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Description

As was mentioned earlier , killing citizens of Assembly is not an easy task – and sometimes, even death doesn't kill them!

It may seem self-contradictory, but let me explain.

Though assemblians are extremely tough and tenacious when it comes to survival, it is still possible to kill them by destroying their nervous system or causing their vital functions to disrupt for long enough (usually days or even months) – their brain would eventually deteriorate, the memories and personality would fade, and the person they were would be, for all intents and purposes, gone.

However!

More often than not, this process does not, in fact, kill the body in its entirety – the mind may be dead, but the flesh still lives. In one piece, in many, or even reduced to a puddle of gore – the individual cells will survive and continue their metabolism.

Of course, in most cases, such residual traces of life would be rather helpless – with no beating heart to give them blood, with no brain to govern their growth, they would be effectively stuck in this half-alive state, until worms and scavengers would eventually consume them for good.

But in the right conditions, this may not be the case!

For if environment is warm, humid and nutritious enough – if body was dumped into humus, buried in the pile of other bodies, or simply had enough vigor inside it when it died – the regeneration may kick in! And from the rotting remains, the new life will be born!

In Assembly, such “grave-spawned” are largely associated with the massive disasters, such as feral gods’ attacks or military assaults on the civilian cities. Naturally, they do not inherit any memories from their predecessors, and so usually they would just wander aimlessly among ruins with dull stare, occasionally attacking rescuers and survivors. Sometimes, however, they can still retain some residual knowledge from their progenitors – such as responding to particular phrases or knowing how to use particular tools. Grave-spawned derived from guards or soldiers are especially infamous in this regard – as a creature with a mind of an animal, yet still know capable to fight and use weapons is definitely not a something you would want to encounter in the aftermath of a large scale catastrophe.

In principle, it is possible to rehabilitate such creatures into sapient beings – and Thanatories often do so as a part of their civil duties. However, most of them simply run away in a wilderness before they can be captured. Many of them can be encountered in the wild right now, often coming from the calamities and sieges centuries old – and curiously, despite still retaining a capacity for gaining intelligence, none of them had been ever observed to do so on their own. An ironic side effect of the Founders’ gift…

Their body and flesh was perfected to the state of near-immortality – of which their very existence is a proof – but in doing so, it’s essentially rendered their intelligence kind of obsolete. Even alone, with no tools or shelter, a single grave-spawned will still be a toughest, strongest and fastest creatures in the wild, fully capable of satisfying their basic physiological needs without any necessity for a developed social mind. Perhaps one day, some ecosystems will eventually adapt to their presence, pushing them to regaining their dormant intelligence once again – but for now, this possibility remains only a topic for philosophical discussions among scholars and travelers…

And lastly, it should be noted that while this document had focused primarily on dead bodies, severed parts of still living beings can produce grave-spawned just as fine, although the name will be a bit of a misnomer in such cases.

Oh, and these strange flesh growth in the backgrounds are “cadaver-trees”. They appear when the flesh is too damaged on cellular level to regenerate correctly, but still tries to do so anyway. It’s unable to produce proper bodies, and just grows in a branching, coral- or tumor-like patterns instead. Thanatologists of Thanatories often adore them, and frequently use them as house plants!

Description

As was mentioned earlier , killing citizens of Assembly is not an easy task – and sometimes, even death doesn't kill them!

It may seem self-contradictory, but let me explain.

Though assemblians are extremely tough and tenacious when it comes to survival, it is still possible to kill them by destroying their nervous system or causing their vital functions to disrupt for long enough (usually days or even months) – their brain would eventually deteriorate, the memories and personality would fade, and the person they were would be, for all intents and purposes, gone.

However!

More often than not, this process does not, in fact, kill the body in its entirety – the mind may be dead, but the flesh still lives. In one piece, in many, or even reduced to a puddle of gore – the individual cells will survive and continue their metabolism.

Of course, in most cases, such residual traces of life would be rather helpless – with no beating heart to give them blood, with no brain to govern their growth, they would be effectively stuck in this half-alive state, until worms and scavengers would eventually consume them for good.

But in the right conditions, this may not be the case!

For if environment is warm, humid and nutritious enough – if body was dumped into humus, buried in the pile of other bodies, or simply had enough vigor inside it when it died – the regeneration may kick in! And from the rotting remains, the new life will be born!

In Assembly, such “grave-spawned” are largely associated with the massive disasters, such as feral gods’ attacks or military assaults on the civilian cities. Naturally, they do not inherit any memories from their predecessors, and so usually they would just wander aimlessly among ruins with dull stare, occasionally attacking rescuers and survivors. Sometimes, however, they can still retain some residual knowledge from their progenitors – such as responding to particular phrases or knowing how to use particular tools. Grave-spawned derived from guards or soldiers are especially infamous in this regard – as a creature with a mind of an animal, yet still know capable to fight and use weapons is definitely not a something you would want to encounter in the aftermath of a large scale catastrophe.

In principle, it is possible to rehabilitate such creatures into sapient beings – and Thanatories often do so as a part of their civil duties. However, most of them simply run away in a wilderness before they can be captured. Many of them can be encountered in the wild right now, often coming from the calamities and sieges centuries old – and curiously, despite still retaining a capacity for gaining intelligence, none of them had been ever observed to do so on their own. An ironic side effect of the Founders’ gift…

Their body and flesh was perfected to the state of near-immortality – of which their very existence is a proof – but in doing so, it’s essentially rendered their intelligence kind of obsolete. Even alone, with no tools or shelter, a single grave-spawned will still be a toughest, strongest and fastest creatures in the wild, fully capable of satisfying their basic physiological needs without any necessity for a developed social mind. Perhaps one day, some ecosystems will eventually adapt to their presence, pushing them to regaining their dormant intelligence once again – but for now, this possibility remains only a topic for philosophical discussions among scholars and travelers…

And lastly, it should be noted that while this document had focused primarily on dead bodies, severed parts of still living beings can produce grave-spawned just as fine, although the name will be a bit of a misnomer in such cases.

Oh, and these strange flesh growth in the backgrounds are “cadaver-trees”. They appear when the flesh is too damaged on cellular level to regenerate correctly, but still tries to do so anyway. It’s unable to produce proper bodies, and just grows in a branching, coral- or tumor-like patterns instead. Thanatologists of Thanatories often adore them, and frequently use them as house plants!