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#abomination #creature #monster
Published: 2018-02-03 19:45:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 3990; Favourites: 65; Downloads: 0
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Description
The Grackles are a remnant of the Gods of Dawn, one of the few species from that ancient time. Once a proud and perfected race, the Grackles worshiped the first gods and reaped the benefits. They were one of thousands of species who were built by the Gods of Dawn, and they were destined to rule the galaxy and forever remain in the care of the Gods. But things went wrong when the slave species, the R'Karrh, rebelled against them and the gods. Having been created to work and serve, the R'Karrh suffered for millions of years as replaceable laborers, who lived and died at work. Secretly, the race had come up with a new religion and a new set of Gods to worship. In a massive rebellion, the R'Karrh went to war against everything that belonged to the Gods of Dawn. Though the many species numbered in the thousands, the R'Karrh numbered in the trillions, having been built as expendable labor, to be used and thrown away. Their massive numbers swarmed the planets they lived on, destroying temples, cities and species in a suicidal wave. It was at this point in time, as the Gods of Dawn descended from the skies to slaughter millions of R'Karrh in mere moments, as the other species gathered their troops and armies, that a miracle occurred. In an intense moment of true, undying faith, Ka'Ran'Koth and the pantheon were born.The new Gods assaulted the Gods of Dawn and overpowered them, as the first gods were weak from a millenia of creation and the loss of many of their followers. They were banished from the universe, and reality fell into the control of the new pantheon. The Grackles were soon faced with extinction, as the Gods built the Titans to wipe all evidence of the Gods of Dawn from existence. The species fled planet after planet, as their brother and sister species went extinct from the brutal conquest. It was in the moment of betrayal, when the Titans and Gods fought, that the Grackles escaped the eyes of the Gods and hid away. As they hid, all of their great cities and fellow brothers were annihilated, leaving them one of the few original species left alive. And to this day, the Grackles live on, hiding from universe and cursing the name of the R'Karrh.
What remains of the Grackles is a degenerated beast of inbreeding, mutation and stagnation. The perfect genes and DNA that once made them so great has long since rotted away, leaving their bodies in a disgusting state. The noble look they once had is now gone, replaced by a tangle of limbs and piles of twitching, stolen flesh. Grackles are now multi-limbed parasites, requiring the DNA and flesh of other species in order to grow. Their bodies are incapable of creating new flesh and cells on its own, so it must have stolen ones from other bodies. To do this, the Grackles have a horrifying arsenal of weaponry. The most notable is their "cold" breath. From their strange, beak-like mouths, they can breathe out billowing clouds of "cold." These clouds look a lot like steam, but those engulfed by it will find their bodies paralyzed and locked, as if they had been frozen solid. These clouds render organics still as statues, leaving them open targets for the shambling monstrosities. These clouds persist for long periods of time, and can be breathed through cracks of doors or vents, filling rooms with the freezing gas. Once the victim is unable to move, they use super adhesive spines on their hands and claws to rip chunks of flesh from the prey's body. These gobs of skin, muscle and bone are slapped onto their own bodies, which are then assimilated into their form. Grackles will rip prey apart layer by layer, enjoying their feeding and the pain of those being eviscerated. Grackles can rip off entire limbs and stick them onto their bodies, which will then assimilate and become a limb of their own. Prey will be stripped, and what is left is then consumed by their dual chest tentacles. These appendages secrete a digestive fluid that breaks down organic material and sucks it up at the same time. Grackles will rub down prey with these tendrils, melting off layers with each pass. This soup is used to feed them and rejuvenate their bodies. When Grackles dine, nothing is left of the victim.
As creatures that require alien flesh to survive, Grackles come in all shapes and sizes. Some may scuttle around like crabs or insects, while some may slither about. What remains the same for all Grackles is the beaked head and the chest feeding tendrils. These structures are found on every Grackle.
To reproduce, Grackles go the asexual route. A Grackle that has fed on many victims will be quite large and bulky. At a certain point, it will put its energy and resources into growing a second head and pair of tendrils. Once these structures are created, it will hunt down a victim and freeze them in place. Once the food source is secured, the body will violently rip itself in two, with much pain and agony being experienced by the two halves. Once separated, the two will feed on the victim in order to heal their bodies and make them whole once again. Though they will be smaller and with less limbs now, the two Grackles will quickly grow as they feed on more prey.
Grackles are extremely hard to kill, as they do not seem to have a centralized brain. Simple wounds and loss of limb do not affect them, as they will keep moving and hunting without hesitation. Decapitation is not recommended, as it only destroys the control of the freezing gas, causing it to spray out wildly and cover entire areas in a shroud of paralyzing vapor. The only true way to kill one is absolute disintegration.
Grackles move quite slow, as the many limbs are hard to control and their bodies are constantly in a state of rot. Their shambling movements strike fear in all who worship the Gods, and their crow-like calls have been in many nightmares. Though degenerated and rotting, Grackles are still sentient and use clever tactics to trap prey and remain hidden from view. They always refer to sentient beings as "R'Karrh slime" as all sentient species alive today are descendants of the R'Karrh. And this knowledge makes the Grackles even more cruel and psychotic. Hateful of a race who stole the universe from them.
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An update for the Grackles, with color and their head finally drawn correctly! Took me forever to figure out how to draw that right, but I think I got it!
Same description as the old one, but figured the new one should get it too.
And once again, why are they called Grackles? Because it sounds cool!
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Comments: 29
prometheushunter2 [2022-02-12 07:07:16 +0000 UTC]
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to prometheushunter2 [2022-02-12 15:21:28 +0000 UTC]
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to Changeling1234 [2018-09-06 13:42:36 +0000 UTC]
If you ate a piece that had the adhesive spines, it would get lodged in your mouth or throat and suffocate you. If you ate a piece free of them, you would get a necrotic infection due to the Grackles being shambling piles of rotted limbs and degraded DNA.
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KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-07 19:19:20 +0000 UTC]
their beak-like mouths, pink growths and buttload of spikes on their bodies are so cool to look at, and the colors only add to it! i have always liked unusual mouths like these, yet i haven't seen many of them- which is a pity.
i also really dig their backstory. it sounds very intriguing and honestly makes me somewhat sympathetic to them, yet i wouldn't want to really encounter one. i could imagine there being Grackles that have taken down and absorbed parts of legendary creatures like dragons and such, having reached a god-like status of their own on planets they are found by the local civilizations, yet they try to devour these civilizations as quickly as possible in order not to be discovered- only leading to the civilizations holding grand sacrifices in order to appease the 'god', which become so grand that the sacrifice rituals become known throughout the system making the Grackle's presence known to groups dedicated and specialized in hunting them down.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-07 21:16:17 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! Glad you like them! Their chaotic design is pretty fun to draw!
That is pretty much a fair assessment of their backstory. It is somewhat sad what happened to them, but their sheer aggressiveness, bitterness and cruelty discourages any comforting hugs.
A Grackle could indeed do that, perhaps altering their appearance in order to be unrecognizable to Grackle extermination squads. If their god-like status reached higher levels, though, it would cause some issues. The pantheon is not too pleased with false idols, and if such a religion starts to gain attention, the Gods may start snooping around and discover the impostor. That would be another reason to try and devour these cultures quickly!
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-08 05:59:34 +0000 UTC]
you're welcome, man!
it sure does. It makes them awesome monsters and all the more interesting, though.
That's even sadder. It could make it possible for the Grackles to kind of rebuild their civilization without utterly mutilating everybody they come across. They'd probably still eat their worshippers, though lesser. But i can understand the pantheon being angry at them for playing their roles. they'd probably see it as an insult, a perverted vision of the beauty and majesty of the true Gods.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-08 18:09:20 +0000 UTC]
Unfortunately for them, their civilization and culture is long gone. With the Gods of Dawn banished, their genetics degrading and the rest of known reality bent on terminating them, they have no way to return to the way things used to be. They need to feed on others in order to restore their rotting bodies, so they cannot stop devouring other species. Even if Grackles weren't acting in the role of Gods to others, the pantheon and their worshipers are determined to eradicate them, as they are one of the last remnants of the Gods of Dawn. In the end, Grackles are stuck in a dark, bitter existence, fighting against a universe that betrayed them.
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-08 18:17:26 +0000 UTC]
That's so flipping sad. Everything in existence is against them, yet they still yearn for the impossibility to live their lives from before their downfall, holding onto hope that is as false as the promise of salvation. i feel really bad for them, despite the atrocities they commit.
Exactly how evil where they for our standards when their culture was still flourishing, if i may ask?
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-08 19:04:59 +0000 UTC]
Their hatred and psychotic ways pretty much stem from this loss, as there is nothing left for them in this reality. Their desire to kill and devour is because it is required for survival and it is also a rebellious act against the universe. Their lives and destinies were stolen from them, so they are going to destroy as much as they can before they are terminated.
The Grackles back then weren't really all that evil. When the Gods of Dawn ruled and their creations existed throughout the universe, the Grackles were just another sentient species that lived and worshiped. The only real bad thing that they did was view the R'Karrh as disposable, mindless slave labor. Their Gods had made the R'Karrh to act as work drones, so they took them as such. They never thought to treat the R'Karrh as anything else besides beasts of labor. When the pantheon was born and the Gods of Dawn were banished, the R'Karrh sought to wipe out everything that the Gods of Dawn stood for, including the creations. Their kind just happened to survive extinction, though at this point, I don't know if they would consider that a good thing.
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-08 19:21:44 +0000 UTC]
Trying to pay back as much as was given to them, i can understand. again, they're really tragic.
I see. It would be interesting to see how they were before the R'Karrh rebelled and the Gods of Dawn were banished, for i think they may have had a fascinating culture and since they weren't that evil, i reckon it may have been save enough to walk around in their cities.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-08 20:00:29 +0000 UTC]
It would indeed be safe to walk through their cities back then, as the creations of the Gods of Dawn weren't really all that evil. They just had some flaws and oversights to them, which led to their downfall.
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-08 20:06:10 +0000 UTC]
Everybody's got flaws and oversights. some admittedly more than others. But knowing those flaws yourselves helps you becoming a better person out of it.
i think it would've been very interesting to hold conversations with some of the creations themselves, even though they'd probably wouldn't understand english or dutch.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-08 23:50:44 +0000 UTC]
Knowing your flaws also helps prevent your entire kind and civilization from going extinct too!
Yeah, English and Dutch isn't exactly in their kind of vocal chords. You would need a good translator.
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-09 18:06:16 +0000 UTC]
That too! and having the common decency to be nice towards your subordinates too.
Indeed. I think i've come up with a solution, though. One could write the stuff that they want to ask the Grackles down, and from that they could possibly learn how to read and write human languages and alphabets.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to KingOfWarlocks [2018-02-09 18:45:40 +0000 UTC]
That could be a viable solution!
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KingOfWarlocks In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-09 19:20:52 +0000 UTC]
maybe! i actually had that idea in my head for a while, but for an original species of mine that could only produce sounds that sounded like electric guitars. they could literally sing riffs!
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PHOTONGHOST [2018-02-05 16:42:23 +0000 UTC]
I remember these guys! Good to see they turned out nicely.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to PHOTONGHOST [2018-02-05 17:42:24 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! I mainly wanted to update these guys so I could finally get their head to look right!
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PHOTONGHOST In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-05 21:55:43 +0000 UTC]
Your welcome! You now, I have always liked tragic/vengeful alien races in sci-fi but I must ask, how do these guys get around from planet to planet? I mean, do they even use spacecraft?
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to PHOTONGHOST [2018-02-06 00:02:52 +0000 UTC]
They do not have any ships of their own, or any real technology, so instead they travel by stowing away on another species' ships. Grackles prefer to stay in hiding, as too much attention will cause the other species to bring in extermination squads and well-equipped soldiers to eliminate them. Groups of them will often stay on the same planet, hiding in the shadows while consuming those they capture. Trying to move large amounts of Grackles from planet to planet is hard without raising alarms, which would end with them getting obliterated in space if someone caught them. They go for a quieter approach.
Grackles spread their kind by shaping a smaller individual into a more stealthy form that will allow it to sneak onto a ship. These stowaways will have their bodies broken and reformed into a more serpentine shape, that way they can move faster and slip through tight spaces. This individual will get aboard a vessel, then wait until they take off into space. Mid-journey, it will ambush a crew member and assimilate their body, adding more mass. It will go through the ship, freezing and devouring most of the crew. In some cases it will leave one or two victims intact, saving them for later. Flying the ship isn't necessary, as most transportation and cargo ships will have an auto-pilot system that is already engaged. At that point, the Grackle can take one of two options. One is to devour the whole crew, let the auto-pilot dock at the designated destination and then try to sneak off the ship without detection. This works better if the Grackle keeps a faster, simpler shape. The other option is to wait for the ship to enter the planet's atmosphere, then destroy the auto-pilot system. The damaged craft will then go off course and crash, which doesn't do too much to the Grackle. The impact and explosion will wreck their body, but it will still be alive. All it has to do is devour pieces of the leftover carcasses it saved and repair its form. It will then slink off into the wild, leaving rescuers to assume that the ship crashed due to a malfunction.
Their method of travel is almost disease-like, infiltrating ships without people noticing, killing the crew and then spreading once the dead ship makes it to its destination.
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PHOTONGHOST In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-07 04:04:09 +0000 UTC]
The way in which they spread form planet to planet reminds me of Genestealers from Warhammer 40k,which by the way, is a good thing!
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to PHOTONGHOST [2018-02-07 14:50:12 +0000 UTC]
That does sound pretty cool!
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DarkSideDuck [2018-02-03 22:18:50 +0000 UTC]
The R'Karrh reminds me of H.P Lovecraft's shoggoths, why? Because they were created as simple beasts of burden and the remains of their creation resulted in all life on Earth, the shoggoths slowly gained sentience and rebelled against their masters and creators, (the elder things) several times, until they(the elder things) were extinct.
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to DarkSideDuck [2018-02-05 14:52:12 +0000 UTC]
That is a pretty spot on comparison! I didn't even think of that when I was writing their backstory!
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EvolutionsVoid In reply to Sylizar [2018-02-05 14:39:45 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! I always liked these guys' design and lore, and I was eager to update them and give them their proper look!
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Sylizar In reply to EvolutionsVoid [2018-02-05 22:21:23 +0000 UTC]
You nailed it! These guys look cool.
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