Drawlloween 11

Today's prompt is Wizard, and so here we have The Worms that Walk.....

On  the far left is an Acolyte of the worm, the big one in the middle is a  mage of the worm, and on the far right is a worm that walks......

Spellcasters,  Wizards, Sorcerers, Practitioners of the arcane arts all seek to  influence the world through the arcane. Arcane magic imposes the will of  yourself upon the latent magic of the universe, the opposite of how  divine magic is the will of the universe, or more specifically the will  of a cosmic being or concept filtered through a spellcaster. There are  ways for these concepts to intermingle, with arcane arts being left  behind by powerful entities, their will still imposed in the very  concepts of the magic in question, and of arcane spells that invoke a  spark of the divine with one's own will. With thousands of magic  possibilities, and infinite connections for the secrets of magic, one  cannot hope to learn everything, however some spellcasters have  attempted still to find ways to push beyond their mortal coil and become  something new. To be bound to their flesh, their spirit tied eternally  to this world, and to last for eternity. Such rituals involve dark  sacrifices, invocations of the Flesh Mother, and to the Conqueror worm,  appeals to the father of Ghouls, the father of time, and hateful  transmutation rites and necromantic meditation that allow one to  transcend this life and deteriorate into something new, something  eternal. Something known as a Lich. This process is difficult however,  and not every creature is able to accomplish such a task, with some  falling short, their lifeforce fading and their power not bound to their  dead flesh for eternity.... however death attracts scavengers, and the  writhing, wriggling beasts of the earth. The appeals may go heard, and  though new life is not sparked within your corpse driven by your own  will... your own will may be sparked within the worms that feed on your  remains.

The centermost  creature, the Mage of the Worm, is what happens whenever a single worm  is able to squirm it's way deep within the confines of a dead  spellcaster, and it's magic and knowledge seeps into the worm. It's  flesh binds, and the transmutation takes effect. The worm gains  knowledge, sentience, and it still retains the mind of the worm. The  will to squirm and consume. The body remains dead and bloated, and yet  the magic warps it as it's head becomes longer and more worm like.  Slowly it grows as it feeds on the magic, growing extra arms, and  growing in size as the head becomes like a huge fat worm, growing too  large to be carried by the neck of the caster.

A  mage of the worm retains the arcane ambitions of the spellcaster who  died, but retains the mindset of the annelid and wishes for all things  to fall to detritus so as to be fed on by those who crawl. Their slimy  bodies pulsate as they seek out dead flesh to consume, and arcane  knowledge to expand their capabilities. They can move swiftly by  dropping to all fours and using their caterpillar like legs to scurry  along the ground, or even squirm like a worm, moving swiftly by  stretching and contracting their body and sliding with their slime up  walls and across large tracts of land in an instant. Some will swallow  creatures whole, while others will only consume rotten or dead flesh and  rely on their large bodies to constrict and kill their foes, or cast  deadly spells with the remnants of their arcane knowledge. They often  carry with them various staves or wands to aid in channeling their  power, though many times these are items retained from when they  previously lived. This one for example is wielding a Staff of Light,  which allows it to fire searing beams of light from the staff and to  blind it's foes with flashes of brilliant white. They are very  absentminded and rarely actually advance their arcane ability, and many  of them believe that they still are the caster who had died previously,  though that is simply the magic seeping into the worm to give it a  semblance of a previous life. Some are too lost or too bestial to act  upon knowledge of their former life, and others become adept learners  and may even gain their own personality as they realize through research  that they have been given a new life. Many of those who reach this  state will use necromancy to feed and corrupt worms and other creatures  who crawl in squalor and grant them the ability to become more than they  once were, growing massive grave worms, leeches, bloodworms,  bloatworms, maggots, and other various forms of larvae, and creatures.  Necromancy and transmutation used in tandem can cause rampant growth and  mutation, and so a Mage of the Worm left unchecked may amass a  squirming army of destructive allies that become a swift problem.

Among  some of these followers are the Acolytes of the worm. These are weaker  spellcasters, driven to madness through torture or arcane tampering, or  in some occasions they have implanted a worm into their own bodies,  feeding it and cultivating it before becoming one with the squirming  creature. Unlike the Mages of the worm, the acolytes of the worm often  retain much of their human nature, though only the most fervent and  devote portions of one's personality remain. Many times these weaker  spellcasters lose their previous arcane knowledge, however their endless  devotion to the worm mage that granted them life allows them to revere  it as a sort of god and it gains minor divine capabilities from the  power granted to it by the worm. Some are simply followers of the  conqueror worm, the father of ghouls, He who died in the Void, The  Fleshtaker, Shub Niggurath, or other various dread entities whom they  gather power from. Some are able to evolve past this and become a Mage  of the Worm, though many of them remain acolytes for eternity, crawling  around on their knees, or standing to shamble around praising those that  squirm beneath and screaming their praises. The screaming chorus of  praise from acolytes of the worm can unnerve those who hear them and  incite madness, however other acolytes and mages of the worm are  empowered by their dark words and their spell ability improves.

In  many cases, when a spellcaster fails to become a lich and the worms  consume their body, no one worm takes precedence, and the spellcaster's  consciousness can become ingrained in all of the worms. A psychic  imprint equal and connected among the squirming masses, and the ritual  takes effect, however instead of binding oneself to a phylactery, it  instead binds fragments of the spellcaster to all of the creeping things  within, causing them to become a Worm that Walks. A worm that walks is a  powerful spellcaster made entirely of rotting flesh, bone remains and a  mass of worms that work through arcane manipulation to control a body  in the shape of a man. In many cases they will wear the old flesh like a  suit, the worms manipulating the body and causing it to walk and move  with their contractions. These suits rot away and while many worms who  walk are fine with appearing as a mass of worms wearing a cloak and  going about their arcane studies, some enjoy the idea of appearing as or  at least pretending to be human. They can use their arcane ability to  possess other entities, shoving their worms inside of the creature and  riddling their flesh with the squirming beasts, taking on their persona,  though often times leaving it a bit lumpy, dying, and worse for the  wear with them needing to take a new body after a few months as the new  one decays. With magic this form can appear perfectly normal, however  many are content to simply stick to the shadows and wear humanoid masks  to appear as human as possible at a passing glance.

A  worm who walks can speak through a psychic projection from within the  worms, just as it and the other variants can use said projections to  see, sensing the world around them through an arcane brilliance. Unlike a  mage of the worm, A worm who walks possesses the full capabilities of  the previous spellcaster and is in fact the caster and not a worm given  life. They continue their research and can even push their bodies and  minds further than before due to their expanded eldritch knowledge and  ability to amass more to their body by enslaving more worms. If slain,  even one surviving worm can squirm into the dirt and amass more to  return as the full form of the spellcaster, granting them a pseudo  immortality to what they originally sought from becoming a lich. Many  worms who walk will specialize in transmutation magic, or enchantment  magic, implanting their worms into other creatures to transform them  into Acolytes of the worm or simply controlling their form.

Many  become followers of the Meat Mother, or of the Conqueror worm and some  may be made up of gutworms in rare circumstances. Sometimes leeches,  tapeworms, and other types of worms may end up forming an entity like  this, and in other situations mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, slugs, and  other various things can also make up a worm that walks, worms are just  the most common.

These are rare  through Earth and on Urth with the rituals to create them being rare  themselves, much less the people who can complete them. Much more common  are acolytes or mages of the worm, as they can occasionally spawn in  freak accidents where worm fed creatures with high magical capability  die in areas of natural or cursed necoromancy. Some underground  societies are made by constantly chanting and praying acolytes who have  no leader to turn to, becoming feral when a non worm approaches, and  others have come to revere other creatures and horrid things from their  places of worship in strange distant villages.