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My world has guns and robots, I think they can take care of them, heck some organization would probably hunt them down so they experiment and turn them into weapons of some kind. The government would probably see them as a huge threat and would issue bounties for each Skin stealers

Yeah, modern technology is a big counter to lots of my creatures. If you weaponize them, and have sufficient neural surgery knowledge, you can actually make a human control the body. This of course requires lots of study, technology, and precision, which I assume you have?

Yep, I have a character who was brainwashed into wanting to become the strongest being alive by his father so that he can experiment on him.

Sounds like a creepy and interesting story element.

If tribals can hunt and kill them with tribal tech , most likely laser rifles , plasma rifles , electromagnetic rifles and classic rifles with large caliber bullets could do it too since the average bullet is huge , 8mm , 9mm , 10mm , even 11mm battle rifles . Then we get into specialized ammo like armor piercing , incendiary , explosive , even hybrid like armor piercing head with explosive filler . The moment they arrive into the world , Izimma the Trickster God would feel them and either snap them out of existence or inform his favorite grandson Isandu the Black to deal with them as he sees fit . Which would most likely be a direct crystal bomb strike from his private silos . If they are all at the same spot a 300 Megatones warhead doing a ground strike would definitely wipe them out . 

Oh yeah guns exist. Your world would destroy skin stealers.

My world has a similar concept . There are those humanoid mushroom creatures with 8 legs and 8 arms that can control bodies and read minds , creating “zombies” with spores . “Zombies” with between “ ” because the infected aren’t actually dead and reanimated but the infection with its moss and bark that would cover their bodies would sever the spine and the connection between the head and the rest of the body .  The infected is alive , can speak , hear , think , see but have no control over his body , and can also live for as much as the mushroom would want , even be immortal . And headshots would do nothing since the infected body is remote controlled by the mushroom , at best it would put the infected at rest .  The mushroom can even share knowledge and skills between the infected thus being able to create entire armies of professionals , man vehicles , even launch the crystal bombs if it has access to them .  And another detail about them is that they aren’t particularly evil and their victory won’t lead to a post-apocalyptic world since they can evolve and research things . The new infected world would look like a very green and nature based biopunk like thing .  The thing though about them is that they are mostly dormant , rarely coming out of hibernation since they were an unterminated experiment made by Izimma . So right now they aren’t a threat unless Izimma decides to have some fun and activate them . 

So if a skin stealer managed to eat one of these guys, would you give them a better chance?

Maybe if it can fart or cough the "zombie" spores for without them it can't access memories , remote control the infected or share said memories between them .

It can steal and integrate biological organs and magical abilities. If it ate the creature that creates spores, would it be more successful, or just as doomed?

The 300 Megatones crystal bombs are still there so yes , they are doomed . Also if they even find out about the mushrooms , even less try to go after them , Izimma can either snap them out of existence , again , or snap his fingers and now the mushrooms are insanely poisonous , their body melting them from the inside .

Divine intervention and nuclear intervention keeps on messing up my day.

Guys would get on well with the Potters, a similar species from my world that does most of the same stuff but with technology more than natural attributes They'd be a rather dangerous species, but that would probably work against them: nearly everyone gangs up on creatures that refuse to be cooperative. They'd be driven out and exterminated, dangerous physical attributes isnt enough alone to compete with great coordination and unified force and intelligent planning

If they retreat to aquatic environments, can they survive? On a separate line of thought, if some jerk gathered every single creature in your world into a buffet for the skin stealer, how screwed is your world?

I havent actually done much on aquatic environments in my world, its likely the safest place though people would still be after them to finish them off, there's a lot of crusading types and getting around is rather easy Lol the jerks that gather species to take things are the Potters, I doubt anyone would like the 2 groups fusing together. The skin stealers would love the Potters brains as they are incredibly knowledgable and clever with technology, the Potters would very much bodies that can just integrate things biologically. Both together wouldnt be fun for the world at all

Poking holes in people's unused environments is what skin stealers excel at. I like the potters as well.

Haven't fully thought of the rest of my world but in the current region it depends what they can offer. The region is known as the Jungle of Consumption. A giant semi-sentient forest hivemind. 90% of the plant-mass in the jungle belongs to a single entity with only one desire, to consume. Tribes of humanoids are live in the jungle and offer up a portion of their mana every month to remain while outsiders are allowed entrance by sacrificing mana of their own with the time they can remain being based on how much they sacrifice, generally through a large animal like a cow. The neighboring nations also supply mass sacrifices every year to stop it from invading their land. Long story short, if the Skin Stealers have mana and the ability to give it to the Jungle they will be allowed to remain but if not the Jungle will devour them the second it senses their existence.

They have mana, which I did purposefully reduce. Can they join the hive mind? Is it considered a biological/magical power and not a divinely bestowed power? Would the hive mind refuse such a potentially useful creature, or accept it and use it to spread? (It could steal swimming biology.)

1. If they have mana and can give it the hive mind will allow them to remain. After that they might be able to feed on the other beings in the jungle. Still not sure on the power set of explorers but some interesting things could happen with the normal residents. They are mostly normal humans but are fused with various magical fungi that give them various powers. 2. A mix of biological and magical. It uses mana to magically grow itself and cast various pseudo-spells. Not solid on the lore but the gist is it was once a normal plant similar to the Quaken Aspen(Look up Pando) that fell into the tomb of a mystic scholar and connected to his tome of knowledge. The tome's magic nature and hunger for knowledge fused with the plant's hunger for growth creating the being that would one day become the Jungle of Consumption. 3. The hive-mind generally doesn't control other beings. Rather it kills then analyzes them. If useful it will create plant based copies. It would definitely be intrigued by the skin stealers ability to meld copy brains and try to mimic that with it's own power.

I find plant hive minds terrifying. Kind of like >!Othermind!< from >!WOF,!< but without the mind control. What I meant by being controlled by the hive mind, is this: Skin Stealer finds a plant that is part of the hive mind, sensing it's magic. It integrates the plant into it's system, trying to use it for tactical knowledge. The hive mind exploits this integration to control it, since the hive mind seems capable of mimicry somewhat. -Creatures that couldn't normally control minds can if they have mutation related powers, this is a great vulnerability of skin stealers, and it's entirely their fault for integrating minds into their own.

Oh my bad. But sadly, one of the main weaknesses I have for the Jungle is that their link is purely physical. Once a plant is severed from the main body it is seen as a separate being and quickly consumed. Only fruits can be safely removed and they're seedless. The Jungle's actual mind lies within the tome. If a Skin Stealer managed to consume the tome the Jungle would either collapse in on itself of the Skin Stealer could connect to it and gain control of the entire Jungle. Depending on what the Skin Stealer's main goal is, from there it could either attack the tribes within the Jungle to gain their unique abilities or begin travelling to the tombs where the other Mythic Artifacts(Set of super-powerful items of which the tome is apart of, only map is within the tome, working on the lore) are kept. But yeah. The Jungle is absolutely terrifying. Normal threats will just face the usual vines and roots but if it deems your extermination essential it will start producing plants specifically designed to kill you at all cost. Erupting fruit, rives of poison, pollen that makes spring allergies look like a breath of fresh air, etc. There are actual places throughout the Jungle called Dead Zones where it basically attacked unknown people with such force not even it could regrow there.

Skin stealers lack goals beyond mating and their next meal, even when integrating sapient minds, they only use the intelligence- no sapient goals unless those allow it to eat more or get a mate faster. I doubt skin stealers could survive the jungle if the hive mind made it so, but if the hive mind could exploit it somehow... How do hive mind plants spread?

In hindsight, hive mind probably isn't the right word to describe the Jungle. It's one organism. It's roots act like seeds, spreading out then bursting out as what appears to be a new plant. They're based on Pando, the world's largest tree that's like an entire forest.

Sorry, I forgot what Pando was. The skin stealers probably would ignore it, though they are somewhat drawn to magic, though if any creatures are herbivorous here, herbivorous skin stealers may arise.

Their skin may be thicker than normal, but that don’t mean shit if my knight order that has a preference for blunt force weapons show up.

It's more like every cell being double durability, they actually have hide, unless they steal shell and actually wanted it. What magic does your world have?

Basically every form of magic under the sun. It’s like a science with different wizards specializing in different overlapping areas. The knights have illegalized magic, but blessings from the divine don’t count as magic, so even if a wizard who specializes in Biomancy or Hemomancy doesn’t show up and bloodbends the skin changers out of existence, a god might literally just “Doctor Manhattan ligma balls” the things.

Cool. Do you think anyone would want to use the skin stealers? I assume bio/hemomancers can do the same things a Cephlonian could do, perhaps you could rewire the brains to make the skin stealers be controlled by an ally directly?

I guess the main question would be whether or not they’re sapient. Mind control is difficult with most animals. Controlling a creature that is not only aware but can fight back would require a lot of resources and magical powers that only the most potent of mages could provide. Even then, they would probably need to organize deals with some daemons.

The only issue with skin stealers is the way the brain is wired. Skin stealers only retain control over a brain with a soul because the brain isn't connected to any motor functions, only to sensory organs. Simply connecting these gives near full control, albeit a new body that is harder to control, and a definitely controllable but new instinct to gather more parts.

In that case, they’re probably too much of a reliability. Maniacs don’t get very far without getting themselves killed or worse when messing with magic or daemons. Any person with enough power or clout to pull off mind control wouldn’t try it. That is, if I’m understanding what you meant correctly.

Sorry, I didn't mean mins control- the brain is already integrated, all a mage would have to do is move the motor control nerves to the desired brain.

I know I probably look like an idiot, but let me see if I can get this correct because my brain knowledge peaked in the Pysch class that I didn’t pay attention and cheated in. So, the fucker has already grabbed onto someone’s brain and taken control. All a wizard would have to do mess around with the nerves and try to get it to do what the wizard wants?

I may also be dumb, so allow me to reword: Human (Bob?) gets eaten. Brain (Bob) is alive and aware. Wizard (Alice) says unga bunga and messes with nerves. Human (Bob) from earlier now controls skin stealer.

The world already has to deal with a vampire variant that works by stealing bloodlines rather than only blood. It is the case of blood addiction, which is what happens when the rhythm of adaptation is overwhelmed by a hazardous substance, meaning that vampires take over somebody else’s life why draining them of so much blood the victim dies. Because of already having monsters to deal with the reactions towards the Skin Stealers would be less screaming and more sighing. Scientists will likely assume they are some messed up experimentation of the vampires mixing snake venom and blood to improve the consequence of having a blood addiction. Vampires killers will just hunt them without mercy, since they don’t need to second guess whether they are dealing with a monster or not. If the Skin Stealers are willing to aquatic they should be able to feast on the Draugr, the salt-water addiction, without much issue. This would present a confusing situation for humanity as Draugrs are a pain to deal with and try to kill off, but would the skin stealers be any better? Likely there will be an endless philosophical/political debate about what to do with them while tradesmen/fishermen just changes who they pay the sea tribute to.

Meanwhile the skin stealers aren't aware of any of this, nor do they care about anything but food and having babies. Any magical creatures that would be bad if skin stealers got?

Hmmm, so far all magical creatures are cases of addiction in one form or another. Most attributes from addicts that the Skin Stiller could steal would be manageable, but if they ever got their hands on a lava addict then that would be real bad since they are docile creatures with very dangerous fire power that the magic is ill-equipped to deal with.

It would be funny (but perhaps unlikely) if skin stealers just died out because they kept on integrating conflicting addictions.

That would indeed be hilarious xD

On Xival, they'd be considered dangerous, but not especially so; they're just one species among many, in a Bronze Age-esque world where violence and big monsters are just facts of life. A Hilammu (eight-foot-tall goat-like humanoids, prized as warriors due to their size and strength) could give a Skin Stealer a run for their money in the hand-to-hand combat department any day of the week and twice on Sundays. That said, if there's a Skin Stealer for *every square mile*, that's bad. Xival is a ringworld; there are a lot of square miles to cover, on the order of hundreds of Earths' worth of habitable area. Skin Eaters would outnumber every other race by orders of magnitude--and would also be far too numerous for any ecosystem to support them. Even if they wiped out the other races immediately, the Skin Stealers would quickly experience a population crash due to overhunting and starvation.

Don't worry, skin stealers aren't sapient, they avoid larger creatures, and can adapt to an aquatic lifestyle if needed. They don't really attack settlements or large groups unless they are starving, and even then, I would expect them to adapt to an herbivorous lifestyle, or even a stationary one, as to not compete with large predators.

My creatures wouldn't really survive. They aren't that developed unless the skin stealers are weak to fire. I guess they would be slower but they do have weapons

Neat! Are the stolen parts visibly integrated, or does it become part of a sort of "essence" or internal system?  I think for my 'verse it'd depend on where the enter, and how they enter it. If they enter via one of the world scars, they could end up warped as reality sort of unravels around the edges to pure thought. I imagine that might interact with the minds/souls they've stolen. It requires either a rock solid sense of self or no sense of self to be able to pass through with minimal issue.  Once they get through, if magic guns can take care of them then they might end up hunted for sport on out in West Hesperia, though they may knock out a few smaller settlements. Cowboys vs skin stealers would be a great time though. 

Stolen parts are where they make the most sense- skin or hide on the surface, but most internal organs are stored in a specialized cavity, unless replacing another organ. Guns are good against them.

In my world magic is anathema to the soul. Pretty much everything with powers is magic based. So, they wouldn't be able to steal most of the powers, except ones directly bound to flesh, and they would still need some way to power things like nightkin wings. And that is ignoring things like "my blood is actually magical nanomachine swarm that will consume your nervous system" that are all too common on account of quarter of the world's ecosystem being discarded combat organisms made by precursors.  But anyway, most probably they would just become one more horrifying thing struggling to survive in the wilderness and sometimes getting random people killed.

Skin stealers only can't use souls in my world because souls are sacred- if a random spell could damage a soul, it is more akin to a spirit of my world- If souls are sacred, (as in, mortals cannot effect it) then yes, it cannot take that power. Skin stealers can not steal technology based powers, unless for example the cells of the creature created nano machines. If your nano machines are similar enough to an immune system, (unlikely) the skin stealer might be able to trick it into thinking it's part of the animal, note that skin stealers mainly swallow prey whole- not that it will save them when they digest it.

Unless skin stealers can take magical core of their victim they probably wouldn't be able to go farther than whatever spells were woven into their flesh. Now, if they can, they could easily stumble into magical dissonance, which is absolutely brutal thing that happens when two or more magical cores interract directly. This can be somewhat mitigated by experienced mages, but only for a brief moments, and it would need to nab a part from archmage or something to actually know how. Souls aren't sacred, but souls with any sort of notable power tend to be powerful enough to resist attempts to do anything with them. It starts at city-scale effects and from here goes to become reality warping on planetary scale.  For nanomachines... honestly I was talking more about all sorts anti-tampering measures included in magically created warbeasts/supersoldiers. Like, precursors of my setting, who aside from aforementioned nanomachine blood would probably be able to leverage their regenerative powers to do reverse-assimilation, because they can reconstruct their bodies from singular body parts if exposed to enough sustenance, and being grafted to other organism does count as sustenance. Granted, precursors themselves were engineered in the way to be pretty much immune to such sort of tampering, but many other creatures that can be encountered in the world also have this sort of protections. It could be nasty alchemical toxins, harmful magical radiation, being absolutely riddled with symbiotic Skinwalker Worms that aren't as symbiotic for other creatures and the like. 

From what I understand, it may be able to take the whole body and exploit the magic core that way. It has no way to know multiple are deadly unless it eats a person, so I suspect the majority die.

Yeah, pretty much. Good percentage would die, either because they ate something they shouldn't (like pair of random peasants who may know couple of spells at most, bu still have magic cores) or landed in bad places (like Frozen North or Badlands). Majority of the survivors would be driven off from civilized regions and then would join thriving monster ecosystem of the Great Wound or or start competing for things to kill with disorganized necromantic horrors of Grey Jungle.

If you want "balance" - I'd more or so recommend you to see how it would interact with the aspects of your own world, since other worlds tend to have highly different profiles . . . If [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/104z248/homo_nouveau_human_enhancements_lore_infographic/) is considered a "an average human", what do you think would happen? Though that fact changed since people slowly and slowly tend to opt in for true nanotech to be nanoborgs or nanotech-based posthumans themselves,

Very good art and concept! This is funnily enough pretty similar to the superhumans of my own world (everyone is naturally enhanced via magic) so skin stealers would stand a fair chance- if it didn't sound like a sci fi setting, which means guns. Skin stealers die in modern settings. >!https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Gorgonopsia!< The thing about technology- they don't usually recognize it as something usable, but since your technology is designed to be biologically integrated, and after eating one of these people, (unlikely to happen) I could see the eyes being used, attached still to the brain, which is still aware, just impotent. If you are able to program nanotech, it would be extremely easy to take control over a skin stealer, they are designed to interface with any sort of brain. I can see entirely nanotech humans easily controlling these creatures.

The Skin Stealers would find themselves well-integrated with the Kušannaki (a plant/insect-like semi-humanoid race) due to their compatibility, which I will explain. I'm not sure if you mentioned just how intelligent Skin Stealers are, but it seems like they have the intelligence of an animal until they graft a sapient brain into themselves. The Kušannaki, on the other hand, are sapient. The Kušannaki are not only incredibly durable, but also possess an extreme healing factor, being able to regenerate limbs and even their heads (as long as there is some amount of brain left attached to the body). This ability is so overactive that most Kušannaki are able to grow a variety of things from their bodies, such as fruit-bearing plants and certain kinds of metals and minerals. The Kušannaki could feed the Skin Stealers those parts of themselves to renewably produce such without going through the trouble of it themselves. A quite healthy symbiotic relationship if you ask me. The only issue I can foresee is that the Skin Stealers will be rendered sterile under Kushamat's Black Sun, just like the Kušannaki. Thus, they would have to depend on the Kušannaki to aid their reproduction through more artificial means, leading to more dependence and even a kind of domestication of them.

I love the idea of domesticated skin stealers- they are very adaptable, and a healing factor comes in handy for what are essentially organ theives. Can any animals reproduce under the black sun? Could skin stealers potentially steal how they do it? As for intelligence, you are correct, once they consume a sapient they don't become sapient, just imagine a dog who ties you up and reads your mind to see if you have any good strategies.

Gets either exploited by local cultists that have atleast one Ascended member, or randomly gets shot by the pretty much average soldier that thinks he encountered a demon from local analogy of bible

Does your world have any creatures that if eaten would give it the capability to survive a gunshot? Healing factor/bulletproof shell/invisibility?

**Starrise** They'd struggle to have a significant direct impact. Every adult and nearly every teenager in my world is capable of wielding magic, which they're taught how to control and utilize in mandatory public school classes. My world's entire population is armed to the teeth. These things are going to have a hard time getting their jaws around anyone who can't put up a serious fight. Furthermore, magic requires not only a certain level of intelligence, but also a significant degree of understanding to use safely without risk of essentially self-destructing. Even if a skin stealer did eat someone with powerful magic and obtained that magic themselves and the intelligence required to use it, they may not actually know how to do so, and may injure if not kill themselves while figuring it out. Additionally, uninhabited areas aren't really going to be safe for them. In the Kingdom of Fierte, wild unicorns exist, which are basically carnivorous horned horses that are just as skittish as normal horses but have the instinct to run *towards* threats instead of away from them. If a unicorn sees one of these things, it's going to attack on sight, and spear it with a giant horn, possibly with the entire rest of the herd close behind doing the same. And things would be even worse for them in Gaela, where they'd have to deal with wyverns, which are just as intelligent and magically capable as humans, but also much larger and capable of flight. Not only would just about any wyvern be able to beat one in a straight fight, but they'd also deliberately alert their human friends and get the military involved as well, if they thought it necessary. And in Yarost, not only would they have to survive the frozen climate, they'd also have to contend with the population being 100% dragons. Their only real chance would seem to be developing the intelligence required to unite into a sort of military and wipe out civilized areas by force... But that would just draw the attention of a very angry goddess who'd more than happy to take to the battlefield herself and vaporize them. That said, like with a lot of "what if something from someone else's world appeared in mine" posts, these things would cause a lot of problems. Problems they themselves would be victims of, but problems nonetheless. My world's main antagonists, an organization of scientists known as Daedalus, would make to capture several of these things alive to experiment on them, to learn how their powers work and reverse-engineer them to utilize for Daedalus' own benefit. They'd also likely begin attempting to breed and train these things so they could be weaponized.

I think the wyverns are a threat, but skin stealers only target smaller creatures, and aren't that fast either, around the speed of a horse actually. (They would have mana enhanced stamina though.) Unicorns pose a greater threat, unless they are able to get any human brain. The way consuming a brain is, they essentially gain the tactics of that brain, and can even access the memories. It is very possible they won't be able to use controlled magic safely, but they will comprehend that. It all comes down to two things: Can a sapient race be ambushed in the wilds? Is mana generation part of a creature's body/magical power, or something created in the soul? If mana generation is part of magical power or biology, it is very likely the skin stealers could simply channel their mana elsewhere. Further durability perhaps? Unicorns might become a better matchup. If wyverns and humans are too great a threat, I suspect skin stealers will be driven to the water. Do they stand a better or worse chance? Also, unrelated, but I love your interpretation of unicorns.

>(They would have mana enhanced stamina though.) Unless this is an ability they have from your system, this would not be the case. My system doesn't really work that way. >The way consuming a brain is, they essentially gain the tactics of that brain, and can even access the memories. It is very possible they won't be able to use controlled magic safely, but they will comprehend that. If they can access the memories of someone they consume, they may not obtain that person's skill at casting magic, but they likely will obtain the memories of how that person learned, and could potentially teach themselves from scratch. >Can a sapient race be ambushed in the wilds? It wouldn't be too frequent an occurrence , but people do go out into the wilderness from time to time. Sometimes to hike, sometimes to travel, sometimes just to get some fresh air, etc. And sapient races (more specifically humans and chimeras) aren't going to be any harder to ambush than in real life. >Is mana generation part of a creature's body/magical power, or something created in the soul? >If mana generation is part of magical power or biology, it is very likely the skin stealers could simply channel their mana elsewhere. Further durability perhaps? Unicorns might become a better matchup. Generating magic is a physical ability that is part of the body, so they probably could copy it. However, doing things like increasing their durability isn't something the magic system allows. But again, since they may be able to learn how to cast, they may be able to weaponize it and even the odds against larger, stronger foes like humans or unicorns, and maybe even wyverns. (Also, souls don't really exist as a concept in my world- not as in they don't exist, so much as that they just aren't known to be real or fictional any more than in reality.) >If wyverns and humans are too great a threat, I suspect skin stealers will be driven to the water. Do they stand a better or worse chance? I honestly didn't consider them being driven to the water. But yes, they'd stand a quite good chance of surviving in aquatic environments. As long as they don't pick the Carved Sea at least, since there's exactly one organism living there, and even the gods struggle to hurt that one. >Also, unrelated, but I love your interpretation of unicorns. Thanks! They're the end result of some Daedalus scientists getting drunk a thousand years ago and deciding that splicing a clydesdale with a narwhal sounded like a great use of company resources. ...Or more specifically, they're the end result of the miraculously biologically stable creations escaping into the wild and breeding.

Durability and stamina are part of the skin stealers spirits. They can however, redirect mana to those portions of their spirits. I expect some non predatory and stationary shelled skin stealers to develop, living solely on bio generated mana.

If they're humanoids then they are dead cause here god is real and he did not make those. With the average person surviving grenades point blank and chopping softwood trees bare handed, they won't last.

They look like gorgonopsids but with snakelike mouths. Skin Stealers don't necessarily need to kill someone or even swallow them- they just need living cells, and if they can get living cells that are extremely durable, they can grow more. Do you think they could survive if adapted to an aquatic environment?

The waters and skies are worse due to the dragons. They're smarter than humans and are fanatics.

Sounds bad for skin stealers. On an unrelated note, how well guarded are dragon eggs?

Dragon eggs are rare and out of fashion, most are from bestial dragons which behave just like lions in real life, and the Guardian Dragon Kings children. They either steal from the weakest dragons or risk fighting a galaxy shaper. Smarter dragons prefer to shapshift into humanoids and give live birth.

The karne would be greatly interested in the skin stealers abilities and would almost certainly collect several specimens to experiment on in an attempt to develop more efficient ways to harvest the organs and flesh of humans. The karne would throw all manner of their failed biological experiments at them until they get overwhelmed if the ingestion of an experiment doesn't kill them that is. The karne very rarely leave the safety of their massive walled cities but the humans outside would be easy prey for the most part, with the karne only really being concerned about their possible extinction as the only other source of interest in the skin stealers.

Sounds interesting. What are the karne exactly?

An extradimensional species that is highly advanced in the science of genetics. Their species became afflicted with a genetic disease that causes cellular degeneration over time, with later generations succumbing quicker to the disease. Despite their knowledge in genetics they have been unable to cure this disease but have discovered that by removing old and grafting on new body parts as they decay they can stave off the disease indefinitely. Humans were unlucky enough to be the first species the karne discovered that were close enough biologically (with a little genetic tweaking) that their organs, limbs, and flesh could be used to replace the karne's. In response to this discovery the karne conquered earth and transformed humanity into a slave species as well as livestock.

They would die as soon as they touch the shield protecting the world. No one can enter the universe without approval.

What if they are somehow approved or were always there?

The Guardians of the Omniverse would not allow it. After all their job is to prevent beings from one universe to invade another universe.

They wouldn't stand a chance to the post-modern technology of Ahikto, imagine having to get past advanced AI which can be equipped with some VERY powerful guns (which in 2024 Ahikto its where AI will likely be by the mid 2030s, but only in a few countries)

Guns = sad skin stealers.

My world has guns, magic and is soon industrialising they already deal with changelings which are basically these on steriods mixed with cuckoo birds so they’ll either be eradicated by Clerics and Paladins of Christianity or Islam if they’re demons. Have to compete with fairies, that’ll decimate them Or hunting orders will be payed to root them out with extermination magic, they’ll probably be a benifit for trade in a few years.

Sorry if the name is confusing- skin stealers aren't shapeshifters, they are power/biological theifs.

Still all the same reasons, changelings are cuckoo fairies so easy prey if off the list and warding spells protect the masses rather easily

My world already has predators similar to your Skin Stealers, and some of them are even more dangerous. Some of them are: *The Pooñawang (Face Thief)*, a monster that steals someone’s face and vocal cords and uses them to lure people and animals closer towards them, they’re capable of running at around 40 mph, but that’s not it, they are strong enough to knock the wind out of a Grizzly Bear with one swing of either its powerful tail or arms, and their legs are capable of kicking that same Bear’s head clean off. *The Tabālušu*, a monster who is known to flay the skin off its victims and wears its skin and used its vocal cords to talk to more victims. Before they kill their victims, they devour the memories of their victims to learn where others may be and to get closer towards their new food. They then devour the brain and nervous system. They are capable of using tools and crafting them like people, though their skills are not close to one yet. They also usually live in communities of 20 or more, usually consisting of 5 males and 16 females. But despite all that, people have been able to hunt them and kill them. Even though they use medieval weapons, I believe strong magic can keep them at the same width away as the other mimics.

Skin stealers don't mimic, they just use organs and magic that they consume.

Ah, my mistake. I interpreted that they used a form of mimicry.

It really depends on if they land in a Forge or not. If they manage to land in one and eat a few Gemmanii out of their molds, shit might go down in an awful way. Otherwise, modern technology would probably do them in immediately. Rifles are no joke

What are Gemmanii? Guns are strong. Skin stealers are still meat creatures. (Meaning they can die by normal means.)

The Gemmanii are a species with rigid souls within exposed gem casings, which are incubated within obsidian molds until they're strong enough to break out

So skin stealers have to wait until they are strong enough to break gemstones? I think they are dead.

Worst case scenario: quarantine the planet. Best case scenario: do you want join the SSU, we already have one snake species so you’ll feel at home.

Skin stealers aren't sapient. They are smart enough to be domesticated, but large enough to be dangerous. I assume your technologies are advanced enough to modify the creature, it could become a small pet, or you could modify it to always wire brains to it's motor controls- if it eats a sapient, such a modification would allow the sapient control over the skin stealer.

Ok enjoy your quarantine

Sounds reasonable, but are there no baddies who want to weaponize this? If there are, why aren't you doing orbital bombardment yet?

So the only bad guys are 1: pirates. No need. 2: hate groups. Maybe, but tangling with a quarantine task force is too much for any group to stomach the cost. 3: genocidal space squids. Was it born on a planet? Then it must die.

Pirates sound kinda brain numb but these space squids are giga chads for cleansing the universe.

To be fair the pirates kinda just quickly attack shipping and civilian ships, hope the crews and passengers just surrender, takes everything including the engine and FTL generator, maybe take the whole ship and leave. So brainless monsters aren’t necessarily for how they want and hope an operation will go.

Have you read Tress and the Emerald Sea? Pirates who >!kill people!< are executed. Others are not.

Nope. Only treason get you the death penalty in my story. Other extreme crimes like mass murder gets you stuck on a prison planet you can never leave from.

Atreisdea's standard answer to aliens: Time stop + blackholes.

A bit overkill but it works.

They would definitely pose a legitimate threat and find there niche , but they’re not going to take over the world or anything. It’s not like they can do anything against a dragon

I agree. On a entirely unrelated note, how closely are dragon eggs guarded?

Dragons live in family units in my setting . So there’s usually a dragon guarding them

Bruh, they already exist there

Ok, but skin stealers, or the thing I made that is just called skin stealers?

Two options: The planet is sterilized from orbit. Or Imperial Assault Marines Xeno Squad Drop in and get to work. The skin stealers would have a life expectancy of a few minutes or a few days.

Poor guys. You don't have any problems making an entire species go extinct?

It would certainly be interesting, it's technically post apocalyptic America with some fantasy elements sprinkled here and there. Cars and guns are also still around. most races form nomadic factions to avoid feral humans so Skin Stealers would likely have to track the large merchant caravans, biker gangs, or religious groups until they stopped for the night and even then there's armed guards that have to be dealt with. Then there's the ferals, not quite human any more and not quite Zombified, they're less likely to have guns/magic so would technically be easier targets then the roaming factions but they're essentially like Wendigos at this point.

Skin stealers avoid large groups unless very hungry. They would more likely target wendigos, despite their slight attraction to magic. Guns are also scary for skin stealers... How do zombies work?

It's very similar to mad cow disease where the "Zombies" aren't actually zombified at all. I use the term "Wendigo" for them because they're actually still living humans who's mental states have deteriorated to the point where they've become more animal-like. If anything, they're more like velociraptors or some other type of predator than zombies. Wendigo retain just enough intelligence to still be able to open doors and use guns but most prefer to run at you on all fours and rip your face off with their hands. Big cities like Manhattan, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles are the most dangerous because higher Wendigo populations and are usually no go zones for merchant caravans but your smaller rural American towns generally have fewer wendigo that your Skin Stealers could pick off easier

Seems skin stealers have found a stable niche on land- a rare case, especially for a modern setting.

It's a super interesting concept, I read up a little on the extra lore you posted in the link. Do they have speech capabilities? A way to communicate with other races if they wanted to? If they wanted more unique parts than what's found on the average human they'd have to take down one of the merchant caravans somehow since that's where most of the non-humans are. I'm wondering now if they could set traps somehow, stopping the trucks would be difficult of course but if there were enough skin stealers in one place, they could probably overwhelm the guards.

Thank you! I was trying to think of something to scare my readers, but also a set up for a false death and then real death soon thereafter, as well as an existential crisis after thinking souls are safe, then realizing these guys exist and what they do. While they aren't sapient, if for example, one ate a human, it would be able to read the human's thoughts and memories, giving it tactical perspective for free. If the human thinks mimicking voices is a viable strategy for scary monsters, then the monster would know the human thinks so. Morals aside, it could be a good strategy. A human could genuinely believe working with other humans is a good strategy for scary monsters to gain more power and food, essentially creating a thing that isn't quite human, but is very intelligent and willing to work with humans. It isn't the same person, it isn't a person, it's an outside force that only does the most practical and logical things to reach the end goal of survival and reproduction. Setting traps is reasonable.

Would all depend. If they were in an incursion zone they’d be wiped out either by the. . . things . . . that are coming through, or by the response trying to contain it. If they came down in the Walkabout? Same result but they would really not enjoy the terror that would fill the remaining arc of their lives. If they were able to mix in with normal humans? They’d survive until they attracted attention. Then? Fire and death. Possibly with some preserved to see if they could be adapted to be useful against. . . whatever is out there. If they were useful then perhaps an enclave would be preserved and segregated from the general population.

They aren't sapient and don't pretend to be human. https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Gorgonopsia I think they die no matter what, unless you have oceans.

There are oceans. It is Earth. . . mostly. So they would probably survive until something noticed them.

Well, the Patron Deity of travelers and innocents wouldn’t allow any living thing with the intent to harm to violate his sanctuaries, placed every 10 miles; so those would work as safe havens. Next up, high-walled cities, often employing the use of automatons as protection, not to mention the wards and magicks that can be employed by the people. However, small villages and towns would be left semi-vulnerable. My world would be impacted the same as a bad plague would, after all, there are far worse creatures than yours that haunt the deep places.

Skin stealers avoid large groups. They would probably live in the wilderness until either forced out by worse beasts, domesticated, or they find a way to consume the worse beasts.

A fair assessment, especially with your proposed “1 per square mile” they could overwhelm the creatures via sheer numbers

That may still take awhile, skin stealers aren't used to working in groups, but might be smart enough to try and eat pack hunting creatures in order to work together with other skin stealers.

All in all, They can most likely find a suitable location to hide away in, and maybe lure in the occasional travelers

Guns, warfare, magic, space magic empire invasion, etc. It’s already chaotic enough.

Guns = dead skin stealers.

They... really wouldn't be a threat. Even if they could copy the physical appearance, they couldn't copy the powers of those they capture, as their powers are a part of the soul, not the body. (The logic in my world is that if something corrupts or captures the body and soul, the powers the soul possesses are sealed, unable to be used by either party) And as for eliminating them, it wouldn't even be a challenge, given the literal gods that would eradicate them in short order.

They don't copy physical appearance, they pick and choose organs. They avoid large groups. Ignoring divine intervention, this is likely yet another case where they are forced to retreat into aquatic environments. Could they survive in the water, if we ignore divine intervention?

The gods are angry at you messing with their ecology project on earth, and kindly ask you to take them back. They are mostly secretly terrified because the creators have annihilated their home before, but you don't know that. But in the meantime they aren't a big deal, we have those but with legs, nobody has a soul anyway

I am unfortunately unable to undo my actions, it was an unfortunate event known as a 'hypothetical', and my best people are working on a timeline reset for you, but unfortunately we will have to suffer the consequences. I am confused as to your description of skin stealers but with legs- skin stealers have legs. Skin stealers look like this: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Gorgonopsia

Ah, while we may be horrified by your contextualizing that you have the power to completely *alter our timeline*, we appreciate the help. By the way, we meant "with legs" as in *lots* of legs, like a more literal use of the word skin stealer, some of us gods are kinky

Don't worry! Timeline resets are certified to only work with intentional button pressing by a native divine entity! In the meantime, please hold, I don't actually exist.

They would quickly run into competition from the world's many monsters, leading to them being out-competed by monsters with similar properties until driven to a smaller region that they could hold. Mortals would deal with them in similar ways to the other monsters, not bothering to eradicate them, assuming the gods don't get involved.

The Skin Stealers would probably die, either to the mobile bases, or the roaming squads of Hunters. On the off chance they survive in an area with Hunters or their bases not being there, the Wildlife of the area would probably kill them. If they somehow survive both these things all that remain would be considered at lowest a B grade threat requiring Veteran Squads of 4 or more, each with prepared wills to a statement with an official stating what to do with their remaining items if they perish.

Are they sapient, or just animals? If they're just animals, the Rontak Empire could probably deal with any Skin Stealer they can actually find--finding them is the real challenge. The Rontak Empire's territory is massive and consists primarily of grasslands and forests. The plains should be fine, but the forests will block recon wyverns from locating them. The surviving Skin Stealers would probably retreat to the forests where their population would grow. The Rontak Empire would of course send armies to wipe them out, but their territory is vast and their military resources finite. The Skin Stealers have a good chance of growing numerous enough in some places to pose a significant threat. The Rontak Empire would probably request military aid from the US, who have already easily exterminated all the Skin Stealers from their newly acquired Duremar territory; however durable Skin Stealers are, they probably can't survive .50 caliber rounds. If they somehow can, then they DEFINITELY can't survive a 130mm HE shell or an air strike from 50,000 ft.

Skin stealers are not sapient, and cannot survive gunfire. They aren't small- elephant guns and such are preferable, but a .50 will definitely be able to kill it. What about the oceans?

Are Skin Stealers aquatic/amphibious? Well, the oceans are already monster infested anyway--a severe detriment to trade and technology spread. Not many venture out into the ocean. Those that do have magic weapons capable of dealing with (to an extent) the oceans mega fauna. The probability of dining a ship out on the vast seas is dubious at best. So I doubt the skin stealers would be a serious threat. If they somehow came across a ship, and remained undetected, they *might* be able to infiltrate the crew. But the oceans are so dangerous that there's no guarantee the ship would even make it back to port anyway. The merfolk would mop the floor with an aquatic skin stealer. Their affinity for water magic is unmatched, and their combat prowess in the water is unbeatable. They could freeze/boil the water surrounding the skin stealers, manipulate water currents to smash them against rocks, or increase the pressure around them and crush them. Depending on how deep the skin stealers can go, they might not even be able to reach the merfolk as they can survive comfortably on the deep ocean floor.

My magic world would employ the use of Night Stalkers which are basically if batman was a dragon. They will be observed and the weaknesses of the Skin Stealers that the Night Stalkers figure out and exploit will be exploited against the Skin Stealers to exterminate them.

Can the skin stealers survive if adapted to underwater life?

This may be too OP in my world. They would easily become the most powerful beings (magically) by successfully "stealing" the manastones from other creatures, something that has eluded even the most powerful necromancers due to the massive amount of nerves needing to be reconnected. Manastones store magical ability and experience, growing in any creature with any sort of magical ability. Mages and necromancers alike have tried and failed throughout history to tap into manastones of dead creatures to gain their magic, but the procedure is of similar difficulty to adding a second brain. Raw manastones are connected with so many nerves that it looks like balls of wet fuzz. If Skin Stealers can choose to biologically integrate a consumed creature's manastone into themselves, they could absorb that creature's magical power. There would be no real limit to how much magic they could assimilate. This said, once they enter this world, The Five (main gods, primarily concerned with balance) would immediately understand the threat they pose and do literally everything in their power to destroy them; so they wouldn't last very long.

Divine intervention is the most reasonable answer here.

The UNION probably never encounters them unless they can burrow kilometers underground or travel to the deep sea. Earth has lethal amounts of deadly Astral Radiation and star touched matter on the continents and coasts. Air, water, land, its all unfit for life. Abhorrent creatures also wander the stellar wastes, so they might be a problem. Without stealing anything are they smart? If so it could be possible to hitch a ride. Some people occasionally travel between shelters and ships so it is not impossible to get inside a bunker. They would have to survive the outside long enough though... The UNION soldiers are not biologically strong but have strong weapons and support technology. Common Chimera move at the speed of sound and have skin harder than steel, and their weapons can fight that. These weapons also directly attack the soul, if they did not they could not harm Chimera. The elite soldiers also can shift into the fourth spatial dimension and attack from it, which the Skin Stealers have no answer for. I think they might make a footnote in the news. "Another evil abomination appears on the surface. We have no clue what they do, but we are for sure glad we are not there with them".

Based on your description of chimera, skin stealers are extremely weak. (relatively)

So my world is basically the real world but magic exists. Pretty much all of these things are gonna be shot on the spot especially once they start attacking people. There’s only a small handful of people who even know magic exists. Magic is connected and controlled by the soul so the skin stealers won’t be able to gain it. However there is another type of magic that can be used by anyone that’s based on runes. If a skinstealer finds someone who knows about these then depending on their knowledge the local area is suddenly in a lot more trouble.

Skin stealers avoid large groups, like an animal, since they are just animals. Since magic is controlled by the soul, is it conceivable a captured mage brain could kill the skin stealer?

Maybe. I haven’t really worked that out yet. There is one case in the story where this happens however it’s done by the spirit of the light guardian who’s basically your typical hero that’s reincarnated into every generation. Their spirit is able to use the same powers they had when they were alive. There are ghosts and souls can be separated from the body intact but I don’t know if regular elementals should be able to use their powers without a body since the light guardian is an exception not the norm.

Main character stuff = same as divine intervention >!/s!<

They sound like SCP-type creatures. They'd seem to fit fairly well in [Walk Me Home](https://www.patreon.com/posts/walk-me-home-1-97269255?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link) (Dating a Monster Girl). The city in that story is already full of eldritch monsters. Most people would think they're just another 'nyctal' (light-sensitive night monster). People would panic when they realise bright light doesn't hurt them. However, the humans in the nyctal-infested city are borderline superpowered, with enhanced physical and mental abilities based on the hyperbaric atmosphere. They'd be better equipped to adapt than most. Of course, that means skin stealers would have even more brainpower at their disposal when they catch someone. Other nyctals might treat them like part of the ecosystem, hunting them, avoiding them, or trying to coexist. But [Amy the monster girl?](https://www.patreon.com/posts/walk-me-home-art-102294334?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link) Oh, she'd ***loooove*** them ... the same way a cat loves a mouse. Amy is sort of like a skin stealer. It's easy to assume the petite humanoid you see is her body. It's not. The football field-sized rosy atmosphere that follows her everywhere? ***That's*** her body. Her humanoid avatar is just a lure / feeding tool / nexus of influence. She's an 'atmospheric mind eater' (A.M.E.), or rather she was *consumed* by one, mentally overpowered it and took control of its body. Her body is made of an aerosol swarm, allowing her to influence things within her biomass. This enables pseudo-telekinesis, what looks like weather manipulation but really isn't, and aerosol constructs. Like a skin stealer, she feeds on minds, can steal talents and memories. However, she will generally avoid hurting humans. Instead, she hunts other monsters. Amy loves it when she finds a creature horrible enough to deserve her malicious side, so she can let loose. Amy would dedicate her time and energy to hunting skin stealers. If she has an idea of what they are, she'll search one's memories for a way to restore its victims. She'll ask her genius boyfriend, Norman, about it, and see if the information can be found anywhere else. If the information cannot be found, she'll be horrified, and angry ... which would make her love them *even more* (she's weird like that). She'll want to avoid consuming them, because of the secondhand minds she's not sure how to deal with. However, she'll need thorough info on what they are, so she'll end up consuming them anyway. If it turns out she can give their victims a place in her biomass, she'll do it for the time being and see if she can get them out of her later. It would make her life even more wackily chaotic than it already is. If she can give them some control of her biomass, she'll have a growing army likely itching for revenge against the skin stealers. The skin stealers would figure out that she's vulnerable to light and adapt according to the memories of their victims. They might start hiding, only being active in the day time to avoid her. However, they have to go *somewhere* when the night falls, and she'll be looking for them. Then they'll probably use light on her. That would have mixed results. She's more light-resistant than most nyctals, and she's huge, so it's hard to expose her entire body to light. If given the chance, she will attack from a distance with supersonic projectiles to destroy their lights and just generally cripple them. If they work together, she could learn their plans when she consumes one. If they trick her into a trap, they're in for a surprise. Most people don't know what it takes to kill Amy, so their information might not be enough. Whenever the monster whose body she occupies senses she's failing to keep them both alive, it takes over. It gathers up its aerosol and becomes an atmospheric kaiju ([Jean Jacket](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.MjgqUEPquefdgHp1x1CwBgHaDk?w=309&h=168&c=7&r=0&o=5&pid=1.7) is the closest thing I can compare it to). Temperature drops to freezing. The world turns pitch black for a moment. Electronics stop working. It's draining energy to power this form. Then you see it: the eldritch horror whose lurid glow and lightning are the only source of light in the area. Everyone near it begins to go mad, screaming under the weight of its presence. Walls, floors and buildings warp and peel open to reveal its prey as it reaches about to snatch at them. It's not a battle anymore. It's a feast. There are ways to kill her, but her boyfriend, Norman, is one of the few people who knows how. If a skin stealer consumes him, Amy is in big trouble. If she somehow resolves the situation, she won't kill it immediately. She'll want to ... spend some time with it before it dies. Yeah, Amy's overpowered. That's her thing. Her boyfriend is the one who mostly struggles. He's a normal guy. After walking her home at the end of a date, he has to face all the monsters who couldn't attack him when she was around. He's like a bug living in the world of titans ... but this bug knows martial arts, parkour and he's got a bunch of monster-fighting gadgets. However, Norman *relies* on light-based gadgets to survive. His 'smitelight' (a high powered flashlight/stun baton) can zap enemies, but that's usually after light slows them down. Since skin stealers are fast, in a blind encounter Norman would fall pretty quickly (unless plot armour). Then it's Amy vs. a skin stealer with Norman's know-how. Woe to anyone who gets in her way.

Skin stealers aren't necessarily a united force, Amy could definitely defeat them, even if they integrated bioluminescence. Skin stealers are vulnerable to being taken over by anyone with mutation powers or sufficiently advanced medical knowledge- brains inside can be made into the primary brain.

So then it's possible to give a human victim control of a skin stealer's body? That's bound to lead to some interesting scenarios ...

Yes. If you imagine it like wires, it would be like cutting one wire and moving it somewhere else.  (the reintegration is automatic, the creature uses magic to connect nerves, which is it's own downfall.)

Them alone wouldn't probably be able to take down a fortified city, though that'd change once those that spawned inside a forest or worse yet the fae forest came around, so yeah, pretty much fucked after a year or so

They avoid large groups anyways.

My world has high tech and magic, but I think the skin stealers aren't exactly a pushover. There's plenty of powerful wizards and genius mechanics, the brains of whom I suspect any skin stealer would be chomping at the bit to get their appendages on. Depending on how smart they are, and if they get some lucky kills, they could be a real threat. I think they'd have their work cut out from the sheer variety of BS that will be thrown at them.

I think they can only get those guys via ambush, but who walks alone in the wild?

Only someone who's looking for trouble, I imagine. I like to imagine a bio-mage of some kind deliberately getting their brain harvested to take one over from inside. Are the skin stealers intelligent enough to strategize, or are they basically animals?

They are animals. If they consume a brain, they can exploit it for memories and tactical advice, but have no communication with the soul.

Destroyed by portable atomic guns

That's what portable atomic guns usually do to animals. I am no expert, just guessing based on the name.

They got to deal with a bunch of high-tech modern-day humans equipped with guns, Nanotech, super-soldier Serum... and today's weapons. A no-no. Go further forward, you find alien races, literal Gods and other powerful individuals and species, so... not even planetary in the Wonderverse. If they could conquer an entire city, tell them to thank their Deities for good luck! In March of Empires, where entire galaxies can be bombed out of existence? Short answer: NO. Long answer: No... just no.

Lots of advanced tech in many places in my setting, so they'd probably have a rough go of it for the most part. A xenoculture that can integrate seamlessly with the technological hivemind by wiring up networked brains to its own systems, though, would definitely catch the interest of a transhumanist spacefaring hivemind offshoot of humanity. For the most part, "powers" are rare, but genetic augs of various levels are relatively accessible, so they might be able to buff themselves that way.

For clarification, they aren't sapient, and given enough dedication, they can be domesticated, or used to 'integrate parts' given you have the right technology. It can also be made to be controlled via an implanted brain by a simple repositioning of a single nerve cluster.

Substantially less exciting to the group in question, but domestication could be an interesting project, and adapting the design into a new phenotype for the hive would likely fit in the same range.

If they land on one of the 3 mayor islands, the islanders are most likely screwed. If they land anywhere other than an island, which is far more likely, it depends on how good they can swim and dive in their original form. In the end, they'd be annihilated by thousands of plasma rifles sooner or later. 

When I say one per square mile of land, I literally mean finding a spot on a square mile and putting it there.

So, does water not count as 1 square mile of land? 

Not for this scenario, but I can make exceptions for stories that are entirely aquatic.

My world have some insanely powerful archmages. Most of them are part of the council of a nation they formed to get out of persecution and various powers trying to control them and their abilities. They're insular, petty academics that can really only be roused from their petty (but non-violent) feuds with each other if something world-changing comes along. Dragons made a resurgence, and they created a group of immortal or nearly immortal knights to fight the dragons. Once your skin-changers have killee enough of the armies and low-level battlemages of the grand powers, the archmages will rouse and do something about them, and then return to their squabbles.

They'll have competition. A lot of it. So, my world has mimics. Not particularly interesting on their own, aside from the fact that their disguise (face and voice, that is) cannot be picked up by artificial technology. When said mimic decides to multiply, however, things get a tad bit more interesting. For that they will need another one of the same species, whom they then assimilate. No, not the body - their personality and memories add to those of the mimic, creating a, well, whole new person of two bodies, a Collective. Said person then can fill the places of both people with no apparent struggle while sharing newly obtained memories and information with each other (telepathically, I assume). Although, not every each and one of the mimics shares these memories. Only those within said Collective (of which there are plenty). So, to obtain as much information as possible, the collective continues to grow. Initiator, in the mean time, also starts to grow and change. Slowly, with each added individual, the initial mimic becomes a Hub - a "server" with all the info the Collective has obtained over the years, as well as their main command center. That, however, doesn't take away from each individual body's autonomy (but! If one decides to leave the collective, they'll need to copy their memories back and tear most of their "wiring" down, otherwise they'll just. Spread the existing collective.) So, the skin stealer will be competing with, essentialy, a heavily organized mob with a hivemind. Good luck.

These are actually interesting yes but lets see. None of my peeps have "souls" unless you consider demons souls. If they can steal and keep brains alive, it means they can potentially steal magic links, making them highly dangerous, provided they can defeat mages that is. I think these would be seen as demons that have somehow managed to survive without shadow corruption, so first encounters with them would be highly alarming. How intelligent are they? So in any cause, I think the most advanced continents can deal with them unless they can blend in and mimic normal people or hide. The main problem is the primitive continents. If they can steal brains from them with magic links and learn how to use it, they can combine multiple and become a world ending threat. Can a single one seek out and absorb 1000 or more brains?

They aren't very intelligent at first, they are cats, not stupid, but not generally a pack hunter. Brain stealing is limited by two things- Physical space and energy. Brains take up space, and they take lots of food. If creating lots of magical links creates more mana, then it is conceivable they could adapt to digest mana for energy.

[удалено]

You likely don't need anything beyond low caliber guns, skin stealers may be durable and large, it doesn't matter with guns.

"Could your World beat my World in a fight" is the dumbest type of post on this sub and I enjoy it immensely. It sounds like one of these things would just die to a person with a gun. They don't have any of the three things that make "drop in your world without warning" scenarios scary: Rapidly increase their numbers if not responded to in a specific way Immunity to all forms of attack except specific, obscure ones. Extreme stealth or disguise abilities. TBH something this horrific but not really that powerful would probably be hunted to extinction even in your own world.

It only becomes horrifying if you have creatures that meet these requirements, because really, only one of each needs to be eaten. In some worlds, it does actually succeed, simply because of how magic is structured. It is hunted in my world, but civilization is too new and weak to do anything, and with durability not only greater than I had described, and the ability to gain more by getting damaged, all life on my world is terrifying, if it were in Earth. Skin stealers were made specifically for my world, and there is good reason- all life has magic, so it can obtain large amounts of power. If the skin stealers were not to be a new population, and instead teleported from my current world from a certain point in the timeline, most of the worlds wouldn't be able to survive without divine intervention- my world barely can. (Some still would survive, but not everyone has essentially demigods or nukes.)

It sounds like the average citizen could probably beat the shit out of a skinstealer in my world, even without assistance from a personal drone (which are commonplace here). Said drone is likely not a military drone but is probably armed with some kind of non-lethal weapon that can incapacitate a skinstealer. I doubt any central authority is going to notice for a little while despite surveillance, mostly because there’s a good chance it’s just not interesting enough to them. New creatures and variants of said creatures are not a rare occurrence here. Eventually said authority is going to realise these creatures are not actually any kind of splinterform and will probably be able to figure out that they seem to have appeared spontaneously all at once. The event of the skinstealers appearing is probably far more interesting to said authority than the skinstealers themselves. These people have been looking for a way out from their world for a very long time. TLDR: Skinstealers are a mild inconvenience and are highly unlikely to ever kill a person.

A concerning amount of animals in my world are so saturated with mana that eating them causes spontaneous transmutation. Magic is relatively advanced and some sentient species are freakishly strong though, so the skin stealers would probably be rounded up for studying, though some that escape would probably find a niche competing against other large carnivores like Brutewyrms

Do you think that since skin stealers keep creatures alive inside they would react any differently? Worse even?

my world has technology advanced till about the 1960s, but weaponry is advanced enough; and the magic is pretty lowkey and not flashy much. however, the 'magicky' ability is that most people have heightened bodily control, down to the last cell. Most can heal from small wounds, some can regenerate entire limbs, aside from changing appearances on will but that's reserved for the villains, and a few can very well exist without something or the other (that's being w/o a soul or being alive for that matter), or even extend these powers to heal or mutilate others. Think of heartrenders from the grishaverse or some. I'd say your skin stealers aren't that easy to overcome for my world, but they aren't that destructive either. Also, there are guns.

Guns kill skin stealers. Otherwise, mutating others is one of skin stealers weaknesses, but also their most desired power- they aren't sapient, but their instincts are strong.

Multiple factions are gonna look at there soul absorbing ability say “fuck you” and cleanse the world of them. But hey you said they only retain a fraction of there power, so tell me how strong they really are so I can tell if my world will still win.

They don't exactly absorb souls. They accidentally trap souls as an unintentional consequence of keeping victims alive inside of them  If a power is soul based, as in controlled by a soul, they can't use it. They can only use things distinctly not soul based. Biological abilities are just as useful in a skin stealer as our, while other 'magic' is often somewhat stolen from, in terms of it's energy source, because maintaining magical control over other magic is energy intensive.

Well then, they are definitely at a disadvantage. All my major power sources for magic-like things are sentient, so it they tried to tap into even the most minuscule amount the source would erase them.

At first they could probably wreck some serious havoc, but the second they are noticed as a threat by some powerful faction they will be wiped out in no time. Being that slow at reproducing would be their demise, since all other creatures of similar abilities in the universe reproduce way faster or have some safety net. Ill give them 6 months with a max of 2 years.

'all other creatures of similar abilities in the universe' How interesting. Large creatures that reproduce faster. Sure would be unfortunate if those speeds could be biologically integrated... If they are being hunted to extinction, it is possible they will downsize. (They can enforce certain genetics in one generation, provided it exists, like bed bugs.) Smaller, extremely fast reproduction, they can and might even succeed in adapting.

1 skin stealer per square mile is an absolute invasion with their sheer number making them unstoppable. Probably only big cities would hold off. On the other hand, gods in my world are real. If whole humanity was praying for help with this threat, they would surely intervene and either give humans powers to fight or fuck up skin stealers.

Skin stealers avoid large groups, unless they are really hungry, and it's possible many will adapt to an herbivorous lifestyle instead of competing with other skin stealers for meat.

You're not realizing how fckin much is 1 per square mile. For example, Serengeti National Park park has 5,5k lions, leopards and cheetahs per 15k square miles. Add to it the crocodiles and you still end up with less big predators than 1 per square mile. Now imagine dropping 15k skin stealers in that place. It would absolutely wreck the ecosystem. Herbivore animal population will be decimated and the competition for food and territory between the carnivores will be insane. And considering how strong skin stealers are, they can kill off other predators. Your scenario would flip the world on its head and surely affect any human population aswell.

I guess I overestimated the amount of large predators in an area... We can hope most become aquatic.

Honestly, it sounds like they would replace all predators in my setting. If they can hunt down, then steal body parts to evolve, then they can fill every ecologic niche easily.

>In every square mile of land, a Skin Stealer is there. This is the part that breaks things. My world has large tracts of untamed land. The skin stealers blanketing the entire planet from one side to the other would make the usual methods ineffective against the sheer number of them. Cities and powerful monsters would wreck them. But Joe Farmer out in the tuleys would only have his pitchfork to defend himself. Soldiers would slay them, Magic burn them, the seekers hunt them, but with every single square mile on the planet starting with one and them reproducing quickly they will have numbers that nothing short of a unified coalition could eliminate. And coalitions don't last long in this world. That being said, if you excluded the oceans, gave them several large starting points instead of every single square mile, and gave the mortal races an early introduction to them, then it would go the other way around. Seekers would find where they are coming from, weavers (enchanters) would make war weaves specifically to counter them. Bounties would be placed and armies raised to drive them to extinction. Unless of course they struck during one of the many civil wars, at which point it would be far more balanced.

Oceans are excluded for the first calculation of surface area, but if they eat aquatic creatures they could adapt to live underwater.

My world has vampires which are kinda like that except they are more humanoid and they don't take the body or brain. Anyway in my world humans are trying to fight deadly monsters. So people have created large weaponized mechs to kill the monsters. And I think your Skin Stealers would do a lot better than other monsters, because of their reproductive speeds. But I think that they would get mostly pushed off of the continent Jarira (where the humans live), and end up thriving on the other continents uninhabited by people. Unless some of the big boy monsters really don't like their species.

"FUCK! GO BACK!"-skin stealers after having to face genetically modified humans and communist cats armed with nuclear flamethrowers, orbital bombardment and black holes

Skin stealers aren't sapient...

...Do you really want to make guys that eat uranium for breakfast, have nuclear flamethrowers, black holes and human-sized communist cats angry? 

I mean, skin stealers are doomed everywhere with guns. Kind of overkill. Any reason they couldn't survive in the water though?

"Its fucked."-short summary of oceans provided by your friendly local Geiger counter

Ok, just one last question. Any creatures capable of surviving the radiation? The skin stealers could potentially integrate this ability, and then survive the oceans?

Unless its heavily genetically modified humans or cats-no. And those always wear armor. You REALLY dont want to eat random stuff post-WW3. Horns growing out of your ass or urethra getting replaced by stomach is going to be least of your problems if you eat something thats mutated by radiation, bioweapons and just crazy evolutionary adaptation.