Symbiotes
Basic Information
Anatomy
The symbiotes appear to have no solid form when they are without a host, and they have elongated jaws, teeth and tongues.
The symbiotes are amorphous and multicellular organisms of inorganic composition, that can form symbiotic or parasitic bonds with hosts. All symbiotes were telepathically connected to each other through their shared hive-mind which was established by their god Null and after it would be affected by the minds of their hosts.
While "corrupted" symbiotes are cut off from their species' hive-mind and purportedly unable to access their full potential, it has been noted on several occasions that certain long-lived specimens have become more powerful over time, usually by bonding to multiple successive hosts, and can develop increased resistance to heat and sonics with repeated exposure. In some cases, they can undergo spontaneous mutation and develop new abilities.
Symbiotes in general are weak to intense heat and sonics, although successive generations can develop a resistance to these weaknesses, and an individual symbiote can also become more resilient over time. Symbiotes can also amalgamate with one another to become more powerful.
When symbiotes are bonded with other lifeforms, the green liquid that "leaks" from their mouths is how the symbiote excrete waste when it dissolves foreign matter that enters the host's body.
Symbiotes aren't able to bond with hosts who have high levels of vitamin C in their blood streams. There are several levels of biological symbiosis, or "bonding" that can be achieved between a symbiote and its host, each with different biological consequences.
When bonded to a superhuman host, a symbiote can interface with their genomes and physiology to imprint their unique powers and abilities into itself, granting subsequent hosts access to those powers. The symbiote amplifies the strength of its "wearer", so that a reasonably fit human can compete and even exceed even Werespider's strength. It also confers improved speed and agility on the host.
Symbiotes that have fully bonded with their hosts have a more biologically complex symbiosis with their hosts, and can share thoughts and memories with them. The symbiotes are said to have 'genetic memory,' and can read the memories of others of their kind by absorbing chunks of their material.
Biological Traits
Their unique properties make the symbiotes immune to most conventional weapons. They are dense enough to absorbed the force of powerful blows and stop arrows before they reach the host being. Symbiotes tend to be dense, and can absorb even the force of arrows before they reach their hosts.
They are able to process breathable gases for the host when it would otherwise be unable (underwater, for example). They seem to confer a weak healing factor on strongly-bonded hosts, but that bond can also send host and symbiote alike into shock if they are forcibly separated.
All symbiotes have the ability to form tendril-like pseudopods. Terrestrial symbiotes additionally have the power to form solid appendages from their bodies, and have been shown to form spikes, talons, and blades.
Symbiotes can expand to any limit in order to cover any host or object. Symbiotes seem to have some ability to combine their constituent matter.
Genetics and Reproduction
Symbiotes are genderless, usually reproduce asexually (though some symbiotes are hatched from eggs), and are thought to generally produce only one offspring in a lifetime. Symbiotes reproduce not at random as previously assumed, but to bolster their numbers in response to dire threats to the safety of their species.
While they have a latent ability to sense the proximity of their progeny, they usually have no interest in them. The one exception comes once every 1,000 generations, when a symbiote is born with a high risk of psychotic breakdown, and must be guided by older symbiotes, or else destroyed.
Growth Rate & Stages
There is evidence to suggest that the relative power or at least physical strength when bonded to a host of comparable build and musculature, increases with each generation.
Ecology and Habitats
Cold and quiet.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Some symbiotes are able to feed off negative emotions, the latter being able to convert negative emotions into biomass.
Many corrupted symbiotes posses ravenous predatory appetites for the flesh of other life-forms and will influence or force their hosts to commit cannibalism to satiate this.
Symbiotes can feed on their host's adrenaline, usually released into the bloodstream during the fight-or-flight response. They have also been shown to depend on their hosts for a steady supply of phenethylamine, a chemical found as a neurotransmitter in the human brain. While this has been known to lead some symbiotes to consume the brains of others, the chemical can also be ready found in processed chocolate. Other symbiotes deliberately drain their hosts' vital fluids and/or physically consume them from the inside-out.
Biological Cycle
Even if separated from a host, trace remnants of the symbiote's living abyss - called a "codex" - will remain in the host's body. The purpose of the codex is to share information about the host with the rest of the hive, though it can influence the host, enabling them to track the symbiote if separated from it. The remnants a symbiote leaves within its host can also be reactivated if exposed to additional symbiote biomass, though they can also reject and attempt to expel the additional symbiote biomass. Symbiotes can absorb the codices of other symbiotes to become more powerful, temporarily acquiring their traits and whatever unique powers the codex's host may have possessed.
It was revealed that the window period between the contact and the full bonding between a symbiote and its host are 48 hours. Apparently, this period is reset every time the host and symbiote are seperated.
Behaviour
Feral symbiotes are instinctually indifferent or hostile towards their progenitors and progeny. Feral symbiotes are much more effective at bonding to their host if the host has the same feelings and urges as the symbiote. In addition to reflecting and reacting to the emotions and desires of their hosts, symbiotes are able to project their own emotions and personal desires to the point of assuming complete control over their host's body if they so choose. A symbiote's influence over its host can be resisted and suppressed through a number of means, including willpower and chemical sedatives.
While the symbiotes are connected to a host, they raise their host's dopamine levels. They can apparently be killed only if they themselves wished or at least be forced into some sort of death-like state, by an overdose of dopamine-inhibitor.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
They can share their senses/sensory with the creatures they form a symbiotic relationship with.
Symbiotes have some ability to sense the thoughts and emotions of sentient creatures, though to what extent remains unclear.
Symbiotes have a genetic memory, allowing them to exploit their parents' knowledge through ancestral recall.
Symbiotes seem to have some latent psychic abilities, allowing them to respond to the thoughts of their hosts, and each other.
Civilization and Culture
Relationship Ideals
There is no family structure, and in fact it seems to be common among corrupted symbiotes for parent and offspring to hate each other.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Violent (after syncing to the hosts who has full of negative behaviours), generally solitary, peaceful (originally)
Symbiotes are fully aware and sentient creatures, but in their natural state are vicious predators, compelling their hosts to violence and corrupting them, being addicted to their host's emotions as they themselves didn't naturally have feelings. However, they can be influenced by their hosts, which resulted in them seeking to forsake their dark nature. Going to extreme lengths to expunge their origins from their history, the symbiotes of Klyntar had no notable cultural traits, or at least none other civilizations would understand, nor did they express themselves through literature, art, nor music. Outside of a desire to maintain peace across the land, the Symbiotes only gain some form of cultural identity when they are bonded to a host. Malevolent symbiotes who broke away from the Symbiotes hive-mind formed into the intergalactic Symbiote Hive and seek to conquer.
The Symbiotes by themselves without hosts don't have actual names and differentiated from each other through the use of emotional patterns that were unpronounceable to humans.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Klyntars
Origin/Ancestry
The Unknown Lands
Lifespan
600 years
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