## Karut Karut, also known as the Hivephage is a bloodborne disease that targets and infects Darkarian Symbiots, a highly infectious fatal degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. It has been found to penetrate all known blood barriers once exposed to oxygen. It is harmless to all other known lifeforms, as it attacks a specific protein found only in certain Symbionts and Symbiont enlightened individuals. ### History Karut was developed by the Order as a method to reverse the effects of Enlightenment by attacking the proteins that bound the Host and the hive. The Original strain, Karut A however only weakened the bonds and made Enlightened individuals very sick as a slow acting degenerative condition. ### Karut A While not lethal, Karut A would effectively diminish a Darkarians effectiveness and power, but not outright cure them of Enlightenment to allow safe removal of the Symbiont. karut A was slow moving and not very contagious. ### Karut B Working on their limited success with Karut A, Karut B addressed issues with stronger attacks on the link. This resulted in the ability to fully break the link between Symbiont and Host. This resulted however in pure insanity from the Host for a limited time, as the Symbiont itself was still alive and able to produce the protein responsible for allowing Host Symbiont communications. The order improved upon its contagious effects, but the virus itself was short lived. It was at best a disruptive iteration. ### Karut C The current iteration, Karut C, resolved the issue of the Symbiont continually producing its host bonding protein with modifications made to to attack the symbiont and its communication line directly. Unfortunately, this resulted in complete Symbiont and Host death, leaving both neurologically dead. This was an advancement on both Karut A and B, but the intended result was never achieved. However given its fast contamination and spreading, low barrier protection, and quick lethal results, it ended up as a strong bio weapon. ### Karut D Espionage tactics by the Expletun faction "The Preservers" had yielded a leak of information regarding Karut B haflway into the War. Their own experiments yielded some headway along its line of being able to sever the connection. It was discovered however that the protein itself became highly relied upon and would even aid in the hosts ability to recreate the Mindsong neural patterns needed even with a full disconnect from the symbiont. While the work stalled as the Preserver faction eventually had no resources to dedicate, the Unified Space Intelligence was able to pick up the work and create a viable solution, albeit with some caveats: The candidate must not have been enlightened for longer than 30 Terran days. After this point, even successful removal of the symbiont and purge of the protein, the patient has a 80% chance of Hive-Psychosis, increasing with time. Not all races can accept Karut D with a measurable amount of success. The Symbiont must be removed after an initial Karut D infusion with the protein levels dropping enough to be considered severed from the Symbiont link. Success rate for Karut D remains at 8% for long term viability. 22% of patients are able to survive for a short number of years before falling into Neural degenerative decline, with the remaining either dying during surger or immediately developing neural degenerative conditions. ### Difficulty in Producing Despite the seperate use cases for all variants of Karut, the virus is difficult to produce and still has a limited life within a spreader host. The Virus itself was designed to be spread by the Expletun created races as most other life form immune systems could kill the virus in a shorter period of time, within weeks. Wheras the Chosen races could incubate the virus for upto a year before being broken down and aborbed into harmless base components. ### Limited Hive Effectiveness Depsite its great effectiveness on individuals who are fully Enlightened in the hive, there are a few notable exceptions. #### Infiltrators Infiltrators, while technically are symbionts used to enlighten, are found to be actual just bridges to the Mindsong. At which point, the Hive uses domination techniques similar to the Orrin to control and influence. The protein is not found, and their symbionts are fully absorbed into the hosts as basic neural patterns for mindsong connection and receptors. #### Spawned Like the infiltrators, un-enlightened spawned have the basic neural patterns to receive the mindsong, but still have no symbionts and thus no proteins. #### Limited Symbiont Targets Unknown to most people, the Hive development of symbionts was a long iterative process. The first few generation symbionts were closer to Infiltrators in that they had no minds of their own and were used as methods for increasing abilities, skills, and powers for the enlightened. The next generation symbionts introduced the first symbiont minds, designed to take pressure off the mindsongs requirement to control but also provide the benefits of the preceding generations. This was largely a non-success as the Symbionts had their own minds, and could at times even control the neural patterns required for mindsong connection. Proceeding generations eventually resolved the mindsong link issue which helped but still provided issues with absolute obedience. The current and most prolific generation is what we see today, where the symbiont is but a component mind that when mixed with the host generates a new sentient being, along with its relevant protein to establish this connection and maintain obedience.