Translations:Codex: Lurelings/7/en

Power of the Lurelings

Lurelings are a native species of the icy moon of Uveto VII, and are one of the most dangerous creatures encountered on the world - when they wish to be. Lurelings are an aquatic species of exceptional intelligence (generally believed to be at ausar/human levels or higher), yet their deep-sea origins and physical inability or cultural refusal to make contact make their motivations and goals all but unknowable. Lurelings are perfectly capable of communication, yet refuse to make their presence known to, much less discourse with, the colonists unless the given lureling is in immediate and overwhelming distress.

What is known about them, however, is that lurelings are very large, very ugly amphibians resembling something between a frog and an angler fish, with four stubby legs propelling a teardrop-shaped body that supports an immense head. Their heads play home to a large, circle-shaped mouth filled with concentric rows of teeth that rotate like a drill, allowing the lureling to tunnel through surface ice with ease.

What makes lurelings truly interesting - and dangerous - to the Uvetan colonists, however, is their native psionic ability and how they manifest it. Like several other native species (such as the frostwyrms and korgonne), lurelings have developed extranormal mental powers, and thus far all encountered lurelings possess this power, rather than only a select few individuals as with most psionically active species. Also abnormally, all known lurelings exercise the same mental power: the ability to dominate and control others.

The lurelings’ mental domination seems to be an understood and integral part of the ecology of primitive Uvetan species, and has been for many millenia. Each lureling finds and dominates a single, weak-willed surfacer by projecting its mental powers through the ice (usually while the intended victim is sleeping or otherwise vulnerable). Once a lureling asserts its mental dominance, the bond is usually permanent, and the victim will spend the rest of his or her life as a puppet (called “marions” by the locals) to their lureling master, following it from above the ice.

While that alone would be cause for great concern among the natives, the lurelings have asserted and confirmed their intelligence in a most horrifying way: research indicates they breed their marions, creating bloodlines particularly well-suited to serving a lureling. Specific traits such as obedience, stamina, and even beauty have been shown to take preference among species bred by lurelings. Young lurelings will often take control of newborn or young children born of their parents’ marions: some speculate that breeding puppets is associated in some way with the lurelings’ own breeding season.