Entomon Wilson's wandering weevils

Entomon Wilson's wandering weevils are a magical species of boll weevil, created by Entomon Wilson.

Background

They are a colony based species, with a hive mind. They are made up of several castes including, a worker caste, a warrior caste, and the Queen. The warrior caste has huge mandibles and are poisonous having a poison in the Tetrodotoxin family. When the weevils are traveling to a new location the warrior weevils get into a ball around the queen and appear to roll, while defending her, while the worker caste formed a carpet around the ball.

Wilson created them in order to increase the strength of his magical abilities. The weevils excrete dung that has magical property of causing spells within its area of effect, to increase in power, exaggerate outside of their normal limitations, increase the length of duration, or in some cases causing spells to completely malfunction. For example the musical spells of The Piper which would normally only effect one species at a time, would expand its influence to include people, pets, and even himself. Gnomish magical rope would malfunction, and not tie correctly(sticking to everything), or wouldn't stay tied. Ice and Fire spells tended to be increased in power, becoming hotter, or colder than normal. It takes several days for the dung to lose its potency after it is excreted.

Due to the appetites of the weevils or the effects of their dung, many nations had been destroyed(in some cases completely eliminated) in the path of the weevil's journeys. Some nations were simply destroyed by having all their plant life eaten, and others were destroyed by trying to destroy the weevils by magic, only having their spells backfire, or be greater than they had anticipated. The path of the weevils, and facts about their biology was recorded in Insects of Serenia and the Surrounding Lands, Volume III: T to Z. However it was unknown when they first reached Daventry, or who stopped them. But as it turned out they were bound underneath a magical stump in Daventry. A stump with a legend, warning that Daventry would be destroyed if the stump was ever removed. Rosella didn't heed the warning, and had the stump removed releasing the Weevils on Daventry, almost destroying the kingdom, if it wasn't for her quick decisions and actions in getting them back into the hole, and replacing the stump so that they could not escape again.

If the weevils had consumed the faery magic it could have been the end of the Old Woods, of Daventry, and perhaps the world.

Traits

Grey insects with two yellow spots on their back.

Timeline

• Over 900 years before SNW, they were created by Entomon Wilson in order to increase his powers. There were three outbreaks since then.

• 812 years before SNW, the weevils attacked Sideria.

• 500 years ago in the spring, the weevils attacked the Vale of Obscurity.
• 140 years before SNW, the weevils attacked the Duchy of the Solicitous Boar.

Behind the scenes

See also poison, venom, toxin and bane for some of the similarities and differences between terminology. This article is not the place to discuss pedantic online debates on terminology.