Nedrathul.

[TLDunn213]

A Nedrathul is what happens when you use a fungusman aka Sporanid as the form doaner in the Thulien morphosis process. 

Interestingly enough it was the fungusmen who first tried the experiment using a wild Cephalarack tadpole and an immature Sporanid for the attempt. In fact several were made at the same time as the full experiment was about observing what happens if an Illith has a childhood.

Modified Chaos fungus combined with memory moss were used to create a brain fungus that could be used as food by the growing Illith children.

The brain fungus proved to be simi-telepathic and able to share/store the memories of the children. And as the main part of the brain fungus is the underground mycelium, harvesting the upper brain stools caused the brain fungus no discomfort and it seemed to actually look forward to being harvested. This is likely due to the joy the children experienced at gaining new memories along with their meals. 

Indeed feeding was a group bonding event as all involved entered a temporary hivemind state during the meals yet fully retained a sense of self both during and after. 

Nedrathul formed in a more conventional way; that is an adult fungusman and a regular Thulien tadpole with a full set of imprinted memories; produse Interestingly similar results. That is a merger occurs.

Unlike normal morphosis in which typically there is at best only one survivor. Something about the Sporanid physiology causes a merging effect the majority of the time. 

Nedrathul can eat brains and do hunger for them, but unlike their Illith counterparts they do not need to and thus can live and work alongside other races much more easily. 

Of course as it is nearly impossible to tell a Nedrathul from an Illith most other races are not particularly welcoming. 

On the other hand it is rather easy to tell if you are in an Illith or Nedrathul village as only the Nedrathul will have children.

More on this topic later.

[TLDunn213]

Let us now take a look at the Nedrathul life cycle and compare it to what happens when an Illith dies.

We are not going to bother with the Thulien life cycle here as I've covered it quite well enough elsewhere.

But it is worth noting that a decaying Thulien, of any type will provide an excellent supply of nutrients for the growth of Chaos fungus. A Nedrathul corpse does the same but also provides the spores needed to start a Brain fungus. Now what happens next depends on the environment and if the Brain fungus is being tended or not.

If it is being tended then the results will be according to the intentions of the gardener. Now if it is growing wild the results are more up to the environment 

However if someone or even something that can serve as a gardener comes along and eats some of the brain stools there is a very good chance that the brain fungus will be able to establish some level of control over that being and then we are back to a being tended situation.

So. What happens in that situation.

Basically the same thing as when any other fungus person dies and gets planted. First some basic Chaos fungus form and with proper growth regulators new fungus people eventually appear and can take over the gardening duties.

I think I covered the life cycle links between Chaos fungus and Fungus people somewhere already. If not I'll try to make a point of getting to it later.

 

Anyway, the other side of the life cycle question still needs to be addressed.

Can a Nedrathul spawn other types of Thuliens?

 

 

 

[TLDunn213]

After some thought and research the answer is both yes and no. Or really more no. Well...sort of...

It is worth noting that the Illith phase of the Thulien life cycle is the only step in that cycle that cannot produce tadpoles or the eggs for them directly. And as the Nedrathul are simply a variation of that step the same is true for them.

However Illith can undergo a morphosis into an adult or Elder Thulien which can produce the Tadpole stage.

This process requires a potion which is encoded in the Thulien genetic memory in such a way that only Illith who have reached a certain point in their development are able to access.

Nedrathul have a somewhat different biology from regular Illith so it is likely that a different formulation of the potion would be required.

I have no reports yet of any Nedrathul undergoing the transformation but I believe it is possible. Although the potion needed maybe something that is still being researched.

[Harmonious_Echos]

(munches popcorn) Wow!! I love this character-building. It's funny to me that although I have ZERO history I'm still pretty much following this, it's very scifi but I would love to see more. 

 

[TLDunn213]

I've got quite a bit of lore on Thuliens and other races in the Shard Scape 

Feel free to look around and/or ask questions if I didn't explain something well enough.