Agsimer

People often say I have my mother's eyes. I find this highly amusing, for I only call one of her eyes my own. My dearest sister carries the other one.
~Hepara "Argosbride" Jekaru, Collector-Princess of Anostos

The list of invective describing the Agsimer is as long as it is disturbing and includes linguistic masterpieces such as "Organrobber", "Childflayer" and "Worm Freak". While at least some of these nicknames are based on false assumptions and prejudices, an unsettling high amount of them describes the Agsimer pretty accurately.
Like other Ikona subspecies, the Agsimer also carry their very own arcane disease, which in their case is known as either Augnil or the "Crawling Flesh of the Black Harvest". In similar fashions to the afflictions carried by other survivors of the Second Spring, this disease has some rather severe symptoms, which in the case of the Agsimer consists of an incurable infection of their internal organs with a plethora of parasitic worms, that quickly destroy the organs of their hosts.
Luckily for the Agsimer and to the dismay of their victims, the Agsimer quickly discovered a solution for the insatiable hunger of their Snaf'ninocs ("Little guest"), which consists of simply replacing their failing organs with those of other creatures.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Freshly born Agsimer or individuals that go for a more traditional look, have the same basic anatomy as other Ikonas and are distinguishable from other subspecies due to their silver-colored veins, ash grey hair and ice-blue eyes, as well as the little worms that occasional crawl out of their orifices.
Due to the unique circumstances of their affliction more detailed descriptions of their appearance are rather pointless, given that the Agsimer are able to change and replace their organs and extremity with the same frequency as a noble lady might change her wardrobe.
Due to this, the Agsimer have no problem to masquerade as other Ikonas or even other species, as long as they have a full "set" of matching body parts. This is until one of their "little guests" crawls out of their eyeball in the middle of a conversation, which is a dead giveaway regarding their true nature.

Genetics and Reproduction

Lacking the capabilities for natural reproduction the Agsimer instead reproduce through the infection of other species with their characteristic affliction. Unlike other Ikonas the Agsimer happily share their "gift" with other species, carrying little for the qualifications and in many cases the consent of their chosen candidate.
To make matters worse, the affliction of the Agsimer is actually infectious and is, therefore, able to turn other species into Agsimer without the "parents" even being aware of the newest additions to their family. This infectious replication is especially common in city-states with a strong presence of the infamous Haeblash-cult, as the organ-carriers utilized by the cult members are prone to contract the disease of their masters.

Growth Rate & Stages

While the Agsimers are biologically immortal and therefore don't age, they still differentiate juvenile individuals from more "mature" ones based on the replacement rates of their internal organs.
Suv'rev ("New worms") designates freshly created individuals that have yet to undergo their first surgery, making them the closest thing that the Agsimer have to children. Based on the aggressiveness of their individual parasites this stage can last anywhere from a few days up to multiple months.
Era-Nu ("Changed Ones") is the name given to individuals that replaced at least one of their initial organs. The replacement of the first organ is often accompanied by a coming-of-age ceremony.
Sidirtan ("Freshborn") are individuals that underwent a complete replacement of all of their internal organs. These cycles of complete replacement are commonly used by the Agsimer as a means to indicate the "age" of an individual, and the acquisition of titles and certain offices is often linked to a minimal amount of replacement cycles.

Dietary Needs and Habits

As the Agsimer are able to completely exchange their digestive system with that of other species and creatures, there are very few things in Cenorad that they considered as inedible. In most cases, the transplantation of a new tongue is enough to turn a once disgusting substance into a feast worthy of a king.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Grace makes right.
~A popular Agsimer saying

The society of the Agsimer still retains many features of the Old Empire and therefore highly values the beauty of an individual. In sharp contrast to the society before the Second Spring, the Agsimer almost exclusively focus on the physical appearance of an individual and often completely disregard any and all personality traits.
While the Agsimer do not possess such a rigid class system as for example the Curnias, one is still able to differentiate three distinct social classes within the city-states of the Agsimer.
The Ere-Lav ("Shaper of Fashion") are the most "beautiful" individuals of their respective city-state and the ones that set the example for all others to follow. Given that for the Agsimer beauty equals power, the Ere-Lav are also the most powerful and influentials members of a city-state, shaping the fate of the city and its inhabitant with the same grace and elegance with which they shape the current transplantation trends. Despite or rather especially due to all the beauty and power that they hold the Ere-Lav are highly competitive and tried to continually outrival each other.
Inferior in both power and beauty to the Ere-Lav, the Ra'ex ("Frames of Perfection") fulfill the role of lesser nobles and serve as close advisors and bodyguards to the Shapers of Fashion. Additionally, they also assist them in the creation of new trends and are therefore the first individuals to showcase the newest "trend" created by their chosen master. While Ra'ex that stole both the position and organs of their former masters are certainly not unheard of, they are general loyal towards their master due to the fact that their own standing within society is heavily linked to the prestige and renown of their masters and secondly due to the various worm-coils implanted within their own organs, which if activated would forcefully eject their organs.
The Ro'rcs ("Seeker of Beauty") form the lowest social class of the Agsimer and therefore serve as the grunts and peasants of the city-states. While they are generally considered as either plain ugly or even downright hideous by the members of the "beautiful" elite, they are in most cases the ones considered the most beautiful by other species. Given the dim view that most Agsimers have of the fashion sense of "lesser" species, this fact causes the Ro'rcs even more distress than the scorn of their more beautiful siblings.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Given their extreme adaptability, the Agsimer settle nearly everywhere in Cenorad, only avoiding the most hostile of places and even then they might still send hunting parties into these regions in order to acquire rare and exotic organs.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Due to their ability to simply implant various additional sensory organs within their bodies, the Agsimer have the potential to archive a sensory perception otherwise only found in supernatural entities. Despite the advantages offered by such levels of perception, only few Agsimer go through the trouble of acquiring the necessary organs, as many of these organs are either extremely rare or required the implantation of auxiliary organs in order to correctly process the sensory information offered by the more exotic organs. Furthermore, the implantation of many sensory organs carries with it the risk of a devastating sensory overload.
In addition to their "natural" senses, the Agsimer also posses actual extrasensory capabilities, in the form of their so-called Sim'siv ("Wormsight"), which allows them to perceive the world through the "eyes" of their little guests. This ability is especially handy if they managed to infect another individual with a few of their worms, turning their victim into a walking listening device.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

The worms festering inside their intestines are actually not a different species but are instead formed from the tissue of their host, making them practically "children" of their host, which might also explain the affection that the Agsimer show towards their "Little guests". As only a mother could ever love a child that is currently busy with digesting her spleen.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Similar to their bodies their names are an amalgamation of various parts, taken from all over the world, but instead of bodies, the Agsimer harvest the pieces of their names from poems, tales and the names of their victims. Due to this, the name of an individual can reach absurd lengths, taking minutes if not hours to fully recite. Luckily most Agsimers refrain from using their actual name and instead adopt a "pseudonym".
Agsimer involved with the Haeblash cult also often carry a so-called "dress name" as a middle name, which describes the piece of organ "artwork" that they are currently wearing.
Agsimers that already underwent a total replacement of each of their body parts, often add a number to the end of their name to indicate at the cycles of total replacements that they underwent, which results in such beautiful names like Medalla "Liontongue" Ossiem CCVI.

Major Organizations

Haeblash-cult

Originating from the infamous city-island of Anostos, the Haeblash-cult is singlehandedly responsible for the poor view most species have of the Agsimer. The members of the cult are highly elitist organ collectors that care not for the screaming lumps of meat that are attached to a specific organ, which happened to catch their fancy. The cult has members in nearly all city-states of the Agsimer, existing either openly or hidden from the watchful eyes of the purist authorities.

Purity Ministry

Acting as the secret service of the city-island of Makimos the Purity Ministry is tasked with the elimination of Haeblas cultists and anyone else that the Iron Council considers as "impure". While the Ministry initially focuses its activities on Makimos and its various vassal cities, it quickly widened its area of operations to include nearly all Agsimer city-states. Today agents of the Ministry can be encounter in nearly all city-states, but given the fact that every agent is armed with possible dozen of vat-grown implant weapons and that also wields forgotten technologies of the Old Empire this is an encounter one should try to avoid.

Versumo

A religious sect that worships all types of parasitic worms and regards infection as a blessing rather than a curse. The members of the sect offer up their own organs as sacrifices to their worms, turning them into little more than rotting cadavers moved around by the will of mind-affecting parasites. The vilest of these worm-infested bodies are the so-called "Blessed Hosts", monstrously bloated amalgamations of organs that serve as breeding grounds for thousands of scared worms and blessed maggots. While not the original founders of this "religion" the expertise and natural connection the Agsimer have to worms and the Grey River allowed them to easily established themselves as blessed prophets within the preexisting sects.

Beauty Ideals

Bodies are my canvas and organs are the paint.
~Digitin "Fingertail" Mena'os, Freespirit-Creator

For the Agsimer true beauty is not something superficial but is instead determined by the "inner values" of an individual. Be it neatly arranged organ-collars, beautiful mosaics made from never blinking eyes or simple plaits of interwoven intestines, to the Agsimer transplantation and art are inseparably intertwined.
As art is known to be a highly subjective topic, each and every Agsimer has his own personal "style", which at least in some cases allows one to identify a certain individual even though they replace most of their organs.

Gender Ideals

So you say that if I place some lumps of fat right here, I am a fine lady, but if I do the same with the finest lung tissue harvested from a proud Riverbull I am a freak? I almost pity your species for their limited grasp on beauty.
~Pulmera "Lungscarf" Pnimuillia, Arch-Collector

Given the focus of their society on individual beauty and the fact they view all organs -including sexual organs- as mere clothing articles; both the concepts of sex and gender are generally lost on the Agsimer. Individuals that regularly interact with other species, might nevertheless develope a preferred gender, especially if a specific appearance makes it easier to acquire fresh organs.

Courtship Ideals

The Agsimer take the phrases of "throwing an eye at somebody" and "giving someone their heart", a bit more literally than other species are entirely comfortable with.

Relationship Ideals

Given that their parasites are also literally a piece of them, the exchange of infected organs between two Agsimer is seen as a highly intimate action and connects the two individuals on a very "personal" level with each other. While this gesture is rarely performed without hidden intentions, the mere overtone that one would go to such length to acquire the organs of another individual is seen as the closest approximation the Agsimer have to a marriage proposal.

Average Technological Level

Given the relatively ordered transition from the Old Empire, the various city-states of the Agsimer managed to secure quite a lot of technologies from the Old Empire. Yet as a result of the "creative" atmosphere created by the Haeblash-cult many of these artifacts were either accidentally destroyed or warped into new bizarre forms to better serve the interests of the cult.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

While still primarily speaking the Omres of the Old Empire, the sheer amount of possible vocal cords that the Agsimer are able to implant within their throats, makes deviations within their speech pattern a norm within their conversations, as it is quite difficult to pronounce regular words with seven tongues.

Common Dress Code

The articles of clothing worn by an Agsimer are highly dependant on the specific city-state and the current predominant fashion style.
Cities influenced by the Haeblash-cult generally have a strong preference for sparse clothing in order to better showcase their masterfully crafted and collected bodies. Though clothing appendages often blurring the line between clothing and transplant.
Purist cities generally prefer more covering clothing in line with the fashion of the Old Empire, though some cities might choose more revealing clothing in order to better present the purity of their citizens.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

The culture of the Agsimer can roughly be divided into four distinct streams of "philosophies", each of which strongly influences the ways in which ways an individual acquires its replacement organs and how exactly it use them.

Naturalists

The Naturalists view the acquisition of new organs as a natural drive similar to hunger or thirst and therefore only acquire organs if some of their old ones are threatened to fail. While they generally combine their hunt for food with the collection of fresh organs, they are not above scavenging them from non-prey creatures if they consider some of their organs as beneficial to their own survival, which besides adaptability is a highly regarded virtue for a Naturalist. Due to this their overall "fashion" style is primarily focused on practicality and functionality, with the exact choice of organs being largely determined their environment and the types of animals living there.

Purists

A countermovement to the debauchery of the Haeblash cult, the "Purists" only use organs originating from "untainted" and "worthy" sources. The most common of these sources are organ-vats and so-called demi-clones spawned from imperfect artificial wombs, though especially ferocious creatures or notable individuals might also be declared as acceptable sources. Given that both of their primary sources are unable to produce large quantities of organs, Purist-aligned societies tend to be very militaristic and combat focused as duels and large scale gladiatorial combats are in many cases the only means through which they can acquire replacements for their failing organs.

Collectors

The main philosophy of the Haeblsah-cult, "Collectors" use any possible means to acquire the rarest and most exotic organs to satisfy their highly eccentric fashion styles. While Collectors tried to implant as much of their vast collection into themselves, even the bizarre biology of the Agsimer has its limit, forcing them to find temporal storages for their organs. The easiest way of storage are so-called "Organspheres", which are translucent worm-gut spheres filled with nurturing fluids and conserving oils. While these spheres are capable of keeping an organ in a viable condition for multiple years, they are nevertheless unable to fully mimic the natural environment of the organ. Due to this Collectors implant their most beloved organs into mostly unwilling hosts that are generally referred to as "Carrier-Slaves".

Creators

Also often found within cities influenced by the Haeblash-cult, "Creators", refrain from using purely natural organs and instead create brand new ones through cross-transplantation and magical assisted breeding experiments. While most Creators are highly adept at creating organs that fit their "abstract" sense of fashion, they are generally less adept in creating organs that are actually able to support the natural homeostasis of their own bodies, which forces them to compensate the shortcomings of their creations through further artificial organs. To make matters worse many creators not only love to turn themselves into a barely functioning anatomical artwork but also love to share the results of their hard labor with other species.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Mut'utluc

Grand festivals that are regularly held within city-states that openly embrace the Haeblash-cult, the Mut'utluc is a mixture of masked balls, fashion shows, and auctions during which the high ranking members of society present their newest collections in organ-based fashion and expedition leaders sell the exotic organs that they acquired during their travels to the highest bidder.

Men-Te'ses

Primarily found within Purist cities the Men-Te'ses are large annual gladiatorial games, during which the inhabitants of the city have to prove their worthiness in combat. The winners of the games are rewarded with freshly vat-grown organs, whereas the losers are cannibalized for spare organs.

History

Begin of the Black Harvest

While initially also suffering from the effects of the Second Spring, the Agsimer quickly managed to adjust to their new condition and therefore were the first Ikona subspecies to successfully rebuild their society. While the initial transplantation procedures were crude and risky in comparison to the ones used by the Agsimer today, the Agsimer made do with grim determination and temporal improvisation. Due to this, the transition from the Old Empire into the various independent Agsimer city-states went relatively smoothing, which allowed the Agsimer to preserve many of the spiritual technologies of the Old Empire, including partially functioning artificial wombs, which they quickly adapted to allow for either imperfect cloning or the growth of new organs.

Rise of the Haeblash-cult

Originally no more than a small gathering of like-minded individuals within the proud city-state of Anostos, the Haeblash-cult quickly spread throughout the city-states of the Agsimer. Its members propagated a novel style of life, which sought to utilize the unique condition of the Agsimer to its fullest potential. Instead of simply harvesting organs out of necessity or as a means to adapt to a hostile environment, the members of the cult collected organs and extremities in the same manner as one might collect paintings or jewelry.
In fact, as the influence of the cult began to spread the Agsimer began to treat their organs more and more like disposable fashion accessories. As more and more city-states succumbed to the excesses of the cult various "mode trends" began to emerge within them, which caused the Agsimer to develop new and interesting ways in which to rearrange and combine various organs. The more "creative" of these approaches resulted in some of the most horrendous organic amalgamations ever seen in Cenorad.

War of Purity

Beginning with the annexation and following purge of the Reedreef atoll by forces belonging to the city-island of Makimos, the Mulle-Titsac ("War of Purity") is an ongoing conflict between the radical Purists of Makimos against the more eccentric parts of the Haeblash-cult and in particular the Great Couturiers of Anostos.

Historical Figures

Adoreha, the First Scar

The very first Agsimer to successfully implant herself with a replacement organ, Adoreha is seen by many as the pioneer of organic beauty. Her name-giving scar is the result of this very operation, but given that Adoreha performed it at herself without any form of anesthetic treatment, it can be considered a miracle that a simple scar is the only remnant of this procedure.
Adoreha is still alive and kicking and currently acts as the headmistress of the Suca'ahra College, which trains the best surgeons and physicians in all of Cenorad. The top students of her class receive the "Scar of Adoreha" as a sign of their exceptional performance, as well as a steadily remainder that one of her "little guests" will always keep an eye on each of their operations.

K'Narf "Everdress" Haebblastieran, the Prime-Collector

The legendary founder of the Haeblas-cult, K'Narf is maybe one of the most infamous individuals in all of Cenorad, rivaling the likes of Nie and Sendam in sheer infamy. Despite all of this infamy, no one is actually sure how K'Narf actually looks like, for his body has undergone so many replacements and rearrangements, that his original self has been forever lost. Some even speculate that the name N'Karf is a pseudonym used by a whole group of high-ranking cult members.

Su'hara Niddiry, Father of a Billion Spawns

More commonly known by his pseudonym as the "Silver Hare of the White Sea", Su'hara is one of the most creative and industrious adherers of the Creator philosophy. While his claim of having created over a billion creatures is most likely a hyperbole, the actual number of his creations is nevertheless gigantic, given that his personal recordings termed the "Book of Births" contains thousands of pages filled with depictions of his nightmarish creations.

Common Myths and Legends

Sinm'agro ("All-in-One")

A myth commonly toled within the more radical Versumo-sects, which tells of a future in which all organisms on Cenorad are linked together to form the so-called Divine Host; a singular world-spanning network of countless organs, which would then serve as the host body of the Primordial-Worm.
While many sects have tried and failed to create such a network, the results of their experiments are the no less horrific Great Hosts, which spawn abhorrent Grey Faries Hybrids that the sects worship as avatars of the Primordial-Worm.

Theme song

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Ikona

Lifespan

Biological immortal

Average Height

On average around 1.6 m but due to their affliction this his a rough estimate at best.

Average Weight

50-60 kg, slightly heavier than other Ikonas, due to the mass their "little guests".

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Their skin is often covered in stitches.

Related Ethnicities

• Hus'kyra

Related Myths

• Fate of the First Dressmaker