Moving/Humanoids/Isolated/Yilsven/Fō'Noks

* (Note: the similarities to Pathfinder 2E Conrasu are actually completely coincidental, I only discovered their existence after coming up with idea for this species)

## Description:

### Origin: The Yilsven

The Fō'Noks came from a single specimen. This specimen was the culmination of experimentation of a Yilsven research institute on death-row test subjects. Upon creation, the specimen was cursed by meddling dark gods, which caused the specimen to go ferally aggressive as well as giving its feature of fractal reproduction. It broke free from containment and the attempts to destroy it caused it to split into multiple smaller specimens. This then snowballed into their widespread infestation of the "Dead Edge".

### Intro

The Fō'Noks, also known as The Black Heijru, are a parasitic species of black ooze that will use anything viable as a shell / host to control, ranging from plants, to a suit of armor, to the corpse of all variety of animal. The primary reason the Fō'Noks use hosts is that their bodies react negatively to the molecules in the natural atmosphere, which causes them to corrode at a significant pace. A host provides a shield against both the hostile atmosphere and potential predators / prey, as well as an exoskeleton to have more precise control over movements. In addition to the atmosphere, Fō'Noks are highly susceptible to being burned with fire. Despite these weaknesses, they are actually resistant to the radiation from the sun.

### Shells & Survival

When inside of a host, the Fō'Noks will generally attach itself to the spinal cord first in order to control the host through it's nervous system. This technique allows for a very small Fō'Noks to potentially control a very large host. If the Fō'Noks has a significant enough amount of mass relative to the desired host it wishes to control, it will spread the rest of itself out to fill the vascular system next, and then simply any remaining empty space, even consuming the insides to make space for itself if it needs to. With a higher amount of true body mass, the Fō'Noks can combine the strength of the hosts muscles with its own true body muscles as well as telekinesis, and end up with a hybrid of even more formidable strength than the original creature. When not inside of a host, Fō'Noks will generally take the shape of a slug, worm, snake, etc for general movement, only creating a limb when necessary. This type of shape is a balance between utility and safety, as it reduces the total surface area of their body to counteract the hostile atmosphere, while still being more useful for movement in comparison to just a ball, which would have the best volume to surface area efficiency.

### Atmospheric Reaction

When exposed to air, the bodies of the Fō'Noks will go through a reaction that slowly kills them, causing them to wither away. What specifically happens though is that a reaction similar to rusting, though unique in its own way. When the air makes contact, the surface will immediately dry out and harden into a solid, which usually results in thin flakes and dust particles of the dead material coming free from the body. This process continues to happen over and over until the entire body is withered through by the process. These thin and small bits coming off are the result of movement of the body tearing the dead parts free, which reveals more surface area to solidify. If a Fō'Noks form remains still or simply maintains it's shape consistently enough, as if in a hibernate state, they can substantially slow this reaction from happening. Just like the main body, the dead material, the flakes and dust, are highly flammable.

If in the hibernate state, or simply if it feels the need to, the Fō'Noks can either manipulate, or simulate this reaction to its own benefit. It does this by purposefully solidifying portions of itself in larger chunks rather than the smaller bits which naturally occur from the atmospheric reaction. The benefit that which it would seek is armored plates. These armored plates made from its own body mass can help serve as shell coverings similarly to a host body, can act as general armor, and unlike the smaller flakes and dust particles are much more resistant to burning due to lower surface area relative to total volume. This armor has an appearance partway between metal, stone, and wood. It typically has a sort of layered, ridged, and twisted texture and flow to it, but shines despite the lack of smooth surface.

### Body

The Fō'Noks is capable of moving itself both telekinetically and through its unique sort of liquid musculature. This means that it can use both to move relatively fast on land or in water, or it can use just its telekinesis to move at a modest pace through the air. It has an appearance of an absolute black void, with tiny sparkles of light throughout it, which give it the appearance of a night sky. These sparkles of light act as the eyes of the Fō'Noks.

The nature of the Fō'Noks true body is that there is no zoning for which parts do what. Instead all parts of the body perform all functions, including brain power / consciousness. This means that the entire body sort of acts as a single brain, and also that the greater the size, the greater the brainpower. In relation to that, with separated pieces of a single Fō'Noks body, they will retain that single consciousness. These separated pieces are able to communicate with each other telepathically, though it does decrease in effectiveness over greater ranges of distance. When the distance becomes too great, the communications between them and the main piece will become muddled and foggy / vague. The smaller piece(s) will sort of go into a half asleep mode, only capable of doing automated actions.

### Memory

If the host / shell of a Fō'Noks is one which has a nervous system to control and a sufficiently intact brain, that Fō'Noks can feed off of & utilize the memories stored within it. The Fō'Noks body is much less efficient at storing memories than the typical brain of other animals, so if a small Fō'Noks is separated from its host, it will usually lose access to the memories and skills that it once had access to. In terms of specifics a Fō'Noks body mass is roughly 100x less efficient at storing information transferred from another lifeform into itself, relative to a typical humanoid brain. So a Fō'Noks of equal mass to a typical sized humanoid brain of it's host would only be able to store 1% of the information from that brain within itself maximum. Fō'Noks can become reasonably large within even a single host though, replacing the majority of the inside with itself, which can counter this handicap. Fō'Noks which grow to leviathan proportions and forgo having a shell all together would be able to easily internalize the essential information from many other lifeforms.

### Heart Stone

There is a single exception to the 'no zoning' trait of the Fō'Noks. This is their heart stone. This is equivalent to the brain in comparison to other lifeforms. Though the body acts as the computing power & memory for the Fō'Noks, the heart stone serves as the central core which governs identity and the soul's interface with the physical, just as a soul will latch onto a brain in other lifeforms, this is what the soul will latch itself unto within a Fō'Noks upon their birth. A Fō'Noks may drop in intelligence level and lose memories, or at least the back ups of memories, when pieces of its body are destroyed, but they will not truly die as long as the heart stone remains intact.

The heart stone is also what exerts the telekinetic control and commands the black liquid substance that makes up the rest of a Fō'Noks body. The Fō'Noks do not have any sort of traditional digestive system or even digestive function within themselves. Instead, the heart stone uses it's telekinetic ability to take apart and reconstruct materials that are 'eaten' on the molecular and even atomic level. The softer and less durable materials from organic creatures are easier for the heart stone to 'digest' and are thus generally favored over harder and more durable inorganic materials.

### Behavior

The Fō'Noks have three main drives, in order: Survival of the self, Consume, & Reproduce. Even with the largest Fō'Noks which have a high level of brain power and strong sense of individuality and identity, these primary drives will generally remain strongly at the forefront of their thoughts. The Fō'Noks are instinctually hostile to all other life forms other from themselves, even to other Fō'Noks. This hostility varies between each individually, with some attacking anything on site while others may feign passivity while planning how to consume other life forms it sees. Though if a Fō'Noks has the sufficient body mass for the required intelligence level, they will always favor their own survival over attacking and consuming the other life form if it feels the danger is too strong.

This hostility also changes in regards to relation. The more direct one Fō'Noks is to another, the less hostile they will generally be to them both in terms of genetics and in interaction. A parent will generally not attack its offspring, though over time for any offspring that has grown into adulthood, the parent and offspring may at that point clash with one another. Fō'Noks that have lived alongside another for a long enough time may form a sort of truce between them. Sudden foreign Fō'Noks intruding in on another's territory and those of distant genetic relation meeting will have the highest hostility with one another.

## Environment

The Fō'Noks have spread themselves to several of the edges of Vau, but they are truly able to flourish in the bairs and edges which have failed wards. The failed wards means that section of Vau are unprotected from the Sun, which has slowly stripped away a significant portion of the atmosphere. This weakened atmosphere means that the Fō'Noks can free roam without being inside of a shell / host at smaller sizes, which means easier proliferation and spreading of the species.

## Reproduction:

### Heart Stone Growth

The heart stone of the Fō'Noks is what governs individuality within the Fō'Noks as a species and thus governs what constitutes reproduction for them. A Fō'Noks simply dividing it's black liquid body into smaller pieces is not an act of reproduction for them, as each of the pieces will still be controlled by a single heart stone and have a limited range to which it can be controlled by it before simply becoming inactive. In order to reproduce, a Fō'Noks must start growing an additional heart stone within itself. The size of a heart stone is what determines the amount of body mass which can be controlled and the range at which it can be controlled. The size of a parent heart stone is also a large determining factor in the growth speed of offspring heart stones.

Tiny slivers of heart stones can be grown with relative ease by sufficiently large parents, but most grow offspring to a larger size before setting them loose. The reproductive strategies of various Fō'Noks differ depending on their environment and host / shell supply. An environment with plenty of suitable hosts / shells for offspring will usually go for larger numbers rather than size as the offspring will have the chance to take a host quickly after birth and protect itself. Meanwhile in an environment in which prey cannot be found for long periods of time, the parent will usually opt for growing their offspring as large as possible before setting them loose.

Once a heart stone is grown to at least a sliver, it can be set loose at any time. The growth of an offspring heart stone requires resources which are redirected from the growth of the parent, which slows the growth of the parent heart stone consequentially. The larger that the offspring becomes, the slower the parent will be growing during that period. For the actual birthing process of the Fō'Noks, the parent will simply grant a piece of its own body to be controlled by the offspring and set it loose from itself. Offspring heart stones which eventually grow to be of similar enough size to the parent will end up forcibly seizing control of a sizable chunk from their parent before detaching themselves and going on their own.

### Heart Stone Breaking

There is also a phenomenon that happens when a heart stone is broken in half or shattered into more pieces. This also technically constitutes as reproduction for the Fō'Noks, though is rough for them and only happens due to outside forces. When this breaking of the heart stone happens, it causes as a short term spike in active hostility as a sort of mad frenzy. This is because of the fracturing of the identity of the previous Fō'Noks. During this event, the Fō'Noks will also lose control of its body temporarily, with any largest pieces only being able to take proportionally large percentages of the body for itself rather than taking control over the entire previous body. The level to which this mad frenzy takes control of each of the newly made heart stones is in proportion to their relative sizes. For example, a heart stone being broken into a very large piece with only a small sliver being broken off will result in the sliver being at the highest possible hostility and violently detach itself from the larger body, taking a proportionate piece of the body with it. Two equally sized pieces will be equally spurred into frenzy, and the level to which they are decreasing in proportion to their size.

## Offense / Defense:

The Fō'Noks have a passive regenerative ability that is in proportion to their body mass. This means that it is relatively weak at smaller sizes and cannot overcome the degeneration that occurs to their bodies from Atmospheric contact. However, at large enough sizes, the volume has scaled enough past the surface area of their body that the regeneration has become faster, and now the Fō'Noks can freely roam without a shell / host, or send limbs outside of its shell / host without as much of a cost to itself.