The firmament shuddered, shook as if struck from behind, and pieces of space began to break loose and fall away, taking pieces of the sky and clouds with them. Birds, disturbed by the commotion, took flight, and wherever their forms overlapped with the falling pieces, they joined with them and fell too, as if being displayed on a broken screen. Finally, it emerged, a long, thick flesh-colored stalk studded like some massive gorgonian coral with human mouths, champing hungrily. It whipped its body around with a preternatural speed, producing a sonic boom. Trees shuddered. Windows broke. People ran. It levered itself out of the still expanding and unraveling rift it created, revealing more of its body, more branched appendages, all studded with more of the same champing, gnashing, grimacing human mouths, until its entire form, taking up a majority of the sky had finally emerged, bordered by the fuzzy chaotic swell of color that increasingly grew to replace the unraveling sky behind it, casting dappled shadows over everything, even as the light from the sun itself became wrong. It lingered for a long moment, lazily drifting across the sky like a plastic shopping bag in a pool. It writhed listlessly, and wherever it touched its own body its mouths would gormlessly bite in--consuming entire tendrils-- only for new stalks to regrow from the devourer. The inhabitants watched. Awe, apprehension seized them. Finally, one of its appendages touched the ground, and, having detected what it craved, every mouth let loose with a cacophony of screaming, impossible to tell if it represented exaltation or anger as it fell hungrily upon the land: earth, water, rock, trees, all were devoured.
Chaos Creatures are entities that emerge from Base Chaos, representing single, obsessive traits that manifest in endless repetition. These creatures are driven by unchangeable compulsions, unable to adapt, learn, or evolve. While not inherently malevolent, their singular focus and disregard for the structured realities of Crann make them dangerous intruders in the Cranberry Universe. When Siol or others recklessly manipulate reality, they can weaken the boundaries of Crann, allowing Chaos Creatures to seep into these realities.
Chaos Creatures are abberrations originating from the realm of Base Chaos, each one fixated on a particular obsession or action that they repeat indefinitely. Unlike beings from stable realities, Chaos Creatures are unaffected by the natural laws of Crann and cannot be destroyed or weakened by any conventional means. They operate according to their singular fixation, reacting to stimuli in the same manner each time. This makes them predictable but still incredibly dangerous if not properly understood.
The creatures are often bizarre in form and function, reflecting their chaotic origins. These creatures are usually indifferent to the living beings around them, attacking or interacting based solely on their internal compulsions.
Chaos Creatures cannot learn from new experiences and react the same way in every encounter. For instance, if a creature is obsessed with movement, it will attack anything that moves without fail, regardless of the threat it faces. Their obsession limits them, making them predictable, yet they are nearly impossible to destroy. The most effective way to deal with a Chaos Creature is to lure it away or divert its attention with an illusion or object that plays into its fixation.
Managing a Chaos Creature often requires deep knowledge of its specific nature. Once their obsession is identified, they can sometimes be manipulated by setting up conditions that keep them occupied, such as an illusion or a decoy that mimics their desired focus.
Chaos creatures are the result of some heterogeneous object-- i.e. one made up of Chaos and some other material, usually Stasis-- falls into Base Chaos and is ripped apart by it. Usually, the consumption is complete, Chaos reclaims its own, and the other constituent pieces are set adrift, usually to return to their own Principles. Sometimes, however, some small part of the being remains, and is able to maintain and renew itself constantly enough to become a permanent fixture within Base Chaos-- the chaotic energies, usually without any coherent directive at all and therefore calm and amorphous, are whipped into a frenzy.
These aforementioned "heterogeneous objects" can include any object from a Crann with physical reality, however in practice it's almost always a sapient being. This is one of the few ways souls can be irretrievably lost, even across infinite time-- while that last fragment of their personality endures in a twisted form, their being is gone. They can never rejoin the cycle of life nor ever truly exist again.
When Chaos Creatures enter a Crann, they disrupt its natural stability. Their presence can fracture reality, twist time and space, and cause areas of the Crann to break down into chaotic pockets. Though they may not directly seek to destroy Crann, their very existence erodes the structured fabric of reality. This can result in surreal, disjointed areas where the normal laws of physics and time cease to apply.
However, if left unchecked, Chaos Creatures can eventually unravel a Crann entirely. This makes the appearance of a Chaos Creature a grave threat to any reality, though smaller incidents may be managed by skilled Siol or others who can exorcise them back to Base Chaos.
The Grief Rose, a floating, ethereal plant that induces a state of numb acceptance in those who encounter it. The Grief Rose represents an unhealthy coping mechanism for grief, causing its victims to passively waste away as they slowly surrender to their fate. Its presence warps the emotional state of individuals, leading them to neglect their survival, eventually perishing without resistance.
The Perpetual calendar, resembles an amoeba made out of gears rotating around each other, pseudopods forming from clockwork brass and steel gears rotating around each other, locking into place. It attacks anything that moves, driven by an obsession with causality and cycles.
The Incubation Moth, a creature that resembles an insectoid form grasping a large egg sac, it continually creates millions of living creatures, most of them suffering and too malformed to survive. It cannot be stopped or dissuaded, autonomous drones follow it around to care for or euthanize the suffering things it ceaselessly creates. The creatures, if they can survive, are usually sapient.