Harvesters - The Plague Bringers

[Paladienne]

So I came up with this race basically to explain Sey's hair and his penchant for playing therapist for anyone who deigns to talk to him. I probably went a little too in-depth with it, though. And it's likely still a WIP.

I. Intro
II. Basic Biology
   a. Characteristics
   b. Lifespan
   c. Reproduction
      a) Mating/Feeding Young
III. Culture

[Paladienne]

I. Intro

The Harvesters have always existed, as far as they’re concerned, from the birth of the universe and will continue to exist until the universe burns itself out. They are everywhere, hiding in plain sight. They thrive in cities, and often put down roots in those cities. Only if they’re exposed do they move on and find somewhere else to settle.

Harvesters are a human-looking race that wanders the known, and sometimes unknown, universe. The only way to really tell them apart from normal humans is by watching their hair and their faces. Depending upon their moods, their hair shifts in color and in style, all without their conscious thought. Only during feeding will their faces change from the normal human mask they usually wear to their natural face, one that’s monstrous and zombified, with sunken grey-colored skin stretched severely across bone, black pits for eyes, and distended jaws. While this seem benign, however terrifying, Harvesters got their name for a reason. They drift among other races and they siphon the life force from those they come into contact with. Whenever there’s an uptick in disease, a Harvester was there. Whenever there are upticks in cardiac arrests and suspicious deaths without clear cause, a Harvester was there.

Despite such a blatant declaration of ‘Here I Am’, once a Harvester believes they’ve exhausted a feeding ground, they will move on to a new place, and the cycle will begin all over again. Therefore, it’s terribly hard to catch one, and it’s dangerous to confront one. Looking at their face, and directly into their eyes, while they’re wearing their true face is a death sentence.

[Paladienne]

II. Basic Biology

CHARACTERISTICS

- Harvesters, whether pure-blood or half-breed, fall into a height range of 5’0’’ at the smallest to 7’0’’ at their tallest. A few half-breeds have been recorded at being slightly smaller or taller, but this is not the norm

- Harvesters, whether pure-blood or half-breed, naturally have straight black hair. It can be cut, styled, or treated just like normal hair, however, whatever is done to it will be affected by the Harvester’s natural reactionary process. For example, a Harvester who has shaved his or her head will still get the different mood colorations, just not the curling or straightening.

- Harvesters are physically indistinguishable from humans. The only difference that can be seen, and not by the Harvester’s choice, is their hair, which changes colors and styles naturally upon how the Harvester is feeling. Each color represents an emotion, and the style represents how hard they are feeling that emotion. Harvesters have naturally black hair, which is their ‘at rest/neutral’ color. If a Harvester’s hair starts to turn white, it’s a warning sign. They’re getting hungry, and if you actually recognize the sign and don’t want to die, get out of the area as fast as you can. And whatever you do, don’t look at their face or directly into their eyes.
   For example, a Harvester that is feeling incredible sadness will have dark violet, tightly curled hair.
      a) Uneasiness/Uncertainty - Blue
      b) Sadness - Dark violet
      c) Anger - Red
      d) Happiness - Gold
      e) Fear - Green
      f) Hunger - White
   There are as many colors as there are emotions. The more intense the feeling, the tighter the curls are.

- Only pure-blood Harvesters have what is considered the ‘natural face’. The ‘natural face’ of a Harvester is monstrous and zombified, with sunken grey-colored skin stretched severely across the solid bone of the face, such as the jaw, cheekbones, and forehead and deep black pits for eyes. Their jaw also becomes unhinged and distended, much like a snake’s, and their tongue is a long desiccated black lump.
   a) Female Harvesters have ragged black lines creasing the corners of their eyes, akin to crow’s feet. Depending upon the age of the female, these lines can extend from their eyes down their cheeks and to their necks and shoulders. The older the female, the longer and darker these lines are.
   b) Male Harvesters have holes “cut” into their cheeks, with the longest being closest to their lips and the shortest being closest to their mandible joint. Depending upon the age of the male, these flutter like gills while the Harvester is feeding. The older the male the more flexible these ‘gills’ are.

- As Harvesters have been around for eons, and therefore have been forced to adapt to remain hidden among the races of the universe. Their false face, their 'mask', is a special material made from their individual placenta, thus ensuring the Harvester can pass as an individual, that adheres to their skin and is only removed in the presence of their own kind and only their own kind. Otherwise the mask stays on. Harvesters loathe removing their mask in mixed company. Harvesters are also the only ones who can remove their own mask; even another Harvester couldn't remove another Harvester's mask.

-Half-breed Harvesters do not possess this flesh-mask. The genes of the non-Harvester parent become dominant and thus inhibit the proteins that would naturally adhere to the baby's face upon birth.

- While their bodies can process most foods as any other creature’s can, a Harvester also needs to consume a certain amount of life force. While they do NOT have to reveal their true face in order to feed on life force, signs of it can be seen in their faces, such as a darkening of the skin around the eyes and a slight discoloration to the tongue. It’s quick and fleeting, so more often than not such a physical change goes unnoticed.
   While a Harvester can devastate an entire city in one feeding, they do not. They are very restrained when they feed upon life force, taking little “bites” from hundreds if not thousands of individuals. These little “bites” will make an individual exhausted, perhaps more so than they would be naturally at the end of the day, but a good meal and a full night’s sleep is enough to cure that. However, if a Harvester has not fed in a matter of weeks to months, the effects of a feeding mirror that of a swiftly progressing disease and/or leprosy. After such a feeding, the Harvester evacuates the area, abandoning everything they’ve built, including non-Harvester family and friends, their job, their home, and their possessions. They will assume a new identity elsewhere and start all over again. Therefore, it isn’t uncommon for Harvesters to have ‘go-bags’ and secret monetary accounts under assumed names.
   Only if a Harvester is starved will they consume en masse. This will almost always result in the city’s annihilation, and any and all survivors will be stricken with an incurable disease, as if they have caught some kind of plague. They will suffer and always die.

- Harvesters feed in a variety of ways, the most benign of which being physical touch. A simple swipe of the fingers along a pulse point is usually enough to sustain a single Harvester for a few days. Another way is to change their face just enough to let their true nature show through and allow prey to look upon their faces and, more importantly, in their eyes. This is typically reserved for a single victim.
   Once an individual has looked into the black pits of a Harvester’s eyes, they cannot look away until the Harvester puts his or her mask back on. Victims of this kind of feeding suffer mild strokes or heart attacks, often feel tingling in their extremities, and do not remember how such an event occurred.
   If a Harvester completely changes their face - which is rare and happens only in the most dire of circumstances for a Harvester, such that they are starving to death - it will cause a mass feeding, such that anyone who chances to look upon the Harvester will become a victim. Those close to the epicenter of the feeding are entirely forfeit and will often shrivel to dry husks. Those further out, or those who have a glancing look, as perhaps a reflection in a mirror, window, or some kind of liquid, can and do suffer heart attacks, strokes, leprosy of extremities, and organ damage. The severity of effect suffered by those who have that glancing, somewhat shielded, look depends on the age and health of the individual.

-Half-breed Harvesters do NOT feed upon the life force of those around them. They do not have the ability to process the ‘life force’ energy their pure-blood counterparts can. Instead, they feed through an empathic process, such that anything projected AT them will be absorbed much in the way a sponge absorbs water. They do not need skin to skin contact for this to occur, as pure-bloods do in a “bite” feeding, but it helps.

LIFESPAN

Harvesters have a longer lifespan than most humanoid creatures, but not on par with elves. They are not immortal. When Harvesters reach their physical maturity, which can be anywhere between 26-30 years old for both male and females, they enter a long ‘stasis’ period, such that they do not age for several hundred years. The range varies, and is dependent upon the constant feeding and overall health of an individual. When that three hundred year mark is reached, the Harvester begins to age as any other humanoid creature, until, quite literally, they become dust.

Harvesters can be affected by other Harvesters, such that they become territorial when too many congregate in one place. Big cities can easily sustain two or three Harvesters but no more. A newcomer to the city will find him or herself quickly on the defensive as those established there will seek to drive the newcomer out, if not kill them.
   This changes during their mating season, but only for the mating season.

Harvesters can also be killed by mundane means. A gunshot is still a gunshot, a slit throat is still a slit throat. They are not affected by illnesses and disease as other races are, however, they can also be starved to death.

REPRODUCTION

GENITALIA
-Harvesters have the typical male and female genitals one might expect them to have, at least in terms of the sex organs, testes, and ovaries. Females have, in addition to mammary glands, a special opening in their tongue that allows them to ‘siphon’ ‘life force’ energy into their children. They effectively French kiss their own offspring in order to feed them. Males do not have this opening, but instead have a ’third lung’ in which he stores additional ‘life force’ energy and he breathes it into his mate. Visually, it’s like birds regurgitating meals.

MATING AND FEEDING YOUNG
- Mating season for Harvesters is once a year once they reach physical maturity. During this time, which lasts only a month, Harvesters exude a pheromone that only Harvesters can smell. The range of this pheromone is relative to the Harvester him or herself, and can be carried on the wind. Harvesters in a large city with a - for them - large Harvester population have an easier time of breeding. A single female can mate with several males over the course of her season, and potentially bear one to four children.
   It is the last of the males to mate with that female that becomes ‘father’ to all the children, whether he is biologically their father or not. It becomes his responsibility to care for the children and the mother until the children are old enough to feed themselves.

- Only a female Harvester can breed with races outside her own, for her body will not reject the sperm. Male Harvesters that attempt to breed with ‘outsider’ females will find that their sperm will not survive within the female’s body. Most males will not attempt to breed an ‘outsider’ and instead seek out a female of their own race to breed with.
   a) A pure-blood infant Harvester is born with their mask, as their placenta will adhere to their face and the proteins will act as a second skin as the placenta dries. Baby Harvesters cannot hide their natural face and so are kept hidden away until they’re old enough to control their mask. They rely upon their mother for feeding. While she will also give her infant breastmilk, she also feeds them her life essence through a process called ‘siphoning’, where she will press her mouth to her infant’s and exhale a portion of her life force. During this time and for a week after weaning, the female is dependent upon her mate to feed her in much the same way.
      * Half-breed Harvester babies are not fed through siphoning. This is because their bodies do not process ‘life force’ in the same way as pure-blood Harvester babies. Rather, they become a receptacle for emotions, feeding upon their parents’ and others in an empathic manner, although they do not possess empathy as a psychic ability. In other words, they cannot perceive or project emotions themselves, but rather their bodies naturally feed upon the emotions projected AT them. This makes them perfect for confidantes, secret keepers, priests, and the proverbial shoulder to cry on. Many half-breed Harvesters do not realize why they’re drawn to hugely populated areas, but this is why.

- Females who breed with ‘outsider’ males during this time can only have one child at a time. She often doesn’t know what to do with this child, since her maternal instinct to feed it through ‘siphoning’ doesn’t kick in. She also often raises this child alone. It’s uncommon for a Harvester female to remain with an ‘outsider’ mate, but it does happen.

- Throughout their lifetime, Harvesters can have a number of offspring by a number of mates, but they aren’t incredibly prolific due to their mating season being once a year and only for a month. Also, how successful a female is at carrying a pregnancy to term varies with her age. The younger she is, the more likely it is she’ll miscarry.
   Harvesters are not affected emotionally by the loss of offspring. The only physical change that happens is that the mother will reabsorb the genetic material into her own body and will become receptive sooner than a female who has successfully carried to term.

- Once a Harvester reaches their decline, they no longer breed and no longer seek mates. Often, they drift elsewhere in preparation for their final death.

- It’s uncommon, but Harvesters have been known to fall in love, more often with ‘outsiders’. It’s dangerous for a non-Harvester to have the full focus of a Harvester, only in that they become the primary food source for their lover. It is a slow death, but from the Harvester’s point of view, they’re dying anyway long before the Harvester will.

[Paladienne]

III. CULTURE

Harvesters are loners by nature, such that they do not form tight family units nor do they remain with a single mate for the duration of their lifetime. This is the norm, but not a requirement. Harvesters have been known to spend a lifetime with a single mate, especially if the mate is an ‘outsider’. Having the focus of a Harvester is dangerous only because the lover becomes the Harvester’s primary food source. It’s a slow death, and as much as the Harvester loves their mate, it’s tempered by the fact the mate will die long before the Harvester will. That isn’t to say they won’t enjoy the time they have, but to a Harvester, death is inevitable and not something to be worried over.

Harvesters are very territorial. A big city, with a population in the millions, can sustain up to three Harvesters, and they tolerate each other. They will actively go out of their way never to meet face to face. However, this behavior changes during their mating season, and they will then seek each other out. The parents will stay together until the children are weaned from their mother, and then the father typically abandons the ‘family’. The mother is then responsible for the children, teaching them everything they need to know about survival, how to mask, and how to feed. Once a child shows proficiency in these skills, the mother will force them out of her territory. Like any child, proficiency ranges, but no Harvester pure-blooded child stays in its mother’s territory past the age of 26, which is when they enter their ‘stasis’ period and are considered ‘adult’, even if they cannot take care of themselves.
   The only exception to this rule are half-breeds, as they lack the need to feed as pure-bloods do, and they have no ‘true face’. But because most half-breeds are single births, the mother can focus exclusively on them in order to raise them to the best of her ability. Sometimes this can become too stressful, for the half-breed child registers on her senses as something broken, and it can drive her to abandon the child. The half-breed will have a basic understanding of how to care for him or herself, but will not understand why they’re drawn to large cities where emotions are plentiful. Half-breeds also do not register on the senses of pure-blood Harvesters if they live in the same area because a pure-blooded Harvester would not consider a half-breed to be competition for food or mates.