Pcere

The **Pcere** also known as the Brain Rulers, unfathomable Ps, feared by sentient creatures on many worlds across the multiverse due to their powerful innate psionic abilities. These alien brain-looking species of Ps sought to expand their dominion over all other creatures, controlling their minds to use them as hopeless slaves.

## Society and Culture

Pcere communities also called "colonies" typically ranged in size from two hundred to two thousand, and that was counting only the Pcere. Each Pcere in the community likely had at least three or more slaves to do its bidding. In these communities, the number of slaves often far outnumbered the number of their Pcere masters.

Pcere colonies operated in a single hive mind, with control centralized by an core mind, a singular entity that exerted its telepathic control simultaneously over any other within its radius of influence. The core mind was the heart of the community. Held in a pool of briny fluids, the core mind consisted of all the collective consciousness of the deceased Pcere in the colony. It served as the center of the communication network, relaying information received from one Pcere to the entire colony, storing all the collective knowledge of the colony, and issuing commands to individual Pcere. The degree of control and organization exerted by the core mind over a Pcere community was so absolute that it was more convenient to think of a entire colony as a single individual:

Although Pcere willingly came together to achieve an end, they were always vying for more control in their community, but even then they were always beneath the elder brain. While individual Pcere might have, at one time in their past, retained a certain degree of independent thought, it was generally agreed upon them that their survival required complete obedience to the core mind.

Within the colonies, Pcere organized themselves in ideological factions known as Clusters, which aligned with each particular Pcere's abilities and philosophy. Representations are taken to the core mind and organized themselves to coordinated the colony's various activities under the will of the core mind.

The Pcere considered psionic sorcery an utter abomination. They viewed it as an inferior and corrupt form of psionic power that should be purged from existence. Such power was especially sought out by renegade Pcere looking for ways to shield themselves and escape from the core mind's influence. A few were also born with the gift of psionic sorcery. Because a Pcere sorcerer was naturally more intelligent than other Pcere, it was better able to resist psionic control and other forms of mental domination.

As a race, the Pcere did not worship deities and did not share the same mythical thoughts about the afterlife. Instead, an Pcere's last desire upon death was to be rejoined with its core mind, thus attaining a form of immortality by having its life experiences merged into its consciousness.

However, the Pcere revered a manifestation of psionic ideals in a form resembling worship in a sense, an entity known only as the Greater Mind, which embodied the mastery of one's own mind and the promise of the joining with a core mind after death.

### Clusters

Clusters are an ideological faction that Pcere grouped themselves into. Members of every cluster focused on advancing their philosophy. This involved developing new psionic disciplines and sciences, psionically empowered tech, and engaging in schemes and competing with other rival clusters.

#### Known Clusters

* **Caretaker Cluster**: One of the major Pcere clusters. They were highly focused on the thralls and were the cluster that took care of them, organized them, kept them docile, and eventually assimilated them into more Pcere. They controlled menageries, which were spread throughout their dominions. These menageries varied in size and shape and were used to house exotic, imported breeds of thralls.
* **Devotee Cluster**: One of the major Pcere factions, they were priests of the Greater Mind. Devoted to the continuation of the lifestyle of all Pcere and persecution of those who defy its will.
* **Influencer Cluster**: A highly devious and large cluster of Pcere, believed that the best way to obtain power was through indirect means. The Influencers wished to subvert the societies of other races from within to their own schemes.
* **Torrent Cluster**: A large cluster of Pcere that focused on instilling fear into thrall populations. They were highly efficient at torturing thrall races. One such method was the use of mind swimmers.
* **Loreraider Cluster**: A major cluster of Pcere. They advocated a long-term strategy of gathering all forms of information and slowly depleting information held by other races. They did not care about how useful the information was. This strengthened their community while weakening rival communities and societies.
* **Gatherer Cluster**: A major Pcere faction that was highly militaristic and dealt with the acquisition of other living beings for the purpose of forced servitude to the Pcere.
* **Mystic Cluster**: A small and splinter group of Pcere, who were outcasts for their rejection of the Pcere circle of life, culminating with the physical and psychic merging with an core mind along with their partaking in forbidden psionic sorcery.

## Reproduction

Pcere were all hermaphrodites, without male or female biological sex, and once in their life they would lay a clutch of eggs from which small tadpole-like creatures would hatched. These tadpoles were kept in the core mind tank, where they were fed brains and bathed in cerebrospinal fluid by caretakers and engaged in cannibalism for around a decade. Tadpoles that survived to maturity were put through the ceremony of assimilation, where they were implanted in a humanoid victim and devoured its brain, taking its place and merging with the body and transforming it into a new Pcere. Only some humanoid species were considered suitable hosts for Pcere tadpoles.

## Pcere Psychic Powers

In spite of their lack of physical abilities, Pcere were feared because of their great mental prowess. In addition to the small array of mind-affecting spells which every Pcere had at their disposal to take control of their prey's mind.

* **Subvert**: Subverts the victim's freewill and replaces it with the will of their new Pcere master.
* **Mental Blast**: Neutralizes the cognitive abilities of the victim.
* **Detect Thoughts**: Allows the Pcere to "listen" to surface thoughts of those around it.