Thresher Lord

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary or pair

The thresher lord is a single-minded collective with a desire to consume all things and absorb their best qualities into itself. The Swarm moves from planet to planet in tremendous organic hive-ships, reducing each so-called “feeder world” to a barren husk incapable of supporting life, and occasionally altering its own DNA in the process to take on qualities from that world’s species. Once it has consumed everything of use on a planet, the Swarm moves on, not bothering to hold territory.

Ironically, one of the most violent races in the galaxy also birthed one of the most peaceful, as a mutation within a sub-hive gave life to the shirrens, who broke away to form a new species. The Swarm is notorious not just because of the invasion that finally ended hostilities, but also thanks to the warnings of shirrens, who understand the thresher lord’s might and its hunger as no other race can.

While individual components of the swarm have some form of intelligence—or at least a set of complex programmed behaviors that resembles intellect—they cannot generally be reasoned with in any fashion. Swarm components rarely communicate with other creatures, as they see every alien entity as either a food source or a threat. The thresher lord’s morale is unbreakable, and while individual components might retreat for tactical reasons, fear is utterly unknown to the Swarm and its components.

A thresher lord rarely wields manufactured weapons, instead integrating biotechnology grown or grafted onto component creatures. Because of its constant genetic upgrading and experimentation, the Swarm encompasses components with a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and capabilities, from the mighty dreadlancers to the microscopic, bloodstream-infesting toxicytes. The two Swarm components listed here are some of the most common aspects of the Swarm’s varied evolutions.

Corrovoxes are thresher lord shock troops. They act as advance scouts and worldseekers for the thresher lord, and moving vast hordes across potential feeder worlds. Like many swarm creatures, corrovoxes have latent telepathic ability and are capable of psychically ravaging a foe’s mind. Thresher lords descend on their foes on insectile wings and, as their name implies, quickly cut prey down with the massive razor-sharp blades that grow from their arms. When the carnage is complete, other components of the swarm arrive to feast upon the bloody remains.