The Heretic's Ball 2010 - Begin!

[mcfonz]

Yes to all questions! Except the ones that are 'no'.

Kidding. Vermissian Nexus Spider - not got a definitive design in mind, the original one was quite genestealery and I think I want to move away from that a little since the concept has moved on, and now has more of a celebrity-led cult focus. Those WIP greens above don't really fit in with a cilivised world culture, more of a desert one. I now think the majority of Nexus cultists need to be dressed in more recognisably terran civilian clothing. If you think of the cartoon Batman Beyond in terms of design ethos, it is recognisable yet sci-fi in its design.
The Nexus Spiders themselves need to be very organic and plausible looking, but also very off-world looking. They don't necessarily have eight legs, maybe they have an odd number or they aren't all the same size or don't all come out of the bottom of the body. They definitely need to have a certain amount of spidery aspect or they wouldn't have been labelled spiders by the research team from Earth.

You should still release the shaman looking mini you did for them, could easily be an alternative evil sorcerer or sci-fi cultist.

I may actually have a go at this but will have to buy in some dolly's I think. The last attempt I had at a sculpt I tried to do everything from scratch and its tough! Will have to get something to give me a helping hand with the start.

[mnpazan]

Did you have an approximate size in mind for the nexus spiders? It says they get much bigger when they reach their final stage, but there's no stated or implied baseline to compare that to. About how big are the "starter" queens?

The drone description made me think of the Verdugo from Resident Evil 4 at first, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it feels (to me, at least) to make them smaller.

[Big Boris]

It isn't nailed down yet, but I'd say the really big ones would in gaming terms be the size of a man's fist or thereabouts. Drones would be man-sized, depending on function: It occurs to me that there might be workers, warriors and drones if it was following an insect pattern like earth colonies do. Drones do the mating in that, so i'd guess I have the wrong name for that class here, it should be warrior-drone rather than just drone. But since the reproduction is'nt sexual in this species, but more asexual/parasitic with a twist, there's no need for mating drones as terran insects would need them.
I'm thinking myself in circles, so I'll go off and ponder it.

[mcfonz]

It depends upon what form of parasite you mean and what stage in their development that they become a parasite.

In Alien the queen lays eggs which hatch the face huggers which sole purpose is to get the young alien in a host. At that point the alien is a parasite.

Could it not be a similar kind of system? Perhaps the 'queen' (for want of a better word) lays the eggs and the warriors carry them in specialy formed parasite 'sacks' and then inject them via some method into their victims. Once host-ified, depending on the type of parasite injected some become zombi-fied hosts and others don't even realise they have been infected until it is too late!

Again you could have another option, red ants inject a type of venom which confuses the senses of the victim. To us it stings but to other ants it can kill them but mainly acts to confuse them so that the red ants can walk into the hatching chambers and steal eggs which they then effectively enslave. Tweak this a notch and perhaps a similar type of venom carries mutagens that instigate changes in the host body that effectively allow their minds to be manipulated by the pheromone commands of the aliens.

Types could include the mating drones, soldiers/warriors and workers with perhaps another couple thrown in such as scouts and royal tenders which some ant colonies have.

Do tell me if I am being far to creative for my own good, I shall retreat to my dark, dank corner of doom! 

[mnpazan]

Do the drones incubate inside the host like a chestburster or an X-Files gray, or do they convert the host body like a Half Life headcrab? If the former, they'd have to start small, then grow to man size after leaving the host body. If the latter then they could start out man sized, and simply get funkier as they grow.

I wouldn't worry about keeping analogs to terrestrial hive insects. In fact deliberately using a different system may help sell the alienness of them IMO. Once they've gained sapience, they won't be so bound to a particular way of doing things anyway, regardless of what their original animal organization scheme was.

One possible idea I'd like to put forward is that they reproduce sexually via their drones. That is, rather than a drone fertilizing its own queen like in a bee hive, each "queen" is instead the result of a mating between drones belonging to different parent spiders. Or in other words: a spider's drones are also its gonads, and it mates with other spiders via telepresence.

One bit that concerns me is the transition between a standard queen and a hyper queen. You make it sound like they were never able to acheave the sort of population/neural/resource density needed to trigger the change in their original animal state/environment. This begs the question of how this aspect of their biology evolved. Perhaps it should just be that a spider's growth is proportional to their resources, rather than an actual metamorphosis.

[beefcake]

Hmmm starting to wish I had started my sculpt after this discussion.
I like the idea of the queen enslaving other sentient lifeforms through its telepathic abilities and then infecting some of them (perhaps ones that have the correct atributes the queen is looking for, strong, intelligent)with some sort of gene-altering poison thereby changing them into drones which can then carry on the spider's seed and form a tight knit bodyguard for the queen. The infection would then be seen by others under the queens thrall as a way to achieve a higher form of being. These drones would then also be seen of as "royalty" by the thralls under the queen's dominance. The ultimate gift for one under the queens power would be the infection.
 

[Big Boris]

There's definitely a multiple-dna sequence involved. Definitely the queen injects a sort of symbiotic parasite (that might not itself be a Nexus Spider offshoot, it could be a symbiote lifeform that has somehow evolved to fulfill this role for the nexus spider on their home planet?) into the host victim that multiplies in their body and controls them, perhaps subconsciously at first, then more directly as the parasite grows. The victims DNA probably mutates at a given point and they will slowly start to take on some of the appearances of the parent creature, eg thick spine like hairs will sprout from their skin, or vestigial limbs may grow. See the 80's remake of The Fly for details! They won't notice the change in their motivations, as far as they're concerned the ideas and loyalties they now have are their own.

[mcfonz]

There's definitely a multiple-dna sequence involved. Definitely the queen injects a sort of symbiotic parasite (that might not itself be a Nexus Spider offshoot, it could be a symbiote lifeform that has somehow evolved to fulfill this role for the nexus spider on their home planet?) into the host victim that multiplies in their body and controls them, perhaps subconsciously at first, then more directly as the parasite grows. The victims DNA probably mutates at a given point and they will slowly start to take on some of the appearances of the parent creature, eg thick spine like hairs will sprout from their skin, or vestigial limbs may grow. See the 80's remake of The Fly for details! They won't notice the change in their motivations, as far as they're concerned the ideas and loyalties they now have are their own.

Man I am liking this. Need to find me some dollies, although its unlikely I will have a sculpt done in time, I really do have to try some sculpting again.

I really like the parasitical part. Perhaps worker types have the ability to bite and inject a venom that causes a zombie like state in their prey as well as just tear them appart for food should they wish. The venom effectively reduces them to shamblers that will follow the whim of the queen. So essentially in desperate times they can form a quick and easy block of cannon fodder to throw at the enemy!

[Ajsalium]

This reminds me somewhat of the Dream Catcher novel by Stephen King, in a very good way.

[Bergil]

Interested in huge, minotaur/horse type things?

[Big Boris]

Maybe?

[Isob]

I've unfortunately found out about this competition too late, so I won't manage to finish the sculpt by tomorrow, I'm kinda halfway through. Is there any chance of giving sculptors another couple of weeks if there are more people who are close to finishing?

[steeldragon]

As part of the APAS (Association of Procrastinating Amateur Sculptors) I humbly abide to the plea of a couple more weeks to finish my second sculpt (that almost got me kicked out of APAS three unfinished sculpts is permissible, but ONE already finished... oh, the shame...)

Andres

[justice]

As part of the APAS (Association of Procrastinating Amateur Sculptors) I humbly abide to the plea of a couple more weeks to finish my second sculpt (that almost got me kicked out of APAS three unfinished sculpts is permissible, but ONE already finished... oh, the shame...)

Andres

Seconded....

[grekwood]

As part of the APAS (Association of Procrastinating Amateur Sculptors) I humbly abide to the plea of a couple more weeks to finish my second sculpt (that almost got me kicked out of APAS three unfinished sculpts is permissible, but ONE already finished... oh, the shame...)

Andres

Seconded....

  thirded ..... rough week means my Cmdr Tonsaran is half finished 

[Big Boris]

I've unfortunately found out about this competition too late, so I won't manage to finish the sculpt by tomorrow, I'm kinda halfway through. Is there any chance of giving sculptors another couple of weeks if there are more people who are close to finishing?

On the one hand, I did give several months in the first place and it's a bit unfair on everyone else who has already entered within the given timeframe. On the other hand, I would like more entries. Post a picture of your half-finished entry to prove you can finish it if I give you one more week.

[beefcake]

Is that a post in the WIP section or the Final Entries? (sorry just being pedantic)

[Bergil]

I refuse to post a wip! The sculpt will be finished in a day or two, will post then.

Onward and forward APAS!