Possible Host Concepts?

[Korogra]

Hey all Korogra here, how are you? As you know there are various Shartha on these forums such as Chris' Ukusgualu, Claire's Zibhesi, Cinder's Bharsalu and Suthilu as well as my Gisilu ( I think someone made an interesting, if mechanicless Moth Host too... but can't remember the name), but I was wondering, what sort of Host concepts have been thought up by you guys?

I have an inkling of two new potential shartha concepts in my head that would be pretty cool, though not sure how to bring them to life.

One is a very Uratha-centric Flea Host that is able to transmit Kuruth to humans and animals alike while aggravating the Death Rage of werewolves.

The other is a centipede-host that can somehow infest ghosts, using them as puppets while causing the Gauntlet to rot, leading the Hisil and Underworld to bleed into each other, which then affects the living world.

Any ideas on how to make these spirit-hosts work would be incredibly helpful, as well as hearing about whatever cool, horrifying shartha critters any of you have thought up!! That would be greatly appreciated.

As always thanks and don't forget to share your thoughts! Have a wonderful day!

[Sikla Alkis]

Orchid Host from the Amazonian rainforest. They scatter their seeds in the Shadow, and hitch a ride on shapeshifters or other hosts crossing the Gauntlet, or sometimes on humans that pass through verges. From there, they materialize as spiny seeds in the real world, and dig into human bodies like hookworms do if they come in contact with human skin. When the seeds burst through with vines and flower, they drive their victims to seek out verges and other places where the Gauntlet is thin, so that they can collect ulal from the spirit world like water condensation in the air. They're not antagonist automatically, and actually have a symbiotic relationship with Beshilu — some Rat Hosts tend to "gardens" of them where they've worn down the Gauntlet. Others feed and follow them around to find holes in the Gauntlet they can wear down around and pass through easily.

[Korogra]

Orchid Host from the Amazonian rainforest. They scatter their seeds in the Shadow, and hitch a ride on shapeshifters or other hosts crossing the Gauntlet, or sometimes on humans that pass through verges. From there, they materialize as spiny seeds in the real world, and dig into human bodies like hookworms do if they come in contact with human skin. When the seeds burst through with vines and flower, they drive their victims to seek out verges and other places where the Gauntlet is thin, so that they can collect ulal from the spirit world like water condensation in the air. They're not antagonist automatically, and actually have a symbiotic relationship with Beshilu — some Rat Hosts tend to "gardens" of them where they've worn down the Gauntlet. Others feed and follow them around to find holes in the Gauntlet they can wear down around and pass through easily.

I really like that idea, its like the Fungus Hosts while being not nearly as tortuous..and being much prettier! How do you think they interact with Uratha? I also wonder what sort of pretty/creepy things the hybrids do when not feeding.

[milo v3]

Cicada hosts who sleep inside their hosts for months and months until they eventually drive them to reach the tallest place they can and burst out of them leaving a calcified hust. These monstrous insectiods then start to beat their drums, creating a sound that resonates through the gauntlet resulting in other shartha being ripped into the area and the area's shadow.

[MCN]

Cat Hosts

There are many legends of a werewolf's bite turning a person into a werewolf. Though the Uratha know this only makes some people into Wolf Blooded when they're infected with Lunacy, these Sharatha take that story a bit more literally. Those attacked by and bitten by a werecat become infected with a feline spirit of vengence, which slowly takes over the body over the course of a fortnight, transforming into a full therianthrope.

Though called the Cat Hosts, the truth is that all hosts have three forms - the house cat form, human form, and a large predator cat form, be it a lion, a tiger, a jaguar, a panther, or other large cat. Each Host is "born" when a new human is infected, and the host must be a consumed with a desire for vengence. Only someone that's been wronged so deeply and utterly that they snapped can become a cat Host; only those driven by a desire for revenge can sucessfully nurish such essence until their very mind and body are consumed into a new being.

Often, a cat host will immediately seek to fulfill their "parent's" wish for vengence. Which is all well and good, but then comes the problem - the Host is still driven by a spirit's need for food and a human biological need to have children, forcing it to hunt down others with a desire for vengence to create more of their kind, and to engage in a perverse spirit hunt on those targets of revenge for essence. Unfortunately, the feline hosts have no inbuilt sense of balance - if left unchecked, the hosts seek out and kill for the slightest infractions, irregardless of why, and create huge communities of felines that spread out in their search for food.

[Sikla Alkis]

I really like that idea, its like the Fungus Hosts while being not nearly as tortuous..and being much prettier! How do you think they interact with Uratha? I also wonder what sort of pretty/creepy things the hybrids do when not feeding.

When they're not feeding, they exist in a state of torpor. The flowers close up, and they stand around limply like living meat puppets. (Think the remotely-controlled bodies from Playdead's Inside, or the brain worm-controlled bodies from Limbo.) They will react to being attacked with a poisonous pollen spray and thorny, whipping vines, but they're not actively malicious or threatening. For your average Forsaken, such as a Hunter In Darkness, it would be a pretty easy case of chopping up the weeds if the host seeds didn't drop and spread everywhere like kudzu. If you're Pure, on the other hand, you might be tempted to keep a few of these things around as living essence collectors for yourself, your totem and your troops. You can harvest the ulal very, very carefully if you're gentle about it.

Don't try eating the flowers, though — their makeup in the Gurihal is a lot like human flesh, so that would be a breaking point. There's also the fact of the brain and nervous system being the first thing taken over by the Host, but it can be hit-or-miss whether the human feels anything. Some go into a coma, some become brain-dead very quickly, and some are trapped in a dreaming state, like the effects of the Black Mercy Flower from the Justice League series. Sometimes, the human feels and is aware of everything, to a wide variety of degrees, but is helpless to do anything.

I'm not entirely sure on the full effects of the flowers/pollen when harvested. The ulal has a tinge of plant essence to it, so you could feed it directly to to totems and spirits that subsist on that kind of essence. You'd have to purify it a little before you gave it to anything else, though.

[Korogra]

Cicada hosts who sleep inside their hosts for months and months until they eventually drive them to reach the tallest place they can and burst out of them leaving a calcified hust. These monstrous insectiods then start to beat their drums, creating a sound that resonates through the gauntlet resulting in other shartha being ripped into the area and the area's shadow.

Interesting, so they act as a rallying cry for other Hosts, or do they just rile the others up to ridiculous degrees?

[Korogra]

Cat Hosts

There are many legends of a werewolf's bite turning a person into a werewolf. Though the Uratha know this only makes some people into Wolf Blooded when they're infected with Lunacy, these Sharatha take that story a bit more literally. Those attacked by and bitten by a werecat become infected with a feline spirit of vengence, which slowly takes over the body over the course of a fortnight, transforming into a full therianthrope.

Though called the Cat Hosts, the truth is that all hosts have three forms - the house cat form, human form, and a large predator cat form, be it a lion, a tiger, a jaguar, a panther, or other large cat. Each Host is "born" when a new human is infected, and the host must be a consumed with a desire for vengence. Only someone that's been wronged so deeply and utterly that they snapped can become a cat Host; only those driven by a desire for revenge can sucessfully nurish such essence until their very mind and body are consumed into a new being.

Often, a cat host will immediately seek to fulfill their "parent's" wish for vengence. Which is all well and good, but then comes the problem - the Host is still driven by a spirit's need for food and a human biological need to have children, forcing it to hunt down others with a desire for vengence to create more of their kind, and to engage in a perverse spirit hunt on those targets of revenge for essence. Unfortunately, the feline hosts have no inbuilt sense of balance - if left unchecked, the hosts seek out and kill for the slightest infractions, irregardless of why, and create huge communities of felines that spread out in their search for food.

Oh hey, the Colony! Very interesting interpretation of a 1st ed splat. How do werewolves view them?

[milo v3]

Interesting, so they act as a rallying cry for other Hosts, or do they just rile the others up to ridiculous degrees?

Rallying cry, since cicada's do the drone as a mating call and it probably wants more cicada shartha to merge with.

[Korogra]

When they're not feeding, they exist in a state of torpor. The flowers close up, and they stand around limply like living meat puppets. (Think the remotely-controlled bodies from Playdead's Inside, or the brain worm-controlled bodies from Limbo.) They will react to being attacked with a poisonous pollen spray and thorny, whipping vines, but they're not actively malicious or threatening. For your average Forsaken, such as a Hunter In Darkness, it would be a pretty easy case of chopping up the weeds if the host seeds didn't drop and spread everywhere like kudzu. If you're Pure, on the other hand, you might be tempted to keep a few of these things around as living essence collectors for yourself, your totem and your troops. You can harvest the ulal very, very carefully if you're gentle about it.

Don't try eating the flowers, though — their makeup in the Gurihal is a lot like human flesh, so that would be a breaking point. There's also the fact of the brain and nervous system being the first thing taken over by the Host, but it can be hit-or-miss whether the human feels anything. Some go into a coma, some become brain-dead very quickly, and some are trapped in a dreaming state, like the effects of the Black Mercy Flower from the Justice League series. Sometimes, the human feels and is aware of everything, to a wide variety of degrees, but is helpless to do anything.

I'm not entirely sure on the full effects of the flowers/pollen when harvested. The ulal has a tinge of plant essence to it, so you could feed it directly to to totems and spirits that subsist on that kind of essence. You'd have to purify it a little before you gave it to anything else, though.

My mind spins with the possibilites this idea has. Especially that thing with the Pure. Sacrilege in its absolute finest. Wolves don't permit shartha to persist, so doing that is surely going to call a butt ton of Hunters in Darkness AND their Blood Talon meatshields/friends.

[Korogra]

Rallying cry, since cicada's do the drone as a mating call and it probably wants more cicada shartha to merge with.

Does it only draw other cicadas?

[nofather]

Seems like they might be a nice harvest for Claimed, especially giant Hive-Claimed. The idea of malformed giants 'plucking' shartha-infested people from storehouses and downing them for fuel is grossly appropriate.

I've liked a lot of the homebrewed hosts but I've always had trouble thinking out specifics for them myself. So far I've only really come up with a few ideas that were never fleshed out. The Fire Hosts, based on the story Afterburn by Tim Curran. They represent a fairly immediate threat, as opposed to the creeping plague of most hosts. Like wildfire, they spread, infecting as many others as they can with the fire that burns but doesn't die. It gets worse and worse over a short period of time, the hosts don't last more than twelve hours, until they infest enough to spawn a great conflagration that sears the Gauntlet forever and die out in the process.

There was another idea for a host that wasn't on Earth before or during the Sundering and later found themselves stuck in a void. They left but haven't been able to return. They really exist as their own 'kind' more than the other shartha. They lack personalities beyond mindless Essence-eaters until one has absorbed enough of their own kind and becomes capable of taking over bodies, including other supernaturals, and determining what they want for themselves or others. They were based on the Daemonites, from Wildstorm.

[milo v3]

Does it only draw other cicadas?

Nah, whatever types of shartha are nearby. Just might be some cicadas amoung the nearby gauntlet, might not.

[Korogra]

Seems like they might be a nice harvest for Claimed, especially giant Hive-Claimed. The idea of malformed giants 'plucking' shartha-infested people from storehouses and downing them for fuel is grossly appropriate.

I've liked a lot of the homebrewed hosts but I've always had trouble thinking out specifics for them myself. So far I've only really come up with a few ideas that were never fleshed out. The Fire Hosts, based on the story Afterburn by Tim Curran. They represent a fairly immediate threat, as opposed to the creeping plague of most hosts. Like wildfire, they spread, infecting as many others as they can with the fire that burns but doesn't die. It gets worse and worse over a short period of time, the hosts don't last more than twelve hours, until they infest enough to spawn a great conflagration that sears the Gauntlet forever and die out in the process.

There was another idea for a host that wasn't on Earth before or during the Sundering and later found themselves stuck in a void. They left but haven't been able to return. They really exist as their own 'kind' more than the other shartha. They lack personalities beyond mindless Essence-eaters until one has absorbed enough of their own kind and becomes capable of taking over bodies, including other supernaturals, and determining what they want for themselves or others. They were based on the Daemonites, from Wildstorm.

I like both of those ideas, I think the "elemental" shartha idea has a lot of potential in particular.

The second idea is pretty intriguing due to how alien it sounds. We have rats, spiders, crabs, locusts and what not, but they at least resemble things in nature. Not these monsters.

[Korogra]

Nah, whatever types of shartha are nearby. Just might be some cicadas amoung the nearby gauntlet, might not.

That's a pretty cool concept, makes clearing them out problematic