Boggrout

Boggrouts are a molluscan species native to the planet Gunkmire.

Ruled by the oozing iron fist of Sludge-Queen Anaesthesia, they are an intelligent species, but deeply concerned with religion and the worship of their god, the Great Ooze. They scatch a miserable living off the bogs and swamps of Gunkmire, but they believe their suffering to be an essential part in the eternal cycle of life, decay, and rebirth, and that all must return to the Ooze. The church who worship it – known as the Cult of Decay – therefore play a massive role in the boggrout’s day-to-day life.

Being one with the swamp, boggrouts possess natural immunity to nearly all poisons. When wounded, they also have the ability to self-regenerate, healing themselves and even regrowing lost limbs almost instantaneously.

Biology and appearance

The body of a boggrout is composed almost entirely of a thick, semi-transparent, gelatinous slime. They have no skeletons, making them very flexible, and when they eat excessively (not that most boggrouts get a chance) they grow upwards as well as outwards. Their skulls are the only solid parts of their bodies – everything else about the boggrout is composed of soft and slimy substances.

Boggrouts display an extremely wide degree of variation from one individual to the next. Their sizes, shapes, and colours vary tremendously, with boggrouts – just like kuparkukes – being found in every colour of the rainbow. They may possess any number of eyes, any number of arms, and they may or may not possess things like tenrils, antennae, and rhinophores.

Society and culture

The Gunkmire Dominion encompasses the whole of planet Gunkmire, as well as its five satellites: Gloombus, Mireen, Sludgeon, Fester, and Squelch. As absolute monarch, Sludge-Queen Anaesthesia rules them all. Whilst technically, beneath her oozing iron fist, there exist numerous, semi-autonomous territories, each with their own distinct character and culture, Anaesthesia’s appetite for power and lust for control mean that she likes to keep a very firm, vice-like grip on their various earls, dukes, and barons.

Most boggrouts live in the marshes and swamps, and they build their homes from whatever materials they find there, especially rotten wood. They have no use for farming. Instead, they survive by foraging the swamps for decaying matter, fungi, and whatever other small creatures reside in the murk. By contrast, the Silt Palace – the ancestral home of the Sludge-Queen, and seat of her royal court – is an imposing, gothic fortress of slate and stone, built high atop the volcanic Bogspire.

In terms of religion, boggrouts do not believe in either Galaxy or Blackhole. Instead, they worship an all-powerful, primordial entity known as the ‘Great Ooze’. According to boggrout folklore, long before the creation of Gunkmire, the Great Ooze was the first creature to emerge from the cosmic muck, when the world was nothing but endless swamp. The Great Ooze – a being of infinite slime and decay – first formed the bogs and the mires, then it birthed the boggrouts in its own, festering image to serve it.

The Cult of Decay are the church dedicated to the worship and service of the Great Ooze. Boggrouts venerate the Great Ooze as both creator and destroyer, responsible for the endless cycle of life, decay, and rebirth. They consider processes like rot and decomposition sacred, believing that, through decay, all things must return to the Ooze. Archbishop Miasma is the cult’s high priest.

Religion – meaning both the Great Ooze itself, and the Cult of Decay who serve it – is the foundation of boggrout society. Though the life of a boggrout is harsh and full of suffering, the looming threat of death is respected as an essential part of existence, for all must return to the Ooze. Those who most embody the principles of the Great Ooze hold the highest status in boggrout culture, with the Sludge-Queen herself seen as its living avatar.

Further symbolising this return to the Ooze, the funeral ceremony (or ‘absorption’) for a deceased boggrout involves the dissolving of the body into a sacred pool of slime, purifying the soul and preparing it for rebirth

Notable individuals

Sludge-Queen Anaesthesia is the ruler of planet Gunkmire, and therefore all boggrouts. She is descended from a long lineage of Sludge-Kings and Queens, including her mother Sludge-Queen Septicaemia and her late older sister Sludge-Queen Amnesia, going right back to the legendary One-Eyed Glaucoma.

Other noteworthy residents of the Silt Palace include:

• Pestidia, the Sludge-Queen’s personal assistant and advisor
• Bromós, the Sludge-Queen’s personal head chef
• Festerwort, the Sludge-Queen’s court wizard
• Septica, the Sludge-Queen’s bodyguard
• General Tetanus, commander of the Gunkmire armies
• Sergeant Gangrene, chief torturer and interrogator
• Brother Phlegm, the Sludge-Queen’s advisor on religious matters
• Cyanella, a scullery maid

The Great Ooze itself is not a boggrout, but all members of the Cult of Decay – including Archbishop Miasma – are.