Imperak

In times of great cruelty where man kills man, they often blame their crazed bloodlust on the control of an Imperak. That they were being puppeteered by a red devil. Made to do the horrors they conducted upon another. These claims are often tossed out by any reasonable judge- but do some of them hold truth? Indeed, the Imperak is real. It is an insidious beast which turns man and his tools into nothing more than fleshy puppets. Their motivations vary from malign to mysterious but one thing is certain; they’re one of the most heinous parasites yet faced by sapient minds. A weaponized form of their only true edge over the savage and feral. A puppeteer of the man’s mind.

#### Physiology and Anatomy

A distant cousin to the Naka, Imperak are hideous invertebrates. They scuttle on six hooked limbs designed to latch into surfaces of all kinds. Their grip is exceptionally strong, they will only release if boiling oil is doused upon their hooked talons. The Imperak’s limbs act a lot like a big hand, able to grab and manipulate objects as if each limb was a finger. Imperak use this to latch onto surfaces or wrap around the heads of their victims. Their mouthparts are specialized into a single, harpoon-like point. They can eject this point with enough force to punch right through plate armor, sinking deep into the flesh. There, it will attempt to skewer the brainstem.

If the Imperak has skewered the brainstem it is likely too late for their chosen victim to retaliate. They immediately pump messenger proteins into the brain which override the immune response. Then they begin to insert their own neural impulses into the host. These impulses allow the Imperak to link with the brain and subsequently the entire body of their chosen host. The connection of the minds is strictly one-way, allowing the Imperak to pull information from its host and manipulate their body without interference- effectively overriding their consciousness. Hosts describe this as a state of deep but aware sleep. If an Imperak is removed or detaches from a host, the host will be rendered unconscious for a few moments before reawakening.

Imperak are neurovores, slowly ingesting parts of the brain of their host. In ideal hosts or hosts of particular value they can slow their digestion to great length, but typically ingest their victims within a few months. They slowly liquify parts of the brain it deems unnecessary before attacking vital components. A digested victim is a dead victim. Victims can be saved either by other influences of the Imperak simply detaching itself. They may do this to lay their eggs, oftentimes on the interior of a victim’s skull, so that the brood may eat the victim’s brain out from the inside.

#### Psychology

If allowed to persist on many hosts, Imperak can live for great stretches of time. They’re able to obtain an enormous amount of personal information. As they feed, they can appropriate memories, skills, and relations from their hosts. They can vary as much as typical people do in their approach to collecting prey, though they have an obvious preference toward organisms with larger brains. Imperak are mostly solitary but collaborations between host-piloting Imperak have been observed. They’re obviously competitive and may even attempt to oust their own from a host of higher value. As stated, individual Imperak may have motivations that differ or even conflict with one another.