Uatehept

Uatehept Information

Uatehept (wah-tA-hep) are simbiotic parasites that resemble millipedes which infest the body by boring under the skin as larva. They multiply rapidly and an infestation of only a few can become hundreds, even thousands over a period of time. These parasites cause their hosts to mimic immortality. Uatehept infest the body to live between the fat layers and the muscle beneath the skin, where they lay their eggs as well. These simbiotic parasites are almost microscopic when they are larva, and enter the body of hosts whose skin is submerged in the stagnant desert pools the larva inhabit. These millipede-like parasites have a short cycle of growth, reproduction, and death, which occurs over a two week period. As they grow and die off, their carapices are shed and dissolve in the blood stream to halt the aging (but not the growth) process of the host by regenerating cells even before they can be damaged. Those infested by these parasites do not age while infested, but those still maturing will grow.

Simbiotic Regeneration: These parasites also heal wounds as blood exposed to higher than normal levels of oxygen attract the parasites, causing them to team all over and around internal or external wounds by the hundreds, and feast on the dead skin and blood to cleanse the wound, while their clear, sticky saliva covers damaged flesh and organs to heal them very rapidly. This process is very painful and feels extremely strange however, as the infestion moves beneath the skin to reach the injuries, which it covers very rapidly as they pour out from between the skin and muscle where it is rent. The Uatehept otherwise feed gradually off of the capallaries in the muscle. When living in and around stagnant desert pools, Uatehept feed on insects and small animals.

Infestation Conditions: The only way one can be infested with Uatehept is for the larva to bore under the skin. The adults can bore into the skin, but only do so when the are threatened or when trying to reach a wound they cannot get to from beneath the skin. This insures that their host survives so that they can also survive. The only way one person can infest another with Uatehept is for an infested person's wound to contact the wound of another.

Such infestations are rare because there is only a 20% chance that Uatehept are inhabiting a stagnant pool; and only a 10% chance that these infestations will even accept a host, while the other 90% reject the host before multiplying. No-one knows exactly what conditions or body chemistry impel these parasites to accept a host. (GM can approve infestations for new characters).

Size: These parasitic millipedes start out the size of mites but reach a length of five inches within two weeks before their cycle ends. They can flatten their bodies to a thickness of 1mm even at maximum growth.

Location:  stagnant desert pools near desert shores and oases, or beneath the skin of hosts. If one or more egg bearing Uatehept drop from a wound onto the ground, they will seek a warm pool of stagnant water to lay their eggs in. If they are in a cold climate, they will die in a few hours. They need a warm, moist, environment to survive.