I fear me and atlas may be intruding on the book.. uh.. archival tumblr community or something. With redrot. Red rot. cus I'm not sure you guys are aware but red rot is like a real thing it's like the decaying of leather (we did not plan that, it was genuinely just coincidence) and like. damn. archivalists must hate us man
Sometimes working in archives can be dirty job, and when red rot stains an archival box beyond recognition, it’s time to get some custom enclosures made. This box held two church record books that had just enough room to move around to leave this mess behind. Our new custom boxes will keep the record books snug and better preserved for future researchers. https://www.instagram.com/hdsspecialcollections/p/BvetQ6Ig1QK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1p0y6vutyqqd7
So for a few years now I’ve been working on a book/setting that originated as a Quest game for folks online. Once the game kind of died off I started wanting to make it into something more because of all the work I’ve put into the worldbuilding and characters.
Revolving around a tribe of undead ghouls that have reached sapience among some of their number thanks to the thaumaturgically enhanced bacterium that animates them due to a fluke of mutation. The story involves their struggles as they live and die in the sewers and catacombs under the massive city of Meldric. Heavily polluted with magical and alchemical run-off their underground realm is full of many dangers but in time they learn to coexist peacefully with many of the mutated and monstrous denizens of the darkness.
Still working on a masterpost for the setting but figured I might as well start posting a few things from it.
Under the cut will be the Biology section concerning the Ghouls and the Red Rot bacterium
Biology:
The bacterium called the Red Rot is the source of the Red Throat Ghouls. Originally afflicting the metropolis of Meldric it quickly became a plague on a city already suffering from food shortages and an unusually fierce hurricane season. Neither the Magisters of the City College for Thaumaturgy and Alchemy nor the many servants of the various deities that the populace worshiped, could find a solution to the plague as it worsened. Only able to infect warm-blooded mammalians it was quickly spread by the massive amounts of rodents among the destitute that lived in the squalor of the city. The plague did not merely infect the poor and unfortunate however, the sickness ripping through even the wealthy and isolated districts in time.
Due to overcrowded graveyards and crematoriums many of the dead were thrown into the sewers where they were exposed to the chaotic energies of the thaumaturgic and alchemical pollution leading to the bacterium mutating even further. Discovering these mutations by happenstance while searching for a cure it was further experimented on by a rogue Magister who became obsessed with the bacterial plague and its necromantic properties leading to a new form of undead Ghoul.
While Ghouls of several types existed through the world, each possessing a mutated form adapted to a feral mindset and carnivorous (and cannibalistic) appetites, these new ghouls were united by the bacterium animating them. In time the bacterium began to mutate even further, leading to their ability to regenerate portions of their hosts brain while also modifying them in certain ways.
Enlightened Ghouls and Feral Ghouls
Eventually this led to the emergence of the Enlightened, Ghouls that have developed sapience and intelligence beyond that of their Feral kin. This Enlightenment allows them to psionically exert their will through the Ferals, not outright controlling every movement but offering silent guidance and suggestion. In time the Enlightened learned how to see through the eyes of a nearby Feral and even use Ferals to pass psionic messages between them.
The bacterium was deduced by their wisest member to be their animating force and she called it the Red Rot for the habit of clusters of the bacterium to appear in dense pockets under the skin, giving a flushed blood-red coloration in their typically gray skin. They named their new tribe the Red Throat Tribe due to these colorations concentrating around the mouth, chin, and throat along with their hands and partway up their forearms. The Red Rot is naturally bioluminescent and is most noticeable when an Enlightened channels the Red Rots power while casting a spell or enraged, shining through their skin to illuminate the bacterial clusters and the blood pumping through their veins.
The hair of a host will fall out and their skill will appear withered and taut against the muscle as most ghouls lose most of their body fat due to a very active metabolism. The eyes of a Feral have the appearance of a common corpse, being gray and cloudy but an Enlightened possesses bioluminescent clusters of the Red Rot in their sclera and iris in particular giving them a faint glow that is easiest to notice in the darkness of their tunnel homes. Despite being undead the metabolisms of the ghouls cause them to have a higher core temperature than their living sources, the ghouls in fact calling the transition from living to undead ghoul the Fever.
The benefits of the Red Rot was not merely cosmetic as it causes in each of its hosts a series of mutations.
Each ghoul has its own base set of mutations that carry across all members regardless of base race. These include:
-Regenerative factor
-Enhanced hearing and olfactory senses
-Talons in the form of their finger bones lengthening and ripping through the skin of the fingertips into sharp claws
-Teeth becoming sharpened along with the growth of additional teeth as the jaws extend to accommodate
-A vague situational awareness to what a nearby Ghoul is experiencing
The Red Rot bacterium
As the Red Throat Tribe grew with a fluctuating but steadily increasing population the Red Rot grew in quantity as well. This in addition with the psionic influence of more unique minded Enlightened triggered a critical change in the bacterium as it experienced a critical mass of both physical and psionic proportions. The Red Rot became a sentient force, separate yet connected to the minds of the Enlightened and viewing the world through the eyes of the Ferals.
The power of the Red Rot began to increase, and due to its unique properties, granted the Enlightened the strength to use spells and thaumaturgy. The Red Rot was naturally inclined to supporting such spells of the Life, Shadow, and Consumption domains with several of the Enlightened showing a natural talent for them.
Radiant Ghouls
With an experiment into thaumaturgy and the Red Rot, the Enlightened Tatters created the first of the Radiant Ghouls. By inducing a mass replication of the Red Rot bacterium within a single host body it will reach a critical mass event changing the internal biology of the host. With most of it's fluids and tissues replaced with the Red Rot itself the Radiant Ghouls glow brightly with bioluminescence while exuding form of energy that encourages the regeneration of wounds sustained by other Red Rot infected organisms. Radiant Ghouls are naturally pacifistic and will avoid conflict at the first sign of trouble. Their blood can be used to rapidly heal another ghoul if consumed but too much leads to the chance of turning them into another Radiant Ghoul. Their blood also rapidly speeds up the infection and mutation rate of new converts into new ghouls. Tatters and her assistant Dust continue to experiment with the Radiants blood to further their understanding of the Red Rot and develop new tools for the Tribe.
The effects of the Red Rot on other organisms
While the Red Rot can only infect and mutate warm-blooded mammalian hosts it does have the ability to influence other forms of life. Creatures such as the repto-insectoid Murkhounds and the crustacean Clackers have been mutated into unique breeds by the Red Rot. This influence allows the ghouls, both feral and enlightened, to train and guide their domesticated beasts with ease.
Of special note the Red Rot bacterium is able to reside inside the tissues of fungus up to and including members of the friendly Fungal Tribe. The full implications of this are unknown but both the Red Rot entity and the Fungal Tribes own patron and origin, the Eldershroom, seem to share similar abilities on the metaphysical planes. Of the known benefits is that Ferals will heed the instructions of a Fungal and the Fungals own automated non-sapient defenses recognize the Red Throat ghouls as allies.
there's a suggestive one in there somewhere, and the first two you may have to turn the brightness up to actually see it nicely. Oh there's a bunch of hr too, and a vega in there. the first two are technically PT but it's his younger version so idk
