Parasite taxonomy
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Parasite taxonomy is the classification of parasite organisms. Organisms are described along four separate axes: structure, the organism's place in the network; origin, how it came to exist; class, a grouping loosely related to strength; and genome, the population under one Root Beckon to which it belongs. The axes overlap in places, and an organism's name in one axis can repeat in another.
Structure
Structure divides the organisms by their role in the network.
- Nexus organisms do not move, and do work for the network. They are the Beckons, the Dispatchers and the Rooters.
- Field organisms are the parasites that move.
- Deterrent organisms are created and called up by Nexus organisms, and are drawn back into the ground afterwards. They have no organs and no mind, and work as tools of the Nexus organisms that use them.
Origin
Origin applies to field and deterrent organisms. The four origins form a spectrum, from organisms made by infection to organisms built from nothing.
- Assimilated organisms are made by infection, when COTH takes over a living host. They are the only parasites that can arise without a Beckon.
- Assimara organisms are the in-between stage from Assimilated to Derived. An Assimilated organism can also become Assimara soon after a Beckon consumes it.
- Derived organisms, also called branch parasites, are produced by Beckons from blueprints that descend from assimilated organisms and have been refined over a long period. Little of the original host remains.
- Fabricated organisms are produced by Beckons from blueprints with no host ancestry.
Only Beckons can produce Derived and Fabricated organisms. Nexus organisms sit outside the origin scheme, although Beckons are closest to the Fabricated.
Class
Class groups organisms of similar kind and, loosely, of similar strength. Some class names repeat an origin: Assimilated organisms are Assimilated by both class and origin.
- Assimilated, Assimara, Crude and Abomination are the classes of organisms made from hosts.
- Inborn organisms are the weakest Fabricated parasites, and spread the infestation.
- Primitive and Adapted are classes of Derived organisms. The Primitive and Adapted Beckons are separate species of Beckon and belong to neither class.
- Pure and Preeminent are the classes of Fabricated organisms above the Inborn. Pure organisms were first recorded in 2026.
- Apex is the highest class. Each genome has a single Apex species.
- Nexus and Deterrent are classes as well as structures.
Genome
A genome is the population of organisms commanded by a single Root Beckon. Genomes are grouped into lineages, each headed by a Supreme Beckon or a Vagrant. Assimara, Derived and Fabricated organisms carry a genome. Assimilated organisms have none.
The genomes of the Iris lineage include the Alclidic, Aridic, Boreic, Humic, Pontic, Sinic and Tethysic. The Knox hive is the genome of the 1st Vagrant, and the Dyadic genome of the 3rd.
Most organisms occur across many genomes, with differences in detail. An organism found in only one genome is identified with it.
Vagrants
Vagrants are not placed in any structure, origin or class.