Mawite Legend
Val'gol, "Gore Wasps"
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out one of the jungle predators of Lao-mon and give the Brotherhood a war beast.
- Image Credit: The Corpse Eater (non-saddled) and Shadowbarb Drone (saddled with rider), via Wowhead's Model Viewer
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Lao-mon
- Name: Val'gol
- Designation: Non-Sentient
- Origins: Lao-mon
- Average Lifespan: 1 - 3 years
- Estimated Population: Planetary
Gore Wasps hunt with their huge stingers, which they use to inject prey with corrosive digestive enzymes - though just the impact of the forearm-sized chitin spear is enough to kill most humanoids. These enzymes break down organic matter into a half-digested soup, which the wasps then messily slurp up with their long facial tendrils. Some of the mixture is then fully digested to regain calories, but most of it is carried in a secondary stomach back to the hive, where it is regurgitated as a kind of glue for the walls of the nest. It is this revolting practice, along with the dark red of their skin, that gives Gore Wasps their fearsome name.
Although their pointed legs look fearsome, Gore Wasps rarely use them in combat (except to shield their underbellies). Instead, they use them to carry rocks and timber back to their hive and cement them into the walls with the partially-digested flesh mixture. They are strong enough to carry extremely heavy loads, such as tree trunks nearly twice their own length. This makes them ideally suited as mounts, as they can carry a rider's weight almost without noticing. In order to steer them, a heavy chain is run through the top of their heads as a bridle, piercing two of their three eyes. Their sight is poor enough that this makes little difference.
Almost all Val'gol are near-identical drones, differentiated only by the patterns on their chitinous armor. The one exception is the queen of each hive. Queens are about three times the size of a drone, though much of that bulk is taken up by a massive egg sac - the hive's next generation. They also lack wings, as the egg sac makes them far too bulky to fly anyway. Queens, however, are seldom seen, as they never leave their hives; indeed, most cannot, as they are too large to fit through the passages leading out of the egg chamber. Juveline Gore Wasps are also never seen outside the hive, though they simply resemble smaller drones.
Front and side views of a Val'gol drone
A Val'gol drone with saddle, bridle, and rider
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
- Breathes: Type I Atmosphere
- Average Height of Adults: 4 meters
- Average Length of Adults: 5 meters
- Skin color: Purple, red, and gray
- Hair color: N/A
- Distinctions: The above describes drones. The queen is much larger, with no wings and a huge egg sac.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
- Fast Fliers: With the aid of their strong wings and internal buoyancy organs, Gore Wasps can carry very heavy burdens and still fly at incredible speeds, easily reaching 110 km/h (70 mph) when moving in a straight line; they can tuck their legs and dive even faster. Their relatively compact bodies, combined with a tail that aids in steering, allows them to be agile as well, twisting out of the way of oncoming threats and making extremely tight turns.
- Well-Protected: The chitinous armor plating that covers most of a Gore Wasp's body is extremely strong, easily surviving multiple strikes from blasters, slugthrowers, and vibroblades. The plates even provide the creature with some protection against glancing blows and near misses from flak cannons, missile launchers, and other heavy ordnance, although it will not survive a direct hit. This armor means the wasps have few natural predators.
- Armor-Piercing Sting: At the end of each Gore Wasp's tail is a hefty stinger, some 60cm (2 ft) long and as big around as a human bicep. The wasp can use the stinger, which tapers down to an incredibly sharp point, to punch through heavy armor; a good stinger strike can even penetrate the canopy of a light vehicle such as a scout walker, let alone heavily-armored infantry. Given its size and thickness, the stinger can do tremendous damage.
- Caustic Enzymes: The sting of a Gore Wasp injects its victim with digestive enzymes; effectively, the stuff is jumped-up stomach acid. While the acid cannot damage metal or inorganic compounds, it rapidly breaks down flesh, plants, and other organic matter. If not counteracted, the enzymes will reduce the victim to a goopy mess of half-digested flesh. Most medkits contain a strong base that will neutralize the acid if administered quickly.
- Vulnerable Flesh: While most of a Gore Wasp is covered in armored plates, the creature's underbelly, tail, and face are unprotected. Any hit that pierces their spongy skin is disastrous; because of their open circulatory system, all such wounds bleed rapidly and profusely, and even relatively small punctures can quickly prove fatal. The wasps fly with their legs tucked in toward their bellies and in front of their faces to protect the largest of these spots.
- Poor Eyesight: Gore Wasps are deadly, but not particularly perceptive. Their weak vision relies heavily on heat and movement to detect threats and prey; standing perfectly still can often cause them to pass right by, as can covering oneself in mud or other cooling substances, even if still moving. They are helpless against cloaking devices and other stealth technology. This problem is what often gets them eaten by lurking Ts'Kiza, their main predator.
- Vulnerable To Cold: As another effect of their open circulatory system, Gore Wasps can very easily have their innards freeze in low temperatures, which is immediately fatal. They can keep themselves warm for a time by vibrating their wings and keeping moving, but in sub-freezing temperatures they will quickly succumb if not provided with warmth. This can be exploited with cryoban weapons and other cold-generating effects.
- Slow To Train: The Brotherhood would love to field a vast army of Gore Wasps, but it cannot. The wasps can learn to be loyal - albeit begrudgingly - to a single rider, who replaces the queen in their limited minds. However, this takes many months of work, sometimes over a year. The creatures also simply don't submit to most would-be riders, generally stinging and eating those who try taming them. Only 5% of attempted tamings succeed.
- Diet: Omnivore
- Communication: Pheromones and hypersonic vibrations
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
As a result, Gore Wasp hives are a nightmarish patchwork of all manner of large objects, glued together by a crusty reddish resin. This regurgitated glue, warped by the wasps' internal chemistry, is extremely strong and extremely sticky, so the slapdash-looking nests actually hold up better than might be expected. Hives are generally kept down in size through intrusions by Lao-mon's other giant jungle predators, particularly Ts'Kiza, which rip their way through the walls when aroused to a feeding frenzy and often devour many juvenile drones before becoming sated or being driven off. Repairs are as much a constant as expansion.
Undisturbed nests, however, can grow to truly horrifying sizes, some of them larger than half a dozen city blocks.
Gore Wasps are born from eggs laid by the hive's queen. It takes about three months for eggs to hatch, and juvenile drones roam the passages of the hive for a further six months as they grow, fed by mature drones who return with excess semi-digested prey. Queens are born only rarely, once every 30 or 40 cycles - which works out to roughly every three years. Most Gore Wasps only live a year or two before their bodies start to slow down, at which point they are cannibalized by other wasps. Queens can live longer, up to about five years, but are usually consumed by one of the new queens they birth. The 1 - 3 others depart with a few drones to start new nests.
Gore Wasps can be tamed as mounts, but it is a difficult and time-consuming process. Beastmasters must spend months breaking a particular drone's connection to the queen through sonic and chemical manipulation. This must be done while the drone is still in the hive, as Gore Wasps who have not been through this process tend to simply die in captivity. Then the individual who wishes to ride the wasp must enter the hive alone, anointed with chemicals extracted from the queen, and force the drone to submit to his or her will. Quite literally 95% of the time, this results in the would-be rider becoming the latest bit of partly-digested nest mortar.
Those who succeed in earning the drone's loyalty can train it to obey simple commands and accept them as a rider.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Gore Wasp hives have been a problem for Shi'ido settlements to navigate for as long as the shapeshifters have been building them. The Shi'ido eventually learned a number of ways to keep the huge bugs at bay, such as cold weaponry. Shi'ido children still learn "wasp drills" in school, practicing staying perfectly still until the poorly-sighted predators move away - just in case a drone or two ever gets somewhere it shouldn't be. As local civilization advanced, the planetary government began sending highly-skilled ranger teams to destroy or move nests that got too big or too close to the planet's cities. This practice kept the population in check.
When the Brotherhood of the Maw took over Lao-mon, these ranger patrols stopped, and Gore Wasp hives quickly began to grow and multiply. They are kept from overrunning the planet partly by local predators and partly by the occupying marauder tribes, which send their youngest members and newest recruits to smash and burn the hives as a rite of passage. A Gore Wasp acid burn or, better yet, a stinger scar is considered a badge of honor among the tribes, as few who suffer such injuries survive. As the Brotherhood continued to observe the wasps, however, the cleverest among them realized that the creatures might have another use.
The Brotherhood's beastmasters moved in on several of the hives to study them, and gradually hit upon a process. They extracted chemical secretions from a Gore Wasp queen, synthetically recreated them, and used them as a catalyst to weaken the bonds between a drone and its queen. Then they anointed warriors of the Maw with the secretions, then sent them into the hive. Most of the time, this ended predictably... and therefore badly. A number of the Maw's strongest-willed champions and warlords, however, survived this "Rite of Wings". They gained the loyalty of a Gore Wasp drone, a loyal and deadly mount that carried them into battle.
Now, deadly generals and commandos riding Gore Wasps are the most feared and honored among the Maw's hordes.
