Having trouble with using plausable science and more fantastical elements.

[Chie'N'Kadath]

For some time, I've been working a novel trilogy known as The Forgotten Hollows. After several drafts, including the original draft I have now dubbed 'Land of the dead, but in Britain' (No creativity in it at all, thankfully the original 'creator' gave the project to me so I could let my mind go wild.) I finally have the story where I want it. I'm running into some walls though.

With sci-fi, a common rule is that it has to have some realistic science, and if it is implemented successfully, the writer can then suspend the writers belief on the more fantastical elements. The creature I created for the series, the Hollow, is a very intelligent parasite that uses other intelligent beings for a host, and the hollow parasite then multiplies while originally nesting in it's hosts body, and once it has multiplied the skin along with all organs except the heart and brain, are eaten away and the hollow creates a new body built around the skeleton of the human using a resin like secretion. The 'parasite' form of the hollows is extraterrestrial, although they didn't come here on a spaceship, because it would be stupid to say that, although they are intelligent, a worm like parasite with no arms or limbs that is no more the size of the average earth worm (I used many attributes of earthworms to give them a more believable biology when it comes to their weaknesses and certain attributes like how they reproduce.) could pilot, let alone build a spaceship. The wall that's really bugging me is on the more 'cultural' traits of the hollow. I was sitting and thinking, as in my original ideas, once they had a host they would perform rituals, but I was wondering 'Why would a parasitic creature have such a culture?' I really want to keep in their religious rituals and the like, but I'm having a hard time wondering if I could make the skeptical reader believe it. If anyone could suggest ways to help me keep this while sticking to somewhat believable science, that would be nice.

[Shaun]

You'd have a very difficult time convincing people of the reasons for a parasitic worm being intelligent and having a religious culture. I don't think there's a way to do that. You can make them intelligent by having them integrate with the intelligence of whatever they are inside, since that would make some sense.
Why do they have to have a religious culture?

[Chie'N'Kadath]

You can make them intelligent by having them integrate with the intelligence of whatever they are inside, since that would make some sense.

I have already done that, I thought I mentioned that but maybe I'm thinking of a post on another forum. The parasites burrow into the hosts brain, which is why they can match us in intelligence by using the hosts brain as well as unlocking their memories, without having to 'research' us, because that seems to be a bit of a stretch as well.


Why do they have to have a religious culture?

They don't absolutely have to, but in early drafts I thought it helped personify them. They were quite different back then, though. When my friend Lukas and I were still working together, he was tying the story into his universe with his alien creatures the 'Lybrarians,' and suggesting that the hollows were biological weapons created by the Lybrarians and that the hollows had adopted the Lybrarians culture. When he dropped the project, I didn't feel like I should dabble around in his universe any further, so I dropped the Lybrarians altogether and began a slightly more focused and believable setting using my own universe and ideas. I just want to attempt and keep the religious aspects, because I am personally fond of them, but they can be dropped if there's no way to find a way to integrate it and keep it logical.

[Shaun]

They don't absolutely have to, but in early drafts I thought it helped personify them. They were quite different back then, though. When my friend Lukas and I were still working together, he was tying the story into his universe with his alien creatures the 'Lybrarians,' and suggesting that the hollows were biological weapons created by the Lybrarians and that the hollows had adopted the Lybrarians culture. When he dropped the project, I didn't feel like I should dabble around in his universe any further, so I dropped the Lybrarians altogether and began a slightly more focused and believable setting using my own universe and ideas. I just want to attempt and keep the religious aspects, because I am personally fond of them, but they can be dropped if there's no way to find a way to integrate it and keep it logical.

The problem is that parasites aren't complex enough to have a culture recognizable by human beings. What that means is that they may have a culture, but it's not something we can comprehend. Think about trying to figure out the culture of a bee. Bee's are on the same intelligence plane as you or I, because they generally function on a hivemind (which is where that word comes from anyway). They have very little in reasoning power and much of what they do is based on instinct. The same is for parasites. They don't have a humanistic culture, which is what you're trying to give them even though it is in the guise of something alien, and to apply humanistic values to something that is purely alien in nature is extremely difficult. A parasite has a smaller brain and generally has two goals: to feed and to reproduce. That's basically it. Sometimes there are secondary goals, but nothing nearly as complex as what you are I might have as goals. They don't recreate new goals out of nowhere like we do because of the fact that they are parasites. Invasive parasites especially don't have alternate motives when engaging with a host. Most of what happens in behavioral modificiation do to the existence of an invasive parasite is due to side effects (usually from a secretion of sorts by the parasite either to calm the host or to force the host's body to do what is necessary for feeding and reproducing). You should really look this up so your parasite becomes more realistic. You'd be amazed what you can find in a good book on parasites. We are home to quite a few disturbingly manipulative little creatures.
So, having said all this, try not to infuse too much humanistic culture into the mix. Parasites are small and lack the brain capacity to do a whole lot in the first place. At most you can swing having your parasites controlling the human mind, but trying to introduce religion is probably something that would be near impossible to make believable. That's my opinion. But you should research parasites. It'll help you a lot.

[Chie'N'Kadath]

Thanks for the suggestions. That is one of the things I have done to help develop the creatures, in fact I had in early descriptions after they turned from biologically engineered monsters to the parasitic creatures they are now, described them as 'worm like' in appearance and in some actions. I decided to study worms, and although the typical worm is not parasitic, of course my studies also went into tapeworms and other 'worms' that inhabit our system. Much of what you have mentioned are all things I have considered, but that's why I started having conflicts with my desire to have a religious culture while not having to go through a third* total overhaul of their biology. Even when they use the human mind to expand their intelligence, they still aren't truly that far from parasites; as you said, they pretty much exist to eat, reproduce, and repeat process. They do adopt some more human traits once they take over their host, but those traits are still from the human, not really them, and they try to block it when working with the humans mind. They show no emotions, which is one of the easiest ways to tell a 'hollow' from another human. I have tried my best to create a realistic biology, and they still have fantastical elements to them, but I try to keep even those traits to be 'believable.' I'm just going to drop the religious culture and similar ideas, though I still quite like them enough maybe in another story I'll use them. I'm still far from completion of my novel, and that's why I needed to get some input before I end up making a mistake. Thanks for the suggestions, however! All the help I can get is useful.

[Shaun]

Something you might consider if you really want some sort of "culture" is to consider an evolution of a true symbiotic relationship, where the human and the parasite are not only connected, but are born together, and through time culture is created as the species slowly merge. You might have to do more research on the biology of that though, but it might work.