[Cosmosdex] The Universal Encyclopedia

[Cosmosdex]

Tenebrae
     

Black Wrath / The Hateful Dead

Tenebrae
“I saw one of my friends bisected stem to stern by one of those things, and before his body even had a chance to realize that, it already started putting itself back together, and before we knew it he was coming at as as one of them.” — Unknown

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  • Strength-8
  • Intelligence-1
  • Charisma-1
  • Endurance-2
  • Agility-8
  • Luck-2

Type: Aggressive
Danger Level: High
Commonly Infects: While their methods typically preclude any discrimation in infection victims, they are known to ocassionally select for species that already have tails, no less than four limbs, and display a slight preference for bipeds.

Attack Method: They rush and reave in a indiscrimate violent frenzy of whilring claws, blades and biting teeth, ripping and tearing until there is nothing left.
Summary: Tenebrae are a clockwork strain known for sheer brutality and aggression. Tenebrae will gnash and bite and cut and slash until everything they an find is dead, and then go off to look for more things to kill.

Original Creator: SirBlizz98


Physical Description

Emaciated and skeletal parodies of their original host, a fully developed tenebrae is a lean and terrifying creature of malignant flesh and warped bone. Tenebrae possess a mouth filled with sharp gnashing teeth, and will make one if they don't already have it. Indeed they will make a great many sets of mouths and teeth, on various locations of their body, though it is unclear why this is due to their general preference of violent murder over self-sustenance.

Most tenebrae are not encountered fully formed, owing to the creatures atrocious method of infection. In most scenarios tenebrae are encountered half-formed, not being particularly different from their original state, save for the hastily repurposed nature of their arm bones.

The tenebrae strain, is rather swift, by the standards of clockwork infections. Where many infections can take hours, days, even months, to convert a body into a shape useful to their particular needs, the tenebrae takes only a few minutes to break apart the body until it is reformed to satisfaction. Full transformation typically occurs over the course of a week.

Tenebrae possess one or more pairs of long rending talons, typically formed of the ulna or equivalent in the forearms of their victims. They will typically make as many of these as their body has limbs beyond the two they will dedicate to legs as they restructure their bodies to their preferred shape. Most tenebrae will attempt to grow a tail if they don't already have one, which is, itself, topped with another razor sharp blade.

The most distinctive aspect of the tenebrae strain, of course, is the oily black ichor that discharges from their every pore. The sticky black substance is the primary infection vector of the tenebrae strain, and covers every inch of their body. They take particular care to ensure their talons are thoroughly covered in the stuff, ensuring even the slightest scratch causes infection.

Behavior

A remarkably straightforward strain of clockwork, the tenebrae is nothing short of a violent aggressive monster that kills all in its path with no regard. Solitary tenebrae are devious, if straightforward, monsters. If caught in the open, they will generally operate in a straightforward fashion, striking a full-tilt towards the nearest uninfected being it can find.

In more ideal circumstances a lone tenebrae will utilize something amounting to predatory cleverness. It will attack the isolated, the weak, and the generally incapable with priority, before moving back into the shadows to begin the process over again.

At any rate, once a tenebrae infection has gained momentum, and grown in numbers, the collective host will surge like barbarous locusts towards potential prey. They will charge like an unstoppable black tide to destroy and infect all in their path, never stopping until they've thoroughly run out of things to turn their hyper-aggressive impulses towards.

To the relief of many, this nature is their great weakness. Even in the best of times tenebrae are poor at feeding themselves, prioritizing killing or infecting, to feeding. Most of the time this is a cold comfort to their potential victims, but inevitably tenebrae will enter a state where their hunger cannot be ignored. Inevitably in such scenarios, tenebrae will usually turn on themselves violently, ripping, maiming, and eating each-other until only one is left, which will usually attempt to find fresh victims, or simply die.

Subtypes

Sleeper: While the tenebrae is noted as an especially virulent and atrocious strain of clockwork under most scenarios, rarely it will simply refuse to "activate". As tenebrae will usually kill their victims, most sleepers appear to be corpses until these uncertain circumstances present themselves. The exact nature of these circumstances is remarkably unclear, some sleepers have remained dormant for centuries, while others will awaken mere hours after infection.

Special

Black Ichor: Tenebrae are covered in a black, oily substance that seeps from their pores, and from most of their other orifices. Aside from granting them their distinctive black appearance and oily sheen, it acts as the primary vector of their strain of the clockwork virus. Far more aggressive and virulent than most varieties of the virus, even the slightest bit of contact with the slightest amount all but guarantees a swift infection.

Trivia

• While all clockworks are vulnerable to fire, the ichorous substance that coats tenebrae is especially flammable, and makes the otherwise incredibly dangerous strain, somewhat easier to deal with than most.

• The largest swarm of tenebrae was encountered during the undead era. A swarm of some one-hundred thousand tenebrae rampaged across a now abandoned world, carelessly slaughtering all in their path until the planet was ultimately firebombed into ash.

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