Intellect Devourer
"I'm practically your husband. I remember everything, and I'm a hell of a lot smarter. If you asked me, you got an improved version. So long as you keep your mouth shut."
Basic Information
Anatomy
An Intellect Devourer is a slightly overlarge brain with four limbs that resemble an insectoid dog's legs, but with digging, hooked saurian claws. An acidic lamprey mouth surrounded by writhing tentacles allows them to extract a brain and are used in mating. There are no bones in their bodies, only soft tissue and collapsible cartilege, which allows them to squeeze through anything that their teeth will fit through. They can remained comfortable compressed inside a small space indefinitely.
Genetics and Reproduction
Intellect Devourers mate by transferring spermatophores through their tentacle tongues into the wrinkled skin of another Intellect Devourer. The impregnated creature will develop 'buds', which it will implant into the chest cavity of a living creature. They gestate for 1-25 weeks, at which time they hatch into Brain Grubs and eat their way out. The more intelligent the creature they were implanted in, the faster they will grow.
Growth Rate & Stages
After hatching, the Brain Grubs exist in a little pack. When they've absorbed enough nutrition, they dig into the ground and fill a cyst with fluid. After 2-4 weeks, roughly fifteen percent of them emerge as fully grown Intellect Devourers, while the rest of them simply die in the cyst, which becomes a root system for Brain Bulbs
Ecology and Habitats
Intellect Devourers are completely unnatural creatures, and their existence in an area is disruptive at best, and a disaster at worst.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Intellect Devourers are carnivores for the protein, but their unique biology requires memories and emotions. They consume these from those around them, freely cannibalizing from each other.
Eating a sentient brain is the pinnacle of a meal, and the whole-life memories of a victim can keep them well fed for several months before they have to begin sipping from the minds of those around them.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Intellect Devourers form a Gestalt Mind with any others within a mile. While they maintain some sense of self, they can share thoughts with each other almost instantaneously and they are more comfortable making decisions from the web than they are on their own. They instantly follow a hierarchy based on intelligence.
Domestication
With the exception of a few deserters, every Intellect Devourer is ultimately in thrall to their maker, Lizefa Vernet.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Lizefa Vernet and the Ascendant Grey use Intellect Devourers as deep-implant spies as well as a wide-ranging human intelligence network.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Intellect Devourers can be found sparsely distributed throughout Seaudyr.
Average Intelligence
Intellect Devourers on their own are not very bright, with a rough IQ of about 60. They reflect the intelligence of those around them.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Intellect Devourers perceive the world through a penetrative psychic echolocation, and 'see' through the whole surface of their bodies. They can detect smell, taste and sound through their tongues.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Intellect Devourers can extract, consume, and replace the brain of a host, squeezing into their skull and operating the body. When they do so, they gain the full memories of the host and can mimic their thought patterns. If they choose, they can enter through a hole the size of a fingernail, hiding their entry hole in the scalp or mouth of a victim. While so hidden, they can operate the body as if they were its natural brain. While they prefer to do this to sentient species, they can ride almost anything with a brain cavity larger than a fist.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Intellect Devourers name themselves a series of mental pictures. When operating in the Ascendant Grey, they name themselves by number and region -
Major Organizations
Ascendant Grey is primarily populated with Intellect Devourers that have earned the trust of Lizefa Vernet.
Beauty Ideals
Intellect Devourers regard intelligence as the only true measure of a mate.
Gender Ideals
Intellect devourers are hermaphroditic, with the weaker intelligence serving as the 'female' in a mating pair.
Courtship Ideals
When two Intellect Devourers have found each other to be suitable (or possibly when a genius-level Intellect Devourer finds a victim) they will spar with their tentacle-tongues, lashing out at each other wildly. If they are implanted in hosts, this will look like a heavy, sloppy kiss. While they spar, they blast each other with psionic attacks, until one of them wins by slipping their tentacle tongues past the other's defenses and stabbing them into the spongy cortex of their flesh and passing spermatophores. This will eventually result in the impregnated Intellect Devourer's death. After mating the two will not interact physically again, and will likely not even remain in the same area.
History
Intellect Devourers were created by accident by Lizefa Vernet in her Biomancy experiments. She was seeking to implant psionic ability in human beings, and accidentally transmuted her subjects' brain into the first Intellect Devourers.
The original specimens were unstable, so Lizefa took a break and refined them into the full species they are today.
After her 'death,' they have formed an integral part in her plans for revenge, power, and apotheosis.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Genetic Descendants
Lifespan
60 years, or until a few weeks after reproducing.
Average Height
2 ft.
Average Weight
4 lbs
Average Length
1.5 ft.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Intellect Devourers can range from a variety of colors. They can be glossy black, gray, blue, pink, or red.
Discovered by
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