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January 4, 2023 5 mins

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the icrotic slime of Warhammer 40K’s Necromunda underhive…

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on on mythical creatures, ideas,
and monsters in time. In the Warhammer forty universe, the

(00:27):
Underhive of Necromunda is a subterranean maze of industrial grime
and dystopian anarchy. You're way better off running away from
most innocence of the Underhive, but one of its monsters
is also a sought after commodity, the parasitic icrotic slime.

(00:47):
As described in the publication Necromunda Outlander's rule Book, an
adult necrotic slime is a slow moving, fist size globe
of translucent sludge. It creeps up on a slumbering humanoid.
It first engulfs the sleeper's head before oozing into the
flesh and eventually colonizing the host's brain. Once in the brain,

(01:12):
the slime reproduces and the young feast on the gray matter,
which turns the host into a shambling zombie, and eventually
the creatures burst through the host's skull. This is all
pretty standard sci fi brain parasite stuff, to be sure,
But the really interesting wrinkal in the creature's life cycle

(01:32):
is the way it defends itself during its initial conquest
of a new host. It's slow moving and not particularly strong,
so you could simply pull it off your head before
it has a chance to seep into your flesh. But
to protect itself during this vulnerable stage, we're told this
fictional slime releases chemicals to induce a feeling of power

(01:54):
and euphoria in the host. They feel so good they
simply don't want to remove the slime from their head.
As such, some of the many desperate denizens of the
Underhives us the slime as a narcotic, trusting a friend
or an accomplice to simply remove the slime from their
head before matters progress too far. It's a wonderfully dark creation,

(02:21):
clearly drawing on natural world examples of brain eating amibas
and such behavior hijacking parasites as the protozoa, Toxoplasma GANDHI.
Various parasites are known for their ability to hijack behavior,
but I don't think I'd ever read about one from
the real world that's linked to feelings of euphoria. Euphoria

(02:43):
is generally associated with a number of typical life experiences
and activities, but of course it can be boosted by
various substances or generated via brain disease or injury. But
euphoria as a product of host manipulation by a parasite, again,
nothing turned up in my research. But as Martin Hyle
discusses in the two thousand sixteen Frontiers and Ecology and

(03:05):
Evolution paper, host manipulation by parasites, any manipulation by parasite
will depend on a physical or molecular trigger that comes
with a metabolic cost. That cost would have to balance
out in the creature's evolution. While some studies have linked
Toxoplasma gandhi to libido in some host subjects, we really

(03:27):
don't see anything like, say, the sex parasites from David
Cronenberg's film Shivers in the real world. In both Necromunda
and Shivers, the monstrous parasites in question are far more
useful as a means of commenting upon or exploring other
social concerns. However, I did find discussion of a southeastern

(03:51):
African plant known as kat or katha edulis. The plant
contains a stimulant and when chewed, can produce feelings of
excitement meant appetite loss and even euphoria. Like other euphoria
inducing botanical substances. We're not talking about a parasite here,
but according to a two thousand and twenty two paper

(04:12):
by Jacob Nehru Nahiga for the Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology, the leaves as sold in parts of
Kenya are sometimes contaminated with intestinal parasites, generally due to
quote poor storage of leaves, personal hygiene, and polluted environmental conditions.

(04:33):
It's not quite a sci fi brain slug, but it
checks off a couple of the boxes here under some circumstances.
Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
As always, you can email us at contact at Stuff
to Blow Your Mind dot com Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

(04:59):
It's production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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