Patrick-Leigh User Profile | DeviantArt (original) (raw)

In my flintlock fantasy setting, Chimeras are creatures that have been artificially created by fusing together parts from different creatures into a new, hybrid creature. This is accomplished by using a chaotic substance called the Amalgam. Originally produced by one of the Eldritch Lords (Lovecraftian deities who drove themselves mad - in some cases on purpose - during the Divine War,) the Amalgam is a bizarre fluid that is the proverbial glue that bonds the pieces of different creatures together to form a Chimera. As if this did not make it strange enough, the Amalgam also has mutagenic properties and, most disturbingly of all, is, in fact, alive. The Amalgam appears as a glowing, usually green, slime. However, this slime is a mixture of a toxic liquid and strange microscopic lifeforms, called (for the time being) Amalgamoids. The Amalgamoids are the source of the viscous liquid that serves as their home. If the Amagamoids are removed from the liquid, they die and if the liquid is devoid of Amalgamoids, it evaporates without a trace. This is why the combination of the two is called the Amalgam - both must be present or neither exist for long. When Flesh Weavers (those who create Chimeras) use the Amalgam, they have to use either Arcane Magic or Psionics to manipulate it. Direct contact with the substance is ill-advised, due to its mutagenic nature, but one must still have some sort of mental connection with it in order to control it properly. However this is accomplished, the Flesh Weaver then mixes the Amalgam with the tissue samples he wishes to fuse together into a Chimera. One does not need to know much about how the anatomies of the different creatures work to make a Chimera using the Amalgam. All that is necessary is a clear mental image of the desired shape the Chimera will take. The Amalgam will use this image as the template it should follow. Again, the Amalgam is itself alive, even if it isn't sentient or sapient. Thus, it obeys the instructions of the Flesh Weaver, breaking down the samples and stitching them together to create the Chimera. The Amalgam does not simply glue the pieces of the Chimera together, however. It infuses itself into the Chimera, using the life energy it contains to awaken the dead tissues being assembled into a new creature. The Amalgamoids then bond to the cells of the Chimera, both keeping them alive and being sustained by them. The fluid the Amalgamoids secrete becomes the plasma for the Chimera's blood. (As for the blood cells, those must be including in the components initially, but as long as bone marrow is also present, the Chimera will be able to produce new blood cells of its own.) While the tissues that make up the Chimera would normally reject each other if grafted onto a creature of a different type than them (the way a pigs heart cannot be transplanted into a person, for example,) this is not an issue with Chimeras. They lack immune systems of their own. Anything that would infect the Chimera will either be destroyed by the Amalgam or somehow incorporated into the Chimera's biomass. In addition to fusing tissues together into a new creature, the Amalgam can be used to give a Chimera Arcane or Psionic abilities. This is how some Chimeras have the capacity to breath fire or shoot lightning from their horns. This does increase the difficulty in creating a Chimera, but nobody makes a Chimera for a pet, anyway. They're almost always intended to be living weapons of some kind. A Chimera does require food to survive, and their appetites can be enormous. Additionally, what they need to eat can be hard to predict even by their creators. One Chimera may require wood or gravel in its diet, another may be unable to eat anything other than fungi. It all depends on what the Amalgam needs to sustain the Chimera. There is another reason to create Chimeras other than as weapons - to produce more of the Amalgam. There are few places where the Amalgam can be found independently of a Chimera. These are usually pools located in deep, remote caverns where strange phenomena are commonplace. Finding these pools is difficult enough, but most governments will destroy them once they learn of their existence. However, a Chimera is a breeding ground for the Amalgamoids, so most Flesh Wavers will create special Chimeras specifically for the purpose of having them generate a supply of fresh Amalgam to use for other projects. This is why a Flesh Weaver's laboratory is filled with many small, horrible Chimeras that do nothing but secrete slime for him to collect and use to make other, usually larger, Chimeras. The point is, Chimeras in my flintlock fantasy setting are horrible creatures crafted by twisted minds using an eldritch fluid that will either cause you to grow a third arm or get super-cancer if you ingest it.