Gauth

Gauth Are a Species of Aberration that first appeared in the book The Autistic Hero 2: Worlds Clashing. They are either a Variant of the Beholderkin or a creature pretending to be a Beholder. They are not Xenophobic like the true beholders and in fact are very social leading many researchers to assume they could be a Subspecies or even not beholders at all. The Gauth were first encountered in The Abyss when Xenith is following Manalogia to go and save the mind of the Great Mother Beholder and a Gauth approaches Xenith asking for "Spare Magic?" As if it was a poor person. of course Xenith being the nice boy he was gave the Gauth a piece of his horn which was infused with magic and it ate the horn becoming quite passive.

## Biology

Gauths had six eyestalks, along with four feeding tendrils that sprouted from the lower half of its body like a Beard. The most obvious feature of a gauth was its central eye which can be Hazel blue or green which has never occurred in Beholderkin, which was surrounded by a ridge of flesh and 20–30 small "normal" eyes used for sight. The most well-known breed was brown and rotten purple and gray, although there were variants of similar color and texture to beholders. Scholars have two theories on how Gauths evolved differently from beholders. The first is that Gauths slowly departed from the Great Mother Beholder on her fleeing to Earth and decided to take a Detour and became more social between themselves as an evolutionary benefit in order to avoid wandering Dreadnought Mortals. However another theory...a much stranger one suggests that Gauths are not related to Beholderkin at all and instead are like the space version of the Jumping Spider Myrmarachne which pretends to be an ant to be inconspicuous and get into the nest and steal babies, in this case they blend in with Beholderkin to get the Nutrient rich Magic and Meat they crave. This explains their tentacles and their Hazel eye phenomenon as some kind of advanced benefit. Another interesting comparison is that Mortal dreadnoughts did never find that group of Gauths that hung out in the solar system close to the sun which were the ones thought to be the beholders that evolved to not be Xenophobic, so It's popular the theory gauths are rogue beholders is now De-confirmed by this Reality. Gauths hunt for Magic which is needed to digest their main food source which can be many meat types. Gauths lay eggs which are found in the tentacles too, the feeding tentacles also act as Ovipositors which upon finding a dead Magical organism will stab them into the organism and release the egg. in 30 days the Gauth Anomaling will hatch and consume the rest of the dead organism's power before joining it's nearby parent. Gauth Teeth are made of an unknown indestructible Material which is a good thing because if it bites into a Magical metal then the teeth won't shatter. a Mature Gauth has a diameter of 3 meters and a tentacle length of 1.3 meters.

## Abilities

Stunning gaze: Instead of an Anti-magic cone, the Gauths had a Stunning Stare which will incapacitate any nonmagical creatures that stare at it. this doesn't work on creatures that have magical eyes or machines.

Death Throes: If a Gauth is killed by an Act of Homicide, it will Explode which releases the magic it has eaten in a blinding flash. the magic it eats will be launched everywhere and depending on the magic will do that type of damage to the person who killed them. This can catch enemies off guard giving the Gauth the last laugh.

Feeding tentacle: The Tentacles that hang on the lower part of it's head are covered in a sticky substance which allows them to hold objects like a thumb and they use this to grasp magical objects and devour them.

Ovipositor: The Feeding Tentacles are also the way the Gauths lay eggs. they are hollow on the inside and when they find a dead magical organism they stab these into the point where the corpse has the most concentrated power. it is then the eggs are deposited and then later hatch and eat the dead animal from the inside out.

Magic Resistant Teeth: The jagged Alligator Gar like teeth of the gauths are highly resistant to Magics that are solid, a single bite could cut clean through Magical Metals without a scratch.

Devour Magic Ray: From one of the Eyestalks on it's head, the Gauth fires a Vacuum ray which tries to pull the Magic out of Magical objects or animals and then launch the magic into their mouths like an elephant using it's trunk to eat. this can be prevented by startling the Gauth.

Pushing ray: In case of an emergency, The gauth can use one of it's eyestalks to make an invisible pressure field to push targets away from them.

Fire Ray: From one of it's eyestalks, the Gauth can fire flames from the eye after the eye turns hazel red and the flames can reach 6,000 degrees Kelvin.

Sleep Ray: using this ray successfully will send nonmagical creatures to sleep for 24 hours. this can be followed up with a bite to the head resulting in death.

## Trivia

Gauths are the first Aberration that evolved specifically to look like another.