Trigger warning;
This subspecies contains themes of infection, illness and parasites, no worms or insects are mentioned just ‘black ick’ if this makes you uncomfortable do not proceed.
Summary;
“The Blighted” is a scary tale told to softlings so they behave but little do they know, its all too real. These plague-riddled softs aren’t often seen in densely populated areas, they stay clear of most tribe territories but that doesn’t make them any less real. The blighted are poor unfortunate souls who have bee afflicted with an ailment that destroys them from the inside out until nothing but the disease remains and controls the body in their stead.
In truth, “the blight” is a parasitic illness that attaches itself to unsuspecting and sick hosts and then spreads to other hosts through means of infection. Going against popular belief, Blighted are very affectionate towards their own kind and may even appear friendly to other softs, it's hard to tell if this is a hunting strategy or genuine intent, however.
It's very rare for fragments of the consumed host to remain, but the parasite may accidentally absorb pieces of their personality and memories, thinking they were the original victim all along.
Some blighted are better than others at hiding their true nature, however the black ick flowing from their cracks will always be a dead giveaway.
Subspecies unique abilities or traits;
- 50% fail rate on any magic casting except Poison which will always be a success (during RP events and other events of such nature)
- Enhanched senses
Origin;
If records exist of the Blighted’s creation, they have long since eroded, The only piece of information that’s somewhat readable is the letter of a soft who got infected hundreds of years ago. The pages are withered and many of the words have been blotted out with black ick.
“I’m writing this in the hops future generations will heed my warning and stay away from ██████ we were foolish, we didn’t think ahead, and now our families and future generations will pay the price for our ignorance”
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████
We didn’t mean for this to happen
████████████████
D̸o̵ ̷y̵o̸u̶ ̶t̶h̷i̶n̶k̶ ̴h̶i̴d̵i̴n̵g̷ ̴i̴n̸ ̸t̷h̸e̸ ̸c̸a̴r̶c̴a̵s̷s̶ ̵o̷f̵ ̵a̴ ̶g̴o̴d̸ ̷w̶i̶l̴l̵ ̷h̴i̵d̶e̷ ̵y̵o̶u̶ ̷f̵o̶r̵e̶v̴e̷r̴?̸”
Biology;
Normal form
- Claws
- cracks with ick flow
- optional extra eyes
True form;
- full ick body
- covered in antenna
- no teeth
- single cyclops eye
(not needed for ML entries, purely for visual reference)
Infection cycle;
(trigger warning; infection cycle. No true gore)
Stage 1;
status; curable
symptoms;
- barely any symptoms
- Little dizziness
- If infection through bite; the goo will be slightly darker in affected area
Stage 2;
status; curable
symptoms;
- Softstone starts to become very brittle as time passes on
- dizziness, difficulty concentrating, bad coordination
Stage 3;
status; curable
symptoms;
- Excessive drooling
- darkened goo in the centers
- nausea, dizziness, agitation
Stage 4;
status; curable (rarely)
symptoms;
- spines erupt from the goo from darkened center, these act as antenna for the parasite to sense its surroundings and more potential hosts
- Very aggressive towards anyone coming near
- famined
- softstone is crumbling in several places
- barely conscious, seem mindless
Stage 5;
status; Incurable
symptoms;
- the host is now fully consumed by the parasite which sprouts all over the goo, revealing a single aye and a bunch of overgrown antenna from cracks in the body and the goo itself
- The parasite is very weak during this stage but very infectious
Stage 6;
status; Incurable
symptoms;
- The antenna are retreating back into the body, the parasite is preparing the body for use and making itself comfortable in its new vessel
Stage 7;
status; Incurable
symptoms;
- The assimilation is complete, the parasite will often try to mimic the host’s old appearance but hardly ever succeeds.
- They create a false mask out of softstone to hide their true eye
- The parasite’s goo is hidden at the center, ready to spike out if near another potential host
How does a soft get infected?
- touching a black ick puddle
- eating rotten softstone
- infection through scratch or bite with an infected
For lore purposes, can my soft get infected and then get cured?
yes !
Habitat;
Primarily wander the ichor lands or secluded places
Known Locations or Tribes;
None yet !
—
Mechanics;
Required traits;
A blighted soft must also have these features (* is optional)
- Cracks (minimum of 1)
- Black spines coming out of the goo
- Ick veins spreading through the goo*
- Very liquidy/drippy goo*
- black chunks*
Additional traits;
Availability;
You can obtain a (subspecies) either through Pairing slots or using the False Promiss item on a MYO or Existing character. Please read the item description for a more detailed explanation!
