Jikegida, the Parasites (jih-KEH-gid-ah)
Known as the “Stickmen” by some, the Jikegida are an emaciated-looking, bipedal, four-armed humanoid species that stands approximately seven feet tall. They have a chitinous, plate-like outer integument, seven long, slender talon-fingers on each arm, and a long, flat, beetle-like body surmounted by a head with bulging black eyes and mandibular jaws. Due to their reproduction method,many of them have incongruous body parts or features from their host progenitor, such as human-like faces, furred pelts, pawed feet, horns, or human hands.
The Jikegida are semi-immortal once mature, but require immobilized or helpless warm-blooded hosts to reproduce. The larva is implanted along the spinal column, putting the host in a torpid daze that continues while the larva swells to fill their abdominal cavity and digests the less-important tissues of the host. Within a week, surgical removal is impossible without killing the host, and only powerful healing magics have any chance of saving them. After a month, a juvenile Jikegida emerges, killing the host, and then grows to full maturity over a period of five or six years. While any warm-blooded host of sheep size or larger will serve, Jikegida spawned from intelligent, neurally-dense hosts such as humans are more intelligent, bigger, and stronger.
The Jikegida favor the use of crossbow-like launchers and other mechanical weapons, as their thin limbs are relatively weak compared to human arms. Their social life revolves around pheromonal exchanges and scent “debates” that resolve theoretical questions of philosophy and ontology that humans can barely categorize, let alone fully understand. As far as human scholars can tell, the Jikegida consider humanity to be nothing but “philosophical zombies”, false machines of flesh that only seem to have emotions and desires, and so are fit only for use.
A Jikegida nest is usually built of lightweight plant materials unless they have access to their ancient construction-shells or Blighted slave laborers, whereupon they favor smooth stone buildings with hexagonal masses of shapes and passages. Their technology is usually slightly better than that of nearby humans, but a few of them have access to marvels inherited from their once-dominant ancestors.
Worlds Without Number p110
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