[Species] Parasitian (varying races within)

[3kul]

((I'm splitting this up like my RP profile. Hopefully this makes things much easier to read. This is probably going to be a continuous work in progress... woe is me ))

SPECIES: Parasitian

Type: Form Shifters

Place of Origin: Parasitian Homeworld, which is situated in a very distant part of the multiverse

Natural Abilities: Limited Form Shifting, Physical Structure Copy

Diseases Prone to: Given the highly adaptive nature of the Parasitian body, they are not susceptible to a great many diseases. However, they are vulnerable to any kind of mental disease (ie: going insane), fast-working poisons and some virii. Parasitians are quite social creatures, but if they spend prolonged amounts of time away from their own kind (whether by themselves or with others), they have a tendancy to develop behavioural and mental problems, ranging from mild to severe.

Technological Status: Primitive.

Unique Attribute: Tongue w. Secondary Jaws, used to copy genetic material from prey.

Diet: Strictly carnivorous - Parasitians will rarely, if ever eat fruits, vegetables, or seeds, since they see it as pointless.

Description: Due to their form shifting nature, it is hard to make a general description of Parasitians. During their gestation period, all Parasitian young form two eyes, a mouth and their characteristic tongue.

One aspect of this remains true for their entire lives, and that is the tongue - whilst the shape of the jaws on the tongue vary from clan to clan, all Parasitians possess a tongue for their entire lives.

Races: Each race, or 'clan' as the Parasitians call them, tends to operate in a different manner, and some tend to get along better than others. Many Parasitians see their clan as an extention of themselves, and generally work together to improve their clan in the eyes of others - a popular saying is that 'a strong clan is full of strong Parasitians'.

Each race and details about them are listed as follows:
• Leech Clan (Paraseech)
• Lotus Clan (Parasotus)
• Snake Clan (Parasake)
• Hydra Clan (Parasydra)
• Jackal Clan (Paraskal)
• Piranha Clan (Parasanha)

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Universal Elements of Parasitian Culture:

Childbirth: A Parasitian baby is formed when two Parasitians make an egg. The egg is formed by a process that roughly translates to 'bloating', where both parents eat excessive amounts of food over a certain period of time.

The reproductive organs in adult Parasitians then convert the various nutrients in the food into a kind of gelataneous substance, the outside of which hardens once exposed to the atmosphere. The gelataneous substance is regurgitated by both parents and made into the basic shape of the egg, at which time the parents will inject some of their own genetic material into the egg.

The Parasitian baby develops quickly during it's time within the egg, and becomes fully aware of the world outside of the egg within a matter of months. Much of the learning process that the child will need to undergo, such as basic linguistic skills, is taught during this stage.

The most important aspect of this extensive and seemingly uneccesarily long gestation period is nurturing the child. Once the child is able to eat, various members of the clan will bring it prey to eat. During this time, clan members can be highly selective, choosing prey that has practical abilities for a young child. How many choose to partake in this process can vary - it can just be the parents, or it can be the entire clan.

Once the child has eaten the right kinds of prey, it is able to break it's way out of the egg that it has spent the last year or so in, and start life as a Parasitian.

Extra Notes: It should be noted that the concept of 'orphan' does not exist in Parasitian society, because if a child was orphaned it would quickly die. Also, twins are an exceptionally rare genetic anomaly, and are considered by many to be terrible luck. There have been less than a dozen known cases of twins being born into Parasitian society, and most of these are remedied quickly by forcing one twin to eat the other. There has never been a case of triplets being born, however, there has been one case of a birth involving quadruplets recorded ever, and it ultimately resulted in the extinction of an entire clan.


Religion: Parasitians are very superstitious beings, and believe in many things. Notions such as good and bad omens, good and bad luck, as well as future reading are quite popular, and widely believed to be true.

The main part of Parasitian religion however, is Animal Spirits. This multitude of spirits that make themselves known to the Parasitians will often bestow power upon those who will serve them. After a child is born, those who contributed to the egg will often congregate to decide which spirit will be assigned to the child.

It is not uncommon for the contributors to forgo this process, as there are quite a few Parasitians who prefer to believe in one's own abilities rather than the abilities given by spirits, and that having to constantly make sacrifices to appease your spirit is an unessecary burden.

Thus Parasitian beliefs can be divided into two halves - 'disciples' of spirits, or 'specialists' of their own abilities.

Attitudes: Parasitians are taught to follow three basic rules; Watch, Learn, Eat. In watching they learn, and in learning they understand how to eat, and whether or not they stand a chance of eating the prey.

More often than not, a Parasitian will consider strategy when eating, even as children, rather than just devouring everything in sight. How will this creature prove beneficiary to me? Is there any of my current abilities it may hinder? Thoughts like these and more run through the minds of a Parasitian hunting, as the ability to copy your prey's physical structures can be a double-edged sword if you don't think about it right.

Parasitians are extremely adept at learning, languages and various art forms seem to come naturally to them, although they rarely seem to use these kinds of skills in Parasitian society. The Parasitian language is spoken throughout the races, the only language barrier being a bit of an accent between them.

In regards to laws, most of what Parasitians feel is right and wrong seems to be instinctual - eating other Parasitians is absolutely forbidden, except for specific situations, such as the birth of twins. One twin eating the other is the only known way to force them to merge, and so Parasitians will turn a blind eye to this. Strangely enough, killing other Parasitians is not seen as nearly so bad as eating other Parasitians, provided that there is a reason.

[3kul]

Race: Leech Clan (Paraseech)

General Information: After being torn apart by the unexpected birth of twins, the Leech Clan no longer have territory to call their own, and spend most of their time wandering the Parasitian Homeworld.

They are the only known nomadic clan, Parasitians usually prefer to have specific territory for their clan, and so the Leech clan suffers status-wise because of this.

Population estimated to be less than 100.

Governing: The actions of this clan are dictated by the Prime Disciple and the Prime Specialist, the two strongest clan members of each field. These positions are able to be gained by challenging the leader in a simple duel, and the one who is deemed stronger by the rest of the clan gains control. All other members of this clan alternate between specific jobs to avoid boredom, although there are those who prefer to stick with one job.

Relationships: The Leech Clan is a very old one, but after the collapse of the clan, they lost the support of many allies. Fortunately for them, the Snake Clan still considers itself as an ally.

The Leech Clan and the Jackal Clan have a bitter rivalry, and the Jackal Clan stealing the Leech Clan's territory in a moment's weakness has only made things worse. They also strongly disapprove of the formation of the Lotus Clan, and insist that they are still a part of the Leech Clan.

Physical Differences: The tongue of the Leech Clan splits four ways and is lined along the inside with small hooked teeth.

[3kul]

Race: Lotus Clan (Parasotus)

General Information: Formed by the remains of the Leech Clan who sought a new way of life after the devestation wrought by the birth of twins, this group is almost the same size as the Paraseeches, except they managed to cling onto a small piece of the Leech's former territory - one of the few swamplands on the Parasitian homeworld.

They maintain a reasonably high status amongst the other clans due to the possession of several rare animal species that they monopolize in this environment, many of which have very useful and rare abilities.

Population estimated to be less than 100.

Governing: The actions of the this clan are decided by the clan as a whole - those who wish to do something may merely suggest it, and if more people support the idea than turn it down, then it is done. This is a relatively unusual method of running a clan, although they seem to make it work, possibly due to their small numbers.

Relationships: The Lotus Clan is fairly new, but they are already on the way to establishing strong relationships with the Piranha Clan due to their presence in a water-based territory, and are friendly towards the Snake Clan.

They seemed to have reached an agreement with the Jackal Clan when they'd moved in to take over the Leech Clan's territory, although their relationship would be considered neutral.

The Leech Clan, however, already weakened enough without half of their members leaving them, strongly disapproved of the Lotus Clan's formation, and refuse to acknowledge them as an individual Clan.

Physical Differences: The tongues of the Lotus Clan are almost identical to those of the Leech Clan (for obvious reasons), although the members of the Lotus Clan tend to alter the pigments of their tongues to be much more colourful and varied, symbolizing a bright future.

[3kul]

Race: Snake Clan (Parasake)

General Information: The Snake Clan is renowned for their knowledge in many fields, such as medicine, fighting techniques and ability development, and is mostly made up of Specialists who travel to other clans in order to learn.

However, they are not a nomadic clan, and have a relatively large territory that covers a few different varieties of terrain that serves as a sort of 'base of operations' for the travelling Specialists to return to.

Population estimated to be around 750.

Governing: The actions of this clan are decided by a council of twelve, although it is actually a council of twenty four. During the year, the members of the council rotate and travel to various other clans to improve the knowledge of the Snake Clan, and once they return, they use this new knowledge to better govern their clan.

Religion: 'Disciplism' is largely discouraged in the Snake Clan, as they are strong believers in their own strength and abilities, although it is not openly discriminated against. As they place a high value on knowledge, tolerance of others is also highly valued.

Relationships: Despite the fact that the Snake Clan is kept in a good relationship with the Jackal Clan, they are also allies of the Leech Clan. To add to this balancing act, they also consider themselves allies of the Lotus Clan.

The Hydra Clan does not approve of the way the Snake Clan mostly disregards the spirits, but the Snake Clan is more neutral towards the Hydra Clan than anything.

Physical Differences: The tongue of the Snake Clan is not unlike a snake head, with two long protruding fangs allowing the user to latch onto a foe and pierce even the toughest skin.

[3kul]

Race: Hydra Clan (Parasydra)

General Information: A very secretive bunch, the Hydra Clan is rather small, yet controls a territory as large as the Snake Clan. However, unlike the Snake Clan, the Hydra Clan is almost entirely made up of Disciples, and are rumoured to have amazing skills with spirit imbuement on the body, items and weapons.

Population estimated to be around 400.

Governing: The actions of this clan are decided by the Hydrasect, who is the Parasitian who weilds the most spirit powers. It is not a position that one can attempt to gain easily, and the current Hydralisk is a direct descendant of the first Hydrasect. It is unknown exactly which spirits choose to lend this clan their strength, but it is widely rumoured that they worship foreign, unknown spirits.

Religion: The Hydra Clan is totally comprised of Disciples, and as such they do not train Specialists.

Relationships: Whilst the Hydra Clan is kept in a good relationship with the Jackal Clan, they are also one of the only clans to get along well with the Piranha Clan.

The Hydra Clan does not approve of the way the Snake Clan mostly disregards the spirits, and prefers not to associate with them.

Physical Differences: The tongue of the Hydra Clan is made up of nine smaller tongues stemming from the one. Each tongue has a small jaw, and although this makes eating most prey a quick and easy process, consuming larger prey is quite difficult this way.

[3kul]

Race: Jackal Clan (Paraskal)

General Information: Since the degeneration of the Leech Clan, the Jackal Clan moved in on it's territory and increased their borders. One of the larger clans, the Jackal Clan prides themselves on their fighting skills and wide range of abilities.

Population estimated to be around 800.

Governing: The Jackal Clan are fairly free-roaming - their territory is the largest out of all of the clans, so they are governed by three groups that seem to co-operate fairly well.

The main governing branch is called the 'Head', whilst the ones to the East and West are referred to as the 'Left' and 'Right' hands. Each branch is made of 9 representatives, although the 'Left' and 'Right' hand divisions have 2 representatives from the Snake and Hydra clan each.

The imagery of their clan stretching outwards like that is quite pleasing to the Jackal clan, although not to many others.

Relationships: The Jackal Clan makes sure to maintain excellent relationships with both the Snake Clan and the Hydra Clan, and could be seen as a mixture of the two.

The Jackal Clan and the Leech Clan have a bitter rivalry, hence why the Jackal Clan was so quick to move in on the crippled Leech Clan's territory.

Physical Differences: The tongue of the Jackal Clan is simply a large set of jaws on the end of the tongue. The Jackal Clan alone has the ability to tear away parts of their prey with this tongue, and has a tendancy to hunt in small groups of about three or four.

[3kul]

Race: Piranha Clan (Parasanha)

General Information: The Piranha Clan only inhabit the water-filled territories of the Parasitian homeworld, thus having a rather large monopoly over the marine life of their planet and their abilities.

The Piranha Clan is comprised of both Specialists and Disciples, however they mostly specialize in water-related abilities, and are mostly aligned to water-based spirits.

Population estimated to be around 700.

Governing: The Piranha Clan runs by a kind of monarchy, similar to the Hydra Clan, although the position can not be contended. The leader is called 'The Unchanging Tide', and it's said that their leader is directly descended from the first member of the Piranha Clan who took to the seas. Given the way Parasitian family trees work, it's not really possible to prove this, but it's still a strong and popular title.

Relationships: The Piranha Clan generally keep to themselves, however, they do have a reasonably good relationship with the Hydra Clan, and are working towards forming one with the Lotus Clan.

Physical Differences: The tongue of the Piranha Clan has many tiny jaws set along it. Utilizing these, members of the Piranha Clan can eat their prey whilst they've got them tied up, or use it to help latch on to tricky prey. Members of the Piranha Clan have a tendancy to hunt in small groups of about half a dozen or so when bringing down bigger prey.