Vrag
The Second Seal, broken.
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Name: Amphi'khapet, Letuvirus crebritia
Designation: Non-sentient
Homeworld: Selvaris
Language: N/A
Average height of adults: 80 - 150 nm
Skin color: Translucent, with speckles of blue and red
Hair color: N/A
Breathes: Type I, Type II, Type III
Strengths and weaknesses:
- Subtle: Since the Amphi’khapet almost exclusively exists as a provirus in the lysogenic cycle, there are no symptoms that can be detected in an infected host.
- Shiver me timbers: A side effect of the provirus gene is the lowering of core temperature, which the host attempts to correct with an increased frequency and oscillation in the vibration of the power glands.
- Picky eater: The Amphi’khapet has a very narrow host range, targeting only the differentiated cells in power glands of Vong organisms.
- Glutton: Because of the constant compensation of the host to maintain homeostasis, their energetic demand increases twofold.
- Leech: When an Amphistaff is sick or wounded, the virus will exit the lysogenic cycle and enter the lytic one, effectively killing the creature in its moment of weakness.
- Dependent: The Amphi'khapet needs a host to replicate, or it will die within two days.
- Infinitesimally small
- Retrovirus
- Self-assembling
- Force-dead/absent in the Force
- 48 hours (outside the organism)
- Indefinite/until the host is dead (inside the organism)
Estimated Population: In the order of billions.
Diet: None.
Communication: None.
Culture: It’s a virus.
Technology level: None.
General behavior: Upon infection, the Amphi'khapet attaches and subsequently penetrates into the host’s cells, wherein it begins the lysogenic cycle. A small portion of the Amphi'khapet that enter the host enters the lytic cycle instead, which ensures the continued survival of the species.
History:
After the success the Shapers were met with in the creation of the Pazhkic’Dau, the ever-ambitious pioneers pressed further into the newly discovered field of microcosmos, working tirelessly to push the limits of what new life could be created within the confines of such a small scale.
In a long and arduous process, the Shapers of Legion Yun’Do on Selvaris slowly but surely managed to craft the organisms they worked with into dimensions beyond their wildest dreams — and others’ nightmares — until they finally arrived at a size that nothing but a virus is known to occupy. Since the creature is of Vong making, wrought through Shaping and science, ‘virus’ is likely not the best term for the species, but it is the best approximate known to our Galaxy.
The creature, if it can be called such, has been reduced to nothing more than a few dozen nanometers in diameter. It boasts a capsid that is icosahedral in shape, further protected by a viral envelope fashioned out of the membranes of the host cells. This unique feature of the Amphi’khapet makes it far more infectious, but also reduces its ability to survive outside an appropriate host for extended periods of time, like many viruses that coat their capsid with a lipid membrane stolen from their host.
Luckily for the Amphi’khapet, the Shapers were ever merciless in their testing and experiments, exposing all manner of creatures to its greedy reverse transcriptases until finally, a match in Netherworld was made: the Amphi’khapet found its dream host cell. The complex nature of a differentiated power gland cell turned out to be just what the virus had been looking for, and the Shapers and Dr. Alset Niest all looked on in wonder at the quick proliferation it underwent before seemingly disappearing from the host entirely.
After the unexpected vanishing act, they spent months trying to find out what had happened to the Amphi’khapet within the infected Amphistaff, but to no avail. The setback was an unfortunate one, but little did they know it was merely the final ascent before the pinnacle of their success, which found them, oddly enough, completely by accident.
They had released the infected Amphistaff into a controlled environment to see how the creature would fare after longer periods of time, hoping beyond hope that it might exhibit some effects after prolonged exposure. Contrary to what one might expect, a ‘controlled environment’ was not, in fact, a lab. Dr. Niest had some objections to voice on the matter, but being the minority in a group full of Shapers outfitted with numerous and dangerous biots, the good doctor fast learned how beneficial silence might be to one’s health.
It was in this Yuuzhan Vong version of a controlled environment that the true effects — and subsequently the mysterious disappearance of the Amphi’kaphet — were unveiled when one evening, the High Commander of Legion Yun’Do brought a few budding Acolytes to face off against the relentless Warriors in training. Two fighters met in a makeshift ring, of comparable skill yet wildly differing backgrounds, and went to duel until blood and pain were shed.
At least, that had been the idea. Instead, the very first moment the two duelists had crossed Amphistaff and lightsaber for more than a few breaths, the blade of the lightsaber had sizzled out with a loud snap, nearly costing the Acolyte his whole arm. Instead, the man lost only his hand, but none of the Shapers paid any heed to the wailing man, curious and excited as they were to find the cause of the malfunction.
As it turned out, it hadn’t been a malfunction at all. Further testing produced similar results, with many a destroyed lightsaber left on the wayside as they paved the road to discovery. Finally, the source of the interaction was narrowed down to the crystalline structures contained within a typical lightsaber — i.e., the crystals and lens — which, as all substances, are known to have their resonant frequency. While the usual power glands vibrate at a constant frequency (varying in small degrees depending on the size of the organism), the Shapers discovered that the Amphi’khapet had not in fact disappeared, as initially believed, but had integrated itself into the very genome of its host cells, resulting in what Dr. Niest knew to be a ‘provirus’.
This had been the reason why the Amphistaff had exhibited no ill effects, or even good effects, for that matter, merely trudging on as if nothing had happened. Once a good number of mytotic cycles had passed and all the previous power gland cells had been replaced with those containing the provirus, however, the infected creature finally began to show small, but measurable changes from the normal Amphistaff. Continuous experiments with other creatures eventually led the Shapers and Dr. Niest to uncover the exact effect of the inserted gene, which did little more than reduce the infected creature’s core temperature by a fraction of a degree. This difference was then made up by a response akin to shivering in humans, except done by the organs dedicated to such a function: the power glands. Because of this added stress, the usual frequency and energy has been found to fluctuate and oscillate within unpredictable amplitudes depending on a variety of sundry factors, from creature size to the range of the infection and even the genetics of the creature itself. This, in turn, affected the metabolism of the infected creature, as it needed to make up for the increased consumption of energy, and therefore required more sustenance to stay alive.
All in all, the virus itself is merely another microorganism among the veritable billions that exist in the Galaxy, targeting only a very narrow range of creatures as its potential hosts due to the unique nature of the differentiated cell it craves as its host. It is utterly harmless to non-Vong creatures and even the Yuuzhan Vong themselves, which renders it completely useless as a biological weapon for which the Shapers are most renowned.
Oh, well. Better luck next time?
Notable Player-Characters: None.
Development thread: If needed.
Intent: To expand on the lore of the Yuuzhan Vong on Chaos and further delve into the world of Vong microcosmos.
