Editing Fleshmongler (section)

==Nature==
They are highly territorial, sometimes like that of an animal<ref name=":1" /> other times like a warlord or a god holding its domain. This is in part due to their focus on flesh and partially because should they meat another fleshmongler they will almost inevitably try to attack each other which will often cause them to blend together.<ref name=":5">'''Behavior:''' Fleshmonglers tend to be savage and in constant pain in their raw, early state. They want to hurt and to eat and they want to heal themselves, and the line between these things is often blurry: they’re predators and hazards for those who come across them. The individual hunting style and approach of a fleshmongler is varied: one may be the equivalent of a panther, another may just smash everything that moves, gathering up any fleshy pulp that results, and another may be a beast that eats flesh but keeps tendon, fang, and bone, creating elaborate snare traps and biting fang-webs that kill, trap, and wound, giving them more material to work with. Throughout, they may keep choice bits of flesh, incorporating those bits into themselves, they may suck out the body’s natural painkillers to soothe their own aches and agonies, and they may decorate themselves with trophies.<br><br>As they stabilize, a fleshmongler will find themselves, usually putting together rudimentary intelligence, ability to interact with others without being violent, and act with more strategy. A furtive fleshmongler that leaves his scraps at the edge of a warrens settlement and collects what the local goblins leave in exchange one month may be capable of speaking the next month, and then may be taking orders two months later. Half a year later, they could move into that same settlement, serving specific needs.<br><br>This is, however, a constant struggle and war. Fleshmonglers have short tempers, complex instincts, and a general attraction to flesh. While one fleshmongler may become a distinct individual, they may find themselves drawn to other fleshmonglers, to fight, take them apart, and assert dominance. When there is a disparity of intelligence and ability, the superior fleshmongler may claim the flesh of the defeated one as a prize, but far more often, fleshmonglers partway into a stage of maturity will run into another fleshmongler, and the two will simply tear each other to small pieces (which may become rodent-sized fleshmonglers) or merge into one raw fleshmongler, back at square one of its evolution. The most ‘successful’ will move away from places new fleshmonglers may emerge, or be exceedingly territorial. A settlement will almost never have more than one, and when they do, they will often have an agreement to each keep to one area -- possibly policed by local authorities, who don’t want two two-hundred pound fleshmonglers to crash into one another and become a bestial four hundred pound one.<br><br>Fleshmonglers have a particular taste for and affinity for odd flesh. Cancer, diseased flesh, infections, quirks of genetics and scars. These things are delicacies for them, and valuable things they may keep for themselves to catalyze beneficial changes, or things they may turn into gory treasures for sale, which earns them currency they can spend on other things they need. This attraction to strange flesh is likely why they have such a hard time turning down a fight with another fleshmongler (which is so likely to be devastating to them). It is entirely the case that a fleshmongler may go to the dark fall markets that allow them to enter, or to a crossroads market, or send a representative, and have them buy a sickly old man so they can extract the man’s cancer. After, the man could be patched up with scar tissue, sold back to other markets, rented out as a slave for labor with a fleshmongler-made meat collar that will bite their heads off if they try to run, turned into a quality visceral gun, or the healthy remains could simply be eaten, with the cancer being the takeaway prize with greater purposes.<br><br>A fleshmongler’s ability to mature, evolve, and become sophisticated is directly tied into their size: more flesh means more ability to evolve. Usually at the middle ground, the end state is an expert - a doctor beyond compare, a chef, a soldier, a weaponsmith, or an artist - anything is possible, but it will almost always have flesh at the center of it. Below that middle ground, they may be limited to the mentality of a dumb child, or even something animal, like a dog. Above the middle ground, they tend to become big threats; a living edifice, a torture godling, or a mountain-sized predator that has perfected its own design. With no need to cooperate or find equilibrium with any society, such fleshmonglers tend to extend their reach and hunting grounds endlessly until put down. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MVWr8nKx4HHARipu-PxfA9vw4igfgtmJ1Z5OqkXRNxA Bestiary: FleshMongler]</ref>

They seek out flesh incessantly, thus when two Fleshmonglers fight each other they'll likely merge together, combining their [[Self]] and creating a bigger, stronger Fleshmongler.<ref name=":1">“I don’t really remember. They’re fleshmonglers, deal with it. Um. They’re super territorial, out of some dim sense of Self-preservation, capital S-”<br><br>...<br><br>“-they stay away from each other because a lot of the time a fleshmongler that fights another fleshmongler just sort of… blends together into a stronger, new fleshmongler.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/01/29/ Excerpt] from [[Gone and Done It 17.2]]</ref> Because it takes time for them to properly understand their new bodies they tend to have poor dexterity after immediately combining.<ref>“The ''fleshmongler'' has a drawback. The longer they’re, well, themselves, the better they are at using their bodies, getting stuff in order. So this one will be big, strong, but clumsy. Not always ''slow'', but clumsy.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/01/29/ Excerpt] from [[Gone and Done It 17.2]]</ref>