Necroviles



The Necroviles are a race of Undead / Plant Hybrids that where created by the God of Rejuvination, Mephiles Sol, while experimenting the effects that water from the Well of Life had on the art of Necromancy. They exclusively serve his Paradigm as expendable soldiers.

Biology
Biologically, the Necrovile race are a composite race, consisting of a humanoid host and a parasitic, altered vine species that was mutated from Mortuanian Gorgavores using the Well of Life. The vine parasite is what actually controls the body, by physically inserting themselves into muscle and bone to integrate and operate limbs and certain bodily functions. They appear humanoid, but with bulky skull plates, teeth-like horns and tough, leathery flesh that acts as natural armour. While they possess these fearsome exteriors, their internal organs are still as fragile as most standard undead.

Necroviles are physically very agile for undead, with most castes being capable of leaping around to dodge swinging attacks and outpacing their opponents. They very rarely suffer from disease, although this is due to their undead nature and short lifespan. A common misconception is that the Necroviles hunt humanoids to feast upon: They do not need to physically consume flesh, as the plant parasite consumes their host’s biomass to sustain themselves. They instead hunt to supply a nest with bodies to reseed their vines and provide biomass to repair any damage to them.

Necroviles live short lives of a few weeks, as the parasitic vines consume their biomass until they either suffer structural failure or lack the motor function to move. If the majority of the vine system within is intact, it will detach itself from its host and attempt to return to the nearest nest to regenerate itself, before integrating with a new host. If a dying host manages to return to a nest, they are often striped of any unique physical traits, such as wings or elongated claws, and are bound to protect it until the host subsumes and allow the Necrovile “lifecycle” to continue.

Necroviles are naturally pack hunters, but not aggressive enough to attack on sight or command. This nature was adopted when Mephiles domesticated his experiments with the Necrovitalia Cognito, also known as the Main Stem: A virulent and dominate strain of the parasitic vine that functioned as the hive mind until it's death.

Subspecies
Mephiles could not easily replicate any of the unique strains and combinations during the race’s initial conception, leading to various subspecies with unique traits and abilities. Following the destruction of the Necrovitalia Cognito, the majority of these species became extinct as they turned upon each other at the Slaughter at Eagle’s Peak.

Excubitors
The Excubitors are the highest ranking species developed by Mephiles, and serve exclusively as the majority of the Paradigm’s Excubitor Guard. Towering over the other castes,they are fearsome soldiers that are intelligent enough to solve complex problems and even communicate in broken English.

In combat they often utilise swords, spears of halberds provided by the Paradigm, but if needed they will use their bone-reinforced fists to pummel their targets into submission.

Excubitor Elite
Excubitor Elite are a deviation of the standard Excubitor caste who are personally augmented by Mephiles to be the personal guard of himself or his commanders. They can be identified with more striking protrusions and biolumincent pockets across their bone carapace.

Nuvos
The Nuvos are a primitive, stout subspecies that act as workers and drones. They often cultivate dwarfs as their hosts, using them to dig out caverns to create nests for them and the other species. Mephiles delegates their task assignment to his lower servants, who use them as workhorses to haul resources and brute strength.

If threatened, Nuvos can swarm in large numbers to crush their opponents, along with attempting to bite and claw at their opponents.

Volatus
Voltaus Necroviles where developed from winged species, such as Vampires and Aviansies. Being very lean compared to the other castes, their low weight allowed them easy flight with bat-like wings. Unlike the rest of the subspecies, their sight was both infrared and movement-based.

They were often deployed as scouts instead of attacking forces, as they could be easily snuck around and stealth attacked.

Motus
Motus Necroviles where stocky, with a figure unlike a wearwolf and equipped with blunt, bony tails. Developed to be speedy attackers that swarmed opponents, they used their tails as both a counterbalance and a primitive maul to disorientate and bludgeon the enemy.

Mephiles considererd them the lowest of the castes, even below the Nuvos, due to their animal instincts and inability to communicate in basic forms.

Tenebrae
Tenebrae Necroviles where deformed creatures that had their legs replaced with a single muscle-mass that allowed them to move in a slug-like manner. Tenebraes however had the most complete cognitive functions of any Necroviles before and since: being able to communicate in Basic English, cast both offensive and defensive spells and even coordinate packs to eliminate targets.

Mephiles named them such due to their dark colouration that allowed them to blend into the shadows unnoticed within the Tower of Life.

Vitium
Vitums where a brief experiment in developing Necroviles that had much longer lifespans. Despite samples being able to live for months, they were often brain-dead, meaning they were only capable of doing basic motor function. They had the innate ability to increasing the growth and regenerative rates of wounded vine strains tenfold.

Mephiles bred several of these in captivity and left them besides the Necrovitalia Cognito to improve the overall health of the species.

Sano
Sano Necroviles where birthed to maintain the health of the Necrovitalia Cognito and some nesting grounds. They would assist Necroviles in repairing their vine systems first, before applying biomass from fresh and recycled corpses. If they could not save a Necrovile, they would either consume it themselves to extend their above-average lifespan, or cannibalise it to repair more viable “patients”.

When originaly created, Mephiles considered abandoning the strain, but Viza convinced him otherwise to allow them to ease the burden their forces had on gathering corpses.

Necrovitalia Cognito
The Necrovitalia Cognito, also known as The Main Stem, was a 15 foot tall, unique strain of the parasitic vine that was engorged with biomass: particularly with brain matter. It was the hive mind for all the species, with Mephiles telepathically relaying commands to every single Necrovile through it. It was the main reproduction nest of all the castes until it was destroyed by Fer ‘Ireth and Ares Intempium.