Leliel
2010-04-09, 10:28 PM
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)
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)