The Very Alien Shaggotts

by Anton Kukal

The shaggott species, colloquially referred to as the “Universal Consumers,” are a macro-organismic life form consisting of a nexus entity and multiple specialized and subordinate forms spawned by the nexus that are linked within the same collective consciousness. 

The species is water and vacuum adapted and most noted for its exclusive predation upon sentient, warm-blooded, carbon-based organisms and for its highly structured method of planetary conquest known as cultivation.

Nexus Shaggott Form

The nexus is an elongated, tube-like organism. The anterior portion of the body is dominated by a giant gaping orifice and a pair of feeder tentacles often as long as the body. This forward area is surrounded by a massive radial ring used to project its cognition across the vastness of space. The tubular body will develop nodules along its length from which clusters of short twisting tentacles arise. These feeder tentacles supplement the mouth and have small sucking orifices located at the tips. 

The posterior end or the body tapers off into a large flat fin with a dorsal riser at the narrowest point of the body before the fin. Spaced out along the body are circular dermal disks capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation, acoustic vibrations, and ambient flows of mystic energy.

An ancient nexus will grow larger than a mountain range. At this point, further dimensional transit becomes unfeasible due to the energy requirements of the portal. Such immense entities are planet-bound and begin directing off-world expansion through the production of eggs transported by subordinate shaggotts. A newly established nexus will maintain integration within the collective consciousness of their progenitor, facilitating population redistribution as part of their world’s cultivation.

Specialized Shaggott Form

Specialized shaggotts are spawned to perform specific duties. These shaggott forms are not capable of thought but complete their duties through base instinct. They do not add to the collective consciousness and must be guided by a subordinate shaggott.

Two common smaller shaggotts are the tiny worms that turn body parts into life-giving soups and the smaller mandible organisms that chop up the body parts when they float in the water. Larger specialized shaggotts include vehicle-like enities that allow movement in land, air, sea and space. Any subordinate shaggott can operate a vehicle-like specialized shaggott.

Subordinate Shaggott Form 

Nexus shaggotts spawn man-sized subordinate shaggotts. These are capable of independent thought but are guided by the collective will of the nexus-subordinate gestalt. Subordinate shaggotts have cylindrical torsos covered with oozing slime and narrow phalanges, which wiggle and shake when they move. Their heads are knobs with dermal disk sensory organs, drooping cheeks, and no discernible mouth. The dermal disks are capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation, acoustic vibrations, and ambient flows of mystic energy. These shaggotts are equipped with varied appendages, which include limbs with grasping claws and long tentacles with pinchers, bones blades, and crushing knobs.

Collective Consciousness

The shaggott species does not exhibit individual consciousness in the conventional sense. Instead, all members participate in a distributed cognitive field that is unified within the nexus. The field functions as a unified perceptual and decision-making system with each shaggott operating as a biological node within a larger extradimensional neural lattice. Information gathered by any shaggott is transmitted through this lattice to the nexus and becomes accessible to all connected organisms.

The nexus functions primarily as a high-capacity processing organ within the network. It amplifies, stabilizes, and redistributes thought but does not “command” in the traditional sense. Decisions emerge from consensus-like resonance across the field rather than from any individual authority. Spawned shaggotts display autonomous behavior when isolated, but their actions remain aligned with broader objectives of the collective consciousness.

Nourishment

The species lacks any conventional digestive aperture, no mouths, no stomachs, or no alimentary canals. Nutrient acquisition occurs through direct dermal absorption of organic matter. Specialized and subordinate shaggotts must be submerged in a rotting soup of organic biomass so the skin can absorb necessary nutrients and minerals. The outer skin of the nexus can feed in this manner, but a nexus also contains a vast internal reservoir filled with a dense, enzyme-rich suspension of liquefied organic material. 

During planetary migration or interstellar transit, the nexus draws many of its spawned forms into the reservoir, both to protect them and to provide sustained nourishment in resource-scarce environments. In conditions of metabolic deficit, the nexus may reclaim its own spawned organisms, enzymatically reducing them back into raw biomass for reabsorption. This internal recycling mechanism ensures that minimal bio-material is wasted.

Arcane Ability

Shaggottes are intrinsically magical organisms whose physiology is saturated with mystic energy at a cellular level. Arcane capacity is not learned but is instead an innate property of their collective cognition. All shaggotts have the power to manipulate mystic energy in the form of arcane castings and powerful feats, but subordinate shaggotts concentrate their expertise into areas of specific focus. Some specialize in combat magics, while others will focus on healing, transformation, mind manipulation, or controlling the natural world.

Shaggott blood contains a concentrated mystic charge, functioning simultaneously as nutrient medium and arcane catalyst. A shaggott can use its blood to perform rituals or to inscribe glyphs and runes. The potency of any mystic working is directly proportional to the volume of blood expended. When using its blood as a casting medium, the shaggott suffers a degradation of its health equivalent to the quality of mystic energy necessary to create the effect.

Technology

Shaggotts possess no conventional manufacturing technology and do not construct tools, infrastructure, or machinery through mechanical means. They construct no homes, build no cities, and maintain no industrial systems. To outside observers, this absence of material culture may suggest technological primitiveness, but such a conclusion is erroneous. The species does not fabricate objects because it has no need to do so. All functional requirements, such as transport, weaponry, environmental adaptation, or specialized apparatus, are met through direct biological expression. What other civilizations achieve through engineering, metallurgy, and assembly, the shaggotts accomplish through spawning.

From the biomass of the nexus, the species can spawn complex biodevices designed to replicate or exceed the capabilities of manufactured technology. These constructs may resemble weapons, vehicles, and war machines, but they remain entirely organic in composition. Explosive organisms can be spawned from nexus tissue, as can forms analogous to cannons, tanks, and aircraft. The limits of such spawning appear constrained only by available biomass and the perceptual knowledge of the collective consciousness.

Cultivation

Planetary cultivation is a form of colonization that begins with the introduction of nexus eggs through a dimensional aperture, often called a portal. Upon hatching, the nexus will enter a rapid growth phase. Subordinate shaggotts are spawned from the nexus to perform the duties of cultivation. 

Rather than immediately exterminating indigenous life, shaggotts typically initiate a prolonged ecological restructuring process termed cultivation. During cultivation, civilizations are reorganized into stable biomass-production systems designed to supply the nexus with a continuous intake of sentient organisms.

This restructuring may involve behavioral influence, sociopolitical infiltration, or direct neural manipulation of key individuals. Shaggotts use their mental powers to slowly take over businesses, communities, and then nations. They are masters of manipulation and deception, always starting small and then spreading like cancer through the world. Oftentimes, whole populations end up worshiping the shaggotts as gods.

Most “cultivated” worlds feed the elderly, criminals, and infirm to the shaggotts, so the majority of the population can survive. Shaggotts defend these worlds, and life can be pleasant until food shortages occur. The shaggotts are trying to feed their massive ancient progenitors, and some worlds end up being stripped bare in times of crisis forcing the shaggotts to continue their unending spread across the galaxy.

Some realms do resist cultivation, and the shaggotts go to war. When their insidious manipulation fails, they use brute force. Thousands of spawned shaggotts leading mind-controlled indigenous populations will sweep across the world. Cities will fall one by one as its inhabitants are consumed and fed to the nexus that then uses the energy to spawn more shaggotts. Eventually the rebellious indigenous population is wiped out, and a cultivated people will be settled on the world.

Types of Subordinate Shaggotts 

Nexus shaggotts spawn man-sized subordinate shaggotts. There are generally eight types of man-sized shaggotts. This section will discuss their forms and function.

Alpha

Alpha shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a red body with claws. These shaggotts supervise and control the intelligent population of the realm. They specialize in casting powers affecting the mind and emotions.

Beta

Beta shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a green body. These shaggotts are the basic melee combatants of shaggott society. They generally have long whipping tentacles with a razor-sharp pincer and a serrated claw for close up killing. They specialize in feats of combat prowess and rituals that empower the physical form.

Delta

Delta shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a slick black body. They have short dangerous claws. They are the stealthy assassins of the nexus, specializing in feats that kill, injure, and harm through the element of surprise. Their rituals focus on hiding and stealth.

Gamma

Gamma shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on an orangish body. They are the healers of the shaggott society. They have great spiritual powers and the ability to heal through castings and rituals. They almost always have a tentacle with manipulative digits and a shorter phalange that has a razor-sharp claw.

Epsilon

Epsilon shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a brown body. These shaggotts are specialized to deal with beasts. They have two claws and can exert great powers over the natural world through their powerful castings and rituals.

Omicron

Omicron shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a grey body. Shaggotts use no technology, but they have developed a special set of mana powers to combat adversaries who make use of machines and items. They have two claws.

Sigma

Sigma shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a purple body. They are able to control the base elements, manipulating the substances of the world to the ends of the shaggotts. They can animate corpses, transforming them into an elemental entity corresponding to any element they specialize in. They have two claws.

Zeta

Zeta shaggotts have different shades of green phalanges on a pink body. They are shaggotts that collect learning and knowledge. They can draw magical runes of protection on a person body using their blood. They have two claws.

Conclusion

The shaggotts are a predatory organism. Their biology, magic, and collective consciousness functions as a unified system of expansion and consumption. They require no industry and no external technology. Through cultivation or open war, the shaggotts restructure civilizations into cultivated sources of nourishment. They are a self-propagating cosmic ecology where a single intelligence is expressed through innumerable bodies. These monster advance from world to world in an unending cycle of growth, harvest, and eventual destruction. Beware the shaggotts!