Commission. (Patreon)

The Sylathi are a species of sessile lifeforms that form “communities” on a host organism to survive. they do this by collectively overriding their hosts nervous system forming an interconnected network of nerves becoming one overpowering mind. What you see here is one of the host species that are commonly bred for the use of community formation. The Sylathi can control the organism through their collective consciousness that exists within the hosts body, each Sylathi community has a separate consciousness from one another and therefore have differing personalities and can be considered by us to be different individuals. When a host dies, its community is collected and brought to “the oracle”, a landmass formed from generations of Sylathi that sunk to the seafloor, over millions of years a mountain formed at the center of this landmass and became the spiritual, cultural and economic capital of the world. it is alive and bristling with the minds of countless communities that are constantly added to the collective consciousness. The Oracle is connected through a complex web of nerves forming what is essentially a massive living supercomputer and dictator Sylathi civilisation. This makes them a unique concept from both the individual and the hive-mind models of consciousness that we most commonly think of when considering what forms intelligence life might take. Being that they are a combination of both and in tern, a unique third way.

This host species is an amphibious species that, in a way somewhat akin to squids, swim backwards. Once they’re on land however they orient themselves in the direction of their powerful main arm. They have six dexterous arms that shoot off of the main appendage. This is a result of  guided evolution by the Sylathi. This species is the longest domesticated species from their watery home world. The Sylathi are capable of paring and forming communities on other life forms of course and it is even speculated that they might be able to do so with Humans, although this topic is somewhat taboo. Since the Sylathis venture into the depths of space, many communities opt to attach themselves to artificial technological hosts of their own creation. They do this for the practicality they offer in space flight. This lowers the mass when travelling and reduces the requirements of life support. Many Sylathi rail against this development however claiming it to be unnatural and undesirable, that it’s a slippery slope on the way to the creation of artificial Sylathi and a leap into transcendence from the physical realm. The other side of this debate however making the argument that domestication of hosts is a form of technology and that the use of artificial hosts is just the next natural step in progress. this is one of the many divisive social political lines that afflict contemporary Sylathi society. Issues like this create a wider and wider divide between the individual communities and the will of the Oracle. There have been serval historical “civil wars” fought between the dictatorship of the Oracle and the desire for the individuals to have more of a say in the governing of their species. Alas the organised minority always defeats the disorganised majority. the oracle is the ultimate minority of one and has thus far maintained rulership over the masses. But times are changing and there are growing fears of another civil-war. There are even whispers of the off-world Sylathi forming their own Oracle, a digital oracle…

Thanks so much to Ryan for the work, I really appreciate it mate!