The friendly Neurovore familiar to so many is only oneexpression of a much more complex life-form which, over the course of itsexistence, takes on many forms and roles, most so different to each other thatnot all realise the fundamental connection between them.

The Soft-Head is a meta-cephalopodic species which eatsonly fresh brains and other complex nervous tissues. It can either devour thesewith its beak, or invert and extend its stomach like a trochomorphid limb tocover and envelop these materials.

The Soft-Heads stomach is, in-effect, a second brain, possessinga combination of complex digestive milks and an extendible sheath of nerves andcellular-level micro-manipulators. In combination with the secondary brain thatforms a layer of the stomach, the Soft-Head not only digests the meat of thebrain, but absorbs its patterns. The creature absorbs the memories of what iteats.

Soft-Head spawn are essentially Squid-Tadpoles which feedon microfauna and any ambient specks of protein. As they develop, they gain theability to inhabit and parasitise a wide range of bodies; eating the brain,tearing, or cutting off the head, or skull, infiltrating tentacles down thechest to massage the heart back into life and, inverting their stomach tointerface directly with the bodies nervus system and, with advanced creatures, simulatingthe flesh and substance of a hominids head and face with cephalopodic mimicry.

These simulated heads have no bones, apart from abrain-devouring beak, so their heads are soft. The eyes are always a Squidseyes and hair is difficult to fake.

It’s hard for them to talk. Keeping the lungs activewhile also simulating the complex mouth, palette, tongue, throat and breathingapparatus, along with the language and intonation of the living original, is acomplex business, so Soft-Head voices are voices are hesitant, breathy,whispery, sometimes choking or clotted.

Though there are cults of soft-heads that specialise inthe hyper-specialised combination of skill and magic required to actuallysimulate a known person, it’s rare for a Soft-Head to take over a humanoid bodywith the active intention of replacing or pretending to be that person - thatwould be an enormous, almost savant level problem, and while the Soft-Heads dopossess much genius, in most cases this is spent on practical survival. Theytake complex bodies so they may leave the water for long periods and gainaccess to the 'dry world', and to an entirely different, and more complex,range of prey and tactics.

Soft-Head Lives As a very general guide, roughly one in four of Soft-HeadTadpoles survive each stage of Soft-Head evolution and becomeNeurovores, meaning most Neurovore pairings need to produce eight or morespawns over their lifetime in order to maintain the species numbers.

This also means that fully-functional 'Civilised'Neurovores are incredibly rare in comparison to even their more-developedWendigo ascendants, and even more so compared to the more primitive Body-Takersand man-eaters etc

This is why most cultures in the Veins consider the'Neurovore' and their lesser incidents as, in-effect, different species, evenif they have enough knowledge of the Nature to understand that they are onelife-form.

1. Tadpoles. Produced in clouds of a thousand ormore. With ‘Wild’ Soft-heads, these are allowed to swim free in the Veins,feeding on whatever tiny or insect prey they can find. If they can survive inthe wild, the general development cycle goes something like this;

2. Frog-Eater. An insignificant small water-predator.

3. Beast-Eater. Larger and more intelligent,capable of bringing down fish and larger animals if they enter the water, orwith very intelligent cases, if they only come near it.

4. Man-Eater. A Soft-Head capable of huntingorganised prey with a human level of intelligence. Something equivalent to aSquid-Tiger.

?. Body-Taker. At any point in this sequence theSoft-Head may develop its core skill set of destroying or removing the headfrom large prey and replacing it, using its tentacles and inverse stomach tosimulate it. This is a skill, not pure instinct, and must be learned. SomeSoft-Heads develop this ability alone, some see it in in the memories of theirprey, others may see the fear of it by observing the culture of their moreintelligent prey.

5. Wendigo. A Soft-Head capable of fullycommanding the body of a complex hominid and using it to leave the water andpredate on land. This is a creature with the living body of the prey-speciesbut the flesh and eyes of the Soft-Head in place of its head. The Soft-Head isusually not yet capable of complex language and flesh-simulation, yet.Many cultures predated upon by a Wendigo-type do not fully connect it to theearlier or later developments of the Soft-Head lifecycle.

6. Neurovore. A full Neurovore is capable oflanguage and complex thought, more akin to a rare and curious civilised beingthan a beast. In-effect, this is a ‘person’, of sorts.

'Wild' and ‘Domestic’ Soft-Heads The creatures are culturally divided by the nature oftheir raising. Some live wild in the for their whole lifespan, others are‘raised’ in civilised Soft-Head communities, kept in pools and deliberately fedhigh-quality neuro-stuff.

Genius loci A ‘wild’ Soft-Head that never migrates from its originalvolume can develop an almost perfect physical knowledge of their historichunting grounds and of the behaviours, and psychology, of any and all of theirprey species - almost a kind of savage love, as a hunter for their preferred environment, making them likely to become'Emperor' or 'Game Warden' figures of a particular volume.

They can become, in the minds of some, analmost-protective, many-faced Demon-God - leading to the proliferation ofidols, shrines and sacrifices, (much of which are practically irrelevant to theNeurovore, but may be psychologically or spiritually appropriate, since itsselfhood is made up of many memories of the inhabitants of these lands and itwill, to some extent, absorb their values.

The physical and magical abilities of such a 'GeniusLoci' will be amongst the highest of all the typical skills of all thedeveloped creatures of that volume. As skilled in war as its greatest warriors,as subtle as its greatest hunters, as intelligent and wise as its greatestpriests and shaman, as imbued with magical power as the greatest local magiciansit could consume.

Others will only remain ‘wild’ until they gain enoughknowledge and understanding to begin thinking of themselves as something like a'person', after which they often tries seeking out other Soft-Head communitiesand integrating with them.

'Domestic' Soft Heads 'Domestic' Soft-Heads are raised within a Soft-Headcommunity. There is little direct parental interest in young, since all parentsproduce huge clouds, and in many ways the upper echelons of Soft-Head 'society'are totally insane, but a general survival drive leads to a level of care,though with an attitude towards development that would seem absurdly Nietzscheanto most mammals.

While Domestic Soft-Heads are much more likely to survivetheir initial development and growth, and while they grow in complexityquickly, fed on the brains and spines of complex organisms by their society,they are generally considered to be psychologically 'weaker' and more likely tofall prey to late-life personality degradation.

The 'Wild' Soft-Head, while unlikely to survive anddevelop, if they do succeed, has a very long history of the gradualmastery and consumption of ever more complex organisms at their core, makingthem psychologically stronger and less likely to fall prey to the generalised Schizophreniaof late-life Soft-Head development. Their adaptation of more complexpersonalities and memories is more like the popular conception of a ruthlesspredator 'using' the thoughts and memories of its prey as 'masks' in order topredate more ruthlessly.

There is something of a cultural gap between 'Wild' and'Domestics', with 'Wilds' Neurovore fewer in number and considered more 'real'and more 'pure' examples of the species, yet also, by some, less adaptable andless capable of fully understanding alternate points of view.

Cosmopolitan Neurovore A fully developed and socially integrated Neurovre willoften have a staggering range of knowledge and experience from a wildvariety of different hominid and other groups. Fed on the brains of thestrongest, the subtlest and the skilled from youth, such a being would beequivalent to a multi-classed Fighter/Mage/Thief/Artisan/Trader etc.

When considered as skills, there are few thingssuch a Neurovore cannot do, but these skills and memories do not necessarilycohere into a sharper or more coherent self. We might imagine anintelligent but not particularly heroic person with the ability to magically'use' memories, magic, abilities or talents of wide range of dead people, butnot necessarily that impressive on their own, or at their core, being in somesense, a mere shuffler of cards.

Nevertheless, Cosmopolitan Neurovore do tend to be more 'successful'in terms adventurers can understand. Their higher population allows them todevelop specialists, like the classic 'Infiltrator' type, trained and specifiedto use skill and illusory magic to fully replace and simulate the members ofother races. Their more complex and wider ranging interactions with the maineconomies and cultures of the Veins also results in them having many moreresources, and simply in having more interactions with the kinds of thingsAdventurers are interested in.

Economic Position Most ‘Civilised’ veins-polis will have at least oneNeurovore. Though rarely seen directly, their store, or home-front will be thatof a Butcher-Confectioner; flowers, wreathes and bouquets of the finest meatsarranged like cakes. A butcher in the veins is more like a confectioner -prepared protein being so rare and expensive. They are truly artists of meat,meat flowers, meat crowns and spirals, meat-pies etc. (Since they can only eatbrains, and these must be living - Neurovore are one of the few Ethnoculturesof the Veins which regularly have spare meat. )

Their public face will be one or more well-fed, extremelysatisfied and competent high-level slaves, often with the cross-skull circularscar of Neurovore person-surgery. The Master will only reveal themselves forhigh status guests or when their hands-on skills are needed.

While nominally butcher/confectiners, Neurovore perform awide range of distinct services, including; Translating, Appraising, Crafting, Doctoring,Surgery of the Body, Surgery of the Mind

Their Only Currency is Brains The only currency most Neurovor will accept is that ofliving, sentient brains, which almost always means the brains of living slaves,(or you could massively overpay in something like Knotsmen debt-threads orOccultum Coins). There can be a sliding scale for the brains of those withunusual abilities, memories and skills.

Skilled Craftsmen, Translators & Appraisers With an in-depth memory of a huge variety of differentcultures, languages, life-paths and skills, Neurovore are known to sometimes begreat craftsmen, sometimes willing to produce the art or artefacts of anotherrace for payment when that race itself might not. (Some call them great'Fakers', good at producing versions of things, but somehow lacking in theexecution.)

Along with their skill in craft goes a wide knowledge oflanguages and cultures which makes them excellent and trusted translators, anda general wisdom and neutrality that sometimes sees them called in asappraisers or judges.

Surgeons Of The Body Often competent doctors, some Neurovore specialise in Cepahalopodlimb replacements; A semi-lobotomised young Soft-Head, specifically bred, isattached to the end of the lost limb and cultured to adopt the behaviours of theoriginal.

They don't have bones and make bad legs by can be goodarms or hands – though they take some time to learn to use and you need to keepthem hydrated. (They can also develop half-ideas of their own.) They have less structuralsupport or rigidity but more dexterity and options for multi-directionalmovement, good for some fencers, climbing, thieves and magicians - who canlearn voiceless casting by making sigils with their cephalopod-hand.

You can also keep the beak and eyes in for extraawareness, and as a handy tool. The longer the limb is attached the more theuser can sense through its eyes and the more sophisticated its utility.

Surgeons Of The Mind Neurovore Brain-Surgery is much more sophisticated thananything so called in the Bright Lands.

They begin by peeling back the scalp, sawing through theskull, then peeling back the brain-cowl. They then extend their stomachs intothe brain-pan, ‘tasting’ the brain, rolling it in their extendable gut,nibbling and altering.

This can alter memory and selfhood in sophisticated ways- full personality surgery, (though it’s always easier to take things out thanadd them in). They can also sustain complex dream states in imaginary worlds -though these are as much a creation of the subconscious of the target as thatof the surgeon.

There is some chance of infection and the skull will needto be fixed back on top and the skin sewn shut, which leaves marks, unlessextra cosmetic care is taken to disguise this.

Also very occasionally the Neurovore will just eat thebrain, or maybe parts of it - for them it’s like holding food in your mouth,but not chewing or swallowing, while doing complex work. One needs a brain,after all, to recover from Brain Surgery.

Objects and Treasures Neurovore produce a variety of rare and potent philtresand items, often produced from their own milks, or the secretions of theirsmaller kin, or made of complex weaves of magic and neurochemistry.

Blank (The Protagonist Potion). Very expensive and must beingested orally. Blank removes all identity from the drinker but leaveslanguages, skills and abilities intact. The more complex skills you want left -the greater chance of remission. Blank cannot be 'healed' or fixed via magic. Isused by various cultures on their most useful and valuable slaves, or on highstatus targets in court intrigues

Skill PhiltresAlso very extremely expensive (almost as much in effortas actually gaining the skill would be). These philtres combine complexpatterns of understanding and action taken or distilled from living subjects,the core matrix suspended in a concoction that includes micro-soft-heads.

Reading BooksWritten on the finest skin, these works sometimes purportto be ‘ordinary’ books. Woven into their substance are specific mildneurotoxins and milk derivatives, combined with lesser opiates that oozeinvisibly from the book when held by warm hands. The text and images within areeither direct enchantments or, (more expensive), have such works woven intotheir text and seeming. These act to create a book which ‘reads’ its reader,and alters them, sometimes in mild but long-term ways, others in more directways. The book is usually at least slightly addictive. The longer and moresubtle the effect, and the more hidden, the more expensive the book. Sharp andstrong effects cost less, but are much more easily noticed by the reader andare more likely to provoke resistance.

Memory PearlsStrange curls of gold and pearl containing singlethoughts, or even alter-memory selves. More expensive depending on how completea self you want. These are often used by spies or operatives, those involved incomplex intrigues, or as sophisticated torture devices.

Neurovore Psychology - A self-of-selves Psychologically, Soft-Heads are incredibly strange incomparison to most self-aware life, having almost, clusters of personalities,councils of selves, all unified by a coherent predatory instinct and an'othering' of brain-possessing individual life forms that forms the truestructure of Soft-Head society, (such as it is).

Mere baskets of floating identity, minds whose selfhoodsflow like mixing scents, as timeless as ghosts, whom they often resemble inbehaviour, for the Neurovore feed as much upon memories and sentience itself asupon the meat of the brain, and every Neurovore absorbs almost all of theselfhood of whatever it consumes, making them astoundingly, sometimesterrifyingly, powerful and knowledgeable, and also often insane, deeply utterlymad by human standards.

The greatest threat to a Neurovores survival is its ownever-shifting selfhood and its writhing protean memory

As neurovore grow from tadpoles most of heir initialmeals are of simple beings with simple instincts

and do not present a huge problem to the Neurovorescapacity to absorb Selves, but as they grow, they hunger for more complex prey.If they successfully consume them, the neurovore gains the preys knowledge andawareness - making them even more effective at hunting that kind of prey,but this also presents challenges, as more potent and coherent individuals possesspowerful senses of selfhood.

Memory and sentience is not a weight-for-weight matter. Identityorbits around particular experiences, powerful instincts, core philosophies, inherentbeliefs, particular attitudes to the world

and central organising memories. A particularly potentand coherent mind with a deep, strong and capacious worldview, and a powerfuldrive to live, can partially displace the Neurovores 'core' self.

This is rare, and is, to an extent, a 'self-solving'problem, since the Neurovore is still an obligate cerebrovore and will still bedriven to eat brains, and in particular the brains of ever more complexcreatures. These complex brains of powerful creatures, in turn, presenting ahigh likelihood of displacing or fundamentally altering the current Ego.

The Blood Speaks Ultimately, as the Neurovore would say, ‘the blood speaks’.All these powerful fractured creatures remain Neurovore, even if theydon't realise it themselves. They still need to eat brains and they are stillenmeshed in a society of creatures who need to eat brains, and who are notbeloved by others, and this society is their main power and source ofsurvival.

As well as this, the instincts of the older, more nakedlypredatory, personality still swim beneath the surface of whichever superegocurrently thinks it is 'in charge'- putting its own tinge upon the values andworldview of the main soul.

Each new brain consumed creates a new possibility toshuffle the deck of thoughts, shifting the perceived dominance of the currentarray of personalities, giving the original 'pure' Neurovore the chance tore-assert control, a newly introduced personality the chance to take the helm,or a variety of other things to happen.

The Men Who Were Thursday Still there is a level of power and experience whereNeurovore society, such as it is, no longer really works as a coherentracial/species group, as of all those who are very strong, many are nolonger themselves, or they no longer believe themselves to be themselves,and are 'faking it', using the memories stored by their 'old' more-pureNeurovore selves to 'pretend' to be a 'real' Neurovore while they believethemselves to be the reincarnated personality of a prey-thing.

Tn human terms this would be like an Empire being lead bya group of hyper-talented, very powerful schizophrenics, each of which believesthemselves to be some other thing, and is only going along with thegroup on the surface, while following a quite different set of desires anddirectives.

This is a kind of 'Man Who Was Thursday' situation asmuch of Neurovore 'society' half-knows about this already and regards what wewould call the schizophrenia problem as more of an element to be managed than aproblem to be solved. In fact it’s quite useful in a number of ways.