Jungle Swarms

The ruins, deserts and primordial jungles of Lustria crawl with all manner of life forms, most of which have never been seen outside of their home continent. Although small in size when compared to the apex predators — the thundering reptilian titans that crash through the underbrush - in many ways they are no less deadly. To catch prey and defend themselves in this perilous environment, many of these creatures are highly venomous.

Every step an invader takes is potentially his last. While hacking a path through the dense foliage, it is all too easy to step within range of a coiled serpent, to tread upon a camouflaged tiguana or to walk unawares beneath a hanging vypervine. Scuttling huntipedes, spine-encrusted hyenadons or the blue-ringed asp have venom that can kill a man-sized victim before he can stagger more than a few steps. In other, more hospitable lands, finding such miniscule menaces in his boots or crawling upon his bedroll is a mere inconvenience for a traveller. In Lustria, however, it is likely the last thing he will see, as the creature’s bite or sting sends him into twitching paralysis or heart-bursting fits of agony.

When threatened by invaders or when amassing an army to march on distant lands, a Skink Priest will call unto himself one of the jungle swarms. What crawls, creeps and slithers forth is mind-boggling for warmbloods to behold — a living carpet of creatures that moves in a writhing mass. In battle, they wash around the legs of a foe in a wave, hissing, spitting and plunging sharp fangs into unprotected flesh. The smallest of their kind can slip between even the slightest crack or arm oured joint to deliver a mortal sting. Those who scream out in pain find even their open mouths are targeted by the swarm. Only the boldest of foes will dare wade through such a sea of venomous creatures.

Serpents play a large role in these great swarms, and more of their slithering kind can be found in Lustria than anywhere else in the world. There are a multitude of immense specimens, such as the great Amaxon swamp python — a constricting predator that could wrap itself around a Bretonnian sailing galleon and splinter its hull. Far more common, however, are smaller serpents — endless varieties of vipers, ridgebacks, hooded bloodcobras and more. There are parasitic snakes that inject smaller serpents into their prey’s bloodstream, and those that die from such twitching horrors suffer a particularly gruesome fate. The borer snakes will tunnel red holes into their quarry, only biting once they are inside their victim. There are electric snakes, whiplash serpents and vipers whose bite is so lethal that it causes blood to boil and brains to melt. Even the largest creatures of Lustria watch where they tread.

When Skink Priests invoke the favour of Sotek, calling to his children with blood offerings, snakes appear as if by magic — arriving in the same numbers in which they accept sacrifices in the snake pits found in the heart of every one of Sotek’s temples. They seem to writhe straight up from the depths below, wriggling to do the Skink’s bidding. Through these sacrifices, the Skink Priests are given dominion over the serpents, and through them Sotek’s will is channelled. So might the rightful vengeance of the Serpent God be exacted upon the evils of the world.