Hacrobia Mortem

**Hacrobia Mortem**, otherwise known as **Mortem** are a species of artificially created, death-oriented, humanoid demons associated with Limbo. The first Mortem created was Caroline. The first converted Mortem was Owen.

## **Appearance**

Mortem in their natural form are very dark in colors, they have scaly, dark gray skin, and near black hair. They are covered in a tough exoskeleton of varying colors, generally resembling clothes or armor. Their figure, height, and weight can vary depending on the subject. They have black eyes with red Irises, with five floating circles around the center of the eye. Female Mortem have smaller, solid irises, while Male have larger, hollow irises.

## **Anatomy**

Mortem overall resemble Homo sapiens, and are made of compressed Glitch, the fabric of Limbo.

### **Head**

Mortem's head's resemble that of a Homo sapiens', however it is covered with gray scales. Their eyes are black, reflecting no light, and their irises are red. (Though mutation is possible.) Female Mortem have full irises while males have hollow.

Their eyes have five floating circles, which are actually organs that

allow sharp predator sight. Their noses are slightly flatter than a human's, and have outwards stilted nostrils. They have many more sharp teeth than humans, with jaws and a mouth that can bend to inhuman proportions, capable of almost spanning their entire face.

### **Skin**

Their skin is a tough layer of reptilian scales, relatively smooth on the surface, the lack of concentrated pigmentation leaves them a dark gray, though weak pigmentation can be found in mutations.

### **Exoskeleton**

Mortem bodies are covered in a tough exoskeleton, comprised of bone and muscle. They are particularly tough against shock and elements, and can be grown in a variety of shapes as they mature, generally resembling armor or other coverings. The pigmentation in the exoskeleton is much stronger, causing many colors.

### **Tendrils**

Mortem can have tendrils, generally having 2-4, but in rare cases, more, or none. The tendrils are black and can come in a variety of strength and length, they are used for combat, movement, and climbing purposes.

## **Reproduction**

Mortem can be created or produced in two main methods, Converting and Harvesting.

**WARNING! The below content may not be suitable for all audiences, reader discretion is advised.**

### **Converting**

Converting is a morbid process of placing a parasitic matter into a human when they are wounded, and transforming them into a Hacrobia Mortem. The speed and delay of the transformation varies depending on the victim, the infector, and the amount of matter inserted.

#### **Infection**

Made by direct 'injection' of Mortem DNA into a victims wound, most likely by impalement with a tendril or claw, and a glob of the infector's matter is inserted. After the infection the victim goes trough five stages before being fully transformed.

#### **Stage One: Decay**

The victim starts to become very dehydrated over time, becoming sick. This sickness leads to uncontrollable fever and vomiting. The invasive matter starts to take over, converting the existing matter into glitch as it spreads.

#### **Stage Two: Processing**

The victim starts to experience drop in skin pigmentation as it turns gray, before painfully growing into scales. Any hair starts to darken greatly. Their mental status will start to decay, leading to delusional behavior. If they grow tendrils, they will start to form and grow as nubs now.

#### **Stage Three: Removal**

The whole process causes extreme pain, and sickness as the victim literally pukes up unneeded tissue and organs, as they are replaced with glitch variants and Mortem organs. Their eyes grow extra organs for predator sight as the whites darken into black. Sharpened teeth, claws, and fangs will form after this. Any extra blood not converted will be leaked out through the skin of the victim.

#### **Stage Four: Rebuild**

Then the exoskeleton grows in, generally in the likeness of whatever the victim was wearing, though it can be morphed slightly later. The victim's mental status will alter even further, morals changing. Tendrils will be growing out further depending on the age and genetics of the victim.

#### **Stage Five: Conversion**

At this point, they are physically a Hacrobia Mortem. In order to complete the transformation, the victim will go brain dead for several seconds before waking up again, a complete Hacrobia Mortem, though their soul is still human. After this point, the transformation is complete and irreversible.

### **Harvesting**

   Harvesting is a method of parasitic semi-asexual reproduction, which involved a female Mortem extracting DNA from a suitable host, either cooperatively, in the instance of another Mortem, or uncooperative, which generally involves the female killing the host in the process.

Mortem embryo are created by the mother mixing her and the host's genes, creating an embryo. This being is surrounded in an "egg" of glitch, produced by the mother by a special gland. This egg grows in mass until it is self-sustainable, then it is "laid". This process involves the eggs being forcefully blasted from the mothers back plate by a layer of methane gas inside a hollow plate. The "eggs" continue to grow in mass until they reach a point when they shake apart, reforming into a new child Mortem.

## **Intelligence**

Mortem are rather quick learners, learning more from mistakes, both theirs and others. As pack hunters and predators, they are very aware of their surroundings, learning to adapt to situations. They have the gift of easy tongues, learning languages with speed compared to humans.

Converted/copied beings carry over their intelligence and memories into their new lives. Late-stage embryos also have the capability to hear and minimal learning abilities.

While their whole species DOES feed off of the idea of death and corpses, they are not all evil, just like humans, their personalities and morals can be variable.

## **Feeding**

Mortem feed on death, both physically and mentally. Physically, they feed on fresh corpses and raw meat, and in some cases can be vampiric, draining blood for fuel. Mentally, they have heavy attacks of blood lust, quenched by either feeding or causing death. Causing death, whether direct or indirect, gives a feeling of euphoria and accomplishment, often causing frenzies on larger scales.

## **Morphing and Glitch**

Most Mortem are capable of morphing their form, generally into a realistic human disguise. This is costly on energy, especially the farther away the disguise if from their natural forms. There are some tells that can be seen through the disguise, such as red iris's with the faint 5-circle pattern, and glitch bending of any form.

## **Trivia**

* Hacrobia is a genus that relates to multi-cellular organisms that do not fit into any other Genus.
* While they can resemble humans in, Mortem do not have human reproductive or mammary glands.
* Thank Mr. Lurker for giving 'incentive' to make Caroline's species.
* Hacrobia Mortem can have mutations, including the ability to be a Sage.
* Hacrobia Mortem are similar in nature to the Japanese demons **Jikininki.**

### **Important Notes**

* This content is temporarily restricted, meaning that the use of this content (as well their current concepts) are forbidden to be used without consent of the author. BUT, do not worry, it will be open source soon enough. <vv<