DarkmasterN
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Drawlloween 11
🕑 Added 2022-10-12 02:01:15 +0000 UTCToday's prompt is Wizard, and so here we have The Worms that Walk.....
On the far left is an Acolyte of the worm, the big one in the middle is a mage of the worm, and on the far right is a worm that walks......
Spellcasters, Wizards, Sorcerers, Practitioners of the arcane arts all seek to influence the world through the arcane. Arcane magic imposes the will of yourself upon the latent magic of the universe, the opposite of how divine magic is the will of the universe, or more specifically the will of a cosmic being or concept filtered through a spellcaster. There are ways for these concepts to intermingle, with arcane arts being left behind by powerful entities, their will still imposed in the very concepts of the magic in question, and of arcane spells that invoke a spark of the divine with one's own will. With thousands of magic possibilities, and infinite connections for the secrets of magic, one cannot hope to learn everything, however some spellcasters have attempted still to find ways to push beyond their mortal coil and become something new. To be bound to their flesh, their spirit tied eternally to this world, and to last for eternity. Such rituals involve dark sacrifices, invocations of the Flesh Mother, and to the Conqueror worm, appeals to the father of Ghouls, the father of time, and hateful transmutation rites and necromantic meditation that allow one to transcend this life and deteriorate into something new, something eternal. Something known as a Lich. This process is difficult however, and not every creature is able to accomplish such a task, with some falling short, their lifeforce fading and their power not bound to their dead flesh for eternity.... however death attracts scavengers, and the writhing, wriggling beasts of the earth. The appeals may go heard, and though new life is not sparked within your corpse driven by your own will... your own will may be sparked within the worms that feed on your remains.
The centermost creature, the Mage of the Worm, is what happens whenever a single worm is able to squirm it's way deep within the confines of a dead spellcaster, and it's magic and knowledge seeps into the worm. It's flesh binds, and the transmutation takes effect. The worm gains knowledge, sentience, and it still retains the mind of the worm. The will to squirm and consume. The body remains dead and bloated, and yet the magic warps it as it's head becomes longer and more worm like. Slowly it grows as it feeds on the magic, growing extra arms, and growing in size as the head becomes like a huge fat worm, growing too large to be carried by the neck of the caster.
A mage of the worm retains the arcane ambitions of the spellcaster who died, but retains the mindset of the annelid and wishes for all things to fall to detritus so as to be fed on by those who crawl. Their slimy bodies pulsate as they seek out dead flesh to consume, and arcane knowledge to expand their capabilities. They can move swiftly by dropping to all fours and using their caterpillar like legs to scurry along the ground, or even squirm like a worm, moving swiftly by stretching and contracting their body and sliding with their slime up walls and across large tracts of land in an instant. Some will swallow creatures whole, while others will only consume rotten or dead flesh and rely on their large bodies to constrict and kill their foes, or cast deadly spells with the remnants of their arcane knowledge. They often carry with them various staves or wands to aid in channeling their power, though many times these are items retained from when they previously lived. This one for example is wielding a Staff of Light, which allows it to fire searing beams of light from the staff and to blind it's foes with flashes of brilliant white. They are very absentminded and rarely actually advance their arcane ability, and many of them believe that they still are the caster who had died previously, though that is simply the magic seeping into the worm to give it a semblance of a previous life. Some are too lost or too bestial to act upon knowledge of their former life, and others become adept learners and may even gain their own personality as they realize through research that they have been given a new life. Many of those who reach this state will use necromancy to feed and corrupt worms and other creatures who crawl in squalor and grant them the ability to become more than they once were, growing massive grave worms, leeches, bloodworms, bloatworms, maggots, and other various forms of larvae, and creatures. Necromancy and transmutation used in tandem can cause rampant growth and mutation, and so a Mage of the Worm left unchecked may amass a squirming army of destructive allies that become a swift problem.
Among some of these followers are the Acolytes of the worm. These are weaker spellcasters, driven to madness through torture or arcane tampering, or in some occasions they have implanted a worm into their own bodies, feeding it and cultivating it before becoming one with the squirming creature. Unlike the Mages of the worm, the acolytes of the worm often retain much of their human nature, though only the most fervent and devote portions of one's personality remain. Many times these weaker spellcasters lose their previous arcane knowledge, however their endless devotion to the worm mage that granted them life allows them to revere it as a sort of god and it gains minor divine capabilities from the power granted to it by the worm. Some are simply followers of the conqueror worm, the father of ghouls, He who died in the Void, The Fleshtaker, Shub Niggurath, or other various dread entities whom they gather power from. Some are able to evolve past this and become a Mage of the Worm, though many of them remain acolytes for eternity, crawling around on their knees, or standing to shamble around praising those that squirm beneath and screaming their praises. The screaming chorus of praise from acolytes of the worm can unnerve those who hear them and incite madness, however other acolytes and mages of the worm are empowered by their dark words and their spell ability improves.
In many cases, when a spellcaster fails to become a lich and the worms consume their body, no one worm takes precedence, and the spellcaster's consciousness can become ingrained in all of the worms. A psychic imprint equal and connected among the squirming masses, and the ritual takes effect, however instead of binding oneself to a phylactery, it instead binds fragments of the spellcaster to all of the creeping things within, causing them to become a Worm that Walks. A worm that walks is a powerful spellcaster made entirely of rotting flesh, bone remains and a mass of worms that work through arcane manipulation to control a body in the shape of a man. In many cases they will wear the old flesh like a suit, the worms manipulating the body and causing it to walk and move with their contractions. These suits rot away and while many worms who walk are fine with appearing as a mass of worms wearing a cloak and going about their arcane studies, some enjoy the idea of appearing as or at least pretending to be human. They can use their arcane ability to possess other entities, shoving their worms inside of the creature and riddling their flesh with the squirming beasts, taking on their persona, though often times leaving it a bit lumpy, dying, and worse for the wear with them needing to take a new body after a few months as the new one decays. With magic this form can appear perfectly normal, however many are content to simply stick to the shadows and wear humanoid masks to appear as human as possible at a passing glance.
A worm who walks can speak through a psychic projection from within the worms, just as it and the other variants can use said projections to see, sensing the world around them through an arcane brilliance. Unlike a mage of the worm, A worm who walks possesses the full capabilities of the previous spellcaster and is in fact the caster and not a worm given life. They continue their research and can even push their bodies and minds further than before due to their expanded eldritch knowledge and ability to amass more to their body by enslaving more worms. If slain, even one surviving worm can squirm into the dirt and amass more to return as the full form of the spellcaster, granting them a pseudo immortality to what they originally sought from becoming a lich. Many worms who walk will specialize in transmutation magic, or enchantment magic, implanting their worms into other creatures to transform them into Acolytes of the worm or simply controlling their form.
Many become followers of the Meat Mother, or of the Conqueror worm and some may be made up of gutworms in rare circumstances. Sometimes leeches, tapeworms, and other types of worms may end up forming an entity like this, and in other situations mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, slugs, and other various things can also make up a worm that walks, worms are just the most common.
These are rare through Earth and on Urth with the rituals to create them being rare themselves, much less the people who can complete them. Much more common are acolytes or mages of the worm, as they can occasionally spawn in freak accidents where worm fed creatures with high magical capability die in areas of natural or cursed necoromancy. Some underground societies are made by constantly chanting and praying acolytes who have no leader to turn to, becoming feral when a non worm approaches, and others have come to revere other creatures and horrid things from their places of worship in strange distant villages.
