Noxanima/ Nox anima (Patreon)

Nox anima/Noxanima:

Terrifying creatures that are a  blight in the Drake galaxy [yes, galaxy, not solar system, galaxy].

Nox anima means in the drake tongue "soulless" or more exactly "those without anima"

What does this mean?

Well, there are numerous examples of the equilibrium of the Drake galaxy being broken, bent or disrupted.

These disruptions take numerous forms:

-Planetary war

-extreme death [population demise]

-extreme birth rate [population boom]

-planetary collapse [climate change]

-inhabited systems' suns going supernova and wiping out billions of life forms

-chaos infection

Let's expand on what this all means, and what exactly the Noxanima are.

As it's known, there is a great cosmic reservoir in the galaxy that contains the Emain denizens. Naturally, drakes aren't the only sentient life in their galaxy, however sentient life is irrelevant to anima recycling.

We know from example, that anima can be split in half when there isn't enough "souls" to go around. This creates a pair of Elskers. Elskers can be anywhere in their galaxy but often, the soul that was split will be given to life forms spawning within the same solar system.

Anima has a fixed SIZE. The anima of an insect cannot be housed in the body of a large sentient life form. Even if anima is split, it's typically larger souls that are split, those of large sentient life or in general, large creatures. There's no way to know whether or not the matter has been dispersed to a drake and a galabu, or a kyon and a drake, or two drakes; and so on. These will be an inherent bonded pair regardless of species, because the two anima halves will "call" to one another, subliminally leading the two halves to each other in the hopes of reuniting as being halved is unnatural and disrupts normal order in the universe.

A noxanima is "created" when there simply isn't enough of that type of anima matter left. "That type" can be ANY type or anima. In the repository [which isn't a physical reality] anima collects from the dead and respawns as new life as it accumulates. Souls are never "waiting" long to be reborn into a new body, and there is a set, hard limit of the quantity of life that can be born at any one time.

Several times in drake history they have disrupted the natural order, either via war, or science. Now that I've laid out the basic ground rules for this corner of the universe, we can discuss the anomaly known as Noxanima.

When a creature is born in this galaxy, it's given anima relevant to its size[adult size, this is all metaphysical so bear with me] at birth. That equates to a total -1 anima of that anima type.

As drakes are a large, sentient life form with a complex genome and brain, they require a large anima [soul]. Anima is NOT how we humans would consider a soul. In human culture it's thought that evil people have evil souls, good people have good souls and animals are all pure, and it's debated [by religious people] whether animals such as dogs or bees even HAVE a soul.

In their universe it's more complex, but also simpler. Drakes have anima, anima gives sentience, it gives life, it is your LIFE FORCE. There is no good, bad, or grey anima. All anima is equal. All anima is a mystic force of life within ALL beings, be it the tiniest biting mites, or the largest whales on oceanic planets.

Here is where it's more complex than the human soul concept, anima is your life force, yes. However, [and this is a massive however] biological acts that lead to procreation will lead to procreation each and every time they are successful. I.e a female kyon in heat is bred by a male. She WILL have pups. However many pups she would have had, she will still have--but if there is a shortage of anima of that type [in this case, general quadruped/canid anima] one, if not more of the pups will be born empty.

In the animal part of the galaxy, this is a scenario that often resolves itself as the recently born or hatched offspring will be aggressive, cruel, and will attack and kill its littermates. The mother kyon will almost always kill the pup, knowing there is something very wrong with him. And this, for the most part, is how Noxanima are dealt with…

When a creature that does not have a parent, and is born alone and can survive on its own; is born without anima, it becomes a danger to all.

As the beast [or drake/humanoid] grows and ages, it leaves a wake of death and destruction behind it. They will and do attack their own species. Animals that are only gentle such as Mijorn will become bloodthirsty killing machines. All Noxanima have a telling feature which is sheer white eyes [sometimes pupils are visible].

When the continental wars on Emain began the death toll was in the millions and rose rapidly, to the billions. This created an influx of anima back to the reservoir that was then recycled into new life.

The problem with this of course, was that the Rift and Veil weren't breeding during their wars, they were too concerned with fighting for land. As there was no fetus to inherit the anima, it was sent elsewhere.

Other nearby solar systems who were having a population boom on their planets, inherited these former drake 'souls' and the drakes who were then being bred in test tubes towards the middle of the war, were lacking in anima.  The most Elskers ever born in Astaris were born during this time, as many anima were split in half to accommodate billions of eggs being hatched [at this time, Veil].

It wasn't until the Chaos war and defeat that the remaining Rift scientists figured out there was a  balance and they had broken the balance. Out of a hundred thousand abyss drakes that were hatched, at least 1 was a Noxanima. This is actually an extremely large amount of Noxanima. The planet had seen few in its millions of years of evolution, and well documented each time, but it was always extremely rare.

Quite luckily, the drakes produced ON Emain who showed this were eliminated immediately and not allowed to grow--this problem continued however, and the newly built colonies on Io and the orbiting space station weren't equipped to handle such a threat.

It's further worsened by the fact you can't "test" for this. Especially not in eggs. The main "test" on young mammalians is opening their eyes to see if they are white; this is entirely worthless on egg born species, of which the vast majority on Io and Emain and even Qothos the water planet, are.

Another issue with Noxanima is a general numbness to environmental stimuli. It took the drakes quite a while to find a way to neutralize them without the use of violence--chemical sleep aids are typically the way to go as they will cause the body to simply flop over in sleep. Violence does NOT work though.

Noxanima cannot feel. That is, they cannot feel anything. Physically.

Imagine humans on bathsalts and crack, then realize how many police officers it takes to take down someone on these drugs. The reason? The drugs numb the pain, they numb everything. A person high on crack will bleed out from gunshot wounds while still fighting back until they actually lose enough blood they die/pass out.

That's a Noxanima. They can't feel pain, or the wind on their back, they don't feel suffering or sadness either. The lack of feeling translates to both flesh and mind. If you have a 6 ton animal that is a Noxanima, no amount of shooting it will stop it from rampaging and killing as much as it can. Practically the only way to disable them is with chemical inhibitors such as sleep gas. While they are a monstrosity of hell, they are still a biological life form. As a biological life form, they have biological needs to sleep, eat and shit [of course.]

That's the only reason sleeping gasses work on them. Biologically, it is absorbed through inhalation and instantly into the alveoli in the lungs and from there it enters the blood stream where it attaches to nerves and numbs them with the end result being in under 5 minutes, sleep.

At that point, they are shot in the head, severing the brain stem.

Historically, Noxanima have appeared in Rift drake history over a million years back where some had been noted to topple small cities, stomp primitive huts into the ground, and kill thousands of prehistoric Rift drake hunters; yet, they are so incredibly rare usually, that even in the modern times, most colonies and formerly [cities] on Emain, didn't keep the required toxins to thwart a rogue creature from stomping the town back into the dirt.

Since the Chaos war, and well into the modern day, Noxanima are still being born. On Io, on Qothos, even on space stations where they are really not equipped to handle a psychotic murder monster. Because Emain is actively still in a state of death and dying the anima is still not balanced. It will likely not be balanced for a very long time, not until all life on Emain has finally died and not until the re-population of the Abyss Drake species settles to a normal level.

In the meantime, Noxanima are far more prevalent than they should be. Not just in drakes, but in all animals of all sizes. If somewhere else in the galaxy there is another massive war or another population boom, it will only increase the amount of Elsker and Noxanima.

Modern drakes are very aware of their place in the universe and their affect on it. One of the reason why pesticides are used less, and deterrents are preferred, is so drakes don't accidentally disrupt the balance of life further. Noxanima insects are the worst to deal with because they are fast, often armored, and insects are naturally without a conscience, so they are QUITE A PROBLEM.

Many drakes have died to Noxanima, and many more will continue to die to them. Rika is an example of a drake who has survived a 1 on 1 conflict with a Noxanima. Her throat was nearly torn out and she lost her ability to speak but she ultimately survived [only to become aberrant].