The Parasitic Doctrine / The Symbiota Mireborn

The Parasitic Doctrine — @Balgabog’s Living Power System

> “They whisper beneath the mire. They don’t bite you — they become you.”

Overview

In the drowned wilds of @Balgabog power is not granted — it infects. The swamps are home to the Symbiota Mireborn, a labyrinthine network of parasitic organisms that twist the boundaries of life and decay. They are not one species, but an evolving ecosystem of worms, spores, slimes, and neural barnacles that invade any living vessel they find.

Each parasite’s only true goal is to survive and multiply. To do so, they consume, replace, or modify their host’s flesh and instincts. The mutations they cause often appear as blessings: heightened strength, rapid healing, or unnatural senses. In truth, these are byproducts of the parasite’s adaptation, not gifts. A parasite that strengthens muscle does so to anchor itself; one that grants keen senses merely extends its own perception through the host.

Infection Process

1. Contact: Drawn to warmth, motion, and spiritual essence, the Mireborn attach through stagnant water, spores, or touch.

2. Infiltration: They seek entry through wounds, lungs, or magical conduits — anywhere life’s energy flows.

3. Assimilation: The host’s resistance triggers secretion of neural ichor, a mutagenic fluid that reprograms flesh and nerve alike.

4. Integration: As the body adjusts, the host experiences a deceptive harmony — new abilities bloom while autonomy begins to fade.

5. Dominion or Harmony: Some hosts retain control; others are consumed. The rarest fusions achieve perfect equilibrium, birthing entities known as Mire Lords, the apex of parasitic evolution.

Principles of Power

In @Balgabog, power and infection are indistinguishable. The deeper a host surrenders to the parasite’s influence — its instincts, hungers, and alien will — the more potent the transformation becomes. Resisting weakens the bond, while acceptance reshapes the host into something new and often monstrous.

Each strain of the Mireborn embodies a theme of survival: predation, mimicry, hunger, growth, decay, camouflage, or obsession. A host overtaken by one becomes an echo of that principle — a living extension of the swamp’s will.

To the uninitiated, the Parasitic Doctrine seems a curse. To those desperate or devout enough to endure it, it is the closest thing @Balgabog has to divinity:

a god made of flesh, fear, and adaptation.

(Refer to the Parasite Bestiary lore entry for examples)