Taeli Raaf
Bookworm
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To submit a large space-borne Sithspawn creature that can act as both a warship analogue and a troop transport for other monsters.
- Image Credit:
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links:
- Purgill Ultra - Base Specimen used in their creation
- Beldon - Additional biomass and DNA used in creation
- Yaret-Kor - Inspiration
- Qworlth Skaal - Inspiration
- Weaver - Integrated within the creature
- Cocoon Pod - Inspiration
- Blorash Jelly - Inspiration
- Name: W'ana Shursia
- W'ana Shursia is ur-Kittat, the language of the Sith, for Star Hosts.
- Designation: Semi-sentient
- Origins: Valrar
- Formed within the Seviss Habitat Zone by Sith Alchemists at Nivix Station
- Average Lifespan: 150 Galactic Standard Years
- Estimated Population: Rare
- To create the creatures, the Order of Arcane Syn or other Sith alchemists require Purgill Ultra specimens due to the sheer amount of biomass needed and the base DNA from these creatures to work with. Normal sized purgill captured cannot be used for this creature, but could likely be used for a smaller Sithspawn of the same idea.
- Description:
- Massive whale-like behemoths that travel the stars detail the stories of the purrgil that formed these terrifying monsters now unleashed by the Sith. Equal in size to the largest purgill, but covered now in bony armor and too many tentacles, they have become a sight of misery and death as they dispatch the legions of monsters upon the worlds they are sent to and as they tear apart ships they encounter with both might and plasma.
- Breathes:
- Type IV atmosphere typically as they exist within space, although they do require clouzon-36 gas for some of their abilities. However, they can breathe a Type I or Type II atmosphere when they are deployed into the atmosphere of a planet by their Sith beastmaster controllers. Additionally, within their bellies much like an exogorth, they can maintain a localized environment that the creatures within them can breathe in as long as they have inhaled and trapped enough gases within their bodies.
- Average Height of Adults: 200 meters
- Average Length of Adults: 600 meters
- Skin color:
- The typical skin color of one of these creatures can vary between dark gray to dark purple, depending upon how much it has fed and its reserves of both biomass and clouzon-36 gas within its bodies. Healthy and well-fed specimens are closer to purple in the spectrum while malnourished or specimens that have unleashed their stored biomass into combat are dark gray in color.
- The bony armor that covers their bodies can be a kaleidoscope of colors, ranging anywhere from yellow colors to deep black. The Order of Arcane Syn believe this is caused during their initial creation from genetic quirks from the base specimens that were morphed by their alchemy and sorcery and from differing levels of gases within their bodies.
- Hair color:
- Star Hosts do not have anything on their bodies that could be classified as hair.
- Distinctions:
- Besides their sheer size, the most distinctive physical traits of the creatures are definitely the large tentacles that sprout from its body that it uses for both interstellar travel and for grappling ships. Males typically have what could almost be described as horns that sprout from their foreheads made of the small bony armor that covers their bodies while females typically have more grappling tentacles.
- Races: No other races
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
- Like the base purgill specimens that were used in their creation, the Star Hosts can utilize the clouzon-36 gas they consume in addition with their tentacles to travel through hyperspace. This allows them to be deployed by their Sith beastmaster controllers across the galaxy for tasks ranging from combat scenarios to monster deployment.
- Through Sith alchemy and the incorporation of silica and metals into their diets, Star Hosts have plates of bony armor that are toughened through alchemy to resist damage quite effectively from starship-based weaponry such as turbolasers and mass drivers. In addition to this, they can secrete a substance mixed with their stored silica and metal to repair damage to that armor, although this process is slow and not something that can assist them when they are immediately under attack.
- Within the belly of the beasts, special chambers and organs have been created by the Order of Arcane Syn alchemists to act as both gestation pods for Sithspawn and transport space for their creations if they have already been created. Each one of these chambers within a Star Host has a Weaver integrated into it, almost like an intestinal parasite, and are able to siphon off biomass accrued by the Star Host to create more Sithspawn that can then be unleashed upon a world below. The creatures are able segment off these chambers with walls of biomass and chitin and form them into an organic variant of cocoon pods with silica shells and a facsimile of blorash jelly to hold each creature within the pod in place to drop pod the Sithspawn within each to the surface safely by releasing waves and waves of these pods from their abdomens.
- Much like Yuuzhan Vong vessels where the inspiration for this feature came from, each Star Host has a pair of massive tentacles on their underside that have the ability to pierce through both stone and metal and act as boarding tubes to unleash swarms of Sithspawn from within their bellies into an enemy ship or station.
- Additionally, much like Yuuzhan Vong vessels and the Drakes previously made the Order of Arcane Syn, a Star Host has a multitude of growths on them that act like the yaret-kor plasma cannons. They can launch molten silica they have within their bellies and other storage organs as plasma projectiles at enemy ships or creatures to burn through armor and shields rapidly on even large capital ships.
- If the creature's internal clouzon-36 gas reserves are depleted, or if they have suffered damage to too many of their tentacles, they are unable to make the jump to lightspeed and are stuck in the system they are currently in until they are able to feed.
- While their armor is incredibly tough and can take several hits from starship-based weaponry, eventually the armor can and will crack and the creature's underneath can be easily injured from such attacks.
- The ability to gestate and deploy the Sithspawn from within themselves requires a massive amount of material and quickly reduce the resources of the creature for itself. Each Star Host can only manage to unleash a few waves of creatures if they have not already been preloaded with monsters before their available biomass is reduced to nothing. In addition, if the Weavers within these chambers are killed, the gestation of other Sithspawn within these chambers cannot take place.
- While the tentacles are able to pierce through enemy armor and hulls to act as a boarding tubes, they are not armored and can be easily damage while extended. Damage to these tentacles can quickly cause suffocation to any creatures within them and require the creatures to feed to heal them.
- The yaret-kor facsimiles require a substantial amount of silica to be stored within the creatures and continued bombardments can quickly deplete their reserves. This can also cause a shortage for use in the 'drop pods' they create to seed Sithspawn onto the surface of enemy planets.
- Diet:
- Star Hosts are both omnivorous and silicavorous, consuming anything they encounter when sufficiently hungry, along with requiring the gas Clouzon-36. The Order of Arcane Syn alchemists, under the direction of the Lady of Secrets, developed a dual digestion system for the creatures depending on what they are consuming. Organic matter that is consumed, typically interstellar plankton but it can be any other space-borne organic life small enough to be swallowed, is quickly broken down into raw biomass that is shunted into storage organs within the creature for manipulation by the internal Weavers integrated into the creatures. Inorganic matter, such as rock and other silica consumed from asteroids or metals consumed when attacking a ship, are diverted into one of two special organs depending upon the creature's needs. If its plasma ejectors are running low on ammunition, the silica is broken down and converted into a molten plasma state for ammunition, but if it is needed to create its bio-pods' exterior armor, it diverts the silica into an organ within their lower abdomen that can be shunted to the 'drop pod' area so to speak.
- Communication:
- Between other members of their species, they communicate through different electrical pulses they share between each other with their tentacles or through sonic emissions only other members of their species can detect. They can also understand commands, as most Sithspawn do, sent through the Force from a trained Sith beastmaster that are sent telepathically in the language of the Sith.
- Technology level:
- No technology level due to the creatures are only semi-sentient and have no means of developing technology on their own.
- Religion/Beliefs:
- No religion or other cultural beliefs due to the creatures only being semi-sentient. Their development has not progressed beyond basic instincts and what they have been programmed to do by their Sith alchemist creators and their Sith beastmaster controllers.
- General behavior:
- When a Star Host and their pods are left to their own devices, they are lazy creatures that only seek to feed and rest. Much of this can be contributed to their massive metabolisms and their internal Weavers as the biomass they consume is diverted to filling their 'holds' so to speak with more monsters, which can cause visible distension of their bellies as they near capacity.
- When ordered by a beastmaster to deploy to enemy worlds, they can be more aggressive than usual seen when floating in Drannith's Ring or other asteroid fields. This increased aggression might be due to the dark side alchemy used in their creation resonating with the creatures within their 'holds' and riling up their hunger. The creatures will attack enemy vessels and station on their own once they are sufficiently hungry, either swallowing smaller ships whole to be rapidly ground down in their digestive system or tearing apart larger vessels and stations with their tentacles for easier pieces to eat.
The idea for what would become the W'ana Shursia, or Star Hosts, had begun to form in the Lady of Secrets' mind as far back as the ending days of the Tenth Sith Empire. However, events had conspired against any further work on their development when the Empire collapsed and other projects took precedence. However, in recent months, events have galvanized Darth Arcanix to rapidly begin working on new projects and finishing older ideas such as this one.
First created in the Seviss Habitat Zone in the Valrar System by luring pods of purgill to the world and capturing them, the alchemy and sorcery required in their creation was an immense undertaking, not to mention that only larger specimens of purgill would be suitable for alteration and mutation. Once the first specimens were captured, other members of their pods were broken down into biomass and used to construct the gestation cocoons around the creatures as the alchemists began their work in the asteroid field. The size of the creatures was enhanced slightly while it was imperative they retained their ability to consume clouzon-36 for hyperspace travel, but that was roughly where the similarities to baseline purgill ended.
Samples and DNA from Drakes was introduced into the cocoons and forming creatures to facilitate the growth of a secondary digestive system that could consume silica and metal, along with the guided creation of multiple faux yaret-kor plasma projectors. Inspiration was also gained from the Yuuzhan Vong that had immigrated to the system in recent years where tentacles on the creature could act as boarding tubes for the primary reason of the Star Host's creation; to unleash swarms of monsters onto worlds deemed targets by the Mother of Monsters.
Within each creature, special chambers were formed out of their tissues and new organs were developed to hold biomass for shaping by the Weavers that were integrated into the creatures, the alchemists essentially creating gestation and holding pens within the creatures' bellies with parasites that could shape that biomass into monsters. Each of these chambers, each as large as troop transport ship, could have walls of biomass and chitin formed from the accumulated silica to segment them into individual 'cocoon pods' that could hold the created or loaded monsters in place before they were launched from the bellies of the Star Hosts at a planet's surface like a drop pod. The result was a massive space-born creature that could provide swarms and swarms of Sithspawn for assaults without ever having to load them onto troop transports that could utilized by sentient forces.
