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
Template:Charbox The Othermind, also known as The Hive, is a sentient, hive-minded, parasitic plant organism, and the main antagonist of Arc Three. Hosts are formed by ingesting the Breath of Evil, which could be considered an extension of it, and they can create their own hosts by injecting it into their victims. Although a host has total control over its own hosts, capable of controlling specific individuals or thousands, they ultimately answer to the othermind itself, and their mental state will eventually decay. There is no known antidote to cure the infection yet.
Appearance
The othermind is composed of thousands of individuals, but its physical body is the Breath of Evil plant. It behaves similar to a virus or parasite, able to infect anything if the seed or root of the plant is consumed or breathed in. The Breath of Evil weed has green leaves shot through with red, a stem that is red with streaks of lighter green and a cluster of flowers that are white and conceal a dark red seed. Cricket notes that the plant "would have looked perfectly creepy" if it wasn’t for the flowers. It is confirmed that Hawthorn, a LeafWing sent to study the plant, trained one of its shoots to only affect HiveWings, but when the othermind was inside of him, it convinced Hawthorn to fix this.
Personality
The othermind is a vengeful character, as it waited thousands of years hidden in The Poison Jungle for an opportunity to reclaim Pantala. It also is shown to be an opportunist, as it took advantage of Hawthorn's loneliness and powerful leafspeak and eventually took control of him. The othermind has shown to have no problem in controlling thousands of innocent dragons. The othermind also enjoys manipulating and tricking other dragons, but it hates it when it gets outsmarted. However, it seems to still have a primal instinct to grow like any other plant, as shown by its change in tone when Sundew is tricked into growing it with her leafspeak. It is narcissistic, egotistical, and easily angered, but it seems to find great joy in intellectualism, explaining to Cricket the details of the infection to great length, although this could simply be a part of Hawthorn instead.
Biography
Pre-Series
Before dragons lived on Pantala, the Hive 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 used to control 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 undetected for thousands of years. It is believed that the othermind actually evolved after the dragons landed on Pantala to increase the likelihood of the Hive's survival.
After Hawthorn found one of the last remaining sprouts of the plant, he experimented on himself, finding that he could control vipers he poisoned with it after he ate some of the plant, while also unknowingly letting himself start to be taken over by the othermind.
Shortly before the Tree Wars, it is presumed that the othermind convinced Hawthorn to sneak a modified version of Breath of Evil into Queen Wasp's food during a peace summit, intending to make her more manageable. This had the opposite effect, instead allowing Wasp to directly control every HiveWing she stung, and unwittingly put thousands of dragons under the othermind's control. Hawthorn could have been acting of his own free will at the time and the othermind infected him after. That would explain why the LeafWing queen, Queen Sequoia was on board with the plan to infect Wasp.
Nearly every HiveWing is under Queen Wasp's control, excluding Cricket, Lady Scarab, and most of the Hive rulers. When Wasp speaks through them, her hosts' eyes turn white, but her powers were not expanded upon.
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 anything but HiveWings due to Hawthorn modifying the plant in the hopes that it would only work on Wasp. The HiveWing queen had a store of the plant in a top-secret greenhouse, which was burned down by Blue.
The othermind made its actual first appearance near the end of the book, posing as a simple egg carving dotted over by Hawthorn, an exile of the LeafWing tribe. 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 as they thought it would cure the HiveWing army when they breathed it in. After the lie was discovered, it spoke to Cricket and Sundew through Hawthorn about how it would get its revenge and reclaim the continent it once ruled, and the scientific details of the infection. Willow killing Hawthorn was a great blow to its expansion, as it no longer had a LeafWing with leafspeak at such magnitudes under its control. However, by the end of the book, it had infected multiple LeafWings and SilkWings as well.
Relationships
Likely its only real companionship 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, being one of the most powerful leafspeaks on Pantala.
The other preferred host of the othermind, Wasp was mentioned as a great ally as she was "poisonous to the core". It seemed to be amused that she thinks she is in control, and lets her do evil things freely as it pleases it. However, it still keeps control and knows that she ultimately answers to it.
Known Hosts
- Aphid
- Bombardier
- Cadelle
- Commander Belladonna
- Glowworm
- Hawthorn
- Inchworm
- Katydid
- Malachite
- Midge
- Queen Sequoia
- Queen Wasp
- Wolfsbane
- Every HiveWing, except for Cricket, Bumblebee, Lady Scarab, Lady Jewel, the hive rulers, and a few unnamed elders in Tsetse Hive
- Blue (presumably)
- Swordtail (presumably)
Quotes
"All is well."
"Grow wild spread far... [...] Grow far spread wild..."
"Yessss, [...] yesss, coming, growing, spreading, taking, [...] YESSS HERE NOW."
"Too late, too late, [...] Spread grow far wild conquer consume all mine..."
"He can try, [...] but it won't make much difference. We're spreading through the jungle as we speak." - First appearance through Hawthorn
"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, Mandrake, and Cricket about Willow through Hawthorn.
"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."
"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 lovelly 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 himself
"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."
"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."
"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." - the othermind's plan
"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."
"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."
"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?"
"Come now. Make this easy on yourselves. Eat a tiny piece of the root or one of the seeds, and all your worries will be gone! Wouldn't you like that? Who'll go first?"
"How dare you!" - after it realized it was tricked
"Maybe I don't need one more HiveWing. Especially a deceitful, inquisitive one who won't shut up!"
"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."
Trivia
- The othermind is the only character in the Wings of Fire series who is a plant.
- Willow was the one to initially name the othermind, as before there was no term for it.
Gallery
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Othermind by Mirage Tree -
zE oThERmINd by The Othermind
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The othermind/breath of evil
