[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Kyo on January 6th, 2016, 12:52 am



OOCIt's been suggested that I post a write-up here. By all means tear this apart, but I would really really appreciate input most on how to order/organize sections so that it all flows smoothly. I want it to be easily readable/understandable, like articles are in the wiki. Thank you to anyone who gives their time!

GRUUBAR
Gruubar are tiny, parasitic arachnids that live in large colonies. These creatures are thought to have mutated in the Valterrian from some sort of typical arachnid, most likely ticks. Unlike their ancestors, however, these bugs no longer feed on blood but on all forms of djed.

During the cold seasons, gruubar infect a warm-blooded host body, like that of any large mammal (including humans). Through the use of webbing they eventually gain control and manipulate their victim's movements.

Gruubar tend to be found in Cyphrus, but will thrive in any warm climate that supplies enough djed (Falyndar, for example, is both hot and high-djed).

There are three types of gruubar: female gruubar (Stingers) that inject their viral essence into a host's body, Viral gruubar (ichor) which sit dormant in the host body until conditions are ripe for reproduction, and male gruubar (Webbers), which wield the power of djed webbing to infect and control their host.

FEEDING AND HOSTS
All gruubar have no mouths, but feed on djed in any animate form through djed-sensors in their legs. It is unknown if they can consume djed from regular inanimate objects, but they may consume from wild djed pools caused by djed storms, natural djed, and even djed laid down in glyphs, magecrafting, animation, malediction, architectrix (lost discipline), and webbing. Gruubar cannot consume personal magic except for shielding. They seem to have a taste for pure djed, the purer the better. As such, gruubar prefer to feed on humans* and other soul'd creatures like animals, though they will also feed on plants and even other monsters or artifacts. Gruubar never feed on Ghosts, as their djed is not able to be sensed. Likewise, they can feed neither on a god or alvina, or on divine magic.

Female gruubar tend to seek out hosts which present an unlimited and reliable source of djed; they prefer hosts with large amounts of active djed. Magic-users are particularly fond prey and make excellent hosts. Despite that, a host may be any warm-blooded animal that will provide enough heat for the gruubar inside to survive through Winter. Grubbar are susceptible to cold, and any Stingers that have not infected a host by Winter will die from exposure.

*A human host refers to any and all applicable humanoid races, excepting Ghosts and Nuit (which are unliving), and Pycon (which are made of clay).

APPEARANCE AND TYPE

STINGERS (FEMALES)
Image

--Stingers look essentially like ticks. They are half the size of a pinky-finger nail with their eight legs outstretched, and are an indistinct brown with no unusual markings. Stingers, like all gruubar, have no true eyes, but see through reading the djed of their surroundings and prey. As their name suggests, they have a lone stinger: the front-right leg of their bodies is an inflexible hollow tube used to inject a virus (the Viral gruubar) into their chosen hosts. Stingers also utilize webbing glands situated at the tip of their abdomen, much like spiders. Their webbing is not magical, but made of a typical, hardy silk.

A Stinger's main objective is finding a suitable host to start her own colony in.

WEBBERS (MALES)
Image

--Webbers' bodies are tiny (as small or smaller than the point of a pen) and black, and as such are extremely difficult to see. Their legs, unlike Stingers', are long and almost elastic in nature, which they use to bury into their host's tissue and thread into the djed pathways; they also use their legs to feed off a host's djed. Their spinnerets produce true djed webbing, an insubstantial and invisible form of magic exactly like the Drykas' webbing in the Sea of Grass.

A Webber's main objective is to spin djed webbing through the host's body. Webbers eat away at a host's djed pathways and replace that djed with their own webbing in order to control the host's body and movements. This is a gradual process which, if resisted, usually proves fatal for the host.


VIRALS
Image

--Virals are unlike other gruubar; like viruses, they are not truly living. Instead of having a physical body, they take a black, amorphous form like the ichor of a Nuit. Virals have never been seen as they cannot be physically removed from their host's body. It is unlikely that this form of gruubar is known to many, if any, people, save perhaps for a handful of experienced Healers.

A Viral's main objective is to begin reproduction at a suitable time within the host. A Viral will remain dormant within the host body until activated by outside stimuli.

LIFE CYCLE
The gruubar life cycle begins when the dormancy period of the Viral gruubar comes to an end. Throughout most of its existence, the Viral gruubar sits dormant within the host, and has no effect on the body.

Not much is known about what awakens a Viral gruubar from its dormancy. Due to the nature of the gruubar, however, it is likely that the stimulation has to do with djed: for instance, if a host body goes through overgiving or an initiation or has a natural increase in djed (as hibernating animals likely do in the Spring).

When awakened, the Viral gruubar initiates reproduction, using its own ichor and the host's tissues to produce unfertilized eggs. These eggs may or may not be fertilized by a male gruubar. Unfertilized eggs hatch into males. Fertilized eggs hatch into females.

After hatching, both sexes go through a short larval stage where their forms are indistinguishable from one another. The ratio of males to females will vary based on the time of year.

Male gruubar, called Webbers, will never leave the host's body where they are hatched, and are incapable of living outside of the host.

Female gruubar, called Stingers, develop in the host body and then dig their way out of the host's tissues and into the outside world. Female gruubar may exit one at a time, or en masse.

When a female gruubar leaves her hatching host, she seeks out nourishment and her own host to infect. When she finds a suitable new host, she stings it and injects into it her own essence, the Viral gruubar. With her essence gone, her body is just an inanimate husk. As such, a female gruubar can only ever sting one host before her body perishes and her essence becomes the Viral stage.

BEHAVIOR
The gruubar's behavior changes based on season. Most observable behavior is performed by Stingers, as Stingers are the only form able to survive outside a host.

--WINTER
In Winter, Stingers must stay out of the cold. In the mid-to-late Fall, Stingers begin their search for a suitable host to infect. They may pass up one host in favor of another.

In Fall or Winter, an activated Viral will produce mostly male young (Webbers) and a few females (Stingers). The Stingers will remain within their hatching host unless a new and better host is nearby. As a Stinger may not live long outside in the cold, few are produced to infect new hosts in Winter.

--SPRING AND SUMMER
In Spring, an activated Viral will produce a new generation of Stingers to go out and find their own hosts. When outside warmth is sufficient, usually in mid-to-late Spring, the Stingers will burst from the host body and into the outside world. At this time they live off the land and may feed from any number of high-djed sources without infecting a host. They will search for the host with the most amount of djed, and will only settle for less if Winter draws dangerously near.

During this searching period, sister Stingers tend to remain together until one by one they find a good host. These swarms of Stingers may combine with other swarms to increase their numbers. If too many Stingers swarm together, the balance of ecology in an area can be threatened, as the Stingers will feed on any and all sources of djed, plants, animals, or otherwise. They may decimate entire areas of djed, leaving the land parched of all life.

Stingers search from host to host by crawling along the ground or vegetation, by hitching rides on unsuspecting animals, or by ballooning. Stingers can produce silk which they then manipulate into shapes that allow them to catch the breeze and fly.

FALL
When the weather starts to turn colder, any Stingers left without a host will begin to search in earnest. Swarms will break up and scatter. Sometimes Stingers will be seen competing for the same host by fighting to the death (death usually occurs when the opponent's stinger or other legs are ripped off). Stingers will never try to inject a host that is already injected by another. Most Stingers will die from the cold or natural predation before finding a host to inject.

HOST BEHAVIOR AND ATTACKS
The rare times that gruubar numbers swell, they tend to use their hosts to collect together in huge groups. There have been sightings of hundreds of assorted hosts walking around together. These groups of gruubar, if left unchecked, will prepare their hosts by producing many thousands of Stingers inside the hosts' bodies. Then the groups will launch attacks on entire herds of animals or even human settlements such as cities, usually in the Summer or Fall; this an attempt to grow their numbers even more.

Prepared gruubar hosts will not need to fight in the typical sense, but will explode out their Stingers to infect everyone around. Protective gear to prevent stinging is essential to surviving the attack uninfected; so is destroying all gruubar through any means, usually with the help of ice reimancers or even Reavers.

While perhaps just intelligent enough to copy some crude human speech (grunts, howls, screams, calls), it is unlikely that gruubar controlling a human host would be able to learn precise combat, farming, or any other complex human skill. It is also unlikely that they are smart enough to infiltrate cities by making their hosts act like regular humans; their actions and attacks tend towards power rather than subtlety.

Gruubar have the potential to be used as a weapon by an immune race (like Nuit, for example) against those susceptible, a sort of monster warfare. A gruubar host or two smuggled into a city would be as effective as a bomb, or perhaps worse.

Even when not directly attacking, gruubar prove troublesome as their host bodies still need to eat and drink, and so will end up competing with regular humans for survival resources. Gruubar hosts together may overhunt or devour whole fields of crops. Hosts are forced to eat to excess so that their bodies may stay strong, healthy, and useful to the gruubar; overeating also enables the body to produce more djed.

NUMBERS AND LIMITS ON POPULATION
Despite reproducing in large numbers (one colony can have many thousands), gruubar are not especially common; in fact they can be quite rare. This is due to a number of reasons:
  • Most Stingers will not find an appropriate host before Winter, and so will die before injecting their essence.
  • Both Virals and Webbers (the two reproductive agents of the species), are unable to live outside of a host's body. Stingers merely carry the next generation of Virals and do not reproduce themselves.
  • If a colony of males is created in an 'unsuitable' host (a host that rejects the colony's machinations), then that colony will kill the host and abort.
  • Virals can stay dormant for years, even whole lifetimes.
Years, decades, or even longer can pass by without confirmed sightings of gruubar. Usually when they arrive, they arrive in small numbers and then their populations settle again to near nonexistence; sometimes, however, they arrive in swarms of Stingers, attacking any and all large, warm bodies, destroying the land like a plague with their hunger for djed.

EFFECTS ON THE HOST BODY
Viral gruubar are not readily detectable, especially in their dormant phase. A host may not know he has been infected or show any symptoms for many years. The only reliable indication of infection is if the host recognizes the gruubar when it stings him.

During the larval stages there are not many symptoms, except perhaps small uncontrollable muscle twitches as the larva imbed themselves into the host body to feed and grow. During the metamorphosis from larva to Stinger or Webber, the host may experience some itching, deep beneath the skin.

When a colony is established and the larva have grown, the Webbers complete their spinning and begin to take control of the host's body. Here the host will begin to lose control of their limbs, actions becoming jerky and uncoordinated while the Webbers learn the host's reflexes and abilities. This is the first real symptom of the fatal infection. After that, the host's body will begin performing without permission.

If the host has the will to try to reject the colony and retake control of his body, he will find himself deteriorating within a matter of weeks as the Webbers gnaw aggressively at his djed paths. He'll lose fine motor control, then larger motions like walking and talking, and eventually, if he continues to resist, the Webbers will attack the djed of his organs and stop his digestion, breathing, and even his heart. Webbers mainly control the body; the brain itself is usually left untouched.

If the host does not fight the infection, he will find himself trapped within his mind as his body is manipulated like a puppet. This is a short horror, usually lasting less than a year, but gruesome enough and so debilitating that the host usually wishes for death. It is almost a relief in the Spring, when the Stingers burst free from the body and the host is torn from the inside out as the creatures erupt from wherever they have implanted themselves within him. Many thousands of Stingers may burst free within minutes. This usually results in blessed death as the host is drilled with tiny holes all over the body.

The true nightmare is if the host does not die from his wounds. Despite being free of Stingers, he will still be infected with both the Viral gruubar and the Webbers, and next year the process will likely repeat.

TREATMENTS AND PROGNOSIS OF HOSTS
Eradicating the infection from a host would be very difficult. All methods of healing are currently speculation.

A Healer may be able to combat the gruubar but it may take multiple strenuous sessions, and it is never a guarantee that some part of the Viral will not remain behind. At the start of treatment, Webbers may be prompted to attack the host's tissues as they feel the Healer's djed begin to kill them.

Subjecting the body to intense cold may be enough to kill internal gruubar, but the body would likely have to undergo dangerous hypothermia, which may end up killing the host itself.

The condition of a host's body after the gruubar have been eradicated is unknown. It is unknown if the djed pathways will regrow after being gnawed away and replaced by the Webbers.

Due to the insidious and fatal nature of the gruubar infection, most recognized hosts will be banished or even executed by their peoples if attempts to heal them are unsuccessful. Animals have been known to distance themselves from pack or herd members that show signs of infection.

OTHER
Stinger silk is quite hardy and can often be collected, though most are not brave or skilled enough to keep a colony to collect from. Braided together, the silk makes a fine but durable, somewhat stretchy string that may be used in anything from stitches to clothes to ropes to fishing line or nets.

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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Azmere on January 6th, 2016, 1:43 am

Kyo, this is awesome!

You weren't kidding about it being massive. I may have to do a few passes to catch everything.

1] Webbers. Can this be changed? I think it's just too similar to the whole lore that it may get confusing. It might just be me, though.

2]
There have been sightings of hundreds of assorted hosts walking around together. These groups of gruubar, if left unchecked, will prepare their hosts by producing many thousands of Stingers inside the hosts' bodies. Then the groups will launch attacks on entire herds of animals or even human settlements such as cities, usually in the Summer or Fall; this an attempt to grow their numbers even more.


Ummm... you might need to get this approved? It seems a bit extreme for bugs.

3] The numbers and limits section is nice. I am a bit concerned about the counter agents to these lil guys. It's not like there are scanners for people to figure out who's infected and I'm not sure Miz has the proper protective clothing... It just smells like outbreak of the mini bodysnatchers.

All in all, I think this is very well assembled and extremely well thought out. Kyo, you might be a genius. You should push this around so people review it because I'm certain(don't quote me on it) after minimal tweaking this will be added to the lore.
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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Kyo on January 6th, 2016, 2:19 am



1.) If you think it's confusing, the name could always be changed to something like Tanglers or Warpers. I sorta like Warpers myself.

2. & 3.) I put the bit in about them gathering in herds because I like the idea of these bugs being used in a large event that can threaten a city. I was a little worried that they might be OP, though.

As for countermeasures, 'protective gear' could just be simple leather and even regular clothing as long as most (or all) of the skin was covered and there were no holes (so you'd need something to tighten the ends of sleeves and pant legs to ensure they didn't crawl on up to the skin). I didn't intend for the females' stingers to be super pierce-y, just sharp enough to break the skin for injection. Veils would probably work for covering the face, and people aren't probably usually stung in the face, anyways, more like in the legs/arms like with regular ticks. Perhaps I could add something about some sort of repellent mixture that could be rubbed on the skin to reduce biting during large outbreaks? Maybe even something like soulmist, because gruubar can't detect ghosts, though it doesn't necessarily have to be that.

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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Azmere on January 6th, 2016, 3:35 am

The repellent is an excellent idea. Also, maybe adjust the outbreak scenarios into normal bug stuff like... in this area, they are bad during this season when it's this kind of weather.
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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Kyo on January 6th, 2016, 11:13 am



Sorry, I think I'm being a dunce, could you elaborate on what you mean?


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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Lian Windrunner on January 6th, 2016, 4:17 pm

This sounds like a very disturbing creature. Fascinating, but disturbing. I like it! :)

The questions I have are related to magic users.

1. Since these creatures feed on djed, would people who use magic be more suitable hosts than those who don't?

2. Would Webbers be able to detect these creatures either before or after they infect a host? If so, how easy/hard would it be to kill a stinger that isn't protected by a host body? You mention cold as a weakness, but is that the only way to kill one?
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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Kyo on January 6th, 2016, 6:09 pm


EDIT: Why do I write so much? Sorry for all the words. v_v

1.) I think I said something about this in the thingy at some point, let me look.
Okay, this was under FEEDING AND HOSTS.
Female gruubar tend to seek out hosts which present an unlimited and reliable source of djed; they prefer hosts with large amounts of active djed. Magic-users are particularly fond prey and make excellent hosts.

So yep. They actually prefer magic-users.

2.) That's a good question. I'll split it into three answers.

COULD THEY DETECT A GRUUBAR OUTSIDE A HOST?
I'm going to tentatively say yes, based on how webbing works. But I don't know how practical it would be. I assume you could use the Drykas web to detect almost anything... but in this case, a singular Stinger would be as easy to detect as a singular tick or spider. It's probably not that easy, or at least not worth it (unless you were desperately trying to eradicate an infestation from someplace and had to kill every last one).

Now if the Stingers were grouped in large numbers (as they do in the Spring and Summer) then that would probably make them easier to detect. This is exactly like how a herd of buffalo would be easier to locate than just one. See what I mean?

They might also be easier to find if they were actively feeding off a portion of the Drykas web. Then the Drykas webber would see the web being gnawed away and be like 'that's a problem'.

COULD THEY DETECT A GRUUBAR INSIDE A HOST?
I'm a little more uncertain about how to answer this because I don't know everything about webbing and I haven't read the lore in a while.

What I do know is that a Drykas webber would be detecting the web inside someone, not the gruubar colony itself. If the colony had not yet started the process of webbing, they would not be detectable.

So it all depends on if a Drykas webber can see and access webbing that is inside something, not just lying on top or tied to an anchor. By 'see' I mean physically see, as Drykas do for regular webbing (they see glow-y stuff). By 'access' I mean how they access the web, how they sense it and control it. In the case of gruubar, the webbing is completely buried inside human flesh.

Because this answer depends on how Drykas see and access the web I'm going to have to ask Goss about it if there's nothing in the wiki to act as an example.

I'll update this once I investigate further.

CAN A GRUUBAR BE KILLED IN OTHER WAYS?
It depends on the type of gruubar. Stinging gruubar can definitely be squashed. Imagine them as being as vulnerable as ticks. They're sneaky, so you might not notice them before they sting you. But if you do notice them in time you could most definitely squish them under your heel and be done with it. It would be harder to squash them if they came at you in a large group. But then you could probably run away from them, as they're not all that fast (unless they happen to be ballooning on a particularly strong wind). I'd imagine that Stingers are also vulnerable to other methods of attack: fire, electricity, drowning, stuff like that. Just like any bug would be.

Male gruubar and Virals are not so easy to destroy. They're inside the host body and never come out, so you would need to use Healing magic or cold to kill them once inside. You could probably also use fire on them inside the body, but raising a host's temperature is generally a lot more dangerous/damaging to the host than lowering it, simply based on how the body works. If a person gets a fever of 108 they're in bad trouble and will die; but people have been revived from hypothermia when their temp has gone quite low (I looked it up once and someone has come back from a temp as low as in the fifties).

So basically killing someone with fire would kill the gruubar inside them. But it would also, obviously, kill the host. I'll probably add that to the write-up when I edit new things in, but to be clear this doesn't mean that gruubar are particularly vulnerable to fire. They just aren't immune; they can be burned like anything else.

P.S. I was thinking about it and I don't think a gruubar could burrow through an Isur's arm. Weird, huh?


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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Azmere on January 6th, 2016, 9:27 pm

Kyo wrote:


Sorry, I think I'm being a dunce, could you elaborate on what you mean?





Ignore that post. I must've missed the seasons info. Mia culpa.
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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Kyo on January 7th, 2016, 2:44 am



Unfortunately guys I think I'm actually going to have to shelve development on this monster. I've been advised that the idea was ill-conceived, and so I've decided to give up the ghost and maybe try working on something else. Thank you for spending your time to read and critique, and I'm very very sorry that your time appears to have been wasted. I feel just awful about it, but there's not really a point to working on it more just to have it rejected later on.

Once again, really sorry.


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[Peer Review] Gruubar {Monster}

Postby Azmere on January 7th, 2016, 2:55 am

No worries, Kyo. It's why the process exists. A mind like yours will certainly turn out another idea soon. Of this, I am certain.

*shameless self plug*
In the meantime, you could take that brilliance over to my peer review thread and give me some much needed critiquing. (Link in sig)
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