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Dangers of Okoto: A comparative Analysis


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Dangers of Okoto

A Comparative Analysis of the Physiological and Cultural Distinctions Between Various Antagonistic Forces

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An introductory Overview

 

After the initial report on the native sophants of Okoto, the preliminary investigative team discovered evidence of an invading force. Although they could not interfere directly with the situation, they were able to follow the actions of a group of warriors that the Morehu summoned, and furthermore capable of observing the various entities with which they battled, and furthermore had encounters with two individuals who, thankfully, decided against exposing them to the natives--mostly because they themselves were not willing to be exposed. What follows is a recount of the five various species, and their known behaviors: the Skull Spiders, the Lord, the Scorpios, the Eirian, and the Kaukino. Note that the last two names come from the individuals the investigative team spoke with, and are the only members of this list to be confirmed sophants themselves. There is also one last addition to the Morehu report, further detailed at the end of this.

 

Part 1: Skull Spiders

 

The Skull Spiders became a menace to the greater Okoto population after the Lord of Skull Spiders somehow obtained the Golden Mask of the Skull Spiders. Despite their name, Skull Spiders appear to be more closely related to the insect-like lifeformes of Okoto than the anthropod life forms; they only have six limbs, two of which are adapted specifically to lock into the telepathic "ports" of the Morehu and other creatures with similar structures. From what could be determined, the natural use of these limbs is to imbue the victim with a strong urge to protect Skull Spider nests; however, at the time of the investigation, the Lord of Skull Spiders was using the Golden Mask to alter that compulsion into destruction of Masks of power. The natural behavior of Skull Spiders is not clear, again due to the interference of the Lord, but from observation and conversation the swarming behaviors they exercised during the investigation is quite unnatural.

 

Skull Spiders come in four known colors: Red, Green, Silver, and Blue. Red Skull Spiders appear to be the rarest breed, despite having the largest range of location; it is unclear at this time whether they have any unique abilities or are simply powerless mutants. Green Skull Spiders tend to make their home in the south-west regions of Fire and Earth; the signature coloring is given by a sub-dermal chemical which reacts to the presence of life forms, which allows the Skull Spiders to locate potential hosts even through the rock of the Earth region tunnels and the thick smog of the Fire region. Silver Skull Spiders prefer the northern Ice and Water regions, where packets of air in their carapaces lighten their weight to a point where they can move incredibly swiftly. The Blue Skull Spiders, whose coloration is due to the thickness of their shell, dominate the middle range of Okoto; while the ones in the Region of Jungle resemble other Skull Spiders aside from their color, the ones in the Region of Stone have a unique mutation that gives them a pointed, but non-venomous stinger tail.

 

Of particular interest is the Skull Spider's post death usability. The body of a Skull Spider retains the telepathic compulsion that it had in life--anyone foolish enough to wear a Skull Spider as a trophy might very well find themselves with an urge to protect the nest of the creature, even if the creature had no nest. Furthermore, it is apparently possible to 'train' a Skull Spider to give a different set of instructions--indeed, one of the Eirian individuals the team observed had been forcefully put under the control of the Lord through use of a Silver Skull Spider. This alone makes the species incredibly dangerous in the hands of a determined or cunning individual; with the addition of the Golden Mask of Skull Spiders being able to somehow direct them, it is plausible that they were artificially created by some unknown force for just that specific purpose. Thankfully, the summoned warriors were able to remove the Golden Mask from the claws of the Lord, rendering them mere pests.

Edited by MasterweaverX
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Part 2: Lord of Skull Spiders

 

A shadowy figure stalks the myths of the Morehu, guarding secrets long forgotten. Hidden tunnels in the icy mountains; ancient ruins in the deepest jungles; legendary forges in the fiery lava flows; dark caves, mysterious islands, and abandoned fortresses. It's unclear whether there's only one of these beings, or many spread out all across Okoto, but there is a clear purpose to this creature's movements; it works to keep the greatest of the former empire's power out of the hands of the modern world. The investigative team has only seen the one that guards the great city of the mask makers, but that one creature is terrifying enough--a spider as large as the warriors who fought it, black and grey and streaks of glowing orangish red. Thankfully the warriors managed to throw the creature to the bottom of a deep valley, and the corpse, such as it was, was investigated thoroughly. From this, a general body plan was reconstructed, and the possible behaviors extrapolated.

 

The Lord of Skull Spiders, so named because of its control of the Golden Mask of Skull Spiders, is an arachnid-like creature whose core body is about four feet long, possessing three pairs of two-feet long legs. Each of these limbs has a thumblike "claw" near the tip, assumed to be used for manipulation; the front pair has additional thumb-spurs on the elbow, which may or may not be used to bring captured prey closer to the mouth. A fourth pair of limbs is fused to the creature's abdomen in such a manner as to resemble some form of white blade; it is unclear what these two blades would be used for, aside from intimidation, but theories include protecting the rear or simply slicing at their own webs. Behind the web are another pair of white barbs, growing from red "shoulderpads;" it is generally assumed that these function as the creature's ears. The head of the Lord has six pairs of eyes; the uppermost pair seems to be the primary visual set, with the middle and lower pairs adapted to normal and low-light vision. There are also four large outer fangs, apparently for holding prey, and two inner fangs capable of injecting a dangerous venom. Most intriguing are the cheek-glands that can be used to spray webbing at the Lord's foes.

 

Oddly, while the creature's limbs and bodies did have an orangeish red glow while it was in motion, the corpse examined not only did not display these attributes but also provided no explanation as to the source of the glow. Aside from the ear-shoulders, fangs, claws, and barbs, the creature's chitin was entirely black and grey on examination. Still, from the evidence and the body structure, it can be assumed that the Lord is incredibly strong, an ambush predator of some sort, and capable of a surprising degree of adaptability. Most unnerving, however, was the fact that it was using a mask from the Morehu's ancient empire; this implies that the Lord is, to some degree, intelligent, if not outright being sapient. It is entirely possible that the creature examined was not the only one of its kind.

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Part 3: Scorpios

 

Skittering across the regions of stone and earth are small groups of dangerous predators, well adapted to the hostile climates they have claimed. They stalk their prey from a distance, watching for days as they determine the movements and methods of their chosen targets; when they are certain they have a grasp of how the victim thinks, they will arrange an ambush to make a meal out of their target. They are crafty enough, usually, to avoid attacking Morehu; the launchers and other tools that the villagers have, not to mention their large social groups, is enough to deter a Scorpio pack and convince them to go looking for an easier meal. Still, the armor of lone Morehu have been found in Scorpio nests on occasion, picked clean with not even bones left behind.

 

Scorpios, as the name implies, resemble giant scorpions in appearance; six three-foot long legs support a compact core body, with a pair of arms in front and a six-foot long tail swaying behind. The core body has a yellowish carapace, with three black spurs jutting laterally across the back; similar touches of yellow can be found on the chitin on the arm and tail, but most of the Scorpio's armor ranges from black to silver. Each arm ends in a silver three-clawed hand, with the 'thumb' wide enough to act as a spade; this is used to dig nests out of sandy dunes or in the crevices of mountains. The tail is capped with a massive, bladed pincer, able to lunge forward, grapple prey, and drag them into reach of the deadly claws. A Scorpio's head is a nightmare for the Morehu; the upper portion vaguely resembles a villager's, but below the eyes is a sick assemblage of eight mandables meant to rip chunks off their victims.

 

All this would be frightening enough on its own, but the Skull Scorpios used by the invading force are even more frightening. Their claws and tail pincer are edged with a red glow, which from observation was able to poison victims with necrotic energy. Each Skull Scorpio wore a Bull-Skull mask, which furthered their endurance and the strength of their grappling tails. Most disturbingly, their already incredible intelligence was heightened to near-sophant levels; they began to grasp tactics and the usage of technology, which gave them another dangerous set of tools to use and making them perfect elite agents. Thankfully, after Kichigai was defeated, they lost this ability and began to act as normal Scorpios again; while they retained the masks and claws they had gained, the warriors were able to defeat the Scorpios that came after them easily.

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  • 2 months later...

Part 4: Eirian

 

The Eirian are not native to Okoto, but come from another region of the world. Once they traded with the Morehu empire, but it was rare that they visited Okoto itself; most Eirian were content to merely purchase masks of power or other artifacts in exchange for exotic goods. Some individuals did, however, leave their own society to live among the Morehu; typically they remained in the cities of the Empire, making a life as merchant lords and minor 'foreign' celebrities. One of the most famous of these was Kichigai, who would later be forcibly employed by Kulta the Skull Grinder via Skull Spider; the only other individual known of is Keikoku, the Eirian individual who encountered and spoke directly with the investigative team.

Eirian are usually five and a half feet tall bipeds, although with the use of the size-enhancing Bull mask they can grow to eight feet tall. They appear to be meta-insects of some sort, with sectioned torsos and two pairs of arms; their fore-arms and lower legs are covered in thin plates of chitinous silver armor, which also gives a clawed appearance to their hands and the four toes on their feet. The central color of their body can, apparently, range through different colorations; Kichigai was forest green while Keikoku had an icy blue coloration. The face, when unmasked, is strikingly similar to that of a morehu, although with larger fangs and a chitinous covering. Eirian have the ability to forcibly slow their own body processes down, operating on smaller amounts of sustenance for long periods of time; this ability is apparently what allowed Kichigai to survive to the current day, although he was apparently driven insane during that time.

 

From the description of Keikoku, the Eirian society appears to value cunning and honor to a high degree. Members of the Eirian nation are selected from schools for their roles at a young age; they are then trained to be the best they can within their field, with an emphasis on fulfilling their duty over any other action. Members of each caste decorate their chest with 'prizes' by literally pinning them into the chitin plates; while both Keikoku and Kichigai were of Warrior castes and thus decorated themselves with chains (and in Kichigai's case, bones), other castes are described as wearing fancy ribbons or tools of their trade as appropriate. Not much else is known about the Eirian in general, but Kichigai was described as 'disgraced' by Keikoku, carried a chained grasper that his caste apparently specialized in, and was forced to command the Skull Scorpios by Kulta after forcibly having a silver Skull Spider shoved on his face. Keikoku would not explain much about his mission, only that he was sent to see 'who would awaken'; shortly after the encounter with the investigative team, he vanished.

Edited by MasterweaverX
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Should this be moved to Epics? I feel this is more creative than speculative/theorising.

"Keep in mind that if Star Trek fans had, as a group, said, 'No point in talking about this anymore, it's never going to come back,' it never WOULD have come back."

 

-Greg Farshtey

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I think this can stay here; it's not really a narrative of sorts, so I don't think the Library is the right place. It's true that the format is a bit foreign to S&T, but since the last topic was in this forum without any problems, I think the same should be said for this one.

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