[Cosmosdex] The Universal Encyclopedia
[Cosmosdex]
Homuncustien
Undead Death Preventers
Homuncustien
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- Strength-6
- Intelligence-7
- Charisma-2
- Endurance-1
- Agility-4
- Luck-6
Common Jobs: Doctors, Surgeons, Ameture chef
Likes: Rain, Practicing medicine, Overcast Weather
Dislikes: Dying, Graveyards, Other people dying.
Attack Method: Should they have no choice but to attack, they will charge in and rend their foes with their claws.
Attributes
Homeplanet: MarisheliLifespan: Indefinitely
Size: 8 ft tall
Diet: Meat, Fish
Bodytype: Bipedal
Type: Turned Mammalian Mammal
Social Class: Upper Middle Class
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Common Traits
This character is an excessive worker, compelled to stay busy even in their free time. They may become antsy or aimless when bored, impulsively seeking out work when untasked.
This character is very skilled in doctoring, and they are better at it than the average Joe. This character has likely had doctoring as a job before and knows the ins and outs of medicine.
This character generally feels down or sad; while this character can definitely have times where they are joyful or feeling well, sometimes tiny things can prompt their mood into a harsh drop.
Gods
Homuncustien tend to worship a 'personal god' rather than have any major religions, although a common tie between most was the importance of the afterlife.
Gods: No major gods, individuals make their own.
Original Creator: Technobaab/interdimensionaltechnobabble
Physical Description
Homuncustien are, on the whole, incredibly tall, Reaching eight feet typically. They appear incredibly thin, going from simply lean to outright malnourished. Their mouths have many needle-like teeth, with mandibles on either side. The hair, if there is any, tends to be rather short. They also have four eyes.
Their arms are incredibly long, and end in claws that are at least a foot long. These claws are dangerous weapons, but most homuncustien intentionally blunt them to ensure they don't accidentally harm people, or items they pick up. Their hands can balled up into a fist to send the claws through specialized slits on their wrists to have them face backwards and away from anything they wish to touch. They use their knuckles as they would fingers in this state, though with reduced dexterity.
The skin of the arms, as well as the legs, appears to typically be a decayed green, which fades to flesh tones closer to the main body and head. Homuncustien tend to have many scars. Whether it be due to previous deaths, accidents with claws, or simple injury, a homuncustien without any scars is a homuncustien that's either incredibly sheltered or lucky. As well, 'patches' are not unheard of either, or even replacement limbs, as homuncustien are able to take transplants even from other species due to their genetic alterations.
Personality
Homuncustien are quiet folks. Most have gone through a great deal, whether it be the great infection, dying, having family die, most have a story they can tell of tragedy. However, they're also a rather celebratory people. Whenever something particularly good happens, expect them to find some way to find more joy in it than most, even if they're also left all the same quiet calm afterwards.
The average homuncustien has an odd relationship with death. Some have taken their changes in stride, doing all they can to live their new lives to the fullest. Others may see it as a gift, and pity those of shorter lives, trying to ensure that as many as possible live as long as possible.
Most, however, have reacted to their new situation with the same quiet calm as anything else. These tend to be the sorts that honor the afterlife, and mourn the fact that they are now barred from it forevermore, or so they believe.
What ties most together, is simply compassion. They have a uniting experience, after the great infection. Something they can all point to and say 'we have to make life better than this', someone who they can all look at and think 'i must never reach the lows he has'. And thus, almost all desire to help those they can, even if it means they don't get the help they themselves need.
Homuncustiens do not age like typical lifeforms- their bodies are static, as if frozen in time. Their minds, instead, are what age. Every hundred years, a homuncustien collapses, sleeping like a rock for a full day. When they awaken, they will remember only flickers of their previous life, becoming an entirely new person.
Only absolutely essential processes are remembered- taking medicine, paying rent, feeding pets. Everything else is gone, outside of occasional unpleasant flashbacks. Anything beyond that, the homuncustien needs to learn for themselves, as a new person inhabiting an old body.
History
The homuncustiens were not always the undead they are now. In fact, the change that turned them into such things happened approximately thirty years ago, at time of writing. Before the great infection, they were known as the Vigosti. The Vigosti were a rather advanced race, for a lre-space age, and a rather content one. They'd had a good civilization, no major atrocities, focused on keeping people happy and healthy. Not a utopia, nor did they have the technology they have now, but they were content to stay as they were, and work on their problems as they came.
And then, things went wrong. During an annual meeting, their societies brightest minds bring forth a problem they believe society has, and a solution to fix it. Sometimes it was something major, poverty rampant among a country, other times, it was minor, some particular crop needing support to properly grow. One of these minds was Ogdord Vigostien. He'd come before, providing a rather large boon to society- a machine capable of inducing rain in a large area, for as long as needed, which helped farming a great deal. But, this year he presented the latest problem he was daring to conquer death itself.
This did not sit over well with the others. Death, unpleasant as it was, was part of their society. They respected it, viewing the afterlife as a final rest. And so, they shouted him down, and even more loudly when he presented his 'solution'.
Infect the world's populace with a parasite, that would grow, consume the brain, and take its place, to forever revive the body. It was an abomination, they all thought. Such a thing, it couldn't be right. It wouldn't save those affected, it would kill them, leaving nothing but a bug in their skull pretending to be them. Scorned by his peers, he got to work regardless. Kidnapping those who wouldn't be missed for his experiments, unleashing half-made ones onto cities and towns. Just when the people of the world were about to resort to killing him, he performed his greatest atrocity.
The bugs, 'cerebroisopods' as he called them, began pouring into the streets. From storm drains, from forests, and with a few modifications to his weather machine even from the sky. There was no fighting, there were too many, from every available angle. The world as the Vigosti knew it had ended. The last Vigosti was extinct. And the homuncustiens rose.
Many years were spent recovering- Ogdord Vigostien was executed, and when he rose again, his experiment proven to work on him, they locked him in the deepest hole they could find. Then, they began to rebuild.
It took years, but things were looking okay. Those who believed themselves 'pure' sometimes attempted to wipe out the homuncustiens, but they'd learned, and kept tabs on things.
Just when they had everything finally under control, the first aliens arrived. Chaos almost broke out again, but it was managed, and talks were made. Once the homuncustiens realized what the galaxy was like, they made a decision.
To the galaxy at large, chaotic, mad, and troubled it is, they said:
"The doctor will see you now."
Home Planet
Marisheli is a rather nice planet, if one doesn't mind rain. And lightning. The storm machines created by Ogdord Vigostien have proven resistant to traditional removal, and the network was important for keeping everyone fed, but in recent years they have malfunctioned. The constant storm that now envelops the planet is a result of this, and most repairs to the system have gone to ensuring the storm does not become dangerous.
The homuncustiens have mostly left the planet. There is still it's government, keeping those that decided to remain safe, but the species had mostly decided that it's simply a hot spot of bad memories. The largest population left is the 'pure ones', a group convinced that they have not been afflicted with undeath, and that it is thus paramount to quarantine themselves away from risk of 'infection'.
The government of the planet is, as well, none too partial to any extraterrestrial visitors. This is not due to a dislike of aliens, but more simply that they already have enough problems to deal with aside from any alien business.
Subspecies
None / Unknown.
Special
Undead Revivification: Homuncustien have a rather unique ability due to their affliction: the ability to revive from the dead. Given about a month undisturbed, the insect that forms a homuncustiens brain can form a sort of biological mesh around the body, delivering stored nutrients to revive dead cells, electrical charges to kickstart dead organs, and eventually reviving the homuncustien entirely.
Done properly, the only side effects are mild irritability for a few days as well as an increased appetite, but an electric charge can accelerate the process, causing worse and worse side-effects the less time the cerebroisopod has to form it's biomesh.
If not even given a day, then the homuncustien is driven to madness. They may attack those nearby, or consume any flesh they can- Or simply wandering in a daze for the rest of their days. At this level, the homuncustien is rendered a simple zombie. On very, very rare occasion, it is possible to revert the effects by killing the homuncustien and letting it revive properly, but it is only a slight chance, and rushing revival to such a degree is highly illegal regardless. This effect can also be used to replace organs or limbs, and this is thankfully far more conductive to an electrical boost. In limbs it only causes numbness and decreased dexterity in the new limb, but for organs more care is required lest it shut down, especially if it is an alien one.
Although most organs can be replaced with no downside, 'replacing' the entire body is a far less encouraged endeavour. Placing the cerebroisopod into an entirely new body is liable to kill it, and if it does not, it requires two months rather than the standard one to revive the new body. Afterwards, the homuncustien requires yet another two months to learn to use the new body.
Trivia
• Homuncustiens tend to enjoy trying new foods, even, and for some especially ones they shouldn't.
• There is a procedure to convert a member of another species into a homuncustien. However, it is considered outright illegal to perform. Even if the person survives they will lose all their memories, and slowly, their mind.
• Ogdord Vigostiens prison sentence will end in approximately 500 years, at time of writing. Until then, his day of arrest is considered a species-wide holiday.
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