Tyrum Consciousness

The **Tyrum Consciousness** was an enigmatic, parasitical spore-based hive-minded civilization well known for its exceptionally genocidal nature that set it apart from every other hive mind of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Tyrum, in particular, was not a single species, but rather a collection of various undocumented species of varying size, type, and genus, many of whom originated from Byrum, which for a long time was thought to be its “homeworld” by the inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Even in the eyes of other hive minds, the Tyrum are seen as both mysterious and extremely dangerous, and its existence had been consequential to the current galactic history; their discovery by the human race in 2089 at the Sol System and its subsequent invasion of Earth in 2090 was the prime major reason of the Greater Terran Union’s (GTU) militarism and xenophobia, and its genocidal century-spanning Great Tyrum War in the Galactic East had profoundly shaped the history and development of much galactic civilization in that part of the Milky Way.

Officially the Tyrum rendered extinct by GTU's Sword of Terra destroyed Byrum literally.

## Biology

Despite its prolific history, there is actually very little documentation of its biological information beyond the infiltration-acquired Intel achieved by the Star Concord’s nations as well the in-depth scans, surveys, and manned expeditions conducted by the Greater Terran Union prior to the destruction of Byrum by the Sword of Terra. What is known, however, is that its golden spores did not propagate in the same manner as other hive minds. While other hive minds simply propagated their species mindlessly, Tyrum spores instead infected other living creatures it came in contact with and subsumed them as a whole in an eerie reminiscence of viral disease infection.

The prolific reddish-golden spores of the Tyrum were proven to be unamenable to spread and survive on Earth, but on Byrum said spores had disseminated across every corner of the planet for centuries, likely millennia. Indeed, every surface and organism of the Byrum had been coated in a fine layer of Tyrum’s crimson, golden spore. They covered the planet's oceans like an oil slick, and its atmosphere was thick with them. In-depth study in their native environment had led to the understanding that these spores weren't merely their reproductive means, but likely the purest embodiment of the Tyrum themselves.

The Tyrum couldn’t be counted as living (or dead) in the conventional definition of both hive-mind and individual-based species. The Tyrum particles, when ingested or absorbed via the skin, imbued the organism with a kind of extrasensory perception. Any affected animal or plants could be linked into the Consciousness in the matters of days - or in some cases, hours - turning it into a small part of a greater whole. It is theorized that the planet Byrum itself could be construed to be a type of Tyrum organism - may be the very ultimate evolution of the Tyrum itself, its component flora and fauna serving akin to the cells employed by the human body. Thus, the Byrum Cataclysm was not particularly an act of genocide per se, but rather an act of murder on a single organism.

### Infected Species

The enigmatic nature of the Tyrum meant that its creatures were extremely diverse - the invasion of Earth had counted various species from insect species with chitinous skeleton to gigantic multi-limbed behemoths taking part in the war as its weapons and tools, the majority of whom were derived from the fauna of Byrum as well as a minority of creatures it came in contact with within the Galactic East during its century-spanning Great Tyrum War. Other organisms not native from Byrum did exist as part of its consciousness, all of whom were spared by the ever-hungry member of Tyrum and infected in the same manner as other creatures.

It is still unknown whether the Tyrum spores truly originated on Byrum however - scans and survey suggest that a vibrant, hyper-advanced civilization existed on the planet, and its complexity suggested that said civilized species was, in fact, an individual-based species like humans and any other advanced or pre-FTL species dotted across the Milky Way, with the Star Concord even as far in theorizing that these creatures may, in fact, have adopted the spores as a means of creating a vast army of slave soldiers.

The questions of the Tyrum’s nativity status however remain unanswered, and it is likely to stay that way - any possible answers died along with the whole hive mind during the Byrum Cataclysm, with many of the surviving infectees soon driven into extinction as they were reduced into mindless animals, slaughtering each other and finally bringing an end to the Tyrum Consciousness.