Gheforis
Anatomy & Morphology
Gheforis are fungus that overtake the bodies and intelligence of hosts. Their mycelium subsumes all important parts of the body, either killing a living host or taking a recently deceased body. Majorly, they take the brains of their hosts, their mycelium puppeting the neurons to act on their will. They also learn the structures of their host, becoming their host. They use their mycelium to send signals to move muscles from the brain as well as from within the muscles. An adult gheforis will have its mycelium all throughout the host's body, visible tendrils on and underneath the exterior; older Gheforis will have more of their mycelium showing.
They have their own intelligence, yes, but they also coopt the intelligence of the creature they take over. They can imagine themselves, spurred on by instincts to feed and spore, the usual aspects of living. But features of the host, such as an innate understanding of how to use the bird's body to fly or a Drake's fire breathing is taken.
They have their own intelligence, yes, but they also coopt the intelligence of the creature they take over. They can imagine themselves, spurred on by instincts to feed and spore, the usual aspects of living. But features of the host, such as an innate understanding of how to use the bird's body to fly or a Drake's fire breathing is taken.
Habits
Dietary Needs and Patterns
After reaching adulthood, gheforis will slow their subsumption of the host, trying to rely mostly on what the host eats. In this way, they are omnivores, as their diest consists of what their host would naturally eat. It also means that they must consume more than their host would since they are feeding themselves and their host to keep it operational. This also means that creatures that need more food are more difficult to sustain, like Sohpes, leading to less gheforis using them as hosts. Their dietary needs also mean that taking over a living creature with an Imbalanced Soul is very dangerous as they are almost assured to become familiars. Then, when that creature dies, they become solitary creatures without a proper balance of should, leading to life-long health problems.
Hygiene
They do inexorably consume their host, dually to eat and to enthrall their host with mycelium in key areas to puppet them. They will continue to subsume and consume, though they slow down after reaching adulthood. It's better to puppet for them, taking nutrients as they enter the host's body through their digestion. But their nature is to spread and spread they will until the host is no more. And because they can eat really anything, they tend to be very hygienic, their mycelium consuming any exterior microbes or intruders on the body or anything that enters the body, like a secondary immune system, if an immune system ate. This isn't to say they can eat everything, they will encounter parasites and the like that will bring them harm.Subsumation of a Host
Living
If the host is living at inoculation, the gheforis will first target the breathing mechanism in order to spread as fast as possible (they must be inside the host for a chance at life). They will then try to reach the brain to take control and kill their host, so they cannot fight back against the intruder. Because of the great effort, a gheforis has to exert to kill their host, and the host typically has an immune system to fight back, unless there are a lot of spores they will likely be killed tiring to grow. A gheforis is less likely to take over a living host and will take longer to reach adulthood, but they tend to live longer lives.
After all major parts of the body are subsumed and puppeted, the gheforis will slow their growth, though they cannot fully stop. They will continue to subsume, mycelial strands taking more control of the host for a time before there will not be much left to puppet. At some point in their lives, they will not have enough of the hosts' muscle to continue locomotion. At this point, they will continue to their death incapacitated, unable to speak, and generally unavailable to connections with species beyond other gheforis. And, because they can no longer use the host to retrieve food, they will starve to death.
Dead
If the host is deceased at inoculation, there is no immune system to fight them and thus they do need to target the lungs or be inside the host. They will still rush to subsume much of the brain, then spread to all major organs of the body. Because the body is deceased, there will need to have work done to bring the body back to operating capacity. The most difficult part for the gheforis is any parts that have rotten away, as they will need to fill those spots with themselves and mimic whatever it is. This also means that the longer the body has been dead, the less likely the gheforis will successfully grow to adulthood. It also means that the gheforis will not live as long, since there is already more of the body subsumed upon reaching adulthood.
Since the advent of the creation of the Lovunal R Rela, rela gheforis are forbidden to subsume any living in the nations that are apart of the Aldcom, the cessation of predation of other rela. This has been a long understanding between gheforis and continues over most of the world, but due to some gheforis having hosts of less intelligent creatures, there are still cases of living being taken as hosts. There are some cases of those who are about to die offering their body to a loved gheforis, a child made from both of them.
My parents were Yara and Telnde, a gheforis and a humi. It's a bit weird, since Telnde is, well, me. Yara loved them so much that, when they died, I was born. It's always weird when I have to explain this to whoever, me being my parent. It also means I never got to meet them, being raised by Yara and their, my, caravan. I guess I kind of know what they were like, their memories linger within me. But I'm still me, I'm my own decisions and own being, no matter where I came from.
Mating Rituals & Family
Innoculation
Gheforis are holomrphs, asexuality occurring typically at death when they do not have a partner. When they are ready to breed, they will grow mushrooms all over their bodies, wherever they are exposed to sunlight, and will sporulate on a potential host. They will try to find one or more mates to sporulate with, an instinctual need to increase genetic diversity; there is no technical limit to how many may participate in the creation of an offspring. When sporulating, they will try to aim for the face, so the host may inhale the spores.
Childhood
When growing, the many spores will grow mycelium and hyphae. While seeking the brian, they will also seek each other, the hyphae linking the multiple clusters into one being and sharing genetic code. Hyphae have more light within them than the rest of the gheforis, like little auric beacons to help seek each other out. during plasmogamy, they have a joyous sensation, many gheforis claiming their childhood is the happiest time of their lives. Eventually, all the clusters will join into one being, no longer producing hyphae and becoming one singular being. This unity is the line between childhood and adulthood, and the time when they are able to fruit and continue their family line.
I've heard a tale of a gheforis who did not subsume their host before reaching adulthood. Fa'oon, the one in question, whose parent was a Nreex and a young humi Jassen, gained consciousness and stopped themselves from fully taking over. I wrote their story down and stored it away at the Great Koagn Library. Incomplete, you can ask a librarian for my work.
Adulthood
The other line between child and adult is when the gheforis has full puppetry of the host. This tends to happen when they have around 40% subsumption. The gheforis will have full mastery of puppeting their host, to them, the host is their body, it may be too existential or overwhelming to think otherwise. Adulthood will be the longest time in their lives, typically about half the lifespan of whatever creature they take. Other than their anatomy, their childhood and adulthood will be like any other species, they will become functioning members of society that will live their own lives.
Death
Death occurs when the gheforis is no longer able to puppet the host and will proceed to consume what remains before starving. The typical line between adulthood and death is around 90% subsumption. They will have an instinctual urge to leave society and settle down somewhere warm and moist to rest. They will spend their remaining days in peace, fruiting as much as possible and sporulating for a last chance to create offspring. This means there are groves, graveyards as some would say, of dying or dead gheforis not too far from town.
Living
If the host is living at inoculation, the gheforis will first target the breathing mechanism in order to spread as fast as possible (they must be inside the host for a chance at life). They will then try to reach the brain to take control and kill their host, so they cannot fight back against the intruder. Because of the great effort, a gheforis has to exert to kill their host, and the host typically has an immune system to fight back, unless there are a lot of spores they will likely be killed tiring to grow. A gheforis is less likely to take over a living host and will take longer to reach adulthood, but they tend to live longer lives.After all major parts of the body are subsumed and puppeted, the gheforis will slow their growth, though they cannot fully stop. They will continue to subsume, mycelial strands taking more control of the host for a time before there will not be much left to puppet. At some point in their lives, they will not have enough of the hosts' muscle to continue locomotion. At this point, they will continue to their death incapacitated, unable to speak, and generally unavailable to connections with species beyond other gheforis. And, because they can no longer use the host to retrieve food, they will starve to death.
Dead
If the host is deceased at inoculation, there is no immune system to fight them and thus they do need to target the lungs or be inside the host. They will still rush to subsume much of the brain, then spread to all major organs of the body. Because the body is deceased, there will need to have work done to bring the body back to operating capacity. The most difficult part for the gheforis is any parts that have rotten away, as they will need to fill those spots with themselves and mimic whatever it is. This also means that the longer the body has been dead, the less likely the gheforis will successfully grow to adulthood. It also means that the gheforis will not live as long, since there is already more of the body subsumed upon reaching adulthood.Since the advent of the creation of the Lovunal R Rela, rela gheforis are forbidden to subsume any living in the nations that are apart of the Aldcom, the cessation of predation of other rela. This has been a long understanding between gheforis and continues over most of the world, but due to some gheforis having hosts of less intelligent creatures, there are still cases of living being taken as hosts. There are some cases of those who are about to die offering their body to a loved gheforis, a child made from both of them.
Innoculation
Gheforis are holomrphs, asexuality occurring typically at death when they do not have a partner. When they are ready to breed, they will grow mushrooms all over their bodies, wherever they are exposed to sunlight, and will sporulate on a potential host. They will try to find one or more mates to sporulate with, an instinctual need to increase genetic diversity; there is no technical limit to how many may participate in the creation of an offspring. When sporulating, they will try to aim for the face, so the host may inhale the spores.Childhood
When growing, the many spores will grow mycelium and hyphae. While seeking the brian, they will also seek each other, the hyphae linking the multiple clusters into one being and sharing genetic code. Hyphae have more light within them than the rest of the gheforis, like little auric beacons to help seek each other out. during plasmogamy, they have a joyous sensation, many gheforis claiming their childhood is the happiest time of their lives. Eventually, all the clusters will join into one being, no longer producing hyphae and becoming one singular being. This unity is the line between childhood and adulthood, and the time when they are able to fruit and continue their family line.I've heard a tale of a gheforis who did not subsume their host before reaching adulthood. Fa'oon, the one in question, whose parent was a Nreex and a young humi Jassen, gained consciousness and stopped themselves from fully taking over. I wrote their story down and stored it away at the Great Koagn Library. Incomplete, you can ask a librarian for my work.
Adulthood
The other line between child and adult is when the gheforis has full puppetry of the host. This tends to happen when they have around 40% subsumption. The gheforis will have full mastery of puppeting their host, to them, the host is their body, it may be too existential or overwhelming to think otherwise. Adulthood will be the longest time in their lives, typically about half the lifespan of whatever creature they take. Other than their anatomy, their childhood and adulthood will be like any other species, they will become functioning members of society that will live their own lives.Death
Death occurs when the gheforis is no longer able to puppet the host and will proceed to consume what remains before starving. The typical line between adulthood and death is around 90% subsumption. They will have an instinctual urge to leave society and settle down somewhere warm and moist to rest. They will spend their remaining days in peace, fruiting as much as possible and sporulating for a last chance to create offspring. This means there are groves, graveyards as some would say, of dying or dead gheforis not too far from town.
Average Lifespan
10-?. The Elder Gheforis hase 'lived' for thousands of years, though many of them they remained in dormancy. Typically, a gheforis will live half the lifespan of their host, evnetually subsuming them.
Size
They grow to be the size of their host
10-?. The Elder Gheforis hase 'lived' for thousands of years, though many of them they remained in dormancy. Typically, a gheforis will live half the lifespan of their host, evnetually subsuming them.
Size
They grow to be the size of their host
Original Ecology & Habitat
Their evolutionary origin is from deep within jungles and cities where the number of possible hosts is quite high and the air is humid & warm. They can survive in nearly any environment, as long as there is life there to pass on their genes. Most of the areas of civilized areas have gheforis of rela or oql intelligence. However, in rural areas where they have yet to be exterminated, dangerous nel roam. A nel will not understand that they must not sporulate on the living and will simply try to breed.Subspecies
Ohulx
Appearance
Their fruiting bodies are bell-shaped and capped. Their mycelium is of a green-grey hue.Yuhx
Appearance
Their fruiting bodies are thin talks with a fuzzy puffball hemi bulb. Their mycelium is a whitish hue. by Richard Whitters
Wild concept for a playable race. Do they have their own magic or use magic as a learned ability?
The way magic works in my world is everyone had it, from a flower to a humi. I do have yet to add species-specific magic. Also, they probably gain whatever species magic the host has. And, they might also gain whatever the individual is able to do, at least if they have memories from them, which isn't common and often too vague to be of use.