Apocalyptic Bestiary & Atlas

The Corpse Orchid is moving plant that not only requires water and sunlight, but also blood to survive. It has a large sallow coloured flower and it's petals from certain angles appear as a human skull, hence it's name. The flower is odorless and in fact it drives away insects, which is why certain people kept the plants around, but as they learned more about their nature they were soon destroyed.

The body of the Corpse Head is a mass of roots, like a basket, holding moist earth to sustain it and sprouting it from it are broad shiny leaves and a single large flower. It also sprouts from his it's core, four to six large stump-like roots which the plant can move through a series of simple contractions of sinewy fibrous muscles. These make-shift legs will keep the plant in constant motion until it stumbles across what it needs to propagate, which is blood and the corpse of a sizable animal (they have no effect on the living), no smaller than a medium sized dog.

In nature the odds of one these plants coming across a fresh body is very unlikely and so the plant has adapted to utilizing the remains of corpse that can be up to it's fourth week of decomposition (in a temperate zone). The flower will climb atop the remains, and over a course of ten to twelve weeks it will work it's roots into the body and began it's metamorphoses. First the entire genetic make up of the body is transformed from animal to plant, then with the nutrients provided by photosynthesis and the remaining fluids of the body the reconstruction of the organism begins. By adopting the genetic information of it's host, the plant reconstructs a primitive brain in the creatures cranium and connects it to the spinal column and appendages with a plant equivalent of a rudimentary nervous system. Muscles are replaced by layers of plant fibers with an elasticity to them and any skeletal or epidermal damage is replaced by thick fibrous layers just like tree bark, soft at pliable at first and eventually hardening to a stiff carapace. The spawn of the Corpse Orchid will even develop eyes, which are jelly like sacks of an amber coloured fluid in them that can relay pictures back to the brain, allowing the creature to negotiate uneven surfaces and react to barriers.



The Corpse Head flower, will change from pale yellow, to blood red and finally to black through the change, then it will die and the Spawn of the plant will live on. It is completely unintelligent, guided only by instincts, which are to seek water, partial sunlight and blood which will allow it to produce more Corpse Head Orchids and perpetuate the cycle. The new orchids are reproduced with the body of the vessel, then it will be slowly forced up through the throat and the flower will bloom from the mouth. Eventually the orchid works its way out of the creature and falls to the ground to seek other bodies and during this time the spawn remains stationary to ensure the plants survival.

Depending upon the age of the body that is transformed by the Corpse the life span and fluidity of the movement possessed by these creatures will vary. As time progresses, the animated corpse will begin develop more bark across it's body and eventually it will become so rigid that movement will become impossible. It's eyes will also begin to harden, and so the time that it will be able to utilize it's vision is limited, unless it receives enough blood to sustain it's biological nature but without it the creature will eventually harden and become not unlike a tree and die within a years time.

The creatures, though unintelligent by human standards have the instinct to search for blood, and know that it can be acquired by preying on animals. A spawn of the Corpse Head Orchid can sustain it's life for a century so long as it receives enough water, sunlight and blood, but the longer it lives the more infrequently it produces new orchids. Eventually these things stagnate and even if they are receiving enough nutrients they will still eventually harden to the point that they will cease to move.

Should an animal receive multiple bite wounds and lose enough blood, the toxic spores of these creatures could get into its blood stream and began to slowly poison it. Often a creature will not die from exposure to the toxin, but can become ill for several days with flu-like symptoms. If they are already in a weakened state they could then succumb to a loss of appetite, vomiting and dehydration.

Many people attempt to cultivate the Corpse Head Orchid to produce undead creatures to utilize as guards, but they cannot be trained and so they are often only good to be chained up and used like a watch dog to discourage trespassers.

Corpse Head Orchid Spawn, thrive in swamps and because they have a foul taste are generally left alone and not attacked by other creatures. Despite their appearances and thin arms they are quite strong and will attack by biting or clawing an individual with their hard wooden nails. They do not feel pain, but will react to fire as they have an instinct to avoid it.

Looking beyond the trailer, toward the setting sun he spotted several creatures darting about with impressive speed. They were half the size of the average Human male, and moved like monkeys, using their four elongated arms to assist in their hunched over locomotion...

As they quickly scurried around the rocks, the four front legs of the creatures clicked as they struck the hard surface, indicating that they were covered in a hard carapace. The creature, if it were erect would have stood approximately six feet tall, but it's hard shelled back was crooked with horned bony ridge down it's center. It had four large armored arms, and two almost useless lower legs that trailed behind as it moved in a crab-like style through the narrow rock passageways. It's small spider like head, encrusted with several glistening black eyes, swiveled around and as it's maw flexed and relaxed while a sickening slime trailed from the pointed mandibles.

The creatures were some form of mutated crabs and would not respond to a display of force as a mammal would. Their vision and smell were probably accurate at short range only.