Necromorph

The Necromorphs are an parastic alien species that feature in Dead Space.

History

Necromorphs were a species whose origins were largely unknown though it was known that they derived from deceased organic matter. Their origins were tied to the Black Marker that in turn were created by the small planetoid Brethren Moons who launched the relics across space. Around 2 million years ago, a Red Marker came to land on the world of Tau Volantis where it was discovered by the semi-aquatic native alien inhabitants of the world. From study, they came to learn that the relic offered a means of harvesting energy and they began creating multiple copies of the artefact. It was then that the Markers came to influence the species causing them to worship it as most of the race fell under its thrall. This saw the rise of Necromorphs among the species as the entire alien race sought to create a Convergence Event that would create a new Brethren Moon. However, a faction of the aliens came to resist the Marker's calling and sought to prevent the Convergence where they created a device called the Codex to stop it and linked it with a terraforming machine. Their efforts were only partially successful as they came to stop the Moon from fully forming as the surface of the world suffered a deep freeze leaving it a frozen wasteland. The alien species thus caused their own extinction in the desperate attempt at halting the Necromorph infection with the Brethren Moon in orbit of Tau Volantis remining incomplete and left in a dormant state for millions of years.

In 2214, the Black Marker came to be exhumed on Earth where its existence came to defy mankind's knowledge of science. Similar to prior events, humans came to believe that the relic generated limitless energy that could be exploited. Due to resources being sparse, humanity secretly sought to harness the energy potential of the Marker and began replicating it where they began creating the Red Markers on numerous colonies. During the continued study, the surface of the Markers contained DNA patterns which unknown to the scientists were the codes to the Necromorph infection itself. After the engineering project by the scientists of Aegis 7 created the Red Marker by studying the Black Marker, they discovered the pattern on the surface. The doctors using the information gathered copied and recreated the pattern in order to create a lifeform. The first specimen existed only in a petri dish and was dormant; it did not react to tests that were made upon it and it was believed the project was a failure.

However, when one of the doctors failed to fully decontaminate himself, his dead skin cells fell into te petri dish in the laboratory cntaining the recombinant lifeform. This act immediately activated it and the organism reanimated the dead skin cells. Later, during the stody of the lifeform, two doctors accidently came into contact with it due to mishandling. Thus, they were infected by the infection and placed in a qurantinee dome for observation. It was there that the infection killed the doctors and reanimated them into the first Necromorphs. One doctor was transformed into an Infector strain whilst another became a Leaper. It was the latter of these two that managed to escape into a nearby ventilation shaft and brought about disaster upon the colony.

The Leaper strain was involved in killing a number of the colonists and the freed Infector began the process of spreading the infection and creating more Necromorphs.

Overview

The Necromorph infection was unlike most diseases that were experienced by the Human race as once it passed onto a host it began to mutate the body as well as evolve it at a rate that was faster then any that had been medically classified before. This meant that new subspecies of Necromorphs continually developed at an accelerated rate making classification and study of them difficult to determine. However, certain facts were gleamed such as that the infection could only be spread to the dead with a requirement of no cardiovascular and nervous sytem activity in order for the infection to manifest. It was only then that a human host was transformed into a Necromorph.

After infection, the transformation process occured at an extremely quick rate with it happening over a matter of seconds. This was a particularly violent process and quite disturbing to see for outsiders as the body was reshaped into new twisted form for its new purpose. Its unknown what factors determines what type of Necromorph the host transofmrs into but there was an apparent hierarchy among the species.

Due to the nature of their existence, the Necromorphs were classed as a recombinant lifeform.

Its unknown if the Necromorphs are the creators of the Markers or are in turn created by another race.

The Hive Mind was the guiding intelligence of the Necromorph species.

There were numerous breeds of Necromorphs:

• Slashers : The most common of the Necromorphs which appear to be relatively human compared to the other strains. These organisms walk upright but their bodies have reshaped giving them large bone blades that had extended from their shoulders. Some of these appeared to have been new appendages with the former human hosts arms still remaining attached to the shambling body. However, others were noted to be newly created weapons that were created from the human hosts remains. Regardless of where the bones were made, the Slashers role was singular in the slaughter of hosts in order to create new carriers of the Necromorph infection.
• Lurkers : A disturbing sight and highlights that the infection was not restricted to only adults and capable of spreading to young children at the time of their death. These hosts were a shell of their former selves with tentacles remanting from their stomachs which they used to move about their environment. These were also used by the Lurker to crawl walls and ceilings. When engaged in a fight, the tentacles emerged from the back of the Lurker who flung quills at the tips of the tentacles as targets in order to impale their victims.
• Pregnants : A variation of the Slasher organism though the apparent differences was their bloated stomachs. They carried an unwelcome surprise in their large abdomens which expelled smaller Necromorph mutations that burst out when their host body was ruptured. They were much slower then the Slashers but made up for this with increased toughness which allowed them to take a greater level of damage.
• Brutes : A twisted sight to behold and showed the higher limits of the Necromorph disease. The Brute was perhaps one of the most disturbing of all subspecies and was a combination of multiple hosts that were fused together into a single larger being. It was unknown how many reanimated host bodies were required to create these monstrous beings. They came with a hardened exoskeleton which protected certain parts of their bodies and possessed a great level of strength which they used by charging their enemies and pounding them into submission. This makes them the most powerful of the Necromorphs observed so far but fortunately their numbers are few.
• Exploders : The Exploders were another variant of the Slasher but did not feature the distinctive bone blades that were traditionally used by those subspecies. Instead, their bodies contained a large number of glowing sacs that contained an explosive acidic material which was hazardrous in close quarter engagements. These Necromorphs had their legs fused together into a strange fleshy mass with its body being radically twisted. This, however, made their movements slow though they were still considered dangerous if injured.
• Infectors : One of the sources of the Necromorph infection which was filled by these winged subspecies that served as a carrier of the disease. They only attacked or defended themselves when there were no new hosts to infect. Their wings protruded from the remains of the hosts legs and from the chest with a strange striking weapon present in its neck. This was the stringer that served as a delivery mechanism which was used to infect new potential hosts. Infectors typically did this quickly by swarming and enveloping the corpse until the infection took hold. THis made these Necromorphs a target in rooms where the dead were located as they were capable of creating new strains quickly that would attempt to overrun any surviving crew.

Appearances

• Dead Space:
• Dead Space 2:
• Dead Space 3:

External Link

• Deadspace Wiki Entry
• IGN Entry

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