Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: Corporal undead do not exist, it is simply impossible due to the precise definition under which mages work. But that doesn’t mean there are no zombies. After all, whatever the reason for it might be, a zombie is just a human corpse animated by an outside force. Some of these forces can be quite horrifying, in different ways to just your run of the mill zombie virus.
Zhao Fen, my friend, I dedicate this to your memory.
I. Preliminary
The ZF-Entity is an alien organism, carbon-based, with a chirality matching our own biology, 3-dimensional in nature. From a strictly material perspective, there is nothing unusual about the chemical composition or properties of the entity.
This creature was first encountered in China, close to Shenyang in 1907. And then several more times in a string of incidents that continue to this day.
Clearly not native to this Earth, the ZF-Entity should be considered a dangerous, invasive species.
II. The ZF-Entity Parasite
The ZF-Entity begins its life cycle as an egg, cocooned in a small cyst filled with pseudo-amniotic fluid. The egg generally needs to be ingested by a suitable living organism, specifically – a human. The cocoon breaks within the stomach from where the parasite burrows through the flesh of the stomach and makes its way to the spinal column.
At this point, the ZF-Entity looks like a vividly red coloured strand, roughly the thickness of a human hair (approximately 0.1 mm, but it will change from specimen to specimen). The anatomy of the entity is not much different from a nematode. This will change over time. It is notable that the ZF-Entity is not a multi-cell organism, instead, it is a single large syncytium.
Once the creature makes its way to the spine it begins killing the host. It is possible, that in its natural environment its natural host is more resilient than a human. It will begin by forming a new cyst around itself, filled with the same pseudo-amniotic fluid and begin splitting, feeding on the blood and flesh of the host. The infection will spread quickly along the spine and to the brain causing symptoms identical to a malignant brain tumour. The host generally dies within a few weeks, in agony caused by the increasing pressure within their spine and skull.
At this point, the body will be host to a whole colony of ZF-Entity parasites. These beings should not be considered individuals, however. They form a structure similar to a hive-mind. Together, they begin fusing both with each other and with the host’s nervous system.
Around this point, the host will hopefully be dead, as the parasite continues by subverting the nervous system and taking control of it. Though the ZF-Entity displays little coordination it will do its best to sustain itself, mostly on a diet of raw meat. The parasites within will continue filling the host’s stomach with eggs at this time and the creature displays a rather revolting habit of having the corpse pin down a victim and regurgitating a mixture of eggs and semi-digested meat onto the face and sometimes directly into the mouth.
The host will also excrete the eggs along with waste products, however, they tend to remain inert and wither away within a week to a month without a suitable host. The ZF-Entity appears to be ineffective in propagating itself in our Ecosystem. Examined withered eggs show signs of bacterial and fungal infections. They appear as incapable of resisting our biosphere as we are unequipped to resist them.
With time the parasite-infected body will begin to change. With the ZF-Entity strands (now forming a network within the corpse) replacing more and more of the nervous system and growing more and more proficient at controlling their new housing. Some strands may even begin protruding from the body, especially in place of the eyes. At the same time, however, the improper diet and the general inability of the ZF-Entity’s to sustain a human body leads to a progressive decline in the physical state of the host. The body will bloat over time from the number of pseudo-amniotic cysts inside, eventually, the overall physical strain placed on the corpse will kill it.
That is unless the infection progresses properly.
III. The ZF-Entity-Shen
Apparently, being maladapted to its human hosts the parasite rarely reaches its final form. There are only two recorded instances of this fully matured parasite on record. In both cases, there are very sparse records of the encounter.
Here are the few facts that can be inferred from the existing reports, however.
Firstly, the entity displayed superhuman speed and strength. It has also been described as moving on all fours. Though unconfirmed, it is likely the corpse undergoes morphological changes at this point. It has been described as possessing a face like “a writhing mass of worms” and being covered in a red coat. Both clearly relating to the network of syncytium within the host body.
Secondly, the ZF-E-Shen displays superior cognitive abilities to the earlier stages of the entity’s lifecycle. While they are animalistic and seem to rely primarily on their overwhelming physical capabilities, they do also display an ability to plan and implement simple strategies.
Nothing more can be said about the creature until a living… or at least mostly intact ZF-E-Shen specimen is captured.
IV. The Hydra Mind
The most worrying property of the ZF-Entity, however, is its mind. As mentioned earlier, the creatures form a sort of hive-mind, this is a simplification. Each individual syncytium of the organism is a separate intelligence, roughly on the level of a simple animal life-form. However, all of the syncytia together share a single subconsciousness. This has been described previously as a theoretical mental structure by Rudolf Heppenheimer in “The Mind: Inhuman” under the name “Hydra Mind”.
It can be theorised that the ZF-Entity possesses some form of Super Id. Because of this, it is quite possible for future incidents to involve instances of the entity that have already learned from previous outbreaks.
Theoretically, the ZF-Entity can develop its ability to infect and control human hosts, over time ensuring more of them survive to the ZF-E-Shen stage. Developing more successful propagation strategies is also not out of the question.
At the moment there have been five different cases of the ZF-Entity appearing in China. In each case we were sure we destroyed it thoroughly, leaving no chance for another emergence. Each time it showed up again, despite that.
I predict we will see this creature appear again and again each time better prepared to face us and to survive our attempts to exterminate it.
Esoteric Musings... 