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 speaking through Hawthorn.
Template:Charbox The Othermind, also known as The Hive, is a hive-minded organism, and the main antagonist of arc three. Hosts are formed by ingesting the Breath of Evil plant, and they can create their own hosts by injecting it into their victims. Although a host has total control over it's 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 the infection.
Appearance
The Othermind is composed of thousands of individuals, but it's physical body is a large seed, roughly the same shape and size as a dragon egg, which it disguised as a prized carving of Hawthorn's. It behaves similar to a virus or parasite, able to infect anything using the Breath of Evil plant.
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 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.
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 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.
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 poisons every egg in her tribe by stinging them with her tail, which has been laced with Breath of Evil. However, it did not work on anything but HiveWings due to Hawthorn modifying the plant in 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 doted 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 ammount of Breath of Evil as they thought it would cure the HiveWing army. 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 it's 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 keep him as a host 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, it called Wasp a great ally as she was "poisonous to the core". It seemed quite smug about the fact that soon her mind would be gone.
Known Hosts
- Queen Wasp
- Hawthorn
- Katydid
- Malachite
- Inchworm
- Glowworm
- Midge
- Bombardier
- Blue
- Swordtail
- Queen Sequoia
- Commander Belladonna
- Nettle
- Wolfsbane
- Aphid
- (thousands of HiveWings)
- A few SilkWings and LeafWings
Quotes
"Hmmm."
"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."
"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 first plant character in the Wings of Fire series, and the first character without a definite gender.
- Willow was the one to initially name the Othermind, as before there was no term for it.
- The Legend of the Hive is about the Othermind as it existed in Foeslayer's time.
Gallery
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Othermind by Mirage Tree
