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: 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.

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

Appearance

The breath of evil has a dark red stem with bright green veins, while the leaves are in reverse. Each leaf is the size of a dragon talon with jagged, tough edges. There are clusters of tiny white flowers between the leaves. In the middle of the flower is a dark red — almost black — seed. The plant has a leaf-rot and peppery scent.

Personality

The breath of evil plant does not exactly have thoughts, and only desires to spread as far as it can, 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. To a leafspeaker it feels sinister.

Cottonmouth believes he is the rightful owner of Pantala, and feels 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

When used by Wasp, she is not able to read other dragons' thoughts, but they are sometimes able to hear hers quite clearly. The othermind controls her completely, just as she controls her subjects. When possessing individuals, any pain felt by them is also felt by the othermind; exceptional pain may drive the othermind out of a dragon's head temporarily, as Cottonmouth dislikes feeling pain .

Dragons infected by the plant can be directly controlled by Cottonmouth and Freedom. When showing another infected dragon who they are controlling, they appear to replace the dragon in the mindspace. Wasp can only manage dragons she has injected. The othermind does not have access to the memories of individuals without permission; most humans voluntarily gave their memories to Cottonmouth, but no dragons gave memories up until Luna, Dusky, and Pineapple in The Flames of Hope.

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 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 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.

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The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Lost Continent
Nearly every HiveWing is under Queen Wasp's control, excluding Cricket, 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.

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 states that they came here because their home was destroyed by a big bad plant. Hazel mentions later in part one that she is the queen now because her great-grandmother, Sequoia, is under control by an evil plant, and as soon as she is free, Hazel can quit being queen. Snowfall connects to this. The "evil plant" and "big bad plant" is the othermind.

The Flames of Hope
It is mentioned in the prologue that the reason Vole has green eyes is because the breath of evil infected him as part of a human ceremony. More coming soon...

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. However, it holds a grudge against Hawthorn for altering the breath of evil to only work on HiveWings.

Sundew

The othermind dislikes Sundew for helping Willow destroy Hawthorn but does not want her dead, knowing that her extremely powerful leafspeak could help it take over Pantala in a matter of days.

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 those evil things pleases the othermind. However, it still maintains control and knows that she ultimately answers to it.

Quotes

"Grow wild spread far … […] Grow far spread wild …"

― echoing Sundew's leafspeak command

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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 itself

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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

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"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 is the oldest known living being in the dragon world, being over 5,000 years old.