Purple Slime (World Guide, Exoscience) (Patreon)

Purple Slime

Purple slime is a naturally occurring trans-dimensional substance believed to have been first discovered by a civilization predating the extinct Key'vin'ta Empire by several millennia. In its base state, it appears as a vividly purple octahedron crystal of remarkable clarity. As a result, it is often mistaken for purple fluorite, though its greater degree of hardness can help distinguish it from that relatively inert mineral. Also, and quite unlike fluorite, purple slime crystals are trans-dimensional objects, having additional structure that crosses between normal space-time and higher order space.

When purple slime crystals are placed into close proximity to a flow of trans-dimensional energy, they become energized. Low levels of energy flow, for example, those generated by a sapient mind, will cause the crystals to glow. Higher levels of energy flow will cause the crystals to become opaque and melt into a thick, viscous slime that is both highly hazardous to sapient life forms, and in sufficient quantities, seems to have a mind of its own.

Even the tiniest quantity of activated purple slime will flow into, and slowly subsume the body of any sapient life form it comes into contact with. This includes organic, mineral, and even technological beings. It takes exactly forty-two minutes for any sapient life form to be fully converted into purple slime. During the first fifteen minutes, the slime seems to spread out and cover the victim's surface. During the next fourteen minutes, the victim's shape shrinks and looses its detail features. During the final thirteen minutes, the victim melts into a puddle. This final process concludes with the victim's soul being yanked across the dimensional boundary, producing a brief, yet intense trans-dimensional energy flow.

Larger quantities of purple slime behave like voracious monsters, lashing out with tentacles to grab nearby sapient lifeforms. Those unfortunate enough to be snared are pulled in and embedded in the surface of the mass. Once this is done, their subsumption occurs normally as noted above.

Exactly where souls go when they've been disposed of by purple slime is unknown. It is generally believed that they do not return to their native higher order dimension, but instead find their way to some other quasi-physical realm. According to the mythology of the Key'vin'ta, that realm is the Nine Heavenly Hells, where slime snared souls supposedly serve among the many sources of pleasure which are enjoyed by those deceased souls who've chosen the Heavenly Hells are their final, eternal home.

The Key'vin'ta mainly used purple slime as a means of acquiring the necessary trans-dimensional energy flows to power the portals they used to travel between, and conquer, other planets. Their primary source of the substance seems to have been a predecessor civilization which left large quantities of the substance behind as a result of their experiments. It is suspected that those experiments, like those of the later Key'vin'ta, led to that civilization's extinction.

Other Key'vin'ta uses were largely ritual in nature. Priests and priestesses were known to have staves surmounted by large purple slime crystals. Numerous melted-reformed 'ampules' of purple slime have been found in temple ruins, and fragmentary records indicate these were intended to be taken into the body in one fashion or another for some sort of ritual purpose which likely involved the risk of activation, though not a guarantee.

The majority of the world's current supply of purple slime sits in the ancient temples and temple ruins which can be found all over the remains of the Key'vin'ta Empire. There, it all sits largely inert, its potentially hazardous nature known only to academia. No modern effort has been made to utilize it for any purpose, though it has been noted that the far safer, synthetic substance known as biogel shares many of its properties.

Biogel can be brought to its own activated state by proximity to activated purple slime. This presents certain risks to the biogel wearer, including the potential for melting into liquid biogel. Should purple slime come into contact with biogel, the biogel instantly becomes purple slime, as is the case with many other trans-dimensionally acting substances.

Purple slime crystals can be acquired for a heft sum of ¢200,000or more depending on the crystal size. These invariably come encased with a solid coating intended to prevent physical contact with the slime, should it become unexpectedly activated.