The Void Hollowed

The Void Hollowed (referred to as Hollowed) are a hostile form of life that desire nothing more than to consume and subsume all life that doesnt already belong to their collective. Hollowed are the natives of the Zone known as The Dead Sea.

The Hollowed consume life much like a parasitic infection, where they will infect a creature with their Larval form, known as a "Louse", and over the process of 24 hours, will turn the infected creature into a variant of Hollowed based off of the traits of the infected individual.

The Hollowing is believed to be a primarily biological process. It is theorised that there could be magic involved, however we simply don't have the resources (or people) to check. We are sure, however, that the species isn't completely non-magical, as Lice have proven to be able to consume, metabolise, and infect quite literally anything as long as it is part of a living creature.

The transformation process of an uninfected humanoid to a Mollusk is a gruesome and agonizing one.

Lice generally enter the body through appendages such as limbs or tails.

The first two hours after a Louse enters a creature are the only hours of peace the infected creature will get as the Louse spends all of this time and all of its energy burrowing to the creatures stomach. During this time, the infected creature may get some minor discomfort or soreness in the area the Louse is burrowing through, but beyond this they are unaffected. This period of time is also the only point in which it is possible to cleanse someone of the Louse that has invaded their body, however the only magical cures that work are at minumum the strength of a Greater Healing Spell, as before this the Louse has not yet integrated with the hosts body. Alternatively, if the Louse has entered the body through an external limb, immediate amputation is highly encouraged.

In some unfortunate circumstances, Lice have been recorded entering through the torso. In this case, the next phase will begin immediately as the Louse does not have to burrow far. It is also near impossible to cure an infected creature if the Louse enters this way.

Hours three to six are when physical maladies will begin to manifest in the host creature. Inside the creatures stomach, the Louse is consuming any sustenance the host has. The host begins to feel an insatiable and omnipresent hunger and will feel this for the rest of the transformation. This hunger is usually accompanied by an intense stomach pain as the stomach begins to rupture from the Louse entering. The Louse will use the food matter it consumes to begin the formation of crystal-like Coral from within the creatures stomach. The Louse is also careful to make sure none of these growths pierce any vital organs as if the host dies, the Louse does as well. It is around the seven hour mark, when these Coral growths begin to cause irrepairable damage to the body. The growths are still contained to the innards of the host, but they have spread throughout the entire body with the exception of the head. This is around when the pain reaches its most excruciating point. This phase is accompanied by intense vomiting and the discoloration of the host's skin. The host's skin begins to become pale and a dark purple rash forms around where the Louse entered.

Due to the host's vomiting, the Louse will likely run out of food inside the stomach and will have to find another way to sustain itself. It will then begin to consume and metabolize non-vital organs, muscles, and fat deposits. The space cleared by this process is quickly replaced by Coral.
Around ten hours into the transformation, the physical pain will begin to subside as the nervous system is near gone, but the host's agony is far from over. Around this time, the host will start to look unrecognizable as their bones are consumed and replaced the unorganized structure of Coral. The host's skin will begin to also turn a dark purple while the veins will become a hazy light blue color. If cut, the host bleeds this blue color. The louse has become much larger and more powerful at this point. It is the sole thing keeping the host alive. The louse takes over many of the bodies vital functions such as pumping blood, compressing and expanding the lungs, and maintains homeostasis. Twelve hours in, the infection finally reaches the hosts brain. While the physical discomfort has likely ended for the host, the psychological effects begin to take hold. The feeling of hunger becomes ever more overwhelming and the host likely begins to actively seek out anything edible. This feeling is accompanied by intense bipolarity and in some cases, the host may become violent if provoked. As the Coral growths have not finished developing, any attempts at violence from the host are likely ineffective. Over the next six hours, the following symptoms will appear and quickly amplify in their severity.

The host will begin to hallucinate. These hallucinations may start of as minor as voices or small visual distortions, but will quickly become hallucinations of entire creatures, fake memories, and even phantom pain. The host will experience heavy brain fog and memory loss. Similar to the hallucinations, the memory loss starts off small with the host forgetting the names of their loved ones or forgetting where they currently are. As it develops, the host will lose all sense of self and knowledge of their being.

By the eighteenth hour, the host is almost certainly in a vegetative state. The Coral begins to make its way to surface of the skin, pushing outward, causing the skin to stretch and bend. The host's eyes begin to darken and turn purple. The first bits of Coral become visible as it can be viewed growing in the back of the host's throat and the host's hair begins to rapidly fall out.

For the final six hours, the host usually remains quiet and still while the Coral within nears its completion. At this point, the Louse is fully in control of the host's body and no longer needs the incredible amount of energy to sustain itself. The Louse can move and pilot the body almost like a puppeteer, but until the end of the transformation the Louse tends to remain motionless. It will move only in an effort to protect its life.

As the transformation nears its end point, the host body begins to occasionally shake and a soft cracking noise can be heard from within the body.

The Louse no longer needs the host for any purpose, and in the final hour of the transformation the Louse begins to build up its energy for one final Coral growth. Once ready, the Louse grows enough Coral to cause the skin to burst and explode open allowing the Coral to bloom like a flower. The host is killed and the Louse stops performing any bodily functions for the host. The Coral, now covering the host body's exterior, drips with light blue blood marking the end of the transformation and the start of a new Mollusk.

Due to The Dead Sea's close proximity with the The First Homestead, it was one of the first Zones entered by the people of Apolis. Due to the lack of experience and knowledge of an entirely new species, people took a fairly literal naming scheme. They termed them "Void Hollowed" because of the similarity of the sky to, well, a Void, and added on Hollowed when they first experienced the Hollowing for themselves, believing that the victims were being wholly consumed on the inside. While this isn't exactly "correct" it isnt completely "incorrect" either, and people have grown fairly attached to the terms, so it was decided they were to be kept.

Void Hollowed can take many forms, and often these forms result from the infection of different types of creatures.

A Louse (plural form Lice) is the larval form of the Hollowed, and is the main agent of the spreading of the Hollowing, and consequently the Hollowed themselves.

They are long, thin worms around 1 foot long and 2 cm wide (about the width of a penny) with dark black skin and the mouth structure of a leech. They have no bones, and instead somehow have a hydrostatic skeleton despite not being in water.

A Louse will infect a victim by latching onto their skin and digging into the victim with its teeth, after which it will burrow into the victims body and begin the process of the Hollowing.

Very similar to the standard Louse, except, well, they can fly.

A Flying Louse is near identical to a standard Louse, with a body 1 foot long and 2 cm wide and dark black skin, and of course the mouth of a leech and the same manner of skeleton.

Where it differs, however, is in the six wings that line its back. These wings are about 2 feet long and are made of a cartilagenous substance (likely a form of Coral) that allows the wings to detach when the Flying Louse burrows into a victim. They are, however, capable of regenerating these wings while at rest, taking a relatively short time to do so.

Fortunately, it seems that Flying Lice can only live while in proximity to another species of Hollow, known as the Anemone.

Hydroids are one of the simplest forms of Hollowed, and mainly seem to serve the purpose of producing Lice. They are believed to be sourced not from infection of other creatures, but instead as a result of a Louse aging to maturity without infecting anything.

Hydroids are fairly small, being only around 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. Their bodies consist of a long tube of semi-flexible Coral that looks similar to the barrel of a gun, and two flexible stalks from the base of the creature with sensor organs on the tips. It is not well understood exactly how a Hydroid produces a Louse, but it can be done fairly quickly. A Hydroid will hold on average around twenty Lice within its body, after which it will begin to produce Lice slower, as past this point, each new Louse created forces another outside of the protection of the Hydroid's body. Hydroids are capable of "firing" stored Lice out of their "barrel" with a concerning amount of accuracy.

Most notable about Hydroids is the fact that they cannot change location of their own volition. Once a Hydroid sets down "roots" the only movements it can make are to move its eyestalks to observe its surroundings or aim its barrel. Hydroids have been observed to be able to set roots within other Hollowed, with the only variant of Hollowed not observed with a Hydroid at least once being the Mollusk.

Hydroids are at a similar level of intelligence as the Mollusks, as they will simply sit and observe their surroundings until they find a potential target, after which they will aim at it and begin to fire Lice at the creature until it stops moving or it is infected.

The Mollusk is the lowest and most common form of Hollowed and don't serve a specific purpose within the Hollow collective . A creature becomes a Mollusk if they are infected by a Louse and the process of the Hollowing is allowed to carry out.

The height of a Mollusk is identical to the height of the creature it is made of. You can primarily tell a Mollusk apart from an uninfected creature by the dark purple Coral growths sprouting from the creature's skin and covering its joints.

Mollusks are very single minded and simple in nature, and have been observed being directed by higher forms of Hollowed.

Whales are one of the most durable forms of Hollowed observed to this day, and are seemingly built for absorbing and dealing out heavy impacts. Whales are typically created when a Louse infects a creature around 8-16 feet tall (Large). The most commonly observed form of Whales are made from bears and Humanoid races with an average height of over 8 feet.

Whales have a large range of size, being anywhere from 9 to 16 feet tall, and have a vast variety of shapes they can take, as the number of creatures that fit into their size criteria is quite large and each creature is quite varied in shape. When creating a Whale, the Louse will enhance the musculature and skeletal structure of the infected creature significantly, resulting in increased strength and durability. This results in them having significantly top or front heavy builds with engorged muscles, as it packs as much strength as possible in the arms or offensive tools of the infected creature.

Whales are the most simple minded form of Hollowed, and will simply stand completely still unless given a form of stimuli in the form of activity in the surroundings, another form of Hollowed to follow, or an order from a higher form of Hollowed.

Anemone are a flying variant of Hollowed that are specialised for transporting Flying Lice and are capable of accelerated self healing. They seem to be the most common result of a Louse infecting a small creature or critter with the ability to fly.

Anemone are fairly sizable, around 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, ovular in shape and covered in the same dark black skin that is present on a Louse. They have a thin beak around 6 inches long made of Coral that is used to bite when the they are threatened, and have four 5 foot long wings located on their relative back, opposite their beak.

It is generally believed that Anemone are able to create Flying Lice (The how of this process is unknown), as the Hollowed are generally unable to exhibit traits not possessed by their host, and Lice are not capable of infecting creatures less than a quarter of their length (1/2 of a foot).

The average Anemone can hold up to 15 Flying Lice and can sustain those Lice for a seemingly endless amount of time, likely due to their self healing capabilities. When a Flying Louse decides to rest, it will fly around behind the Anemone and burrow through its "back" and stop when its mouth hits open air, resting until alerted to the presence of a potential host.

Nematomorph take the form of a Whale and sharpen it to many fine points. They typically have a height of ~7 feet, and a lengthened armspan, similar to Whales. It's armspan is replaced from the elbow joint down with a long blade made out of sharpened Coral. Their entire body is covered in a layer of flexible yet fragile Coral, most often to fill out the space provided by the often small source creature. The blade along each of the Nematomorph's arms is covered by a pseudo-muscle much similar to the muscle present in Whales but with one key difference. The muscle along its blade is modified to secrete a paralytic poison that hinders the movement of any creature affected by it. Nematomorphae also have the ability to slightly camouflage themselves in their environment, whether this is natural or magical in nature is not well understood, however, as most interactions with a Nematomorph have been quick and deadly.

Behaviour-wise, Nematomorph are some of the least understood Hollowed. They seem to have a certain level of intelligence that allows for stealth and strategy, and they are the first observed example of a Hollowed capable of giving orders to others.

Remora are perhaps one of the most dangerous forms of Hollowed observed semi-frequently, come from a Louse infecting a humanoid capable of magic, and seem to serve as elite strategist units and magically focused strikers.

Remora exhibit one of the most extreme instances of body modification out of all the Hollowed. Most believe the extent to which they "modify" the base form is due to the magic present within the victim giving them more energy to work with.

A Remora's human body looks near identical to a normal Mollusk, with Coral both poking out from the inner chest and covering the joints of the body. What a Remora does do differently, however, is build another body behind the head of the infected. This body takes a shape very similar to the body of a spider, except scaled up to human size and with the head of the spider replaced by the head of the infected. Remora have a thorax around 3 feet wide and 4 feet long connected to the back of the head made out of a semi-squishy Coral, with six long legs extending from the thorax of a height equivalent to the humanoid body's height, which allows all sets of legs to walk along the ground. They also have two sets of sharp "blades" extending from the front of the thorax and extending past the neck of the infected.

Remora behaviour is less understood than that of even the Nematomorph, due mostly to the danger a Remora presents for a crew of Operators or any wishing to research them. How they fight is fairly well understood, however. Remora are the first form of Hollowed observed to be capable of casting magic, and use this to great effect. Their casting limits are not well understood but it is generally agreed that the magical strength of the Remora is near identical to the magical strength of the infected humanoid. Alongside this ability to spellcast, they have a natural defense mechanism for creatures who get in close range. When threatened in melee, they will engage the blades on the thorax and sever the head from the body of the infected. The body will then begin to rapidly inflate, then explode in a cloud of gas that is slightly poisonous and obscures the Remora from sight.

Concerningly, there has been one report of a Remora communicating. However, the individual reporting this event was the sole survivor of an understaffed Operator transport that was attacked by a horde of Hollowed, and was both hysteric and infected by a Louse, so the source is not considered wholly reliable and the information has not been confirmed by a secondary source.