Lycanolouse

The Lycanolouse is a creature brought into existence by the Engine of Divine Creation, modeled after a mix of mites and worms.

Lycanolouse live in shallow basins of water within humid environments during their earlier developmental stages, with later stages preferring to hitch rides of other animals, beasts, or even monsters that pass through the waters they grew in. This environment is most common throughout the Fogcatcher Hills, however they can also be found within several parts of the Colinian Highlands and some of the most southern jungles of the Volerian Empire.

A large portion of the body of the Lycanolouse is dense nerve bundles and organs that produce hormones and other signalling chemicals intermingled with a dense vascular system to move these chemicals around efficiently. The dual hearts of the Lycanlouse are each two chambered, and split with one on each side of the body. Once attached to a host, the hearts wither into little more than complicated valves with minimal pushing power.

The lycanlouse's body contains several glands that work to regulate, monitor, and produce hormones that it uses to manipulate the body of its host. They primarily produce various growth hormones that encourage rapid muscle and bone growth, directed mostly at the extremities as well as points along the spine that it uses to create a shell for additional protection. Receptors across the parasite that burrow into the host detect constant changes in Adrenaline and Cortisol, which send signals throughout the louse that modify the strength of the growth hormones that it uses. When Adrenaline and Cortisol reach too high or too low of levels, the growth hormone produced is replaced with hormones that tell the body to rapidly cannibalize it's own muscle and restore it to a near identical state to when the process began. Long term exposure to the growth and reduction of these hormones lead to gradual determinant changes to the host: increasing body hair and muscle, as well as increased stamina.

The growth hormones produced also impact the louse, which once attached only keeps muscles along its own core, creating a pseudo-tail that would attach to its host's tail should they have one. If the host is tail-less, then it creates the appearance of a hairless tail, while those with tails it would attach to and blend into the hair that would grow across its body.

With absorbing nutrients from blood being their food source for later stages of development, the Lycanolouse has what would be perceived as an amazing sense of smell. They can identify trace amounts of blood, sweat, or other body fluids within vast amounts of water and track its location. Lycanolouse also have Electroreception, albeit only at short distances, and use it to find the proper location to latch onto their hosts.

The reproductive cycle of the Lycanolouse is three parted, starting first with the infected host, who after unknowingly moves eggs from the infection site to beneath their fingernails or claws, can spread the eggs into wounds created during their transformation. Those creatures end up being fed off by scavenger birds and animals, who carry the eggs within their intestines. Inside them, as the second stage, those eggs hatch, and develop rapidly due to being able to feed off semi-digested food within the intestines.. After reaching breeding age, the Lycanolouse within the intestines of the scavenger will release chemicals making the host feel thirsty, forcing them toward pools of water where eggs caused from the breeding within them are released. The final stage involves the eggs released within pools of water developing into mites large enough to attach to hosts by feeding on algae and plant matter within those pools until they can find a host to start the cycle anew.

The Wetland Egg stage of Lycanolouse development is characterized by large eggs that cluster together similar to frogspawn. Connected to each other with a sticky slime, they start within the intestines of scavengers and are deposited into water pools before hatching.

The Wetland Stage occurs after the Wetland Egg stage eggs hatch. This stage is characterized by the Lycanolouse being adapted to water environments, and it will rapidly move about ponds, clustering within algae blooms and water mosses to feed. Once large enough, the louse will stray from the blooms into more open water in search of a host to attach too, but will often return quickly in order to feed when a host is not found. In this stage, it appears like a large tick, with flat legs that allow it to swim through the water.

In the Lycanthrope Stage, after finding a host, it attaches to their lower spine (mid to lower back for most Tonallitecameh). It will slowly dig its legs into the hosts skin to prevent it from being detached. The longer it stays attached, the more its appearance shifts to looking similar to a sea louse. As it grows it expands up the spine and eventually across the back of the ribs under the hosts skin, making removal near impossible without harming the host. Lycanolouse, when attached to a host in this stage, attach themselves to the nerves within the spine, allowing them to hijack motor control from their hosts, although they prefer to remain hidden and only do so when the host is unconscious or they and their host are in danger. When in control, they excrete massive amounts of growth hormone into their host, causing changes that most typically associate with Lycanthropy.

The Lycanthrope Egg stage occurs as eggs are produced from the Lycanolouse with a host. Throughout the day, they will cause their host to unconsciously rub their back, knocking loose eggs and carrying them under their fingers or claws. These eggs are incredibly small, only slightly larger than a grain of sand, with a thick protective coating. When under the control of the louse, the eggs will end up deposited within the wounds caused by their elongated fingernails or claws. These eggs eventually end up being consumed by scavengers.

As those eggs are consumed by scavengers, the Intestinal Invader Stage begins. The thicker outer layer of the egg is weakened with the stomach acid and once the lycanolouse inside is ready to hatch, it successfully breaks out into the intestines of its the scavenger. Here it consumes some of the semi-digested food that the scavenger has eaten, growing into a large colony of lycanolouse. Once they reach breeding age and begin breeding, they collectively release chemical signals to tell the host to stay near water, often coming across as extreme thirst.

Lycanolouse can survive off of plant matter, but once introduced to blood from potential hosts their digestive system begins to rapidly degrade and change. This change forces the louse to feed off of blood going forward, and if the louse is unable to latch onto the host they will quickly starve.