Zerg

The **Zerg** are a race of highly combat-ready bugs that focus on adaptation and perfection. They are universally liked and hated for their combat-readiness, desire for evolution, and interesting behavior.

## Characteristics

### Traits

Zerg are notable for being highly adaptive and resilient. Many of the Zerg Swarm's zerg house fighting spirits within their skeletal-looking bodies, while primal (or feral) zerg, which deviate from the Swarm, can possess features for the cosmetic look.

Before a zerg unit hatches, two types of cells are born within it: Cell Type A (CTA) creates absolutely random mutations, all different from each other. Cell Type B (CTB), meanwhile, hunts down these mutations to the best of its ability. The end result is that the strongest mutations of CTAs survive CTBs and are integrated into the hatched zerg unit.

It is hard suffocating a ground-based zerg unit as it is much less dependent on oyxgen. Airborne units, meanwhile, possess sacs of oxygen reserves which they tap into when needed. Zerg also do not require to sleep for extended hours at a time, but they still have to rest.

### Behavior

Zerg will gladly eat whatever is edible, and they don't eat much either. However, zerg of the Zerg Swarm are notable for being addicted to human food (pan-fried bacon is an average zergling's favorite food, and cherry juice is an average zergling's favorite drink) and will gladly do some favors for you if you grant them tasty treats.

The zerg of the Zerg Swarm love to play around. Many commonly try and play human sports such as volleyball, soccer, etc. Some even know how to swim, and a dedicated swimming pool was provided to them before the Zerg Wildlands got purged. Primal zerg have less time to play, focusing more on hunting and survival. However, this has not stopped various primal groups to hunt for sport and see who gets the biggest catch.

### Genetics

Zerg units are separated via the term "strains." The zergling is one such strain, but the corruptor is another separate strain. Some zerg strains have been lost to time by either being improved upon into another creature, or just simply left untouched for a long while. However, there are notable cases where humans have revived old zerg strains, such as Johan "Blackbird" Navash of the Chaos Agenda.

The zerg of Carpenter's Swarm have some old zerg strains amongst their ranks. They seek only to survive, and will plunder anything that is of use to them. A human is part of the swarm only known as "Enslaver."

## History of the Zerg Swarm

### Origins

The zerg first came to life when Empire State Fuhrer Adler Grimm utilized **Nemesis Tactical Nukes** to nuke what is known today as the **Dead Continent**, leaving behind tons of radioactive waste.

A few caterpillars decided to eat some of it as food. In a short amount of time, they mutated hard exoskeletons and turned into the first zerg **larvae**. After the carpetbombing stopped, the larvae ate more radioactive waste. They realized that this waste is their major source of food where they're at (everything else is destroyed anyways) and they needed more of it. Soon, those larvae learned how to morph into **drones**, the zerg worker unit which use air bladders to hover instead of walking with legs. The drones gathered a lot of nuclear waste and stored them in large piles held together by sticks and stones.

It's completely unknown how the caterpillars survived the nuclear bombings. Some say that they are a race of interstellar aliens who came onto the Earth, but there no suggested evidence to prove it. Others say that the zerg may have lived in deep caves on the dead continent, but this theory is also not proven. As of today, no one truly knows how the zerg came to exist.

A few days later, one drone got too greedy and decided to bathe in one of those piles. It unintentionally morphed into a **hatchery**, and all of a sudden now the zerg have a dedicated shelter which generated **creep**, a viscous, living substance which nourished them. It also contains microscopic filaments, which allows them to move faster across it. Using hatcheries, the zerg etsablished an isolated yet hard-working civilization in a sector of the dead continent in relative peace (arguments over unequal food shares were common).

A pair of larvae.A drone.A hatchery.
### Shattered Peace

Everything was all good until a drone morphed into a **spawning pool**. The drone had learned how to use its claws for fighting instead of just harvesting nuclear waste, and it wanted to pass its knowledge on.

A larvae jumped into the spawning pool, and every single zerg that witnessed the event thought that it would morph into a drone. However, all of them were shocked when the larvae emerged as a dog-sized **dune runner**. The dune runner, instead of hovering like a drone and being able to harvest with its claws, instead had fast-moving legs and brutal claws.

Instantly, the dune runner noticed what it possessed that the drones did not. It killed all of the drones on-site, who were unable to fight back properly. The dune runner then went on to terrorize a hatchery, killing all twenty-one drones entitled to it. However, it forgot to kill the larvae, who retraced the footsteps of the dune runner to the spawning pool. They leaped in and emerged as dune runners as well. With the intent of avenging their fallen comrades, they mercilessly killed the singular dune runner known infamously today as 'Scar.'

After the incident, the dune runner was renamed the **zergling** (for simplification reasons) and classified as a zerg combat warrior, finally giving the zerg a way to protect themselves. However, some dune runners consumed lethal amounts of nuclear waste, giving rise to the first **banelings**. Banelings are suicide-bombers which released volatile acid when they blew up. The zergling and baneling proved to be two deadly combat warriors, and all of a sudden, all of the zerg realized what they can do: seize control over all of their kin and rule with no opposition.

A spawning pool.A zergling.A baneling.
### The Brood War

The zerg way of life changed within a single day. Alliances between hatcheries were formed to form **hive clusters**, which then formed into **broods**. Zerglings and banelings were produced en masse. Everyone suddenly became more willing to adapt. And to fight. Thus came the Brood War, a lethal conflict which showed the evolution of several zerg species emerge and fight for control.

After a few early battles of the Brood War, a bunch of larvae knew they needed a better form of fighting. Sure, zerglings were efficient melee warriors, but massed banelings would just disintegrate them in a puddle of green, burning acid. They needed range. Projectiles. After days of experimentation, a larvae had finally managed to morph into a **slorith**. This snake-like creature stood much taller than a zergling, and used needle spines covered in a light coat of acid as its main form of attack. It could also melee attack with claws just like a zergling, albeit at a reduced speed. The slorith would eventually be named the **hydralisk** (more simplification) and more larvae morphed into them.

When the hydralisks were unleashed, every zergling on the field got PTSD after witnessing the needle spines. Thanks to the hydralisks having projectile attacks, they were able to take high ground and sniped out banelings, which dealt friendly fire to their zergling comrades when they died. But the zerg adapt quickly. After that one battle, many broods morphed drones into dedicated **hydralisk dens**, which not only allowed for the morphing of hydralisks, but also allowed for research of their abilities.

A hydralisk.A hydralisk den.
Hours after the battle, a few drones took some hydralisk bodies and researched them. At the same time, the zerg tried to figure out how to fly. As such, they tried to come up with winged designs. It only took around twelve hours for larvae to morph into the **mantis screamer**, now known as the **mutalisk**. However, they had a relatively weak projectile damage at the time, reducing them to anti-zergling roles. As such, they weren't integrated into the zerg genetic tree just yet. They needed to prove themselves.

**Spires** were erected to house mutalisks, which were practicing hard for their big debut they needed to prove themselves.

A mutalisk.A spire.A few days after the hydralisks were unleashed, some larvae figured out how to best them: evolve heavier armor. The larvae studied the rocks of the surface, and grew to understand them. They integrated more protein and iron into their diet. This process repeated for several days, until on one dark night, they had mutated into **zantar slugs**, later on known as **roaches**. Balls of heavy armor, these miniature juggernauts of the zerg absolutely tanked hydralisk needle spines, and fought back with deadly close-range acid. Even worse, the roaches had hydralisks to support them, leading to a dynamic duo. The roaches tanked for the hydralisks, which were allowed to unleash their own fire. However, there is one fatal weakness about the roach: it cannot attack air units. Mutalisks, who wanted to prove themselves, took advantage of this and massed in swarms to single out the hydralisks while zerglings and banelings killed the roaches. The day after the battle, hive clusters and broods morphed dark and humid **roach warrens** to obtain their own roaches.
After the battle was over, mutalisks took back dead roach corpses in order to study their hard carapace, which lead to stronger projectiles.

A roach.A roach warren.
But all of these zerg strains are nothing compared to the **brontolisk**. Morphed out of a larvae who consumed a lot of sustenance, it morphed into a brutal and relentless beast possessing two deadly kaiser blades. All of the zerg were stunned when they saw this 16-foot tall 66-foot long beast. Zerglings cowered in fear and ran off. Roaches were absolutely demolished. Mutalisks didn't want to go near it. The beast terrorized all that saw it for about seven days, winning its home brood many battles during that time. It only fell when a squad of brave banelings sacrificed themselves to end the beast. Many zerg hungered for its power, but it took them a long while before the had their own brontolisks, now known as **ultralisks**. Many ended up just morphing **ultralisk caverns** to do their genetic homework for them. But some played around with the ultralisk strain and formulated a newer strain which has bulkier armor instead of swathes of muscle, and had four kaiser blades instead of two.

A first-generation ultralisk.A second-generation ultralisk.An ultralisk cavern.
Many more zerg strains were produced during the Brood War. These include, but are not limited to:

* **Defilers**, which could snipe enemies from long distances and use toxic gas.
	+ This strain would eventually be turned into the **Viper** strain, an aerial variant of the defiler. It can use a tongue to drag enemies and friendlies to it, breathe fire, and use mustard gas as a smokescreen.
* **Corruptors**, which are aerial assailment units designed to puncture armor. They could only attack air units but mutalisk casualties increased after they were unleashed.
	+ These could later on evolve into **Brood Lords**, massive manta ray-like creatures capable of shooting **broodlings**, small melee creatures which only last for 12 seconds.
* **Swarm hosts**, brutal and endless army spawners. They commonly burrow into the ground to hide their profile, then summon **locusts** to fight for them. These were dangerous when massed.
* But none of them were as traumatizing as the **borbu matriarch**, an infestation specialist. Every zerg on the battlefield laughed at the first one until it used a parasite which latched onto an ultralisk's brain. It then turned against its allies, causing both confusion and destruction. The borbu matriarch, later known as the **infestor**, caused widespread panic amongst the zerg.

A defiler.A viper.A trio of corruptors.A brood lord with two broodlings.A swarm host summoning locusts.A pair of infestors.
### End of the Warfare

Near the end of the brood war, a newer type of zerg was introduced known as the **ravager**. This fiery creature is evolved from the roach, and traded out armor for literal firepower. Ravagers can utilize incendiary acid as a default attack, but they can also utilize a large incendiary bile ball which they shoot from their backs (or top depending on what you see) in a mortar-like manner.

A roach evolving to a ravager within a specialized ravager cocoon.A ravager firing its incendiary bile.Just when the Brood War was about to reach its absolute peak of zerg strains, all of a sudden, three zerg leaders showed up. Them and their forces crippled every brood and hive cluster fighting in the Brood War at the time, forcing everyone to sue for peace. This finally ended the decades of the harsh Brood War.

Silvus, a roach capable of extreme tanking.Murvar, a swarm host capable of spawning endless armies.Kalunga, a brood lord capable of withstanding the toughest of oceans.However, one of the original broods of the Brood War, known as the Raider Brood, managed to evade the leaders. Under the watchful eye of Torrasque, an ultralisk leader, the Raider Brood remains one of the most combat-ready zerg broods to this day. They even retain defilers alongside their viper descendants.

The Leviathan Brood's banner.All strains of Leviathan Brood zerg.Leviathan Brood leader Torrasque.The history is still work in progress.

## Trivia

* Zerg are widely hated in RP (Riley and Dr2020 do at least) due to the fact that they can just bulls#@t out of every problem they run into.
	+ One such example is if the zerg lose an army of 100 zerglings, they can just come back with ten times that amount and throw in 250 hydralisks for the salt. If they lose that, they can just spam hydralisks and throw in 100 ultralisks for even more salt. Rinse and repeat until the zerg win via hard attrition.
	+ Another such example is the nydus worm. Nydus worms are capable of surfacing ANYWHERE on the map and you won't even know it's coming. If you don't kill it in time, it will just keep unleashing army after army.
	+ A third example is how overpowered some of their kin are. Take the brutalisk, for example. It's an ultralisk that got high off of biomass and stimpacks and can basically tear everything in its path to bits if you don't have brutal artillery or something like that.
	+ A fourth example is that there is pretty much a zerg for MOST niches. Some zerg may not even have any real hard counters.
	+ Lastly is zerg numbers. They are EVERYWHERE. Feral/Primal zerg dominate the areas where the Zerg Swarm does not.
	+ These zerg eventually got balanced. Some zerg units now have less power.
		- Yet despite these balances, people still hate the zerg. This is due to the fact that despite their balancing (and much of the Zerg Swarm's purge), they just don't make sense. They rely on low amounts of food and biomass, and yet are able to reconstruct destroyed armies back at a fast pace.

* Existingperson26 likes them (but does want them balanced), and I promised him a charred brutalisk and a giant Kaboomer baneling for the Cult of Destruction.
	+ Riley doesn't approve of this but no one really cares.
* Anyone who hates the zerg (or Existingperson because he's a Void Tyranid) is commonly referred to as 'bugcist' by Existingperson.