Birth of Greatmother Klaxas

Public astrohistorical record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

Content Warning:
This article contains mild body horror.

Klaxas was the homeworld of the Ktlac Ktlac and served as the capital world of the Qcwu Ssractxa up until their territory was overrun by the skethal infestation over 308 years ago. Eight years later several of the worlds in the region had already had their existing ecosystems fully consumed and replaced by the marrowblight’s own, including Klaxas.
Something both extraordinary and terrifying occurred around this time: the birth of the first sentient – possibly sapient – celestial body.

Planetologic Metamorphosis

The event began with the marrowblight and all of the symbiotic lifeforms making out its ecosystem fell into a hibernated state and gradually became absorbed into a collected mass reminiscent of a slime mold, thinly veiling the entirety of the planet’s crust before solidifying. The planet remained in this pupate state for ten years while several sketh hives settled on nearby marrowblight worlds became obsessed with nurturing it by shipping over copious amounts of water and nutritional goop.
As time progressed the solid shell softened and swelled into a membrane that’d eventually reach far up into the mesosphere. Its semi-opaque surface became increasingly active with strange undulations and the sole remote research probe that was able to remain in orbit and unharried provided imagery of immense structures twitching and writhing beneath it.

Historical Data

Type

Sketh Omnimind Formation

Rarity

Very Rare

Location

Klaxas

Date of Occurrence

circa 300 years ago

The 'Birth' of the Omnimind

Partway into the tenth year of pupation, the undulations shifted toward purposeful stretching of its surface as if whatever was beneath attempted to pierce through it. Sketh poured in and began to tear, cut, and eat off the membrane, until the thing below managed to burst through.
A myriad of appendages of countless shapes and forms tore through and reached out from a mix of fleshy mass, muscular tissue, and carapace-like plates.

The Children of Klaxas

Crevices, folds, and pits in its body became new passageways for water and allowed for the marrowblight to regain hold on the newborn planet’s surface. The sketh acted as gardeners and caretakers, continuing to nurture the colossal being until a stable ecosystem capable of sustaining it, and developing microba and plantea lifeforms, had been established.
The sketh hives that nurtured Klaxas during its pupate state relocated once its surface was livable, though appeared to stay as separate entities led by their respective hivemother rather than merge together.

Omnimind vs Hivemind

The formation of an omnimind appears to be a very rare occurrence, as Klaxas is the only known instance of one existing within the Rosepetal. It’s not unlikely that more may exist within the The Skethas Companions.
While it appears that sketh default to a hivemind structure where each hive tends to have a population limit and a clear strata of castes determining roles and individual intelligence, there are signs pointing to a living planet being capable of overriding the will of a hivemother. Though it would seem they’d normally only do so under extenuating circumstances – particularly in response to threats against any marrowblight-based lifeforms.
This was what eventually led to the widespread tendency of calling the living planet ‘Greatmother Klaxas'.

The Greatmother’s Fury

This became particularly noticeable when The Wheel and Ascendancy made a joint effort to cleanse the skethal infection from the Far Reaches and Agalon’s Arm, less than fifty years ago.
The planets Traxc, Kraith, Vusk and Xuvsc were targeted first due to their proximity to civilized space and were to have their surfaces completely and thoroughly scorched. The attack on these marrowblight planets triggered an immediate, immensely aggressive response.
Klaxas tore itself from its orbit around the Kritak star and is thought to have utilized occurring natural rifts in order to navigate itself over to the planets under attacked. Along the way, any and all sketh hives it passed swarmed to it and seemed organized as a single entity under its direction.
By the time the fleets of the Wheel and Ascendancy has finished incinerating Traxc and begun on Kraith, Greatmother Klaxas arrived in the system.