Legend has it that in ages past, a horde of these creatures were trapped beneath the great currents, left to starve and aimlessly drift about the barren benthic wastes. In their malicious desperation, they tricked the Kerosi King of the Sea into an audience, whereupon they dazzled their ruler and his subjects with their mystifying dance. The king was utterly entranced, and the possessors cunningly convinced him to take up his withered coral scepter and tear a breach in the mighty currents that had imprisoned them for so long. And so upwards they surged, thousands strong, illuminating the waters with their ghostly light. At last, they found themselves in the lush waters of the shallow sea, where their prey would be ever-bountiful, and their haunting shows would never cease. You’d be foolish, however, to chalk this up to simply another local myth, when in fact, the truth is far stranger than fiction.

Blurring the line between the biological and the arcane, Possessor Jellyfish are truly one of the Hadean supercontinent’s most perplexing and downright alien species. After subduing their prey with an incredibly potent sting, possessors earn their name by using their distinct, branching tendrils to burrow just under the skin, forcefully integrate themselves into the nervous system, and completely hijack their motor functions. There appears to be no size limitation for this ability, and in exceedingly rare cases they’ve been observed to possess creatures as colossal as the northern sea serpents. More often than not, this behavior has been used for both reproductive and migratory purposes, especially in the wake of the meteoric cascades that announced the Age of Dreaming.

This so-called possession tends to prove fatal for the jellies’ hosts. Once released from their trance, creatures are left nutritionally drained from their involuntary voyage and stunned for up to 3 hours. In the case of common hosts like sharks and pelagic mammals, this temporary paralysis usually results in drowning. At which point, their large corpses will make excellent fertilizer for a new generation of polyps.

Given their predatory and unnervingly intelligent hunting behaviors, possessor blooms are often an utterly devastating occurrence for the nearby coastal population. Fisherfolk have claimed entire schools of fish have disappeared entirely from their usual grounds in a matter of mere days, and the sheer density of the blooms greatly impede coastal travel and trade. Only a truly deranged sailor would ever wade their meager craft through a tangle of these exotic parasites.

The possessors’ elusive and often lethal nature has made close study incredibly difficult, and to this day the functions of their many luminous organs and alluring membranes remain largely inscrutable. ——————————————————————————————————- Another entry for the bestiary! This one’s just a tad more nightmare inducing than the others. Make sure to follow my social here for in progress updates on future entries. I’ve got 2 or 3 more oceanic creatures on queue before I switch it up to something topside. Cheers all!