreme that their movements appear almost supernatural, blurring the line between motion and invisibility. Their rapid reflexes allow them to ambush hosts with terrifying precision before any escape is possible. This unnatural swiftness, combined with their small size, makes them nearly impossible to track or evade once they strike.
- Burrowing Strength & Speed
- These parasitic creatures possess a terrifying strength that complements their astonishing speed, allowing them to burrow through flesh, bone, and dense material with ease. Each individual can tunnel quickly and silently, creating sudden, deadly ambushes from below. The sheer power behind their burrowing is haunting, making even the smallest creature capable of wreaking devastating harm.
Weaknesses:
- Climate Temperament
- These parasitic creatures are highly sensitive to climate, their physiology collapsing outside of hot, wet, and heavily humid environments. Dry air and cooler temperatures rapidly weaken their bodies, slowing movement and disrupting their ability to feed or reproduce. As a result, they are effectively confined to swamps and bogs, where heat and moisture sustain their otherwise fragile existence.
- Short Life Span (No Host)
- These parasitic creatures suffer from an extremely short lifespan when not sustained by a host, surviving only six to ten months at most. Deprived of constant nutrients, their bodies rapidly degrade, tissues breaking down faster than they can repair themselves. This inherent fragility ensures that any individual failing to secure a host is inevitably reclaimed by time.
- Overly Territorial
- These parasitic creatures are excessively territorial, reacting to any movement or presence as a potential food source or host. Their aggression overrides restraint, causing them to swarm and attack indiscriminately rather than spacing themselves or cooperating. As a result, a single unfortunate host can become infected by hundreds of the creatures at once, each driven by the same blind hunger, and will attack one another inside a host.
- Hunger Driven
- These parasitic creatures are governed entirely by an inherited, insatiable hunger that overrides all other instincts or considerations. This relentless drive compels them to feed whenever possible, without strategy or foresight, often leading to chaotic behavior. When no other hosts are available, this same hunger turns inward, causing them to cannibalize one another to survive.
CULTURE
- Diet:
- Once embedded within a host, the parasite extends filament-thin proboscides that infiltrate the spleen, liver, and pancreas, siphoning processed nutrients directly from vascular and lymphatic tissue with slow, methodical precision. Specialized enzymes allow it to leach metabolites from bone marrow while selectively rupturing red blood cells, harvesting iron-rich contents without immediately killing the host. This controlled consumption keeps the host alive but progressively weakened, ensuring a sustained supply of nourishment over long periods.
- Communication:
- The parasitic creatures communicate almost exclusively through sharp, arrhythmic chitters and the abrasive rubbing of their front legs, producing vibrations that carry through carparace and flesh rather than air. These sounds are purely functional; signals of proximity, agitation, or feeding dominance, devoid of nuance or intent beyond immediate survival needs. Beyond this crude exchange of noise and friction, they possess no language, no social bonding, and no true communication at all.
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General behavior:
- Mating
- These creatures mate briefly and without ritual, the sole purpose being the production of eggs that hatch into larvae before maturing into their final, parasitic form. There is no bond between mates, no recognition of offspring, and no instinct beyond ensuring the continuation of the species. Once the eggs are laid, all traces of kinship vanish, leaving no family unit, no nurturing, and no concept of upbringing.
- Driven To Feast
- These creatures possess no understanding of life or death, existing only as hollow engines of hunger driven to feed upon their hosts. Survival, morality, and self-preservation are meaningless to them beyond the next moment of consumption. When deprived of a host, they turn inward without hesitation, cannibalizing one another until nothing remains.
- Builders
- Within the tangled Blackvines of Dagobah, these creatures construct tiny, fibrous nest balls, woven from vine pulp and hardened secretions. There they remain motionless for long periods, blending seamlessly with the growth as they wait in perfect stillness. Any potential host foolish enough to touch the vines without proper protection triggers an instant ambush, the nest bursting alive with parasitic hunger. It is rumored how the vines themselves are considered parasitic, but it's the microscopic creatures that inhabit the vines that make them dangerous.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The parasitic species was first discovered by a research team exploring the swamps of Dagobah, drawn by reports of unusual deaths among native wildlife. Initially, the creatures were mistaken for harmless arthropods, but careful observation revealed their extraordinary predatory behavior and rapid, almost supernatural movements. Within weeks, researchers realized these seemingly insignificant parasites posed a serious threat to any organism unfortunate enough to come into contact with them.
Extensive studies followed, as the team sought to understand the parasites' life cycle, reproductive habits, and methods of host infection. Laboratory simulations and controlled exposures revealed the creatures' uncanny speed, burrowing strength, and hunger-driven aggression, confirming them as highly dangerous. Researchers meticulously documented the progression of host infections, noting the hallmark symptoms of fever, anemia, organ swelling, and eventual collapse, and swiftly recognized that the creatures could decimate a host population if left unchecked.
After years of painstaking work, medical researchers finally developed effective countermeasures and treatments to mitigate the parasites' effects on hosts. The prolonged study period allowed them to understand the delicate balance required to contain infections and prevent the creatures' spread. In recognition of the horrifying internal devastation they wrought, the researchers officially dubbed the infection caused by these parasitic creatures the Black Sickness, a term that would enter medical literature as a warning of the species' deadly potential.
