[Exalted]: New Antagonist: Taenia, The Living Nightmares (PEACH)

[Leliel]

Well, if you like indie RPGs, you may have heard of a game called Dreamweavers, in which you, of course, are explorers of the world within dreams.

The main antagonist, alien termites called the Taenia, are simply put, awesome. Besides seeming like an actual animal in behavior and body, the themes of "fighting fear itself" and "tyranny of despair" are pretty good themes for any game, Exalted included. This, combined with the fact that they're more of a template then a true race (they transform themselves based on their victims' own general fears and insecurities) makes them a good catch-all antagonist that you can use again and again without the players getting too bored). Plus, there's the sheer "WTF" factor of the things people fear (an example adventure had a music aficionado who had his Taenia manifest as gangsta rappers, due to his dislike of the soulless nature of much hip hop being bought up by record companies).

This, combined with the whole "dreams of the Wyld" stchick makes them excellent opponents that are other than the Fair Folk or mutants in Exalted chronicles that revolve around dreams and emotion.

So, here's the writeup:

Taenia, The Devourers of Dreams

Other Names: Nightmare Spiders, Weavers of Despair, Shadow Ants, The Sorrow and Anger Folk, The Many-Bodied Demon, Tyrants of Order (Fair Folk only)

Many people assume that the Wyld is a place of eternal chaos, a place where no concept or law can exist for long before being devoured by the constant change. To them, the Fair Folk are an aberration, a disorder in disorder that only continues to exist because they want to. These people are badly mistaken.

True, the Wyld is a place of Chaos, but Chaos has a strange tendency to unintentionally forge Order from itself. This is entirely coincidental on it's part-a series of events happen just so, in just the right sequence, that a self-replicating and self-preserving system emerges. Most of these are Unshaped, and the ones that aren't tend to be toyed around with by the former before being annihilated for the crime of being defined. Very rarely, however, one that is neither Raksha or toy forms, a being that either coexists with or escapes notice of the Chaos Lords. The shinma are a good example-indeed, without them, the Unshaped wouldn't even exist-as are the Primordials, presumably.

However, once, if not before or after, something that was none of the above formed, but not only that, something that was such a creature of pure Order that most Unshaped would have destroyed it out of hand, let alone allowed it to exist. This thing was special, however-it was a parasite, a being that so easily hid within the Unshaped that it was never found until it was far too late. It was mindless, initially, but as it fed on it's hosts, it gained more and more of their minds, until it became aware of itself, and the fact that it was different from the Fae that surrounded it. With that knowledge, it became lonely. Why am I the only one that is constant?, it thought. Why am I alone? Pretty soon, it decided that didn't matter-it had long since learned to assimilate the Essence around it into its own lawful, predictable patterns, and it had long since known it's own structure. As it was, why couldn't it burn that Order and Law into the world around it?

It tried creating bodies like it had seen the Unshaped do in their infinite games of shaping. However, these strange beings were fundamentally a part of it, even less self-aware then the automatons and illusions created by the Chaos Lords, as it, being a being of Law, could not create minds that existed semi-independently of itself. Then, a thought struck it-if it could not create minds that were of it, why not create minds similar to it, but different from it. So it created a body that served as a "mother" for it's other bodies, and began to expand it's collection until it could split itself into two, with another mother containing another mind. But soon, it's gossamer and it's Essence began to wear thin, and soon, the thing realized that it needed more than just the offal of the Unshaped it lived in.

Then, an idea struck it. It had long observed that the emotions of it's hosts, when felt strongly, agitated the Essence that made it up, causing a reverse spiral of precious motes. It also had observed that negative emotions-fear, anger, despair-were often stronger then positive ones, to the point where it jumped to the losers of shaping battles to reap precious resentment. As it had demonstrated, it could shape bits of the Chaos Lord that surrounded it into bodies-why not shape the emotions it craved? So it repurposed it's bodies, transforming them into a self-replicating army of despair, silently shaping the endless dreams of the Unshaped into nightmares, rigging the shaping battles in favor of the opposition, and creating depression within it's hosts. Before long, enough energy for another mother body was created, and unlike it's other bodies who simply and mindlessly went to their tasks, this one looked up and asked "Who are you?".

Soon, the thing was a race of things, all seeking precious ennui and panic to reproduce with their many bodies, to the point where when the Unshaped finally realized what was going on, the thing's hundred children had a hundred children, and each one of the things had a thousand bodies. They didn't mind by this point, however-here, finally, was some genuine conflict, something they could learn about themselves from. They didn't like it either, but they dealt with it. So the things kept on breeding and shaping, now to spread their Law within the Wyld, to create an island of Order within Pure Chaos. Soon, they learned that they could create a different kind of thing-one that had only one body, but was much more defined then the other things, making it more powerful. Unlike them, these kind of things-which would later be called broodkings-could shape semi-independent bodies from the Wyld, although they still had complete control over them and their process was also parasitic, mating with the "female" bodies of the Unshaped to sire their children, or simply changing the bodies themselves.

It was one of these broodkings that found a name for the things, although where he got it is unknown and potentially unknowable-Taenia.

So the Taenia bred and shaped dreams, now because the initial aim of the first Taenia had become instinct, their instructions encoded into their very bodies. So they did for an unknowable period of time, until one broodking, carrying the egg of one queen, accidentally found his way into Creation.

It was an accident, frankly-the waypoint he had been waiting at for a nice, juicy Unshaped to infest was assimilated into Creation by the Shapers of the Solar Deliberative, sending him and his egg into something they had never experienced before-reality.

A Fair Folk, in his situation, would have probably been slack-jawed with horror. The broodking was indeed speechless, but from wonder-the bizzare, ever-shifting reality he had gotten used to had suddenly become blessedly calm, static, Orderly. Even more wondrous, where he had once been patterns of Essence among thousands, he now saw things he thought only existed in the dreams of the Unshaped-animals, trees, clouds, elements, all of them constant and unchanging. And in the center of it all was a strange being which looked like one of the strange "shaped Raksha", but strangely unadorned with traces of the elements and animal features that they had. Moved to tears by this blessed Law, he came forth to thank the Solar...where due to his strange and frightful form, was mistaken for a Fae and was subsequently introduced to the concept of "static daiklave" by example.

In the ensuing struggle that followed, however, he accidentally pressed the queen's egg to the forehead of the Shaper, where it was not crushed, but absorbed into his skull. Later, just after the first wounds any Taenia had suffered healed after his flight into the Wyld, he felt the presence of an unfamiliar Taenia mind in the stabilized waypoint. Curious despite his bad experience with humans, he went into the new area of Creation...and found the the signals emanating from none other than the Solar, who looked now haunted and drained. Careful not to disturb his enemy, he silently willed himself to look into the strands of Essence that made up his being...and found the pattern of a Taenia hive-organism, nesting in the cradle of his mind. Even more curious now, he willed himself to dissolve into motes and enter the strange construct.

If Creation was a Taenia paradise, the mind of a Creation-born was a utopia. Not only did it have the internal logic and rules that made up the outside world, but it possessed the same emotions and thus, Essence that an Unshaped did-even more so, because as he and his race would later discover, a human can feel sad and bitter over a long period of time without the Taenia's interference. Ecstatic at these new discoveries, he journeyed back to his siblings and explained what he had seen in the new world-and his method of getting there.

Many of the Taenia were reluctant to leave the Wyld. Why should they leave the Chaos Realm, they wondered, when it had provided them with blessed fears for so long? Many more were skeptical. It was not unheard of for the Fair Folk to imitate a broodking and lure a few gullible Taenia into a trap, knowing their difficulty with perceiving the Wyld as anything other than base Essence. A few-just a few-decided to indulge him. They would later be quite willing to back up his story.

So began the great exodus of the Taenia. A few remained behind in the Wyld, content with the dreams of Unshaped and the Essence acquired thereof, and besides, the Taenia which entered Creation would need reinforcements occasionally. The ones that did enter soon discovered that material reality came with it's own hardships as well-hive minds could not jump between mortal hosts like they could the Unshaped, and the broodkings found that for the most part, they existed in a state called "dematerialized", rendering them mostly unable to interact with the world as much as they'd like. However, there was a workaround-when an orienomancer, usually a Raksha, was kicked out of a host's mind by the Taenia, the broodkings found they could "latch on" to the rapidly returning Essence of the mind, allowing them to gain enough metaphysical momentum to astrally project their own minds into material existence, with their bodies quickly following. Once there, they found they could shape Creation as much as they could the Wyld, creating new and monstrous forms of life to serve in their mission to spread their race. True, there were some hiccups here and there-one famous story in the collective memory is of a broodking who tried to enter a famous hero's mind, thinking he had to be hiding a delicious trauma in there somewhere. He came to five miles away, at which point he wisely decided to warn the race to stay away from the mind of Desus. But all in all, it was a good life.

The Usurpation came completely out of nowhere for them. To be frank, the Taenia should have probably seen it coming. They had long ago entered into the brooding mind of Chejop Kejack, and while they had long known of his and his faction's plans, they thought it was fantasy. Unfortunately for them, they being caught unawares, they could not adapt to the new fears of "anarchy" and "failure in duty" quickly enough, and they ended up being forced to retreat to the refuge of the dreams of the Neverborn, to brood and plot until they saw a new opening to reestablish their hold on the dark side of the collective subconscious. That window came with the Great Contagion.

While the Taenia were not pleased with the Balorian Crusade-in fact, it is occasionally believed that it was one of the broodkings that suggested the method of controlling the Imperial Manse to the soon-to-be Scarlet Empress-the Age of Sorrows that followed was magnificent. As the name suggests, they found much to feast on, from the first wave of survivors of the Contagion to the oppressed under the tyrannical rule of the Realm over the Threshold. Their numbers spread like never before, even infesting entire cities in a matter of weeks, with nations not long following. Sure, there was the occasional thaumaturge here and there who specialized in dreams, but they were the minority in the face of sheer numbers. Which is, of course, why they hate the return of the Solars.

Yes, there was anger under the Deliberative. Yes, the First Age had it's share of misery. But it was nothing like the Age of Sorrows, and the Taenia know the risk of these Solars learning from the mistakes of their forebears, and creating a new Golden Age-which means less misery, and less hosts.

But there will always be misery and fear in Creation, and wherever there is either, the Taenia live on.

(onto biology and stuff later-until then, please grade the flow of the backstory and what you think of the idea)

[Leliel]

Biology and Society of a Dream:

For all their complexity and tenacity, the Taenia have little motive beyond the physiological needs that Creation's animals, both sapient and not, have: Survive. Feed. Reproduce. Indeed, one could argue that is their purpose-as primal expressions of shimnac Order, their core desire is to take the "Chaos" of dreams and assimilate it into their lifecycle. That would be all well and good, except they don't stop-they came into existence as part of the amoral nature of the Wyld, the concept of "moderation" is alien to them. Objectively speaking, they aren't evil-they aren't even cruel, viewing sadism as a waste of resources that are better spent milking more emotion for fuel. Then again, from a subjective viewpoint, an infestation of Taenia fits almost every definition of "malevolent", seeing as how their growth depends on the slow twisting of their host's psyche into one of utter self-loathing-or worse, one that takes it's own misery out on others.

The Taenia, as a whole, are actually two distinct races in one-the original hives, and the broodkings. Both depend on the other for survival-the broodkings literally could not exist without the mutant genes that exist within the hives, and the hives depend on the broodkings to nurture weak points in the human psyche that they can break through, as well as protection from threats from outside the host's mind. It's an imprecise arrangement-the broodkings possess their own goals beyond the admittedly strong instincts of the Taenia, and there's no guarantee that one will be close enough to the hive to guard it when the time comes, but all systems have flaws, the eusocial structure of emotion-eating Wyld-insects not the least.

The hives are the closest thing to the "original" Taenia there is-a single, alien mind with multiple bodies (many people have assumed that the hives are a single part of a greater whole-thus the name "Many-Voiced Demon"-but this is wrong, if understandable. The Taenia hives possess much less variation in personality then mortals, but each is it's own identity). They possess even less in common with mortals then the Fair Folk, or even the broodkings-despite actually feeling the same emotions humans do, rather than emulating them (an adaptation that allows them to better guess at the feelings of their hosts), they see the world in a completely different way. Where a human or broodking sees Creation as a physical realm, the nature of the hives means that they see the world outside of dreams-up to and including their host-as lattices and matrices of Essence, far more complex and stable then anything in the Wyld, admittedly, but Essence nonetheless. While they now know enough to identify said patterns as individual entities, this understanding is academic. Ironically, the human mind makes far more sense to them than the human.

Within the hive, there is a further division of castes among the individual dream-bodies. Larvae are, of course, larvae. Bizarre beings that haven't even gained the ability to shapeshift on their own yet, a Taenia larva resembles a strange conglomeration of tentacled snake and four-mouthed beetle grub. The overall effect is more pitiable than frightening. On it's own, a larva is worthless, lacking even the combat abilities of the adult drone...but what they lack in strength, they make up for in subterfuge.

The tentacles and mouths of a larva aren't just for show-by latching on to one of the "creatures" of a dream, they can make it fall under the influence of the hive. These "Cocoons" possess the closest thing to free will the Taenia hive-bodies ever get, with it's mission and purpose given by the hive but able to think individually, thus allowing them to think of ways to block the dream seed (more on that later in this section) that does not violate the internal logic of the dream and thus risk the host becoming lucid. Thankfully, this comes with a weakness-a cocoon often enjoys the illusion of free will, and instinctively knows that it's larva-body will die or undergo metamorphosis into a drone at the end of the dream, and thus, a clever orineomancer can trick a gullible cocoon into thinking that the dream can be prolonged without risk to the hive. Unlike the larva themselves, cocoons actually do show signs of the "theme" that the particular hive has adopted-a man with a fear of darkness might have his cocoons have unusually pale skin and/or always seeming to be standing in shadow, while another with a crippling fear of heights might have his manifest with stilts or unusual tallness.

A drone is the adult form of the Taenia hive-body, and what most people think of when they say "Taenia". Unlike larva, most drones actually can shapeshift, but unlike the Assumption Charms of a Raksha, this is an "overlay" or "shell" around a true form. And what true form it is-an undisguised drone resembles a cross between a spider, a beetle, a crab, and a mosquito, all composed of living shadow. Eight legs support a disc body that easily glides across the "ground" or the dream's equivalent thereof, and two other limbs ending in pincers extend from the sides. A proboscis constantly wiggles around in search of essence, placed where the nose would be on a human. Two white eyes stare coldly at whatever the drone happens to be looking at, and a pair of insectoid wings jut out from under a shell. When the hive wishes to speak through a drone, it is the wings which it uses-buzzing and whirs are impossibly manipulated into quite erudite words, if a bit atonal and strange (they are alien after all).

While a drone does not possess an individual identity, calling it "stupid" would be a bit of a stretch. True, a drone doesn't always reach the same intelligence as a queen, but all drones are possessed of a sort of high cunning-the dumbest drone has the tactical grasp of a well-trained soldier, and all drones have the ability to communicate telepathically with each other, leading to extremely well-organized movements and advanced strategies. This, combined with the fact that all drones possess at least one high Mental attribute-Intelligence included-means that orineomancers thinking a drone is an easy kill are in for a surprise.

Drones serve as a combination worker and warrior caste for the hive, working behind the scenes to ensure that a hive gains as much Essence as possible. Preferably this would be from the dreamer giving up on a seed, but such blatant interference is a cocoon's job. Instead, they bring their skills to dream shaping, delving into the subconscious to find hidden fears that the hive can use in it's farming for emotions and gossamer for the creation of new hives. They also serve to protect the queen from any mental or otherwise defenses against the infestation, turning to their shapeshifted forms for new ways to route possible opposition. These forms are based directly on the particular fears of the individual, so every hive is mostly unique-always useful when you are essentially a sentient disease. The forms the drones use are direct manifestations of the hive's theme-the dark-based hive might have it's drones manifest as creeping dark mists from which inside stare glowing yellow eyes, and the air-aspected one may have cloud creatures and birds of prey among it's ranks, all of which inflict vertigo with their attacks.

The queen, unsurprisingly, is the core of the hive. It is from her egg that the hive was born in the first place, and it is her that ensures it's continued survival. It would be understandably to say she is the mind of the hive, but the two exist separately-the closest analogy would be "ego" to the hive's "subconscious". Since she is usually curled up in an inaccessible corner of the subconscious, quietly laying her eggs while the host is awake, the true form of a queen is a bit obscure, but Solar scholars of the First Age have discovered that she looks a bit like a cross between a queen bee, a praying mantis, and again, a spider, all made up of the same shadow as the drones. She resembles her children, with the same white eyes, legs, and pincer-limbs...but there they diverge a bit. A queen definitely has a more insectoid air about her, with an obvious exoskeleton and mandibles rather than a proboscis. She also possesses an abdomen, mainly used for an egg sac. The eggs themselves resemble translucent spheres with shifting mottled colors spinning inside them, with fertilized (those bearing new queens) ones a deep black, that nonetheless manages to give off a white glow.

The queen of any particular hive has an intelligence that is actually highly variable, from a super-genius that would put many Twlights to shame to an animal cunning and hunter's instinct that orineomancers underestimate at their own peril. Whatever the case is, they are always natural leaders and strategists, possessing an intuitive knowledge of the dreamscape that allows them to plan for almost all possible variables. They also serve as ambassadors for the hive, having a more humanlike perspective that allows the hive to relate to mortals on a personal level. One should never confuse them with mortals, however-they are simply hubs of an incredibly alien and eldritch intellect that is at once more primitive and more advanced then any human's.

The queen serves as both the source and general of the drones, directly their intellect to pry as much fear and sorrow out of their host as possible. They direct the drones to their tasks of prying doubts and fears out of the subconscious and indirect methods of interfering with the dream seed. They also gather gossamer in the nests they create as a base of operations, using it to fertilize the more healthy eggs and further the development of the hive. As it is, they also serve as the last line of defense against threats, seeing as they are invariably accomplished at Charms and dream sorcery. Like their drones, they too can overlay a form relating to the aspect their hive has modeled itself after and their nests do much the same. The queen of the dark hive may manifest as an eternally unseen creature in a gigantic complex of caverns that contain winds that blow out any torch, and the vertigo Taenia might have a queen that appears as a larger version of her drones, nesting at the top of an impossibly narrow and tall fortress with glass floors and lots of holes.

(more later-studying for GED now)

[Leliel]

Lifecycle of the Hive: Dream Seeds And The Impediment Thereof

A Taenia hive has a number of ways to implant a queen's egg in a potential host, but all but two involve the Wyld, so in almost all cases in Creation, the following system applies.

First, a suitable host must be found. This can be any sapient organism which dreams (with the exception of the Fair Folk, who's static parts of their Essence are too simple for the Taenia to live in), and has had a trauma or possesses an opinion conducive to depression (such as losing your job in the first case, or paranoia in the second). Then, depending on how close the prospective victim was found by a developed hive (Essence 3) or a broodking carrying a fertile egg, either the Taenia perform a direct jump of the egg to the host's subconscious or trick him into accepting it, respectively.

In the first case, a developed hive will frequently keep a group of the burgeoning excess drones as "sentries", both as an early warning system and as scouts. When they spot a host-which is easy thanks to their ability to literally "see" weakness as an Essence pattern-the queen can use the Speed of Thought Prana (a Taenia-only Charm that allows them to teleport in a limited and somewhat imprecise over long distances manner-will post later) to transport a fertile egg directly into the host. This has the drawback of not having a broodking's potent Essence to increase odds that the hive will take, but it is rather quicker and an egg doesn't ask one for recompense. The other method involves the natural ability of broodkings to carry around eggs in a semi-physical form, usually in a specialized Elsewhere pouch. Once one has found a host, he manipulates events indirectly-or creates them himself, if he has gained a material existence-for the victim to symbolically "let in" the Taenia. This can be something as distanced as inviting a friend over for dinner or as blatant as the broodking goading the victim until he tells the patriarch to "come on and fight already". In any case, the broodking then quickly presses and or throws the egg at the victim, at which point it manipulates the base Essence of Creation so that it hits and is absorbed into the victim's forehead (since the whole process takes less than a second, the victim only feels a sensation like a bead of sweat touching his brow and vanishing almost instantly).

Either way, the egg remains dormant until the host next sleeps. The rush of unfamiliar Essence from the host beginning to sleep triggers the egg to undergo a rapid gestation, so that by the time REM sleep occurs, the nymph queen inside is ready to hatch (if the host is awakened before then, the egg reenters dormancy).

(sorry for the cliffhanger, Mom's needing me with the horses).