open/close all folders
Vita Carnis Species
In General
Fleshy and meat-like organisms that populate the world of Vita Carnis. Originally discovered in 1931, the following decades saw them integrate into Earth's ecosystem.
- Evil Is Visceral: All species of Vita Carnis, aside from The Singularity, look as if they've been skinned alive, and the majority of them are extremely dangerous to human beings.
- Nature Is Not Nice: While Vita Carnis does have many supernatural elements, especially its origin, it has mostly integrated into the Earth's ecosystem. The result of this new introduction to the environment is that mankind is back on the food chain.
- Non-Malicious Monster: While they can be very clever, the more dangerous species of Vita Carnis don't show signs of being sentient. They're simply predators following their instincts to eat and kill.
The Crawl
Its recent inclusion in the ecosystem has caused many major changes in nature's balance
A species of meaty tendrils from which other Carnis creatures eventually develop.- Hijacking Cthulhu: People have started to cultivate Crawl in large numbers, even creating farms full of them. The Crawl harvested from these farms is processed into very effective fertilizer, and some people are mentioned to have taken to eating it.
- Planimal: The Crawl looks, grows, and photosynthesizes similarly to vines, but it's made up of red meat, making it the target of carnivores rather than herbivores.
- Meat Moss: The Crawl resembles veins, being able to grow on walls and other manmade structures.
- Monster Progenitor: The Crawl is where most of the other Vita Carnis grow on and come from.
- Mundane Utility: Soon after their arrival, the Crawl was eventually added to the list of crops humanity cultivates. They're used mostly for fertilizer and later as food.
Trimmings
Although its appearance is unsightly, it is a cowardly creature.
Small, defenseless scavengers that are sometimes kept as pets.- Face of a Thug: The Trimmings may look rather gonky and threatening, but they're completely harmless. At worst, they're just a nuisance with their loud screaming and occasional pest infestations. However, some have theorized that their screaming is a ploy to desensitize or even drown out the cries of those being attacked by mimics.
- Lovable Coward: They prefer to avoid direct confrontation, screaming and fleeing when threatened. As for the "Lovable" part, some people have chosen to keep them as pets.
- Mundane Utility: Aside from being kept as a pet, Trimmings can also be used as living garbage chutes thanks to their diet.
- No Indoor Voice: In Guide to owning a pet Trimming, trimmings are noted to constantly make loud screaming sounds when they're active, which is why trimming pet owners are recommended to feed them in the late morning to make sure they're active then, rather than in the middle of the night.
Meat Snakes
The meat snake will take the skull from the consumed organism and use it as its own.
Massive snake-like creatures whose skulls come from dead animals. Fortunately, they are passive and feed solely on carrion.- Cult: If one of the newspaper clippings is to be believed, then an absolutely huge Meat Snake has been the target of "cult activity".
- Scavengers Are Scum: Averted. In spite of their ghastly appearance, the meat snakes are passive, and they're only ever shown to be beneficial to humanity by disposing of corpses.
- Skull for a Head: The skulls equipped by meat snakes tend to protrude outward from the meat snake's mouth, giving them this look.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Averted. Meat snakes are not aggressive, and their only role in the ecosystem is to eat carrion, which is helpful in mitigating plagues and cleaning up after wars.
Mimics
A mature mimic's diet is composed entirely of human flesh.
Mimics start out as small quadrupedal predators, eventually growing into tall humanoids that prey solely on humans. While they don't seem to be sentient, mimics are very clever and patient, being able to disguise themselves with clothing, hide in furniture, and stalk humans for long periods of time until they can determine when their target is most vulnerable.- Boom, Headshot!: Shooting them in the head is one way to immobilize them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: They're initially mentioned in the Living Meat Research Documentary to be nigh-invulnerable to most human weapons, making fighting back not an option. Mimic defense instructional tape instead retcons that they can be immobilized using weapons. Considering the nature of the setting, this may be completely intentional.
- Glamour Failure: While mostly able to blend in with large crowds, Mimics still retain their slasher smiles and extremely long fingers while disguised.
- Humanoid Abomination: Mimics are spawned from the crawl like the other Carnis species and initially have a grub-like form similar to trimmings, but as they mature, they take on a distinctly humanoid shape. Adult mimics resemble elongated, skinless humans with bulging eyes and wide, toothy grins. If that weren't enough, mimics that are particularly successful hunters can apparently grow skin and learn to blend in with their prey by wearing clothes to obscure their shape.
- Knight of Cerebus: The Crawl, the Trimmings, and the Meat Snakes, as gross and creepy as they might be, are characterized by the documentary as harmless toward humans and other living organisms. But the Wham Line that Mimics feed on humans reveals that at least one Living Meat creature really is as dangerous as it looks — and all the creatures revealed after this one are even worse.
- Mimic Species: Their roughly humanoid figure allows them to pass off as a human, given that they're wearing enough clothing to cover up their red skin. Older mimics can develop human-like skin which makes them harder to detect, although their faces and hands are still a dead giveaway.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pretty much the only thing you can do when in the vicinity of a Mimic is to run as fast as you can since the Mimics prefer to get you when you are cornered. If there's nowhere to run however...
- Mimics in turn will also pull this after a successful hunt, preferring to flee from human settlements before digesting their meals.
- To Serve Man: Adult and Elder Mimics exclusively eat human flesh and nothing else. Worse still, the Mimics hunt down people when they are vulnerable and alone.
- Slain in Their Sleep: Prefer to hunt down people when they’re vulnerable and alone, and no one is more vulnerable when they’re home alone, sleeping in their bed.
- Slasher Smile: The entire species has one of these. In fact, these twisted smiles, along with their long fingers, are the best ways to tell when a Mimic is walking among people.
- Super-Persistent Predator: They stalk their prey for quite a long time while memorizing their routine. They'll strike at them only when they are at the most vulnerable (preferably alone and sleeping).
Harvesters
If you are stung by a harvester, there will be no way of helping you.
Immobile organisms with large bulbs above-ground at their center, surrounded by underground tendrils that capture, paralyze, and exsanguinate large animals (including humans) which they will then absorb the nutrients from.- Bear Trap: The harvesters essentially act as massive biological bear traps, except their size (the tendrils can have a diameter of up to 150 meters) and their venoms make them far deadlier.
- Planimal: Although they aren't mentioned to photosynthesize, the harvesters are immobile organisms with an extensive network of meaty tendrils hidden underground.
- Man-Eating Plant: An odd example of this trope that isn't based on the Venus Flytrap. Harvesters snare heavy animals (such as humans), then use a second type of tendril to absorb the creature's blood before dragging it underground to consume it further.
- You Are Already Dead: There's no known cure for harvester venom, so if you're stung you don't have long to live even if you do somehow get free of the tendrils.
Hosts
If an organism inhales the spores, the particles will find their way into the organism's brain and infect them.
Hosts of Influence, usually shortened to just Hosts, are vaguely humanoid predators that don't actively hunt, but instead release spores to Mind Control their prey into kneeling in front of them to be Eaten Alive.- Humanoid Abomination: To an extent, the host has a humanoid upper body, but its lower half is nothing but tendrils that root on the ground.
- Mind Control: The host releases spores that infect any organism that inhales them. Hours after ingesting the host's spores, a victim will drop what they're doing and immediately begin wandering in search of the nearest host to offer themselves to. Fortunately, this effect wears off after 36 hours, and the spore infection can also be treated.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: It's implied their spores are part of the addictive flavour enhancers. Exactly why someone would use the spores in this way is unclear.
Monoliths
What the monoliths do is simply stand and do nothing.
Colossal organisms that stand in a large circle on an unnamed island in the Hudson Bay.- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: There was an incident in which they went on a rampage and killed a team of researchers.
- Eldritch Abomination: 120-meter tall humanoid creatures that appeared decades after The Crawl first showed up on Earth. Aside from one incident in which they went on a rampage and killed a team of researchers, the monoliths spend all of their time standing silently in a circle on an island that does not exist in the real world. On top of that, they seem to play no actual role in the ecosystem and have no discernible way of getting the energy and water needed to sustain themselves.
- EMP: On one occasion, a monolith roared at approaching military vehicles, creating an EMP that disabled them.
- Healing Factor: Even damage from military-grade missiles is quickly repaired.
- Humanoid Abomination: While less humanoid in appearance than the mimics, the monoliths still vaguely resemble the human form with two legs, a torso, a flat triangular head with a hole in the middle, and dozens of thin tendrils in the place of arms.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Long-distance missiles fired by the military were only able to damage a monolith, and even then the creature quickly regenerated the damaged areas.
The Singularity (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
The population of these "creatures" is unknown
Ominous levitating spheres. Notable for breaking the laws of physics, not being made out of meat, and the fact that information about them is very heavily censored.- Ambiguously Evil: If the prince really is supposed to represent them, then it might be likely that their motives aren't malicious in the slightest. That being said, they are still idols of worship for a cult that is abusing the power of unnatural creatures that really don't belong to this world.
- Classified Information: Officials keep virtually all info about these things under wraps. So far, only a single paragraph of information on The Singularity has been shown, and it's implied that even this snippet isn't public information.
- Dark Is Evil: Completely dark spheres that break the laws of physics and release magnetic fields, with lots of information about them being censored implying that they're up to something sinister.
- Eldritch Abomination: Aside from levitating and not having any evident biological parts, The Singularity regularly releases energy signatures and magnetic fields for unknown reasons.
- Meat Moss: Averted. The Singularities look like dark spheres and are not made out of anything meat-like, which makes them stand out among the Vita Carnis creatures.
- Non-Standard Character Design: They’re the only Vita Carnis creature to not resemble anything meat-like, instead being pitch black orbs.
- Sinister Geometry: Mysterious dark orbs emanating equally mysterious signals that seem to form a pattern of some sort. Given the heavy censorship imposed on information regarding these things, they probably aren't up to any good.
- The Spook: Apart from having powers that break the laws of physics, not much is known about the Singularities thanks to the government heavily censoring all information related to them.
Organizations
National Living Meat Research
- Framing Device: The first several videos in the series, later compiled into "Living Meat Research Documentary," are presented as an educational tape created by the organization. This introduces the audience to the Vita Carnis universe and the differences between it and our own.
The Canadian Government
While Vita Carnis is a global phenomenon, much of the series focuses on Canada, and the Canadian Government plays a significant role in the series as a result. They are the ones behind Mimic defense instructional tape.
- Masquerade: Downplayed. While the existence of Vita Carnis is common knowledge, they have a tight grip on information regarding the singularities and the island inhabited by the monoliths. Even the existence of mimics was covered up until the situation got out of hand.
C.A.R.C.A.S
The Containment And Research Consult Association Society is a group dedicated to researching Vita Carnis. Not much else has been revealed about them.
- Fun with Acronyms: Containment And Research Consult Association Society.
- La Résistance: The only people in the setting who believe that integrating meat monsters into normal human life might be a bad idea.
The Cult (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
A mysterious cult that seems to have aligned itself with Vita Carnis. They have infiltrated the military and the private sector (e.g., Nutrire Co.). They can be identified by their symbol, which is a red triangle inside of a black circle.
- Apocalypse Cult: Their exact goals aren't yet known, but The Cult is shown to assist Vita Carnis by selling Host spores as "Flavor Enhancer".
- Big Bad Ensemble: While the Singularity made the Vita Carnis, the Cult are responsible for integrating them into society and causing the current issues facing humanity.
- Conspiracy Placement: They are definitely not shy about putting their symbol on anything that they're associated with, and newspaper clippings reveal that their gatherings have been discovered on numerous occasions.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Vita Carnis, despite causing damage to humanity and the ecosystem, are just animals who are acting out their nature and the more dangerous creatures are shown to not be sentient at all while acting as predators. The cult, on the other hand, is willingly aiding the Vita Carnis species and making sure that their fellow humans will suffer as a result.
- Sigil Spam: The cult's triangle has appeared several times throughout the series, being used as the corporate logo for Nutrire Co. and showing up on the uniform of a soldier in Meat Snake Specimen.
