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 mind when Queen Wasp was in control, is a sentient plant organism, and the main antagonist of Arc Three. Its physical body is the breath of evil plant. The othermind can create hosts, whose minds it can take over. Hosts are created when an organism ingests or (inhales the smoke of) the breath of evil; hosts can also create their own hosts by injecting the plant into them. Although a host has total control over its own hosts, capable of controlling specific individuals or thousands, they ultimately answer to the othermind itself. Since the end of The Poison Jungle, the othermind has been in control of all of Pantala, with those unaffected fleeing the continent, flying to Pyrrhia. Most HiveWings, with the exception of Cricket, Bumblebee, Hive rulers, and some old dragons born before the Tree Wars, are hosts of Queen Wasp (herself being a host of the othermind).

Appearance

The breath of evil plant 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. Hawthorn, a LeafWing sent to study the plant, trained one of its shoots to only affect HiveWings, but the othermind gained enough control over him to convince him to reverse this.

Personality

The othermind is shown to be determined, tenacious, and quite patient, as it waited, hiding in the Poison Jungle, for thousands of years after its defeat for a chance to reclaim Pantala. It is also intelligent and opportunistic in its effort to retake Pantala, deceiving multiple dragons (such as Hawthorn and Sundew) into unknowingly aiding it. Its nature is to possess and take control of others, as it did to all the organisms that had lived on Pantala, and tried to do with dragons later. As a plant, the othermind has a primal instinct to grow, demonstrated by its tone when Sundew is tricked into growing it with her leafspeak. Although it is somewhat egotistical and easily angered, the othermind also seems to find great joy in intellectualism, explaining to Cricket the details and mechanics of infection to great length.

Biography

Pre-Series

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 is 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 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 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 Queen Sequoia allowed the plan to infect Wasp.

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The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Lost Continent
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.

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 actual appearance near the end of the book, posing as a simple egg carving dotted 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, by the end of the book, it had infected multiple LeafWings and SilkWings as well.

Relationships

Hawthorn

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, having some of the most powerful leafspeak on Pantala.

Queen Wasp

The other preferred host of the othermind, Wasp was mentioned as a great ally as she was "poisonous to the core". It seemed amused that Wasp thinks she is in control, and lets her do evil things freely, as it pleases it. However, it still maintains control and knows that she ultimately answers to it.

Quotes

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

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"Yessss, [...] yesss, coming, growing, spreading, taking, [...] YESSS HERE NOW."

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"Too late, too late, [...] Spread grow far wild conquer consume all mine..."

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"He can try, [...] but it won't make much difference. We're spreading through the jungle as we speak."

― to Sundew about Mandrake's attempts to stop the Othermind through Hawthorn

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"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

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"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

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"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 himself

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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

― to Cricket after she attacks him

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"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

Trivia

• The othermind is the first and only character in the Wings of Fire series who is a plant.
• Willow is the one to initially name the othermind, as before there was no term for it.

Gallery

• 
  The othermind by Princesscloudless
• The othermind/breath of evil by PheonixtheMythwing
  The othermind/breath of evil by PheonixtheMythwing
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  Othermind by Mirage Tree

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