Editing Nobledark Imperium Xenos (section)

=== Medusae ===

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The Warp was not always a place of horror and insanity. Once, in the days before the War in Heaven, the Immaterium was inhabited by all manner of natural creatures, both terrifying and wonderful. True, many of these creatures were not safe, in the same way that being around a large predator or other such untamed megafauna is never truly “safe”, but neither were they all malicious. Even after the War in Heaven, as the Ruinous Powers began to set up their own domain, the Warp was still inhabited by many creatures that pledged no allegiance to chaos, such as the Enslavers, the Psychneuin, and the Medusae.

In their natural state, Medusae resemble nothing more than floating, armored brains, their grooved sulci covered in ridges of chitin and with a huge, singular eye with a distinctive dumbbell-shaped pupil at their front. Extending from around the periphery of the brain are numerous tendrils, resembling exposed nerve endings except with the myelin sheath covered by segments of bone and a singular or series of clawed spikes at the end. Despite this disorienting appearance, Medusae are normally “herbivores” of the Warp, lazily floating from place to place using their brain tendrils as they passively feed off the psychic energy emitted by sentient lifeforms into the Warp as they dream, akin to aquatic filter-feeders.

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Due to the increasing rise to prominence of Chaos, the Medusae gradually came to the conclusion that the best option available to them was to leave the Immaterium for realspace. However, much like daemons and other creatures of the Warp, in order to inhabit the Materium the Medusae need a host. Unlike daemons, however, Medusae do not simply possess their victims. Instead, they consume the head of their victim and place their own head on top of the decapitated body, the act of consumption merging the two together to create a new organism, a hybrid of material and immaterial. However, calling such a relationship a symbiosis is an overstatement, there is no evidence of any part of the host’s mind surviving the process aside from any memories the Medusa picks up. Indeed, it is believed in their natural state Medusae are not even fully sapient, but exist in a constant dream-like trance, only gaining clarity when they merge with a living being.

Once the two organisms have joined the Medusa no longer needs to consume living beings to survive, instead feeding on the ambient psychic energy of the dreams and nightmares from those around them. If threatened, they are capable of discharging this energy as an empathic blast accompanied by a riot of pink-purple warp light to any poor soul who meets their gaze, a defense mechanism from their days as passive filter feeders that still serves them well. Such a glance from the psychic nova of their eye is enough to cause most sapient species to have a seizure or go into a comatose state. In the worst case scenario the target bleeds to death, blood hemmoraghing from every orifice due to the sheer neurological overload of the sensory organs causing capillaries to rupture.

After fusing the Medusa’s tendrils, which once served as their sole means of locomotion, droop around them like a series of bony dreadlocks, which combined with the heavy, hooded clothes they prefer to wear gives them a witch or hag-like appearance. These tendrils are still strong and fully prehensile, allowing the Medusa to use them like mechadendrites or to tear apart any aggressor in combat. However, the tendrils of a Meduasa have another function than combat or dexterity. As a Medusa feeds, the tendrils grow and elongate until eventually the claw falls off and a rounded, corrugated brain fruit grows in its place. If left alone, this brain fruit continues to grow until eventually it pops off and forms a new Medusa. However, if plucked early it can be consumed and allows one to re-experience all of the sensation experienced by the Medusa while the brain fruit gestated. Medusae brain fruits are considered quite the delicacy in Commorragh as well as the twisted courts of the Crone Eldar, allowing one to relive the anarchy of a favored raid or stave off the probing of She Who Thirsts. Attempts by humans (typically slaves or Rogue Traders) or other groups of eldar (typically corsairs) to eat brain fruit often results in a stroke or a coma from neurologic overload. According to the Dark Eldar, it’s an acquired taste.

As the Warp became progressively hostile to all forms of non-Chaos associated life, the Medusae increasingly found themselves forced into the one part of the galaxy that was connected to the Immaterium yet out of the hands of the Chaos Gods: the Eldar Webway. Unfortunately, this made the Medusae increasingly vulnerable to one of the dominant powers of the Webway, the Dark Eldar of Commorragh. Today, the largest population of Medusae live as an underclass within the xenos district of Null City within Lower Commorragh. They have nowhere else they can go. They cannot return to the Warp, for that is where the predators lie and they cannot survive there. They cannot hide in the Webway, as they would easily be hunted down by the Kabals and it is paradoxically easier to hide in plain sight within the bustling throngs of Commorragh. They cannot escape into realspace, as most groups would try to kill them on sight. They try to keep a low profile, as the Archons of Dark Eldar Kabals are always interested in capturing Medusae to use as walking weapons or sources of brain fruit to use and sell, covering the heads of the Medusae covered with metal masks so their captors can avoid being blasted with their psychic power.

The Medusae, in all honesty, just want to be allowed to live. They take no joy in consuming their victims, but neither do they feel guilt over having to do so to survive. Medusae are capable of forming emotional attachments with individuals after they merge, but they seem unable to or unwilling to make the connection that the very act of completing their life cycle could potentially put their associates in danger. At most, Medusae have been known to chase unbonded Medusae away from individuals that they value. Although their need for hosts could easily be satisfied by vat-growing, the Dark Eldar have no interest in helping them and the Imperium is either unaware or uncaring to their plight. Despite being mostly harmless after finding a host, the fact that they need a mortal body to communicate along with numerous poor first encounters where voidsmen have been attacked by unbonded Medusae, the Imperium has declared them Xenos Horribilis. Unfortunately, few Medusae escaped the Dark City after the Exodus from the Dark Wedding. As an underclass, they did not possess the access to the Webway portals that may have potentially granted the race their freedom and potentially even struck them from the Xenos Horribilis list. Those few that did are often found in the retinue of Rogue Traders, the few individuals who could grant them protection.

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