overview
Spawns are biologically constructed, insect-like creatures created and deployed by the alien hivemind Tsiktral. They act as the hive’s weapons, workers, diplomats, and eyes across the surface of Euphrosyne.
devotion
With the exception of extremely rare rogue spawns, all spawns are fanatically devoted to the hive.
biology
A spawn’s body is held together and protected by a robust carapace rather than an internal skeleton. This shell consists of three main layers:
- A thick, inner chitin layer.
- A dense iron layer (which flying spawns lack to save weight).
- A soft, thin, sand-colored outer skin.
gestation
Tsiktral grows spawns inside cocoons attached to its subterranean stems. Once fully gestated, they emerge and are free to roam the planet. When roaming, spawns are physically disconnected from the hive mind; instead, they operate by following pre-determined plans and information passed into them via connector organs before they left.
appearance
Depending on the thickness of their outer skin, spawns typically appear either sand-colored or metallic gray. The spawns don’t have names, but they have slightly unique spots of different shades of color on their carapace that separate them from each other like a fingerprint.
circulation
If injured, a spawn leaks orange blood. They do not have a heartbeat; instead, their heart functions as a continuous biomechanical pump that pushes and sucks their orange blood through their body in a constant stream. All spawns breathe oxygen via lungs.
regeneration
Spawns are capable of slow cellular regeneration, provided they consume a diet rich in iron and high in calories. Because of this, larger spawns are effectively biologically immortal if they are not killed in combat.
healing
Spawns do not meaningfully regenerate from major wounds in the field. Instead, severely injured spawns retreat to the hive, where they are placed into specialized healing cocoons. These cocoons are grown and maintained by Tsiktral directly on its subterranean roots.
advanced organs
On their front legs (or “hands”), spawns possess distinct blue connector organs lined with tiny tentacles. These organs are wired directly to their brains and allow them to absorb complex instructions and knowledge from the hive by pressing them against special connective tissues on Tsiktral’s stems. They can also use these organs to pass detailed, instinctual plans to one another. Furthermore, spawns heavily utilize their built-in biological fugue and magnetic sensory organs to handle complex navigation out in the open, although they may still get lost or confused if there are sudden, massive shifts in the fugue coverage or the local magnetic fields.
gender
Most spawns do not possess a gender, with the notable exception of the human-mimicking diplomat spawns.
sustenance
Spawns require food and water to survive. If they are near the hive, they can feed from specialized, bag-like tissues on Tsiktral’s stems. When deployed far away on long campaigns, they must hunt humans or animals, forage for plants, or even cannibalize the hive’s own infected hosts for calories.
communication
While many smaller spawns are unintelligent, the larger castes are highly intelligent and often capable of speaking perfect English (though sometimes with an odd, hissing, clicking accent).
language
Amongst themselves, spawns use a complex native language consisting of hisses and clicks. Some of these clicks exist at higher frequencies that are inaudible to humans. This language is impossible for humans or machines to decode or translate because it functions like a rapidly mutating biological cipher. The fundamental structure of the language shifts constantly; even if humans manage to understand it one day, it will be completely incomprehensible the next.
isolated spawns
For an isolated spawn to understand its broodmates again, it must physically link its neuron connector to a spawn that possesses the most recent iteration of the language, or to an active Tsiktral root, and absorb the current linguistic structure. When two spawns touch their connectors to synchronize, the biological transfer of this knowledge is nearly instantaneous. They usually maintain physical contact for up to ten seconds to process the rush of information or share additional memories, but even a millisecond touch is enough to pass on the foundational knowledge of the current language.
human interaction
Spawns refer to all humans and robots on the planet uniformly as “visitors.” Many humans derogatorily refer to spawns simply as “insects.”
anomaly
Despite the fact that Tsiktral itself is a powerful anomaly operator, no spawn is capable of operating the anomaly unless they achieve true independence (becoming rogue).
hierarchy
Spawns operate under a strict hierarchy. When a group of spawns roams away from the hive, they will automatically defer to the most intelligent spawn present as their commander (usually a diplomat, lion, vulture, or goliath). If a higher-ranking spawn joins the group, leadership instantly transfers to them. If the leader leaves or is killed, the next most intelligent spawn immediately assumes command.
types of spawns
Tsiktral produces a wide variety of specialized spawns, including:
- Diplomat: Highly intelligent, empathetic, human-like communicators.
- Lion: Fast, van-sized, four-legged warriors.
- Goliath: Towering, heavily armored siege behemoths.
- Mosquito: Tiny, unintelligent flying scouts used to spread the host disease.
- Fugue Spider: A single-purpose spawn used solely to infect targets with the fugue gift.
- Worker: Highly diverse, dog-to-truck-sized scavengers, diggers, and transporters (some with wings).
- Vulture: Massive, flying warrior variants of the lion spawn.
spawn riding
Because of the physical size and strength of some spawns, members of the Bijou clan (and sometimes others) have been known to ride larger spawns (such as vultures and lions) for transportation and combat, though this requires the explicit cooperation of the hive.
rogue spawns
While extremely rare, there have been documented cases of spawns going “rogue” and severing their fanatical devotion to the hive. This almost exclusively happens to diplomat spawns who have been isolated from the hive for extended periods, causing their programmed human empathy to violently clash with the hive’s cold directives.
prejudice
Rogue spawns generally have short lifespans, as they are actively hunted by both the hive and prejudiced humans. However, a select few have successfully hidden or integrated into human society for years.