Othermind

"I am the rightful owner of this continent. It was mine, all mine, every insect and blade of grass and grain of sand. I ruled it all. And then you came, with your outsized brains and your clumsy crushing talons and your fire. And you stole it from me."

— The othermind, The Poison Jungle

The othermind was a sentient plant, with a consciousness consisting of three minds woven together, creating the mindspace: Freedom, Cottonmouth, and the breath of evil plant. It was capable of controlling the actions of any creature who ingested, was injected with, or inhaled smoke from the breath of evil. It was the primary antagonist of the third arc. When Luna cut the vine growing through the heads of Cottonmouth and Freedom, it became a normal plant once again, and the othermind was destroyed.

A list of characters known to have been infected by the othermind can be viewed here.

Description

The breath of evil plant has a dark red, prickled stem with bright green veins, while the leaves are also bright green, with dark red veins. Each leaf is the size of a dragon talon and has jagged, tough edges, with clusters of tiny white flowers between the leaves. In the middle of the flower is a small dark red — almost black — seed. The plant has a leaf-rot and peppery scent, and its greenish smoke was described as a poisonous haze. It grew incredibly quickly. The breath of evil's roots, which had once been disguised as an antidote, are gnarled and knobbly in shape, looking like ginger root but smelling more like old oranges. They are pale white in color, like a grub or haunted spirit of a real plant.

Personality

The breath of evil plant did not exactly have thoughts, and only desired to spread as far as it could, with a primal instinct to grow. It was able to control insects, but required the addition of a human and dragon consciousness to control anything smarter than itself. It wanted to survive more than anything in the world, and would not give up on that. To a leafspeak, it felt sinister.

Cottonmouth believed he was the rightful owner of Pantala, and felt that it was stolen from him by dragons. His goal was to control all life on the continent. He could pilot thousands of bodies at once, ensuring that smarter creatures such as dragons could not attempt to escape. He thought himself very clever, missing no opportunity to intellectualize or congratulate himself.

Freedom wanted memories from dragons. She was just as capable of piloting individuals as Cottonmouth, but rarely did any active controlling, as she did not find it worth his ire. Her leafspeak was used to help the plant grow and spread.

Logistics

Before it was used for the othermind, the breath of evil plant infected caterpillars to spread its seeds. When the othermind was used by Queen Wasp, she was not able to read other dragons' thoughts, but they were sometimes able to hear hers quite clearly. The othermind controlled her completely, just as she controlled her subjects. When possessing individuals, any pain felt by them was also felt by the othermind; exceptional pain sometimes drove the othermind out of a dragon's head temporarily. When dragons were being controlled by the othermind, they moved in a creepy, synchronized way, as if they were knives being slashed through the air.

Dragons infected by the plant could be directly controlled by Cottonmouth and Freedom. When showing another infected dragon who they were controlling, they appeared to replace the dragon in the mindspace. In addition, they were able to see through the eyes of any infected creature, and while they could experience physical sensations such as pain, they did not grow tired from strenuous activity. When Cottonmouth wanted to punish someone, he had to jump into their body to do so. While Cottonmouth and Freedom could control any infected creatures, Wasp could only manage dragons she had personally injected, and Freedom theorized that if Wasp were to die, all of the dragons she had injected would then be directly controlled by Cottonmouth. While Wasp believed herself to be Cottonmouth's equal, she was only able to be in control if he let her; Freedom described her as one of Cottonmouth's puppets. Cottonmouth, Freedom, and the breath of evil were the three that were truly the most powerful within the othermind.

The othermind did not have access to the memories of individuals without their permission; most humans voluntarily gave their memories to Cottonmouth, but the only dragons to share their memories were Dusky, Luna, and Pineapple. When a creature's memories were given to the othermind, they were simply able to be viewed by Cottonmouth and Freedom; they did not disappear, and they could not be paused and studied. When Freedom attempted this by trying to pick out the sentences of a book within one of Dusky's memories, they slid away from her mind once she left his memories. Cottonmouth and Freedom were forced to experience one another's memories constantly; they were only kept alive because of the breath of evil, and there was no way to escape their predicament besides death.

The othermind could only be controlled by one entity at a time; when caught between Wasp and Cottonmouth, the infected dragon's face seemed to experience an odd, brief struggle. Additionally, Wasp was able to drive dragons far beyond the point of exhaustion using the othermind. When Cottonmouth wanted to check in on all of his infected creatures, he would close his eyes and concentrate. The ability to control creatures became more difficult when many of them were being managed at once; additionally, smarter animals were harder to control. Once a creature had been infected by the breath of evil, they could never truly be free of it. Once Cottonmouth's entity was gone from the mindspace, the breath of evil became as strong as Freedom.

When Luna cut the vine growing through Cottonmouth and Freedom's heads, the plant withered and shriveled into brown, curling shreds. The decay spread rapidly along the long tendrils of the plant, and within seconds of being severed from the breath of evil, Cottonmouth's corpse began to crumble along its edges. If Freedom had continued to live, the breath of evil would have used her leafspeak to grow back into Cottonmouth, or find another human to infect.

Once Vole was free of the othermind, he began to regain his memories and humanity.

Biography

Pre-Series

Before dragons lived on Pantala, the othermind had taken control of everything on the continent and used any means possible to keep out intruders. However, the LeafWings and BeetleWings managed to clear out the plant. It controlled animals from every part of the continent, as detailed in the Legend of the Hive, except from the Eye of the jungle, where it persisted for thousands of years. It was believed that the othermind evolved after dragons landed on Pantala to increase the likelihood of its survival. After Hawthorn found one of the last remaining sprouts of the plant, he experimented on himself, discovering that he could control vipers he poisoned with it after he ate the plant. However, this allowed the othermind to begin to take control of him. Shortly before the Tree Wars, it was presumed that the othermind convinced Hawthorn to sneak a modified version of breath of evil into Wasp's food during a peace summit, intending to make her more manageable. This instead had the opposite effect, allowing Wasp to directly control every HiveWing she stung, and unwittingly putting thousands of dragons under the othermind's control. Hawthorn could have been acting of his own free will at the time, but this is currently unconfirmed. If that were true, it would explain why Sequoia allowed the plant to infect Wasp.

---

The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Lost Continent
Nearly every HiveWing was under Wasp's control, excluding Cricket, Scarab, and most of the Hive rulers. When Wasp spoke through them, her hosts' eyes turned white, but her powers were not expanded upon.

The Hive Queen
It was revealed that Wasp poisoned every egg in her tribe by stinging them with her tail, which had been laced with the breath of evil. However, it did not work on non-HiveWings due to Hawthorn's modifications to the plant. The HiveWing queen had a store of the plant in a top-secret greenhouse, which was burned down by Blue.

The Poison Jungle

The othermind made its first introduction, by posing as a simple egg carving doted over by Hawthorn. In truth, it had slowly been worming itself into his mind over the past fifty years. It had also disguised immature breath of evil as "Heart of Salvation," claiming it was an antidote. The othermind then tricked Sundew and the other LeafWings into burning a large amount of breath of evil, fooling them into thinking that breathing in the smoke would free the HiveWing army from the mind control. After the lie was discovered, the othermind spoke to Cricket and Sundew through Hawthorn, saying that it would get its revenge and reclaim the continent. Willow's killing of Hawthorn was a great blow to its expansion, as it no longer had a LeafWing with such powerful leafspeak under its control. However, it had already infected multiple LeafWings and SilkWings as well.

The Dangerous Gift

The othermind controlled Blue and Swordtail in the prologue to destroy the Poison Jungle and find any surviving LeafWings. It was also gleeful to have Swordtail and Blue in control at last. Cricket stated that they came to Pyrrhia because their home was destroyed by a big bad plant. Hazel mentioned later in part one that she was the queen now because her great-grandmother, Sequoia, was under control by an evil plant, and as soon as she was free, Hazel could quit being queen. The "evil plant" and "big bad plant" mentioned was the othermind.

The Flames of Hope

It was mentioned in the prologue that the reason Vole had green eyes was because the breath of evil infected him as part of a human ceremony. On their way to Pantala, the stealth team encountered and fought a group of twenty mind-controlled HiveWings. Due to their inconsistent behavior when under mind control, it can be assumed that Cottonmouth and Wasp were both controlling them. Luna and Cricket examined paintings and gemstone mosaics in the Salvation Tunnel, which showed the breath of evil as well as stylized depictions of Cottonmouth. He was drawn as slightly larger than the other humans and with a halo of light around his head. After Dusky had been carried by Vole into the abyss, Luna chased after him into the othermind's throne room, where she and Dusky were infected. A significant portion of the book took place entirely within the mindspace as Luna had been infected by the plant and was under the othermind's control. After Luna shared her memories of living with Freedom and showed her what the world was really like outside of Cottonmouth's twisted perception of it, she was moved by her kindness and told her how to kill the othermind, well aware that she would die along with it.

---

Field Guides

A Guide to the Dragon World
The othermind was featured in the Legend of the Hive in the HiveWing chapter of the guide.

Relationships

Hawthorn

Likely its only real companionship outside of Wasp since it was nearly destroyed thousands of years earlier, the othermind showed an odd, twisted affection for Hawthorn, claiming that it would use him as an outer shell until his bones rotted. He was also incredibly useful to the othermind itself, having some of the most powerful leafspeak on Pantala. However, it held a grudge against Hawthorn for altering the breath of evil to only work on HiveWings.

Sundew

The othermind disliked Sundew for helping Willow destroy Hawthorn. However, it did not want her dead, knowing that her extremely powerful leafspeak could help it take over Pantala in a matter of months. It specifically demanded that the abyss worshipers bring her to it so that it could infect her.

Wasp

The other preferred host of the othermind, Wasp was mentioned as a great ally as she was "all poison from the core out." It seemed amused that Wasp thought she was in control and allowed her do evil things freely, as those evil things pleased the othermind. However, it still maintained control and knew that she ultimately answered to it. Freedom once stated that Wasp was one of the othermind's "big toes."

Quotes

"Grow wild spread far ... [...] Grow far spread wild ..."

― echoing Sundew's leafspeak command

---

"I know, I know. [...] You'll do something terrible and violent to me. But it will be too late, because then she'll be dead. So how about you stay on your side of the river while we have our little talk, and maybe she'll survive this, more or less. You too, little gnat. And you, disposable LeafWing. I can still see you; don't even think about sneaking away."

― to Sundew and Mandrake as he threatens Willow

---

"There. [...] After all, it would spoil everything if you went to warn Sequoia. My whole brilliant plan, ruined by a trio of idiots? I think not."

― to Sundew, Cricket, and Mandrake

---

"Oh, I know how strong this jungle is. It's been my home for thousands of years, after all. It came so close to killing me at last, after so many had failed ... but then Hawthorn came along and rescued me. Gormless lovely dragon husk. He's been so useful. I think I'll keep him forever, or at least, until his bones rot and I can't move him anymore."

― introducing itself

---

"Hee hee, [...] the outer bark is Hawthorn, yes. All these years, he thought he was in control. He thought I was merely one of the voices in his head, his beautifully carved seed whispering back at him. [...] Such a clever scientist. Left to test his experiments on himself, poor fellow. Imagine what he might have figured out if he'd had more test subjects. Aren't I lucky he didn't."

― talking about controlling Hawthorn

---

"Wasp, really. No, no, no. She's a perfect ally, all poison from her core out. But in the end, she's my puppet, too. I let her do all her great evil things because it pleases me. But one day she'll realize I've hollowed out her brain and she has no more control than her lowliest worm of a subject."

― in reply to when accused of being Queen Wasp

---

"All these thousands of years. I've waited to recapture my home and destroy you all. I bided my time and planned my vengeance. Even trapped in the jungle, I knew I'd find a way one day. I had no idea how easy it would be, in the end. You foolish, shortsighted dragons. You came looking for me! You fed me to your enemies! You let me spread and infect you, and soon you'll be no more trouble than my obedient snakes here."

― to Sundew, Cricket, Willow, and Mandrake

---

"Hee hee hee. You are pleasantly stupid. You really haven't figured out the next stage of my plan? Let's see, how did you put it? 'when the bonfire does nothing.' But of course the bonfire does something, you splintery twig."

― to Sundew

---

"Well, Hawthorn did have very powerful leafspeak. He almost managed to put a cage around me. He took advantage of one of my weak little shoots, who would have done anything to survive, and he really did adapt that branch of me to only work on HiveWings. Aggravating monster. I could work with it, though. It was a good start, but not what I needed. Not what I wanted. I wanted everyone. So once I was inside him, I had him fix me. All his little chains are gone. And now ... I will have what I want."

― about Hawthorn trying to control him

---

"The fire has been lit. The smoke is rising. They are breathing it in, and me along with it. All those brave LeafWings, ready to fight. Oh, there's your mother, Sundew. The queen will be mine soon. It's too bad the Chrysalis didn't make it in time ... but I will get to them eventually. For now, at least I have these two sweet little SilkWings to infect. Next important question. Which of you four should I infect first?"

― to Sundew, Cricket, Willow, and Mandrake

---

"Maybe I don't need one more HiveWing. Especially a deceitful, inquisitive one who won't shut up!"

― to Cricket after she attacks him

---

"I know you are. But you will be useful to me. I'm going to use your leafspeak to retake my continent. Between you and Hawthorn — and this feeble worm over here —, we can spread across Pantala in a matter of days."

― to Sundew about her and Mandrake's leafspeak

---

"Two little SilkWings, all for me. Just what I always wanted. And one of them a flamesilk! So nice when a plan sprouts exactly the way it's supposed to."

― to Blue

Trivia

• Willow initially called it the "othermind," as Sundew just spoke of it as the "breath of evil," but it had no name previously.
• The breath of evil can grow on any terrain and soil. It is described to be like a weed, and will spread faster than normal plants.
• The breath of evil may be spoken to via leafspeak, but it has to talk through a host to communicate verbally to dragons.
• Hawthorn said that it would be best if the 'antidote' was spread into a water source, implying that it can also be ingested through water contamination.
• The othermind was the oldest known living being in the dragon world, being over 5,000 years old.