Sprawlverse Talk: Lisertak and the Struggle Roads
Let us now talk about the Sprawlverse. While humans are an integral part of the Sprawlverse, I wanted to first discuss the prominent alien civilizations to give added context to what is going on in the greater galaxy.
Now let’s discuss a sapient known as the Utanguis. Of whom follow the will of Dozin, an diety who is not existent as the whole Dozinist theology is about the creation of Dozin and bringing Dozin into this existence through the emergent actions of advanced symbiotic arrangements.
Lisertak’s life had begun with a symbiosis ritual, in a trapezoidal room of terraced halls adorned with Dozinist glyphs of pyramids within pyramids, of tendrils radiating across the ornately shaped decorum of the stage to which the play that was Lisertak’s merging was conducted by the Ipamus pack.
The Ipamus pack had their rituals center on the valor qualia when it came to the animated Vus idols they spread across the place chanting and emitting the strengthening qualities of space-time existence and the higher order folds gazing upon their new member. All to create a beautiful warrior of the Dozinist cause, informed from the nanites and additional sub-symbionts. Lisertak however wasn’t a drone in this contract.
They merely had their core understanding instilled so they may see correctly as it were. The inner mind, the inner view. The pure comprehension of the Utanguis mind had always been there in numerous forms, numerous as the spiraling hallucinatory state Lisertak was thrown into gave them a beautiful mind. They say in that moment the visions of Dozin, the visions of Ipamus grandiosity in fulfilling the Dozinist cause. A gleaming pyramid wrapped in vast serpentine arms, the pyramid of Dozin seamed in all its volume.
It existed on the ancient homeworld of the Utanguis known as Blolados as but a husk. Through the research done, the Utanguis regardless claim to have created a recreation which showed what the pyramid was meant to “spiritually be ‘’ if not objectively. The material World the dozinist was a miscible fluid to be cultivated towards the formation of Dozin. All its life, the building blocks of a greater being.
And so the work began, Lisertak was the name bestowed upon the Utanguis that had been forged so elaborately. The packmasters personally appeared before Lisertak to extend an arm out in embrace, so that Lisertak felt belonging.
The whole ritual was mostly secretive, the Ipamus pack was a very secretive pack about the trades they did. Other packs have the vanity to openly air their rituals to the whole galaxy. Not Lisertak’s herd. They had a concept of valiant secrecy to uphold. Along with the secret ingredients of the sub-symbionts integrated into their members kept somewhat unknown. To the point self-obliviation (or disintegration) is the preferred method of death.
How tolerant a herd culture is about loss varies, but in the case of the Ipamus herd no such tolerance exists. The initiation was a secret, as would be the secrets shared among the herd to their dying moment. The Utanguis in general are distinct in how they have thought streams but rarely actually use them, having no fears of being forgotten and seeing death as so inevitable due to their identity some prefer all of the Utanguis die over a broken Utanguis lacking their arms or head. Lisertak accepted that logic well, but the struggle roads were still ahead for Lisertak.
As they always had been.
A struggle road takes countless forms. In the case of Ipamus, it is merely in the form of a winding stone path. One that stretches thousands of kilometers across a high gravity, windswept world full of challenge oriented biomechanical beings. The use of a planet was not needed- merely a part of what makes this struggle unique. The Utanguis see struggling in a unique way from humanity, where concepts of character building through struggle exist but for the Utanguis it is more than that. It is all about the congealing through adversity being done in a controlled environment.
While the initiation nanites, sub-symbionts and external membranes provide an Utanguis amazing capabilities and knowledge is heavily instilled there remains the need for tribulation. And the desire for valor is an obsession for the Ipamus herd.
The struggle began at first rough, but Tisertak proved enduring. As they knew at every heart they were to be. All headed down the struggle road, they had to keep going no matter the complication. When starvation set in, they had to persist. The winds battered Tisertak, but Tisertak scavenged well from the automata they slaughtered through amazingly primitive methods.
A atlatl-like device the head and arms cooperated to forge. The body helped find the parts. The body itself could be weaponized at times, with the heavy legs and bony head providing an excellent way to slash through softer materials and harm a biotech up close. The nanites did their job to some level. But you would know well how much metabolism is needed in these situations. The strong benefits of the symbionts, sub-symbionts and nanite systems also meant a more aggressive need to sustain their body. They were reduced to a primal state. They were hunting once more.
The biomechanical entities were hunting them. A state of existence unfathomable made real through the struggle road emerged. All with the purpose of forging and tribulation. And Lisertak broke down into madness. They struck at the biomecha, tearing into their membranes with sharper spears made more impactful by the gallop which the body for all its bulk managed. What the body lacked in speed it made up for in how much momentum they can acquire. And the true organic tank nature of an Utanguis was made manifest as the slime membranes bursted into an endless flow of nectar all over the ground. All part of the purpose- that nectar was a synthetic nutrient gel. This was all meant to happen. Lisertak didn’t care either way.
The ground spilled in the thick substance, the lapping up of it a chore. Still, the arms also managed to get some and the head got what nutrients it did from the body. The cycle would continue as the struggle roads continued to be followed. The cooperation of the arms, body and head proved powerful in the face of the struggle road. Lisertak was proving they were properly formed to the distant, aloof observers shrouded in the sky. Eventually Lisertak would make it to the end of the struggle road, where the herd master greeted them once more with an embrace of the arms and necks weaving together for the slightest of moments.
Lisertak succeeded. For for their efforts, they would be sent out to handle a treacherous rebellious force in the local void ecology.
And those rebels too, are Utanguis in origin. We’ll discuss them at a later time.
