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Brian Stansell replied to the topic What is the most bizarre creature you have created for your WIP? in the forum Fantasy Writers 4 years ago
Hi Joshua (@storysmith),
Are the other characters (non-Kragvora) human? I would think the lethality of the venom would increase with the dosage. If a small dosage is lethal, then the victim would be dead before the venom had a chance to permeate its circulatory system or infect tissues. There are a variety of factors as far as effects that would depend on the victim. For instance, a small infant may fail swiftly, but a large man, with greater density and muscle mass might linger. Age is a factor, weight is a factor, any comorbidity might be a factor, or even species might be a factor. It can’t be just dosage alone. For instance, did you know that certain animals almost never get rabies (opossums, rabbits, squirrels)? The infection arc may have some generally common symptoms, but there are many factors that might inhibit the effects. Snake bites are an example. Certain poisons might be localized, or some might be transmitted through the bloodstream faster depending on where the victim is bitten, or how fast a tourniquet can be applied to mitigate the amount of poison affecting critical organs.
The human body has amazing defense systems that can mitigate damage. For instance, in a hypothermia situation, the most critical organs, are prioritized for blood flow. The extremities and fingers will suffer frostbite far sooner than the brain or the heart, because the body prioritizes which parts of you are most critical for survival. If the full dose creates a full conversion of the victim, them that conversion process will be most taxing on the organs and physiology of the victim to complete the metamorphosis, so the lower dosages distributed cannot and should not kill off organs in the process. Think of a parasite. If it instantly kills the host, then it cannot feed off of it and gain strength for its own adaptability. So the lower doses cannot be lethal. They should have more subtle effects or weakened impact. Does that make sense?
Low dose should be subtle, perhaps that may be what quietly transfers the victim’s thoughts, while still allowing them the ability to mentally process creatively and according to their ingenuity and expertise without being aware that they are being probed and harvested. This should be a neurological effect, rather than an apparent physiological effect. Medium dosage might cause damage, such as paranoia, or a feeling of lost time or memory. A sensation that something is wrong, but they cannot clearly figure out what it might be, because of brain fog. This would be when the Kragvora might want to get at the desired knowledge quicker and literally be raping the brain of their victim by stealing knowledge and memory. If the desire is to convert the victim into themselves, that process requires mutative energy, so the body cannot die during the process of reforming whatever changes are necessary. It may require the victim to become dormant or comatose to allow the body processes to mutate and not be taxed by any other stressors that would come with the person being aware of what is happening. They would require some means of energy generation, so a part of the metamorphosis stage, may cause them to awaken to ravenous hunger and blind rage, but I would think that would be for full dose.
Does that help?










