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Description

Unlike humans, denizens of Assembly do not age and are resistant to most illnesses. This, alongside with their ability to survive some major injuries – up to decapitation – can give one a false impression of their immortality. This is not the case, since assemblians actually can be – and was – killed by more or less conventional means. Here is a list of them:

    1.    Energy deprivation

All assemblians – regardless of species – are able to store usable energy in their bodies in a form of some powerful macroergic metabolites. This energy can be used to keep the body running with no sustenance whatsoever, including oxygen – but only for a limited time! An average limit is about a few days, but some exceptional individuals can push their bodies way past it, reaching spans of months or even more. The organism will constantly replenish its energy through feeding and breathing – but if the energy is depleted, it will start to burn its own biological reserves and thus slowly weaken and starve.

The time of starvation needed to completely wither the body of an assemblian can vary drastically between species and individuals, but it usually require at least one (earthen) year. Suffocation wouldn’t kill them instantly either – but highly inefficient anaerobic metabolism will usually consume all their reserves and fill their body with poisonous wastes in a week or less.

If situation is particularly harsh, many assemblians can enter a special, cryptobiosis-like state, but this ability require special training, as so not everyone can use it – plus, it will leave one vulnerable to other, potentially deadly threats. Otherwise, the amount of time they can spend in this state without food or air can potentially stretch for eons.

    2.    Prolonged organ malfunction

Since usable energy is distributed across their bodies more or less evenly, most assemblians can use it to survive otherwise lethal injuries. For example, they will still be able to walk even with all of their blood being lost, or even with very heart being ripped off – there will be no blood flow, but cells will still be able function for a limited time with the chemicals they accumulated. Ideally, this time should be enough to regenerate, repair or otherwise compensate a received damage in some way. But if – for one reason or another – one is unable to fix their bodily functions before the energy reserves are depleted, they will perish rather quickly, as their failed vitals will be unable to replenish energy in time.

Curiously enough, decapitation also falls in this category. The severed head will be alive – and even conscious – for quite a while, but since it will have nowhere near as much biomass as needed to regenerate a whole new body, its fate will be pretty much sealed. Unless it’ll fall in a tank of soup or some kind stranger will sew it back onto the body, of course.

    3.    Total brain obliteration

The most crude, straightforward and efficient way to kill an assemblian – to completely annihilate their brain, of whatever other body part that is responsible fo harboring their consciousness. For creatures whose mind is distributed between multiple ganglia, all of them must be destroyed.

In addition to being the most effective, this way of homicide is also notable for leaving a body pretty much useless for recycling, as it dissipates the very data that constitutes one’s mind. And even if the brain-dead body manages to survive and regenerate (which can, indeed, happen in the right circumstances), its new mind will be completely devoid of the original personality and basically feral.

However, keep in mind that total obliteration means just that – a total obliteration! Reduction of every single neuron to dust, ash or – preferably – atoms. Simply riddling someone’s forehead with minigun or shoving their head into a meat grinder is not enough! A brain squashed into a puddle is still a brain, and can regenerate – and even if it won’t manage to, its death will still fall into the second category, not the third one.

Description

Unlike humans, denizens of Assembly do not age and are resistant to most illnesses. This, alongside with their ability to survive some major injuries – up to decapitation – can give one a false impression of their immortality. This is not the case, since assemblians actually can be – and was – killed by more or less conventional means. Here is a list of them:

    1.    Energy deprivation

All assemblians – regardless of species – are able to store usable energy in their bodies in a form of some powerful macroergic metabolites. This energy can be used to keep the body running with no sustenance whatsoever, including oxygen – but only for a limited time! An average limit is about a few days, but some exceptional individuals can push their bodies way past it, reaching spans of months or even more. The organism will constantly replenish its energy through feeding and breathing – but if the energy is depleted, it will start to burn its own biological reserves and thus slowly weaken and starve.

The time of starvation needed to completely wither the body of an assemblian can vary drastically between species and individuals, but it usually require at least one (earthen) year. Suffocation wouldn’t kill them instantly either – but highly inefficient anaerobic metabolism will usually consume all their reserves and fill their body with poisonous wastes in a week or less.

If situation is particularly harsh, many assemblians can enter a special, cryptobiosis-like state, but this ability require special training, as so not everyone can use it – plus, it will leave one vulnerable to other, potentially deadly threats. Otherwise, the amount of time they can spend in this state without food or air can potentially stretch for eons.

    2.    Prolonged organ malfunction

Since usable energy is distributed across their bodies more or less evenly, most assemblians can use it to survive otherwise lethal injuries. For example, they will still be able to walk even with all of their blood being lost, or even with very heart being ripped off – there will be no blood flow, but cells will still be able function for a limited time with the chemicals they accumulated. Ideally, this time should be enough to regenerate, repair or otherwise compensate a received damage in some way. But if – for one reason or another – one is unable to fix their bodily functions before the energy reserves are depleted, they will perish rather quickly, as their failed vitals will be unable to replenish energy in time.

Curiously enough, decapitation also falls in this category. The severed head will be alive – and even conscious – for quite a while, but since it will have nowhere near as much biomass as needed to regenerate a whole new body, its fate will be pretty much sealed. Unless it’ll fall in a tank of soup or some kind stranger will sew it back onto the body, of course.

    3.    Total brain obliteration

The most crude, straightforward and efficient way to kill an assemblian – to completely annihilate their brain, of whatever other body part that is responsible fo harboring their consciousness. For creatures whose mind is distributed between multiple ganglia, all of them must be destroyed.

In addition to being the most effective, this way of homicide is also notable for leaving a body pretty much useless for recycling, as it dissipates the very data that constitutes one’s mind. And even if the brain-dead body manages to survive and regenerate (which can, indeed, happen in the right circumstances), its new mind will be completely devoid of the original personality and basically feral.

However, keep in mind that total obliteration means just that – a total obliteration! Reduction of every single neuron to dust, ash or – preferably – atoms. Simply riddling someone’s forehead with minigun or shoving their head into a meat grinder is not enough! A brain squashed into a puddle is still a brain, and can regenerate – and even if it won’t manage to, its death will still fall into the second category, not the third one.