Slime (s-lime)

Known History

Beginnings?

Among the strangest creatures to inhabit Veltrona, slimes are enigmatic beings as simple as they are inscrutable. Many scholars have cut their teeth, both as beginners and veterans, upon trying to study and understand them, often to no avail whatsoever. Nonetheless, their ubiquity across the world and ever-present usefulness mean there is never a shortage of desire for them or their uses. But, to unravel the mystery of the slimes is to confront some very strange issues first and foremost.   Chief among these concerns is the fact that slimes themselves are a species with a divided level of sapience. The titular common slime itself, a simple organism with a gelatin-like body and a crysium core, cannot even be described as animal-like. They're voracious, constant consumers that wobble, wiggle, and roll their way to any source of ‘food’ they sense that is nearby. They have no preservation instinct, they reproduce through asexual division, and seemingly retain no memories whatsoever. Akin to a force of nature, their simplistic existence means there is little to discern about them that isn’t immediately apparent to even a casual observer.   Yet, under strange conditions which no one fully understands, a slime—or group of slimes—may manifest into a higher-order existence colloquially referred to as a slime queen. These semi-humanoid beings are not only sapient, but are also frighteningly intelligent, egotistical, and possessed of physical and magical power far exceeding their mundane, common slime kin. Despite this, the slime queens often manifest without retaining almost any memories from their constituent component organism(s), save for the most basic memories such as food experiences or ambient predators. Ergo, every slime queen that comes into being is a relatively unique existence, born devoid of any culture, knowledge, or learning, and so they come to copy, adopt, and/or assimilate any culture they first encounter, creating a personality in the process.   Because of this, slime queens become attached to the civilizations of other species, intertwining their histories together. As far as any scholar has attempted, no one has ever found an independent or coherent 'slime-centric' civilization or homeland, and very rarely any independent, ‘feral’ slime queens. At the same time, slime queens show up almost everywhere of note, making them a constant and unerring presence, provided that one knows to look for them. The fact that non-sapient common slimes themselves often manifest into existence quite regularly means that any archaeological records of individual slime populations might begin and end in complete isolation from each other. Thus, it is rather difficult to create a historical record of when and where the species began, and how they changed or evolved throughout history. If the slimes themselve can actually evolve, which is a contested subject.   As such, the history of the slime species as a whole is usually described as their effects on other civilizations, the development thereof, and whatever major impacts which individual slime queens may have on their own and neighbouring populations.    

Autophagocytosis

Slimes, both common and queenly, are voracious consumers despite their simple appearance and inoffensive mannerisms. Whereas more complex lifeforms use limbs and other means to rend apart food and then consume it, the entire body of a slime is its means of consumption. While it differs among the various types of slimes, ultimately anything that is taken inside their bodies is slowly and systematically broken down in a process resembling acidic digestion. Literally everything a slime is capable of absorbing into their bodies is, ultimately, converted into either nutrients or mana, which is then added to the total mass of the slime itself (in some process that increases both gelatin and crysium). The only thing which the majority of slimes don't readily consume is dirt and stone, but even then there are some types of slimes that do.   Once a slime has reached a size doubling or more than its average, it will undergo asexual division and 'split' apart, becoming two or more slimes of much smaller size. Generally, slimes divide in equal portions, so there is no way to actually tell which one was the ‘original’ anymore, even with dyes or magical tracking. The newly-divided slime and its offspring will then go about consuming anything they encounter once again, with only other slimes not being the targets of their voracious appetites. This process is repeated ad-infinitum, with seemingly no limit to the amount of times an individual slime can eat, grow, and divide. It is for this reason that so-called ‘slime tides’ can be a fairly regular occurrence in both urban and rural areas if their population size isn't monitored constantly. For the likes of farmers, a slime tide may destroy all their crops and herd alike if not taken care of swiftly. Despite the dangers they pose, however, slimes also offer a very unique service to the world which everyone is eager to exploit.   Thanks to their unconditional consumption, slimes don't see sewage and biological waste any differently than a high lady's meal. Thus, for many, many emerging villages, then towns, then cities across nearly all of Veltrona, slimes were seen as the obvious solution for waste disposal. Whether a population of common slimes were sequestered in a cistern or otherwise placed in a special pen within a sewer, the fetid waste of a settlement became the feed for these 'ranched slimes'. As long as their population size was kept under control, these slimes became the perfect solution for waste disposal of both common and esoteric waste products. Slimes themselves produce no offensive byproducts, either; their gelatinous flesh dissolves into a water-like liquid upon death, and their crysium core is valuable for all the usages mined crysium itself has. Additionally, because the slimes’ ‘acidic’ bodies are inherently hostile to all known forms of parasites, the spread of such parasites, disease, and other maladies associated with raw sewage is massively reduced, if not eliminated entirely.   Some people even use slimes in a very tactical way as a form of 'deep cleaning', treating the slime itself like some kind of corrosive scrub brush. Those with extremely high durability, such as dragonkind, may even use the slimes directly as a form of bathing supplement. These 'slime baths' are considered quite luxurious and among some of the best ways to exfoliate, deep cleanse, and purify one's outer body. Though, one person's slime bath is another's horrific death by digestion, so it is not necessarily a widespread practice, either.   While the use of ‘ranched slimes’ is common, what waste a society chooses to give to the slimes varies from culture to culture. Some settlements have very little regulations over what can be given to their slimes, others have strict laws in place regulating the disposal of certain waste products. For example, urine, valued for its ammonia, and vegetable matter, necessary to compost into humus for farming, may still be collected separately. Other items may simply be seen as taboo to give to the slimes, such as the remains of deceased peoples.    

Allostasis

Where there are many slimes, eventually there are slime queens, a term usually correlated to such beings due to their perceived authority, prominence, and raw power. The term 'slime queen', however, is not ubiquitous. Dragonkind scoff at such lofty titles and holistically use the term 'slimekin' instead. Other cultures vary greatly, utilizing terms such as 'greater slime', 'humanoid slime', the baarham veertomla, nebusian polsaya, and so on. What is important to capture, regardless of the specific name, is the recognition of these beings as powerful entities. A newly formed slime queen can give seasoned warriors a run for their lives, and one of actual age or experience can tear down even renowned heroines. This is to speak nothing of the vast array of common slimes that a queen can command and the shockingly great damage they can do.   To first understand the slime queens is to grasp the nature of their existence. They themselves can continue to asexually reproduce at will, though instead of giving birth to more queens, they instead generate new, non-sapient slimes in the process (as long as they have the mass and energy, at least). These offspring common slime, along with those the queen originated from, are intrinsically linked to said queen in a way that's not well understood. Some have called it a 'hive mind' of sorts, but if so, it is one fundamentally different from the bieneren superorganism, the titular hive species well-known across Veltrona. Some manner of psychic communication is also suspected, but if true, it’s a type the bieneren or even petrakin, despite being psychic species themselves, cannot recognize.   Either way, the many common slimes beneath a queen do not have any sense of self, agency, or will in any form. They are purely extensions of the queen herself, acting like disembodied limbs and organs that fulfill any desire or thought she has. Without her directives, they simply revert to their original nature of eating and reproducing indiscriminately. How the various slime queens regard their common kin varies from queen to queen, but it is noteworthy that all slime queens seem to value them intrinsically, with none of them treating their kin as disposable or something to be callously sacrificed. As such, slime queens can quickly grow angry when their slimes are disrespected or harmed, which has caused no end of friction between them and other peoples throughout history.   However, with the emergence of a new slime queen, the resulting slime ecosystem changes around her. Given her direct control over the common slimes, she's able to put them toward work in more complex tasks or even to cease reproducing in a way that requires constant culling. Similarly, she can also have them stop eating, which in the case of a city's sewage system, results in massive waste build up remarkably quickly. This immediately forces the rulers of said city to deal with a brand-new person of authority and power, which, consequently, means that the economic landscape of the city is prone to change. The new slime queen, seemingly born with an already lofty personality, will not simply accept being treated lowly or without regard, and her prices can be fearsome indeed.    

Catabolism

Slime queens are as well-known as slimes themselves, so they are not a new phenomena by any stretch. They're not exclusive to the likes of cities or sewage, either; many domains throughout the wildernesses of Veltrona have come under their control more than once. These micro-queendoms expand in all sorts of ways, invariably coming into contact with other species and their customs. For 'wild' slime queens, this becomes a pivotal moment in their lives where their sense of self encounters new stimuli, information, and ways of life she may not have imagined previously. While such encounters might have an ambivalent outcome, one must worry when they have the fascination of a slime queen. She craves knowledge, purpose, and pleasure without equal; a voracious creature by another measure.   How the peoples of Veltrona come to accord with slime queens is a vast, nuanced topic, though one ultimately not very different from the usual solutions. More often than not, cooperation with slime queens become important cornerstones to various lifestyles and circumstances, making them indispensable allies. A queen's constant desires, however, generate powerful pressures that force others into finding ways of satiating her. One might imagine some of the more bizarre paths a civilization has taken may have been to satisfy a slime queen of some measure at some point.   Regardless of how such relations come to pass, a slime queen's authority and contributions are a powerful political block unto themselves. They're often quite desired by mages, cultivators, and anyone else dealing in magical arts because the lesser slimes' cores are still, nonetheless, a type of crysium. Particularly well-fed, highly condensed cores are that much more powerful, making slimes one of the few 'animals' that can be 'ranched' in order to harvest crysium. While the queens aren't too thrilled with such treatment of their slimes, many also understand it as an effective tool for trade as well. It is a kind of lifestyle with the same respect and hardy heart that comes from any other farmer tending their livestock, after all. Although not entirely the same, it can easily be seen as the queen cutting off portions of her own 'body' for trade as well, similar to rachtoh choosing to barter their silk, or a human selling their hair.    

Mitosis

With the understanding of slimes and their unique impact on the world of Veltrona, the influence of their queens becomes much more understandable. Rare as they are, one mustn't underestimate them nor their colorful personalities. Studying them is much more an effort of studying the broader cultures they hail from, and so it is a rather individualistic approach. Thus, in this respect, a few more well-known slime queens suffice as examples:   Akai Juugatsu, Hidden Horror Born In Blood, is a slime queen from Fauverngarz, and one born from the blood pits of a vampire lady who’s name has been lost to history. A necrophage in the extreme, Akai is far more predatory than many other slime queens, mirroring the vampires themselves. Unlike them, however, she near exclusively feasts upon the undead—vampires most of all. To her, they are the greatest morsels in existence, and she stops at nothing to scour them from Veltrona. To the people of Fauverngarz, Akai is something of a folk heroine as much as abomination—respected, venerated, and feared. Even if Akai holds no love for them at all, they understand she doesn't view them as prey, only inconveniences if they impede her.   Lady Gellene the Exquisite, a slime queen born on Nemma, is a wandering culinary connoisseur, traveling the breadth of the world and then some. Obsessed with all manner of eating, drinking, and consumption otherwise, she constantly seeks new dishes, delights, and thrills. Her research into cooking and how it might be applied has seen all sorts of chefs come before her, seeking tutelage or challenging her acidic taste buds with 'unseen wonders'. A candidate for one of the oldest living slime queens in known existence, she recently passed her third millennium milestone and her appetite remains as rapacious as ever.   Yilanipol, Keeper of the Below, is a lesser-known slime queen, but one imminently important to the city of Atenkhet. The principle slime queen who inhabits the underground beneath the vast mega-city, she coordinates the various slimes and lesser queens in keeping Atenkhet's sewage taken care of. Blessed by goddess Poleva, a powerful deity of water in Uatkara, herself, Yilanipol also serves the role of priestess for Poleva, and is one of the most senior priestesses in service to the goddess. She spends most of her days managing underground affairs or studying religious doctrine and intellectual thought, to which she inscribes her own contemplation.   Hakkasxi—'Slaughtering One'—is a notorious slime queen of Etzli Cuauhtla who prowls through the jungles, constantly hunting the Relentless Herds and Packs. She and her slimes are among some of the most aggressive ever recorded, demonstrating behaviors usually not seen elsewhere. The likes of ambushing, running down prey, utilizing extraordinarily lethal toxins, and so on, make up her formidable arsenal. Hakkasxi doesn't care for civilizations or people, and seemingly has no concept nor desire to utilize conventional languages, never bothering to communicate with other peoples and living with a wild freedom in the bloody jungles. Her preference for the Relentless is perhaps the only saving grace for everyone else, as she seems to regard all other forms of life as 'boring'. There's no clue to how old she truly is, or if she's even the 'original' anymore, as any daughter she may have had would've taken on her mannerisms as well.   Queen Faentria, a veltron-aspected slime queen from Aerthen, serves an honorary role within the Aerthen Imperial Federation, acting as a senator for the unlanded slimes that exist within Federation territory. Faentria and her slimes specifically are 'miners' who substitute on dirt and stone, while treating metals as undesirable waste. Thus, she is often hired to mine in locations of rich mineral wealth that are perhaps too inhospitable or dangerous for regular peoples to work in. Because of the sheer productivity of her and her slimes, Queen Faentria has a massive amount of political and financial capital within the Federation. Some even describe her as a 'slime dragon' with how much she rests upon her hoard, much to the annoyance of actual dragons.   With these, and countless more individuals awaiting scholarly interest, there is no end of curious histories and civilization-shaping forces that are slime queens.    

Anoikis

Of particular historical note, however, is the ubiquity of slimes and their massive predation on any form of death, such as the Forsaken Undead. In the closest example of preference slimes demonstrate, when given a choice of viable nutrition or dead matter, they will almost always go for the dead matter first. Only once the dead matter is consumed fully will they then go on to other ventures. This has resulted in situations such as ambling herds of returned with an accompanying slime tide rolling after them. The returned may or may not recognize these slimes as a threat, particularly if they're a more violent type. The slimes, in turn, attach to the returned and simply digest them on the move.   For everyone else on Veltrona, such behavior has placed slimes—a dangerous pest by any other measure—into a wholly different context. Their seemingly immaculate nature (as all organic matter, including microbiology, is consumed by them) further compounded this, making many healers, doctors, and medicine women investigate how to utilize such strange creatures. The later emergence of slime queens turned this into a cooperative venture, and their intelligence-driven slimes became far deadlier against the undead. It wouldn't be uncommon for slimes to accrue a minor and respectable position in societal or religious regard as a result. To people, slimes were creatures of a blessed—if indiscriminate—nature that solved many, many unsavory problems for them.   Hence, for most of the world, slimes are curated rather carefully. Although their constant, unending consumption and reproduction can make them a problem, dedicated catchers and ranchers are more than happy to capture them. If the slime population is simply too high, a ritualized culling also provides a bounty of crysium to such people, making such tedious stewardship quite lucrative. Once slime queens are in the area, though, business can change quickly as their own interest starts to take over.      

Biology

Anatomy and Physiology

The titular slime is a simplistic creature comprised of two parts: a morphable fluid mass resembling gelatin and a crysium 'core'. While the core appears to float freely within the mass, there are 'divisions' inside the mass that act like organ chambers. By manipulating these chambers, slimes are able to achieve manual digestion, basic forms of motion, and moving their core around. However, to most eyes, the cell-like division boundaries are essentially invisible, making the slime itself appear quite homogeneous. If one was to do something, such as inject colored dye or feed a particularly wet meal to the slime, then they can become much more obvious.   Slime queens themselves are anatomically similar to regular slimes. They possess the same semifluid mass and crysium core, but have much greater control over their shape and form. To this end, they'll morph themselves into something generally humanoid in form and copy the anatomical details of other species, such as nebusah wolf ears, tail, and ‘fur’. This physical mimicry is entirely at the slime queen's behest, and she may or may not add, remove, or alter certain details to fit her whims. Even if a slime queen has a fully featured face with eyes, ears, and nose, they're facsimiles and have no biologically functional purpose.   One notable means by which a slime queen is identified is the various tendrils emerging from her crysium core. These branching, nerve-like tendrils extend throughout her body and are the 'bones' to which her morphological shapes support themselves off of. Without them, a slime queen's most natural form is that of a larger, more massive slime than her non-sapient kin. In order to morph, slime queens will grow crysium tendrils from their core in order to support their new shape.   This does also limit the rate at which they can morph, as if they morph too fast, they may collapse the crysium tendrils and lose the form they were trying to support. These crysium tendrils serve some organ-like purposes, such as storing mana and absorbing nutrition, but they are ultimately just extensions of the core. Their destruction or damage in any form can 'hurt' the slime queen, but not in any lethally fatal way. A similar constraint has been observed in the zoaen, though slime queens are far more flexible and physically unlimited than even the most skilled zoaen.   Slimes also demonstrate a rare ability to change their innate aspect in a process that isn’t entirely clear. Based on observation, slimes will begin to shift over time based on how much mana they consume. A common, unaspected slime may gradually take on the characteristics of say, water or veltron, if it has a steady diet of such materials. It is a fine balance as too little cannot instigate a change, too much causes it to explode, and ‘just enough’ has to be maintained for quite a while. Some slimes also demonstrate resilience to this change, refusing to alter no matter how much of other mana types they consume, further confusing scholars. As with other areas of slimes, it seems to be intelligent behavior, but a slime literally has no intelligence, so it is unclear how such ‘decisions’ are made. This behavior is true for slime queens as well, but given they’re intelligent beings, their active choice seems to matter the most.    

Appearance

The slime core itself is simply a dense crystalline mass of mana-compressed crysium. Its appearance is highly influenced by the type of mana a slime is comprised, or aspected, of. As such, the different aspected types deserve attention:  

Fire slimes have a luminous, burning core that appears like a 'contained explosion', and the fire within the crysium is what generates light and heat that they radiate.

Water slimes have very rounded, marble-like cores that are smooth, glossy, and have curious liquid patterns.

Wind slimes have constantly churning and spinning cores, and usually take on a orb or disc-like shape reminiscent of a weather pattern.

Veltron slime cores are rocky or crumbly, and usually appear similar to geologic conditions near their 'birth' or where they have been eating for quite a while.

Metal slime cores are highly reflective and resemble purified metals with complex structured forms (helix, coils, etc).

Ice slimes have angular, aggressively spiky cores with fractal patterns, such as snowflakes, shaping them.

Tempest slimes have rapidly oscillating cores that obfuscate the actual crysium within, appearing like a contained storm trapped inside gelatin.

Lightning slime cores are spindly and tendril like, resembling a captured lightning bolt, and violently emanate electricity throughout their entire body similar to a plasma ball.

Radiant slimes are profoundly rare and generally unobserved under natural conditions, and their cores resemble miniature suns, albeit not as eye searingly bright.

Eclipse slimes are profoundly rare and generally unobserved under natural conditions, and their cores resemble black holes with gravitational anomalies within them, appearing more like some kind of glitch in space-time than an actual creature.

  The gelatin of the slime may also inherit some characteristics related to their aspected nature, such as veltron, metal, and ice ones being much more 'solid' and 'hardy'. This can influence their appearance further, but never enough to completely disguise them as a slime in the first place. The only notable exception is the eclipse slime, which is mostly due to the fact light is bent and distorted around it in the first place.   Slime queens, owing to the fact they have a type of shapeshifting, can adjust their physical form in a number of ways. Their appearance proper, however, doesn't readily change. Their 'skin', coloration, texture, and so forth, remain the same as every other slime. Particularly inventive slime queens may consume dyes and 'slow their digestion down' so that the coloration remains for longer, giving them aesthetic options. All of them, however, generally use clothing and other 'solid' items to create an attire of their unique inclinations.    

Natural Abilities

Matter Decomposer — Slimes devour everything they absorb into themselves. However, this digestion process takes time depending on the atomic bonds, mana density, and material composition. If a slime can't eat something, it's because they either don't want that thing or it's so dangerous to consume they'd explode trying. Even then, unintelligent ones will try anyway.   Liquid Mistressy — Slimes are fundamentally fluidic beings, save their cores, and so have an intuitive understanding of liquid principles. As a consequence, slime queens have much easier time harnessing liquid magic to all sorts of creative ends.   Crysium Core — Slimes have a crysium core, which acts as their most vital organ. If it's destroyed or sufficiently damaged, they die, and the core itself heals very slowly. Slime queens will instinctively protect their core, moving it around their bodies as needed to avoid any potential harm.    

Diet

Slimes qualify as the truest definition of 'omnivore' that could exist on Veltrona. They simply consume everything they encounter that is deemed 'desirable', which usually translates to 'has any nutritional or mana richness whatsoever'. The exact process by which this determination happens isn't entirely clear, and is indicative of some kind of selection process occurring within the slime. For example, in one instance they're observed as being more than fine leaving most flora and fauna alone, yet on a different day, that same slime may decide to try eating an entire tree.   Scholars have been long mystified over this selection process as it defies any rhyme or reason. While most are comfortable saying slimes won't go around wiping out entire ecosystems, no one understands why slimes do not do so. For a species seemingly lacking any concept of intelligence in the majority of its members, and its own displayed behavior of primordial simplicity, the common slimes at least should be calamitous forces unto themselves. Not even the slime queens themselves seem to understand this process, merely shrugging their shoulders and saying 'it is what it is'. No real consensus, despite centuries of debate, has ever settled on how slimes enact this sort of decision making.   As such, a slime's eating habits is considered one of the unsolved mysteries of Veltrona, much to the madness of some immortal scholars.   Slime queens are, themselves, more understandable in that they do establish dietary preferences. While they retain their 'true omnivore' capacity, slime queens become discerning as 'flavor' is established as something important in their minds. The act of eating itself becomes a pleasurable activity to them, much as it is with other people, and so reshapes their culinary palette. Despite imitating the act of eating (e.g, a mouth with teeth and a tongue), slime queens taste 'equally' across their body no matter where something is absorbed. Nonetheless, maintaining decorum is usually quite important to them, even if a slime queen may eat an entire chicken—bones and all—without batting an eye.    

Life Cycle

In defiance of any sensible categorization, slimes do not readily follow the normal lifecycle that most organisms on Veltrona do. If a slime exists, it is inherently a mature, reproducing organism, it may just lack the sufficient mass and mana necessary in order to undergo asexual division. At no point does a slime have anything resembling infancy by age; if anything, it should be judged by sheer mass present. Under that perspective, a 'young' slime is one that has very minimal physical mass and a crysium core around a quarter the size of an 'adult' slime. A ready-to-divide slime is generally two or more times the mass of an adult slime, and when division occurs, it will separate into near-equal portions between all the resulting 'offspring' slime. The division process itself is simple as it begins with the core ‘melting’ and splitting apart into any number of offspring slime, who then divide up the remaining gelatin mass.   As slimes themselves do not suffer any discernible effect from aging, they're also considered an immortal species, much to the disbelief of most who discover this fact. It's actually a contentious topic in some circles, usually because people refuse to accept something so 'basic' as attaining an immortal existence. There are, however, the likes of recluses and cultivators who intensely study slimes as the key ingredient to immortality.   Slime queens, by extension, are generally the same as regular slimes. As they're 'born' from gathered slimes, they manifest already in their physical prime as fully capable individuals. The only thing they lack is knowledge and personality, which they gain quickly through observation of their environment. Thus, a 'young' slime queen is one that generally knows little and has an incomplete personality, though is still a voracious predator in her own right. This is the closest thing slime queens themselves equate to 'childhood', as they generally have the same ignorance as children. Their rate of 'growth' depends on numerous factors, but is generally quite fast, with some obtaining adult-like comprehension within a few years, or a decade at the slowest.   Slimes as a whole only die under two circumstances: they're completely starved of mana or their crysium core is destroyed. Starvation takes quite some time as a starving slime can conserve itself and survive for weeks before actually dying. A destroyed core, however, is an instant death. The actual trauma needed to destroy the core need not shatter it completely, rather it need be sufficient enough the mana within completely destabilizes. In such a case, it is similar to a brain receiving fatal amounts of electricity: the physical structure of the brain itself may remain, but the delicate components necessary for life are irreparably destroyed.   In the case a slime dies, its gelatin mass begins disintegrating into its constituent parts—usually dissolving into a pool of watery liquid—and the core itself becomes a simple mass of crysium with a variable degree of mana within it still.    

Anaxials, Hybrids, and Variants

Only slime queens are capable of reproducing with other species. The exact mechanism is not clear, but it concerns something about their asexual division and a compatible host's own genetic contribution. Non-sapient slimes will simply divide and consume as per normal, and so many ill-informed souls seeking romance with a common slime have found their genitals receiving an acid bath for their efforts.    

Anaxials

In a process that is utterly mysterious, slime anaxials are people born with an extremely variable degree of physiology. In their simplest forms, their exterior resembles their human mother flawlessly, but their internal organs are slime-like to some degree. Crysium growth functions as a replacement to some or even all of their organs, somehow maintaining biological parity without any noticeable compromise. In more extreme cases, entire sections, or even the body itself, may become slime-like, making slime anaxials resemble their sire much more directly with a half-gelatinous appearance.   No one readily knows how slime anaxials live as their physiology is a medical enigma. The translation of human organs to slime crysium and back is a process that no scientific inquiry has ever truly figured out. The fact that slime anaxials feel, move, and manipulate their bodies as normally as their mother, or as morphologically as their sire, is just as perplexing. For example, a slime anaxial may have no intestinal tract whatsoever, yet still remains capable of normal digestion and defecation somehow. Others will have an intestinal tract, but all consumed material is broken down and absorbed fully, effectively making them 'immaculate'.   Slime anaxials are, themselves, born as human-like infants and experience a lifecycle similar to single-blooded humans, maturing physically and mentally at the typical rate expected. They retain the immortal nature of their sires, but as they age, more and more of their body becomes slime-like. It's a curiously inexplicable transformation where even the most exactly human-like slime anaxial will, invariably, become something resembling a humanoid slime instead. Their internals and organs will gradually convert to a crysium structure, mimicking the overall functionality of things like eyes, brains, a central nervous system, etc. The process is quite random in where it happens and how long it takes, but no slime anaxial over a few centuries has anything resembling ordinary human biology left.   A key behavior of these elderly slime anaxials is that their degree of transformation is much more limited. While their brain and heart act as two separate crysium cores, their overall ‘humanoid’ figure is mostly fixed in place. They can extend and alter things beyond that, but cannot directly change or modify their humanoid structure. This limitation, and dual core presence, is what distinguishes them from slime queens as a whole.   It is a matter of intense scholarly debate and, as it may be, why many experts in the topic think the zoaen, an Underworld 'slime' species, may actually be a form of highly advanced slime. The zoaen themselves, however, possess entirely different biological mechanisms and behaviors: the most notable one being they are a mortal species. It's not clear why they're so similar, but they may only be just that—similar, not related.    

Hybrids

Slime queen hybrids are among those nearly indistinguishable from their mother species. Technically, they have a much greater preference and ease for certain morphological forms over others, such as a slime-dragon developing armor-like scales or even 'wings'. As single-blood slime queens can achieve this same feat themselves, however, it is an unreliable indicator at the best of times.   Instead, slime queen hybrids are better distinguished by their much more detailed and complex tendril growth of their slime-flesh and crysium cores. Larger branches, greater numbers of offshoots, more spiraling or 'feather-like' extensions, and so on, define these sophisticated growth patterns. Slime queen hybrids, in this respect, are extremely visually detailed, and certain growth patterns correlate toward certain lineages. Slime-lauraume, for instance, have more leaf-like tips and tree-like cores, making such people appear as walking terrariums surrounding beautiful trees. Slime-baarham have very structured and engineered looking growths and a core with much more mountainous, rock-like qualities.   Unfortunately, without direct experience with such people or records thereof, no one is really going to be able to tell a slime queen hybrid's lineage from appearances alone.    

Variants

There are no known variants to slimes, though there is great academic argument if the different aspected slimes themselves qualify as variants.      

Sociology

Cultural Universals

Slimes exhibit a degree of herding or schooling behavior, and will usually gather together regardless of individual aspect type or apparent 'familial' lineage. Beyond that, however, they act independently, eating or reproducing indiscriminately. When a herd reaches a particular size, it will either split apart (like a form of macro-scale asexual division), or continue to increase in size. As its overall size increases, the herd becomes a slime tide, or potentially facilitates the emergence of a newborn slime queen. While this is usually the most reliable situation that results in a slime queen's emergence, it is not the only one. Some slime queens are known to even emerge from a single, particularly well-fed slime, such as Akai Juugatasu within a vampire’s blood pool.   Slime queens themselves are commonly egotistical existences that are generally selfish and domineering. While they will care for their slime kin instinctively, it takes time and effort for them to grow an attachment to other peoples. This behaviour is usually why many young slime queens enter into conflict with surrounding civilizations, particularly those who aren't willing to endure such haughty attitudes. However, for those whom the slime queen does grow fond of, they will extend the same protective envelope as they do their own slime kin. Perhaps even more so, as a person cannot be replaced as seamlessly as common slimes can be.   If there is a particular universal among them, slime queens don't readily exhibit a sense of urgency. It's a sentiment similar to immortals who are usually unbothered by the passage of time, but even by those standards, slime queens can be rather lax. Unless a slime queen adopts more proactive mannerisms, or is forced to do so by circumstance, indolent and sedentary lifestyles are more the norm among their kind. On the upside, this means they're unbothered by living in the same place for a long time—as long as food and entertainment are regularly available.    

Lingual Characteristics

Slime queens do not have vocal cords or lungs, and so must learn vocal mimicry of some kind using magic. Conveyance of Meaning is not something natural to them, but often becomes required learning for them in order to achieve proper communication with other species. Many slime queens first learn to read and write, and/or do signed or light-based languages, before they ever learn to speak something resembling sound. By which point they've either learned conveyance or have some sort of sound-based magic that suffices for the purpose.    

Arts and Beauty

As slime queens principally adopt and take on other cultures' values for their own, there is some difficulty in discerning anything truly unique to them; but not impossible. Music is one thing that all slimes and their queens respond to for some unknown reason. As long as it is structurally consistent, boasting a rhythm that is not too discordant or experimental, then slimes will begin reacting to the music. Since common slimes themselves are believed to be too simple to even have appropriate neural structures for feeling 'pleasure', it's not clear why they respond to music.   Slime queens, on the other hand, obviously do so out of pleasure, and they really do enjoy particularly repetitious and/or high energy forms of instrumentation.Scholars debate why this is the case, though some may attribute the vibrations caused by such sounds to travel through a slime’s physiology, allowing them to experience music in a wholly unique and tactile way. Incidentally, this has led to many slime queens adopting a fondness for songbirds, frogs, chirping insects, and even the purring of muurun.   Another notable quality of slime queens is their adoration of humanoid figures. Statues, detailed artwork, dolls, puppetry; anything that captures the sublimity of such people interests them greatly. In some respects, these art pieces become examples by which the slime queens model their own forms after. While there is that element of pragmatism, they also simply seem to enjoy humanoid figures and their various forms as an aesthetic preference as well.    

Magic and Technology

Slime queens have, throughout history, been the source of bizarre and highly unique innovations, especially ones that exploit their physiology. Pipes, for example, are a common solution any civilization makes in order to move fluids around. Slime queens, however, reinforce them to withstand higher pressures. By compressing themselves down and utilizing said pressure, they and their slimes can shoot through the pipes at remarkable speeds, traversing complex environments swiftly. Since their existences consume essentially everything, this also makes them great at cleaning the pipes as well.   That said, although slime queens are fantastic in magical arts, their particular styles often incorporate some, or a lot of, fluid magic principles: liquid-like stone slithering like a snake, pellets of fire that splash like water balloons, bending and twisting the flow of wind into deadly drills, whipping tendrils of waters harder than steel, etc. This unique approach constantly twists and redefines magical arts, giving them a unique skill set that their competition is often hard pressed to match. At the same time, the proof of such magics working is enough to show others that their own arts can be transformed just as much.    

Religion and Philosophy

Slime queens themselves usually never hold any special regard for divinities and heavenlies, treating them the same as any other. Given their egocentric nature, it is a rather draconic perspective in itself, for better or worse. As such, most religions—especially ones where servility is a key component—do not hold special meaning to them. They are, however, interested in historical or cultural details as to why people became the way they are. It is an anthropologist-like approach where, from the slime queen's perspective, religion is just another form of cultural history to study.   Which, unfortunately, can lead to conflict with many different religious folk, who may feel as if the most sacred aspects of their practices are being disregarded as mere curiosities to consume, rather than actually being understood.   Ironically, different deities and divine beings usually find equitable business with slime queens. When one needs something from the mundane world without unnecessary fanfare or far-reaching impact, they're quite useful and discreet intermediaries for such purposes. It invariably intertwines such queens with the affairs of the divine, something they're keen to make use of for their own ends. A common result is a queen's slimes taking on divinely-purposed missions or jobs, carving out a higher position as a result. Some faiths even venerate slimes directly, or at least see them as a basic type of spirit.   One might imagine that, for beings that seemingly manifest out of nowhere on the regular, the slime queens would want for a sense of purpose or identity. To such minds, without an inheritance, their existence seems rather adrift and devoid of meaning. The slime queens themselves are not bothered by this, but as with any intelligent person, they do eventually start to wonder. The intrinsic drive to eat and reproduce soon evolves into a more complex arrangement, where acquiring knowledge and education itself is a form of 'consumption', and social ties a form of 'reproduction'. Though an unflattering comparison, some scholars consider the macro behavior of the slime queens not unlike molds or lichens—pervasively spreading, consuming, and integrating everything they come into contact with, until they themselves become foundational to the ecosystems they are a part of.    

Science and Spirituality

Slime science—a euphemism for simplicity driving one's self insane—is something born from a queen's boredom and driven by whatever whims catch her fancy. Science itself is a discipline that demands certain rigors, but the structure of which slime queens tend to enjoy. Reproducible results is, itself, a form of mistressy over the world and one's own capabilities, so it meshes with their sentiments nicely. The only problem is when they go down a winding, thorny path of scientific curiosity and there's nothing to rein it back in again—a common pitfall for species that lacks many of the pressures of time, illness, or survival which most others are subject to. Some truly one-of-a-kind marvels often result, though their usefulness is always ... suspect.   For slime queens, the world is often vast, mysterious, and unknown. Armed with a powerful sense of curiosity and confidence, they're more than willing to explore that world to understand more. In some respects they're a little too reckless, but unlike many other species, their durability is incredibly high in certain contexts. To them, the unknown is not something to be shied away from, which also means spiritual entities tend to like them a lot. Whether for good or ill, such beings are treated the same as any other by slime queens, giving them a respectful regard not usually found in the mundane world.   In time, slime queens build their own relationship with life in its many forms. While other cultures can be highly informative in this process, they are still rather unique in how they view the world and those within it. The feeling of being an outsider is a difficult one for any slime queen to be rid of, and so the need to find something of their own to which they can wholly belong to is a common motivator. Many queens develop unique views and perspectives on the matter, aligning themselves with a lifestyle that fits their natural sensibilities. The older queens, who've often lived for centuries or more, develop increasingly complex views, especially as the quandary of immortality is tackled.      

Psychology

Rest and Sleep

Slimes and their queens can effectively start and stop on a dime, resting instantaneously as much as motivating into action. Their biology operates on such a unique paradigm that the normal mechanisms of biochemical energy transference are simply a world of their own. The greatest impediment to rest is coming to a stop from inertia or, in the case of the queens, quieting their minds down. Mental activity, unlike their bodies, is quite a bit trickier, but nowhere near the sort of multi-minute process the likes of humans might find necessary.   It's not clear if slimes themselves sleep at all since they have nothing resembling neural activity. They do have a sense of inactivity that generally results from being full of food they're digesting, suggesting some sort of ‘rest and digest’ response, or a stillness which may indicate that they're about to undergo division. In some cases, starvation due to a lack of resources means they may rest in order to conserve energy, switching from a motile lifestyle to a sessile lifestyle if their immediate environments become unable to provide enough food. Slime queens, by contrast, do have complex neural activity, so sleep is vital for mental relaxation and organization. It's not clear if they receive any physical benefits from doing so, though.    

Consciousness and Thought

Slime queens, and common slimes presumably by extension, receive information from the world indiscriminately; their bodies accept 'all stimuli'. To a slime queen, vision is the same as hearing, touch, taste, etc, and unfortunately she must learn to discriminate the different stimuli to better rationalize them. This learning process is a cumbersome one that every slime queen has to learn on their own for the most part. Those aided by conveyance from others may learn how to rationalize their stimuli better, so older slime queens practiced in the art may help younger ones.   In overall cognition evaluation, slime queens largely seem similar to that of humans, albeit with more neural flexibility. Their unique perspective on their senses gives them much finer control and absorption of information, enhancing their overall perception of the world around them. This does act like a double-edged sword, for a slime queen who chooses to ignore certain types of stimuli may have a very, very different perception of the world. For example, one that doesn't care for color may perceive a colorless world, denoted entirely by shades of increasing or decreasing brightness instead. Such a different view can have a ripple effect on many aspects, such as how their magic is envisioned.    

Motivation and Emotion

Consumption is the motivational basis of slimes. It's not even clear if reproduction is actually a goal of theirs, or just a by-product of their means of existence. Either way, lacking in complexity, such is their only discernible motive. This extends into the slime queens themselves, who seem to develop sapience from a primordial state of hunger. Newly born slime queens are just as voracious as their slime kin, but the burden of sapience soon forces new paradigms into them. The development of personality recontextualizes their hunger entirely, and their responses to this are what begin the emergence of personality.   For slime queens, emotions are new and terrifying things to which they have no instincts to corral. They must contend with each as they arise, learn them intimately, and come to control them. How each slime queen does so is a fairly unique and personal process, and is believed to be the core reason for their wildly divergent personality types. Age becomes that much more important, as older slime queens, having greater life experience, are more emotionally stable and robust compared to younger ones.    

Sexuality and Love

Young slime queens do not have an intrinsic concept of sexuality, regarding all forms of life under a relatively equal perspective. As they gain life experience, they develop preferences that come to guide their concept of sexuality and gender identity. They might be described, initially, as a form of pansexual which then either maintains that preference or diverges into other sexual identities as they age. As with much regarding slime queens, their existence is such a blank slate at the beginning it's hard to predict what they will become as they experience more of life.   Love, however, is a great and terrible thing, and it ensnares them as easily as any other. To a slime queen, her kin are both her ‘family’, as well as a direct embodiment and extension of herself. It is only when encountering other people and their own distinct existences does she better grasp individuality. With it, notions of connection that only individuals can experience between each other. The six types of love commonly encountered by many species become defining pillars to a slime queen's conceptualization of intimacy, connection, and belonging. In doing so, her powerful sense of duty intertwines with it, making slime queens some of the more passionate individuals one can find.      

Society

Social Mannerisms

As ego-centric beings, slime queens are domineering at the best of times and downright tyrannical otherwise. They are the center of their world, and all else exists to serve them or their interests in some capacity. While younger ones are even more aggressive in this respect, older ones don't exactly deviate from it either. Instead, experienced slime queens simply learn to wield tact and decorum—in whatever form they exist—to establish themselves in a hierarchical position of power or authority. For those used to dealing with dragons, it's an incredibly similar behavior, though such comparisons also annoys dragons themselves in the extreme.   Thus, as long as one plays by the rules a slime queen sets, they'll find her amenable to most dealings. Pragmatism is a skill most slime queens learn, but they're not shy about wielding social power to secure their interests, either. For those who earn friendship or more, only they get to see beyond the veil of authority the slime queens conjure. In such times, slime queens—while still somewhat tyrannical—are far more good natured and equitable with their close associates.    

Gender

Technically speaking, slime queens could be considered genderless beings when they first emerge. The titular name of 'queen' is simply a gendered consideration put onto them by other species, who generally view them as queenly figures of authority among slimes. Since slime queens themselves are attracted to, or associate with, concepts of power and authority—which is largely a feminine trait upon Veltrona—they then model themselves around such an identity, becoming 'female oriented'. Some, however, for one reason or another, pick up masculine traits instead, becoming 'male oriented'. These 'slime kings' are generally much rarer as an identity among slime queens, but they do exist.   To slime queens, gender identity is a curious thing that is generally foreign to their own species, and thus becomes something they entirely see other species contend with. While they grasp the general ideas quickly, the nuances that come from being a 'solid species' are much more mysterious to them. Older, more experienced queens have a better understanding of such details, and though they are outsiders looking in, develop more empathy for what gendered existence entails.   On the whole, however, it is generally assumed that an individual slime queen’s understanding of gender is greatly informed by whatever cultures they most regularly come into contact with. They’ll adopt or reject beliefs and customs surrounding gender as they see fit, typically only adopting gender as a means to solidify their positions at the top of the social hierarchy.    

Kinship and Ethnicities

Slime queens primarily develop kinship and ethnic identity with their parent or neighbouring civilizations, and so largely fall under those considerations. However, in the context of slime queens among slime queens, there is something more nuanced. A slime queen and her associated slimes are effectively a kin-group; family is the simplest definition, especially as the slimes reproduce via division. In terms of connectivity, a queen's slimes are mere extensions of her, so she is a kind of superorganism as well. When two or more different slime queens come into contact, establishing hierarchy and territory are usually their most important concerns.   Slimes are not naturally aggressive against their own species, and so it is a unique type of violence limited to given slime queens. Still, even they have something almost like an aversion toward violence against one another, leading to them seeking alternative forms of engagement. Diplomacy may result in these slime queens coming together under common cause, creating 'royal courts' to which they band under. Others, however, may go through ritualized forms of 'combat' that, to outside viewers, is closer to a kind of aggressive bullying. In such cases, the slime queen who's spirit falters first usually loses and is pushed out of her territory by the victor.   Royal courts are the closest thing to an ethnic group that may exist among slime queens. In such cases, the slime queens will generally gravitate toward similar physical appearance, demeanor, mana type, and cultural mannerisms. These social bonds are just that, and they do not gain direct control over each others' cadres of common slimes in any way. However, as the sizes of these courts are incredibly small due to the much smaller size of slime queen populations compared to everyone else, they're much closer to very limited clans or tiny tribes. Regardless of how they're classified, they're normally a microcosm in a much larger civilization anyway.    

Governments and Politics

If there's two things slime queens enjoy, it's personal power and not having to deal with responsibility. Unfortunately, they rarely have one without the other, forcing them to become involved in governance in some capacity or another. Slime queens split the difference by usually taking control of areas of interest they want, becoming the preeminent authority within them. Once they've established themselves there, they use their new power basis to negotiate and corral others to their whims as needed. It's a relatively effective strategy, if somewhat mercantile in how it usually ends up playing out.   Because of this, slime queens will form their own political blocks that maintain a certain fluidity between them and others. Given their self-interested concerns, those in broader civilization have to appease or earn the slime queen(s)' favor to secure political alliances or common cause. Given that slime queens and their common slimes are immortals who may also exist within mortal civilizations on the regular, they possess an even more unique position as fonts of knowledge, wisdom, and machinations spanning generations. Some people attest that while an elected government or hereditary monarch may be the face of ruling power, it is the slime queens who truly rule all.    

Trade and Economics

The principally unique commodities the slime queens offer is that of their slimes' crysium cores, as well as their peculiar gelatin mixtures. Of the two, the former is a relatively well-understood and precious commodity, thus commanding a high price. The latter, however, is much more specific, and usually relegated to highly specialized groups who might have need of it. For example, since slimes are immaculate existences, their gelatin is extraordinarily pure of unwanted contaminants. With careful cultivation, they could even create or refine certain chemical or alchemical mixtures that are then used in a variety of industrial, civil, and magical purposes.   Since a slime's core is its life, the slime queens are less willing to trade it liberally. Gelatin, however, is produced regularly via consumption, so it can be farmed with impunity. It is a cornerstone of slime economics and, in a broader sense, an ingredient of peerless importance to a number of specialized crafts and industries. Alchemical medicine is perhaps the largest one, as special gelatin mixtures are vital for a number of wares used by people. Because of this, if nothing else, slime queens quickly amass fortunes and wealth for no end of people seeking slime-based produce on the regular.   The exact use of slime gelatin depends on the slime itself and, mostly, its aspected nature. Unaspected slimes have the most traditionally gelatin-like composition, to the point it can be used as an alternative to animal-sourced gelatin. Fire slimes, however, have much higher innate temperature and a highly chemically reactive composition, making them better suited for alchemical mixtures or incredibly brave culinary experiments. One shouldn’t underestimate the inventiveness of people, nor of slime queens looking to make a lot of money.    

Interspecies Relations

Everybody has opinions about slimes, and for most of Veltrona, they're a fact of life. The emergence of slime queens only complicates such matters, for people then have to learn to deal with powerful, egotistical beings that often arrive without warning. If one then considers the dynamic of slime queens' seeming immortality, there are further complications when dealing with the mortal species as well. No one can say the world or its people hate slimes in any significant way, but they can be quite ... complicated, about living together.   The ego-centric ways of slime queens invariably make them butt heads with everyone in some form or another. Ruling powers and authorities are especially concerned by them as such beings aren't dissuaded at all from seeking significant power. In such cases, either the slime queens are brought into the fold somehow, or are violently expunged. Most conflicts with them historically begin and end on such grounds, and the remainder are usually from territorial disputes of some kind. For those who do manage to form an equitable relationship with them, however, they become vital keystones that can bolster civilization greatly.      

Associated Articles

Notable Civilizations

     

Notable Characters

Akai Juugatsu, Hidden Horror Born In Blood

   

Design Notes