Skittering Slayer

When a warrior's last thoughts are of bloodlust, their body can become so suffused with rage that it infects whatever eats their corpse. This singular emotion binds together the resultant swarm, combining the insects' will to survive with a berserker's deathless rage, creating an indomitable combatant. Often made of roaches or similarly tenacious insects, skittering slayers rarely develop long-term plans, instead scuttling about in search of dark refuges and passionate fights. These swarm striders tend to avoid transforming into their swarm shape, preferring to face their foes directly whenever possible.

All living creatures eventually become worm food. Yet if a creature perishes while gripped by overwhelming emotion or unfinished business, its flesh can become infused with those obsessions or a simple refusal to perish, infecting whatever detritivores feast on the body. As they feast, the invertebrates awaken to a type of collective intelligence, including some of the dead creature's memories and motivations. Once the body is stripped bare, the vermin swarm together and intertwine to recreate the dead creature's form out of thousands of wriggling bodies. These reborn are known as swarm striders.

Though many swarm striders are accidental creations, a few rare mortals purposefully transform themselves into swarm striders through powerful rituals. Most often, this process involves specially preparing a grave with ample scavengers and enchanting the site with occult magic to anchor their soul until it can live within the swarm. Through transformation, these intentional swarm striders seek out the power to slip past any defense or claim the virtual immortality of an ever-regenerating horde, as a swarm strider can reconstitute their form from even a single worm. However, the transformation inevitably scars the creature—often causing emotional detachment, the disintegration of old taboos, and a dissociated sense of self now that one mind has become a thousand. In their transformed state, even the best-intentioned swarm strider might embrace villainy and lose any semblance of their former selves over the span of many years.