Bodysnatcher Autocrat

ECOLOGY

Environment any land
Organization solitary

Bodysnatcher slimes are parasitic organisms that commandeer hosts to experience life through their senses. Unlike most oozes, these slimes contain a complex yet amorphous neural network that enables learning, memory, and reasoning. These neurons can also integrate with a host’s nervous system, enabling nearly instantaneous communication between the two beings. Studies suggest the slimes replicate and absorb copies of their hosts’ neurons, so hypothetically, a prolific slime could grow smarter over time.

In most cases, though, a bodysnatcher slime never grows to occupy more than several cubic feet. Replicating neurons grants the slime greater control over its form, allowing it to grow and still coordinate its movements and metabolism.

However, bigger oozes find it more difficult to fit inside hosts without causing the body to bulge such that it betrays the parasite’s presence. Furthermore, the slime’s modified neural network can develop multiple personalities that compete for resources and control. Ultimately, such a creature splits and forms two new slimes, each of which begins rebuilding the vast stores of knowledge and neurons that it lost in the process. Rarely, an ooze retains control over its growing mental prowess and so avoids splitting. These rare bodysnatcher autocrats selectively infest hosts they perceive as powerful.

As with humanoid brains, a slime’s neural network requires the slime to consume a large number of calories to sustain it While infesting a host, the slime draws its necessary nutrients from the host’s body and digestive system; this process adds a faintly citrus scent to the host’s sweat and excrement. However, without a host, a bodysnatcher slime can absorb nutrients from a wide variety of foods, favoring high-calorie options like sugars and flesh. When denied sustenance, the slime can enter hibernation, awaiting suitable prey for months at a time.

Bodysnatcher slimes aren’t malicious, but they are insidious. When spoken to, they are baffled by claims that abducting others is reprehensible. Given the oozes’ simple physiology and psychology, this mindset likely results from a lack of higher thought processes and capacity for self-reflection.

However, bodysnatcher slimes grow increasingly ambitious the longer they spend in hosts and the larger they become, suggesting a moral compass doesn’t accompany greater intelligence.

Having stowed away on countless ships, the slimes have spread across the universe. With increasing frequency, authorities contract independent trackers to eliminate these slimes; as such, the bodysnatchers have learned to recognize and avoid the Stewards.