Corruption

The **Corruption** is a race of sentient snakes controlled by a decentralized hive mind. It is among the most widespread land creatures on Tsern and the only documented living creature native to the Otherworld. It is a close relative to the now extinct Mocking Snake of the Broken Isles.

They are classified as wild animals by the various governing bodies of the world and have long established themselves as both a menace to civilization and a guardian of it in turn. Because of its decentralized consciousness and various historical factors, schisms have arisen within the species, leading to many different variations with differing physical appearances and attitudes.

## Biology

The Corruption is a snake that has been biologically altered from its natural ancestors by the dragons and iriani foxes during the time of Halcandra. A single snake is weak when singled out due to a lack of organic resources to draw from to become physically resilient to physical harm. Their scaled hide is thinner than the average snake, making them more susceptible to extremes of heat and cold, with the latter being especially dangerous because of the inability to regulate their internal temperature.

Bio-engineering has altered the anatomy of the species, making it much simpler by removing certain systems in the body. Notably, the Corruption snake possesses only a heart, brain, venom glands, and a set of vocal cords that allow the snake to mimic sounds it has heard. Respiration occurs through the snake's thin hide, filtering oxygen directly into its bloodstream and allowing it to exhale orally to stimulate its vocal cords. It has the ability to alter its cellular structure to change its composition, especially when splitting into smaller snakes or when absorbing snakes of the same variant.

### Communication

The Corruption snakes are capable of communicating in different ways, depending on the target of their words. They are capable of intelligent thought on par with, or even above, any other sentient species on Tsern. A single snake can speak audibly in a hissing voice, or by synchronizing their voices to emulate another voice the hive mind is familiar with to give the voice a more natural tone. An observer can see through the facade if they listen carefully to the minor inconsistencies in the snakes' combined voices that manifests itself as split-second delays in certain sounds.

The hive mind is capable of conveying ideas and thoughts instantaneously to any number of its snakes regardless of distance. This is done telepathically and overrides anything that would otherwise block telepathic communication. In similar fashion, the hive mind is capable of processing any thoughts or signals sent from any number of snakes simultaneously, though massive numbers of confused signals can temporarily stun a hive mind while it attempts to process the signals.

### Hierarchy

The Corruption operates on a three-tiered command structure. At the top of the hierarchy is the hive mind, which can remotely control every snake under its command at all times. It is physically rooted in the Otherworld in the form of a crystallized "heart", which allows a single hive mind to remain independent of other variants of the species.

Below the hive mind is a control snake, which is tasked with overseeing a particular region's Corruption population, usually in situations that require the hive mind's full attention elsewhere. The control snake is rarely used, as the hive mind is generally capable of overseeing its variant's entirety. The job of a control snake is to alleviate mental stress on the hive mind by issuing commands in line with the hive mind's goals.

At the bottom of the command structure is the individual snake. The snakes are capable of operating autonomously, but always heed the command of those above it without question. Individually, each snake is an individual and is capable of independent thought and action, guided by the values instilled in it by the hive mind or control snake.

## History

### Prior to the Blood Wars

In the years leading up to the Blood Wars, the Old Council began developing a weapon to use against Halcandra. The council eventually settled on the use of a biological weapon, as both magical and shadow weapons had proven useless against Halcandra. The weapon took the form of a self-reproducing snake that was first fielded in the middle of the war. The weapon proved to be capable of eliminating large numbers of living creatures, but eventually succumbed to a psychic overload after assimilating the thoughts and experiences of its prey.

### The Blood Wars

As Halcandra's armies advanced, the council grew desperate and began deploying the prototype weapon against the warnings of Rhanu, the project's chief researcher. As the biological weapon was used repeatedly on the battlefield, developers began to observe short-lived psychic connections between the snakes before dying. In light of this, the weapon was pulled from the front lines against the wishes of Agnir, the then-commander of the Old Council's military forces, to study the psychic links that developed between the snakes. Eventually, the development team managed to isolate and develop the link between living snakes, allowing them to communicate with one another via telepathy.

The newly developed means of communication was flawed, however, and the development team found that the snakes became less effective as their numbers increased. The problem persisted as the conflict continued, causing the project to be sidelined in favor of more immediately effective measures of countering the advance of Halcandra's forces. Rhanu remained on the project and worked in secret on the weapon, which he eventually called "Corruption" because of its ability to convert the living tissue of other creatures to match itself.

Near the end of the conflict, the small team of researchers left on the project achieved a breakthrough in the weapon's development. One of the researchers became exposed to the weapon and was partially consumed by the snakes. Unlike other victims of the weapon, the researcher possessed a rare genetic mutation that caused the snakes to develop a central consciousness around the researcher's body to process and distribute the psychic signals generated by the snakes in order to control the weapon.

Having solved the issue of the psychic overload, Rhanu convinced what remained of the old Council to deploy the Corruption against Halcandra's forces in what later became the Broken Isles. The entirety of the Corruption, bolstered by the bodies of friend and enemy alike, proceeded to attack and push back Halcandra's forces during the final conflict of the Blood Wars. Following the fall of Halcandra, what remained of the Corruption that survived the event that shattered the Broken Isles was tasked with sealing Halcandra at the bottom of the Halvases Trench.