Is there a way to characterise this thing?

[SangoProduction]

So, ever since the days of AQ (Adventure Quest), I had strangely found the idea of "Swarms taking the form of people" (specifically swarms of worms, I guess) to be an interesting concept. Recently I read a Ring City "interactive fiction" featuring The Fool who was also this strange swarm of worms taking the form a...well, "person"... Demon lord and all that. Life goal being to torture and "break" succubi. Not particularly interesting as far as character goes.

Regardless, is there like...a mythological basis for sentient swarms? I ask because I was reading the Death sphere's beta version (apparently it moved out of playtesting), and saw an archetype for the Symbiat which was basically being a host of a bunch of parasites that confer the Symbiat's powers. This obviously made me think of the above example from Ring City. Especially the power to discorperate in to a swarm. So I'm probably going to fluff it as the character wearing the 'skin' of the race, and the real character be further than skin deep.

So... I am trying to decide what such a creature would want to adventure for. What even be a worm's reason for trying to pass for human?

[OgresAreCute]

There's an epic level template for just such an occassion: The Worm That Walks (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/wormThatWalks.htm)

Obviously not super helpful for a player character, but D&D also has the "walking maggot goop" archetype, right there in the SRD.

[SangoProduction]

There's an epic level template for just such an occassion: The Worm That Walks (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/wormThatWalks.htm)

Obviously not super helpful for a player character, but D&D also has the "walking maggot goop" archetype, right there in the SRD.

By "characterise", I meant on the fluff side of things. I have the mechanics already available.
But thanks for that. Now if I can ever parse where the origins of The Worm Who Walks, from the TV Trops site, I'll be golden.

[Celestia]

Well, classically, vampires have had many various powers throughout myth, including the ability to transform into swarms of rats, bats, and/or bugs. That's sort of the same thing. As for beings that are just made of swarms naturally, the only example I can think of off the top of my head is Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which isn't exactly myth or legend. I wouldn't be surprised if there were beings like that in stories, however, but I think you're more likely to find examples of folks turning into swarms than actually being swarms.

[QuadraticGish]

It's a stretch since I'm postive Awaken doesn't target vermin, but what a queen bee that had an awaken cast on it? With new found intellegence, she can more effectively command hive to do her bidding- why not inhabit the body of a larger race and use that to survive and explore sentience as a whole?

[Boggartbae]

Maybe you're running from the law, so you buddy up with a band of adventurers for protection and to stay on the move. You could sneak out at night to feed or whatever, and then reconvene in the morning to move on to the next quest.

[Particle_Man]

Vampires in some media (including the web comic GRRL Power) turn into a swarm of bats, not just one bat. So presumably that might be an old mythological holdover but I don't know how old.

[Rijan_Sai]

First: Obligatory Buffy the Vampire Slayer (http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Norman_Pfister) reference...

It doesn't seem like there's a lot of mythological origin for this thing, but given the prevalence in various forms of media (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWormthatWalks)*, I'm guessing it has more to do with humanity's general aversion to bugs/insects/other little nasties than to any specific ancient belief.


*WARNING: TV TROPES LINK! Enter at your own risk!

[Arbane]

I'm pretty sure the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Festival" is where D&D got the idea from.

"Wisely did Ibn Schacabac say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl."

[Telok]

There is an origin in mythology / folklore. I'm away from the book right now but I may be able to look for it later today.

I believe it may have been Baltic or Eastern European in origin, but it was part of the "how to kill a night creatue / vampire" lore. Along side the usual cutting off heads, burial at cross roads, etc., was mention of one tradition where you burned the body. As the body burned it would release bats, rats, vermin, bugs, etc. If you didn't kill all of those, if even one escaped, the creature would re-form.

The Lovecraft story used essentially people-sized maggots wearing masks and robes. Not quite a swarm.

[Nifft]

Regardless, is there like...a mythological basis for sentient swarms?
There is a real-world basis for thinking that flocks / swarms / herds / mobs / etc. have distinct cognitive characteristics which are different from the characteristics of each individual creature.

The idea that an ant colony is smarter than an individual ant isn't really mythological, but it's a thing discussed in machine learning / AI algorithms.

The HP Lovecraft quote above is probably the D&D source, but I suspect that the idea remains compelling because it's got firm modern foundations, too.

[Bohandas]

Regardless, is there like...a mythological basis for sentient swarms?

I don't know if tbere's a mythological basis, but it goes back at least as far as H.P.Lovecraft's The Festival (depending on how we interpret the ending)

There's also a more recent bit about the possibility of sentient swarms in Godel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

[Silly Name]

While I can't think of an example from myths and legends, fiction is full of creatures that are "collectives". From Star Trek's Borg(who share a mind but have different bodies), to the Power Rangers' Megazord acting as a unit composed by multiple individuals.

As for what would drive a collective of parasitic worms with some sort of hive mind to adventure... Well, I can see why that leaves you stumped. I suppose the collective might seek to find the reason it exists in the first place (imagine being the only one such creature in the world, with no knowledge of how or why you came to be); it could be looking for similar collective beings, to create a settlement where they can live in peace and undistributed; or maybe they wish revenge upon a foolish creator, who abandoned his creation in terror once it was completed (thank Mary Shelley for that, actually).

I think the origin of such a creature would be very important on why it might choose to adventure.

[Bohandas]

While I can't think of an example from myths and legends, fiction is full of creatures that are "collectives".

I think there are several religions with groups of multiple deities that in any of verious ways sometimes act as a single deity. Unfortunately I can't list them or the mods will yell at me.