✨- Experiments were not something unknown to the Caemors, this very thing is what got them into the disaster and state they were in now. But as they watched their leaders and family get slaughtered from the safety of the remaining darkness, a group of researchers and scientists came forward with a plan. They had to beat the Mutations of Light at their own game if they were to survive. With Gallitsur leading the team and planning in the shadows, they began their plan and stepped out into the open Dream.
The Caemors team needed parts, and to get said parts they needed to play a gamble with their lives. They could not create on their own, so they would go for the next best thing: making life from preexisting ones.
On a star somewhere in the darkness of the Dream, they began their research and their gamble, gathering the parts from every branch of the Caemors to make the perfect and moldable weapon. The head scientist, Gallitsur, offered up his own core pieces to bring these beings into full fruition, while others stole and gathered DNA and parts from the Stavulus, Caenelegies, and Villicus. DNA was sliced, rearranged, and pull apart to begin the long process of making the perfect solider. At first, their plans were not successful, the cores that would form in the Lab and put into growing capsules often would only reach a certain growth cycle and then fall apart, not too unlike how the Beings of Light’s cycle would often begin. The team was strong headed, however, and would continue to push on, getting to the point where the cores were finally starting to form humanoid shapes around them, something they called the larva stage.
One day, they achieved the impossible, and a young experiment had reached the fetal stage and had formed their body; with white wings and beautiful hair, the team had to hold their breath until the experiment woke up. Soon, the creature could be removed from the tube, eyes fully opening that sparkled with the sunset of a warm sky, the scientists gave the hybrid the name of “Prometheus”, and would be the starting point for the rest to come. Despite Prometheus’ promising results, the young hybrid had some kinks that they would like to iron out, and rising beyond just one successful experiment was hard to pass.
The next hybrid that made it past the fetal stage was named “Vulcan”, one that many of the team could say wasn’t successful. While Prometheus continued to stand strong and proud, Vulcan could hardly balance herself due to her undergrown wing and weak body. The only thing Vulcan could be tested with was blood tests and body training, but soon passed away due to her own body crumbling beneath her.
Subject #0² was considered a major success differently from Prometheus, as her body proved hardy and dangerous right from the beginning. Named “Cupid” due to her oddly cute appearance, she would become a major component in all testing thanks to her shifting abilities and her core’s energy drawing from those around her. Despite her battle prowess and quick learning, her unstable body and emotions left something to be desired, especially with an odd, albeit limited, ability to create making some of the team slightly uneasy. They continued onward.
The next subject was a learning moment for the team, as the hybrid both created and ate its own creations. “Cernunnos” as he was named, was strong, yet still unstable. His creations could not be tested on due to his own rot quickly corrupting them. But he proved to be a great solider, learning quickly and listened well thanks to the two other experiments lovingly interacting with him. He would make things for them to the best of his ability, something that made the hybrids grow closer and listen to the team better, but as they grew, Cernunnos’ core became infected by his own rot and passed away; his core was taken away for further testing.
As the amount of materials grew, so did the combinations, which led to the existence of Subject #0⁴, who was coded “Macha”. Macha was the most stable creation of theirs so far, but was not seen as a potential weapon. Gallitsur insisted on watching her grow regardless, believing she could be of great need to the other hybrids, as they have learned that the hybrids listen better in the company of others. This turned out to be true, as “Cupid” quickly welcomed Macha into her heart. Cupid was the key to get Macha to listen, often putting the two together in trials and tests to make Macha better behave. But Macha’s value was not seen across the entire team, and one day during testing, was killed during a battle run. Her body had to be taken away from Cupid and Heron, with Gallitsur having to comfort the two of them before he had to take them away.
The situation with Macha made the team reel back on using specifically Villicus and Stavulus materials in large amounts, making the next hybrid a large mix of Caemors and Caenelegy DNA. Named “Munkar”, the hybrid came out… interesting. She was mellow, barely seeming to be there in the present. But her lack of emotion was seen as a good thing, taking comfort in her ability to cause Rot as well. The other two experiments were kept away from Munkar to keep backlash to a minimum, but Munkar was always caught staring in their direction. Battle runs and testing with her were difficult thanks to her blood eating away at herself and others. Despite the team’s wishes that her body would stay strong thanks to her psychic capabilities and strength, Munkar did not last, her body giving out on her as her core shattered under its own weight.
Gallitsur was getting impatient at the failures of his own, making a big risk and using another large chunk of his core to make sure this hybrid would last. Inside the growth capsule, the final hybrid to make it past the fetal stage resided, Gallitsur unknowingly staring at the very thing that would bring them death. Subject #0⁶, “Iblis” as he was named thanks to his fiery stare and hellish battle runs, was the most stable of all the experiments. He learned quickly, thrived when challenged, but could not be kept away from the other two living hybrids. Gallitsur refrained the team from separating them, happily watching Iblis grow and thrive with Cupid and Prometheus by his side.
One day, something snapped in Iblis, however.
Like a vision from the past, Iblis turned on his creators. His love for his fellow hybrids proved to be strong and unyielding, something that led him to this point. Perhaps a test was too violent for his liking, or maybe a member of the team treated Prometheus or Cupid poorly, the matter is unknown to the dead. Like a roaring flame, Iblis cut down those who got in his way, encouraging his fellow hybrids to join him. With their hands in his, Iblis guided them through the blood and shattered glass of what was once a thriving lab. No one was spared, Iblis remembering faces and cases of who did what, their deaths matching their offense. With the blood of the skies on their hands, the three hybrids only left once everything was reduced to ash.
In the end, they proved to their creators that they were the perfect weapons, ones that showed that they could bring the gods’ end. Now out of their grasps, the hybrids roam free across the Dream, and through the Sea of Stars.
✨- Every experiment ended up with different physiology, the cores and parts that make them an individual vastly strange and oddly separate from those before them despite having the same base materials. They borrow from those before them, their bodies mixing and combining parts to create a new beast. One thing is always the same, and that is how they come into being.
The core is built through selecting different pieces and DNA types to form a core in the same way the Caemors reproduce: the mixing of essence and DNA to form a new thing. The core needed at least a small piece of Caemors to be correctly brought into being since they are banking on the core responding to that of the main scientist. Once the core becomes whole, forming its new shape from the DNA and essence, it must be put into the growing capsules to ensure the core doesn’t become damaged or fall apart prematurely.
Many cores barely made it to the “larva” stage, cracking and fading under their own weight before they could even form the essence of a person.
The Larva stage was the next step up from the core, the beginnings of a being coming into form. Bodies of the “larva” stage are near invisible, their outline and basic shape being made of white starlight and a misty substance. In this form, the “larva” are starting to form appearance and thoughts, often shifting shape and outline the more they grow and form.
Larva stage had a high mortality rate, the shapes of what could be melting away and their core shattering before they could grow.