Virus

The Virus is a dangerous, self-adapting infection that is unwittingly downloaded into the world of Darwinia.

Background
The origin or nature of the Virus is unknown. It is accidentally downloaded by the Darwinians in an effort to contact their creator, Dr. Sepulveda. Instead of contacting him directly, the Darwinians had located his e-mail system and began downloading files. Some of these were his Research files on new programs to put into Darwinia. However, there were a few spam e-mails among this group, three of which contained the Virus. The virus is based on a Trojan Worm and piggy backed on the e-mails to get into the system.

Immediately after being downloaded into the system, the Virus adapted to a form that best suited it: giant predatory insects and other dangerous creatures. Alongside this also and at the same time, the viral forms began killing the Darwinians, consuming their Souls to create more of themselves. Some of its new forms evolved within seconds of it entering the world, while others appeared later.

It is the nature of the Virus to consume anything that approaches and multiply. As time has gone by, the Virus has continued mutating into larger, more dangerous forms.

Using anti-viral weapons, the player and the Darwinians must combat the Virus. As the Virus has consumed Darwinians to multiply, dead viral forms leave behind Souls that can be collected and turned into new Darwinians at an Incubator.

Multiwinia
Even though the battle in the first game was a victory for the Darwinians, there was consequences on both Virus and Darwinians. The Darwinians were still fighting the Virus as they split into new tribes known as the Multiwinians. Though for a time they seem to fight for a common course, as the virus attacked regardless of tribe, the tribes divided over time. This allowed the virus to survive, though not before it was driven out of the main important areas of the world. Traces of the Virus effect remains on some places of the world and the The Tortured Expanse shows the dead trees left behind as the Virus impacted also the environment.

According to the lore of the sequel, the Virus no longer uses the living Multiwinians for its purposes and instead consumed the fragments of the souls lost to the Soul Destroyers. The Virus many forms now take a grey, ghostly appearance and they now are confined to within the depths of the Darwinia world. With the Multiwinians more interested in fighting each other then the Virus, it has been allowed to remain here and kept only in check by the fighting Tribes restricting its progress in areas they are fighting. The Virus' last attempt at a strike is located at The Last Stand wherein they trapped their former allies the Red Tribe and almost wiped them out. The Green Tribe, however, spared them this date.

According to the games lore, the area known as Scorched Earth had been the heaviest impacted area in the world. The area is left barren from fighting back the Virus. Meanwhile Barbs of Maddness has been twisted by the virus infection. As the Virus is still active within the world, according to the lore surrounding this area other places within the world are starting also to look like this area. However, as previously mention the virus is no longer on the offence and is simply trying to survive.

At one point to stop the warring Blue Tribe and Yellow Tribe the Shamen summoned a viral infection, the Shamen who summoned it wee destroyed in the process. When the two tribes teamed up, the infection was destroyed and the Shamen went into hiding.

Sometimes Crate Drops will give the player the ability to summon a random Virus. Virus variants unleashed by the player will bare their colouration, for examples Eggs spawned in by the Green Tribe will be green, the Yellow Tribe will spawn in yellow variants, Blue Tribes will be blue and the Red Tribe, Red. However, crates also spawn in neutral variants which are the normal dark grey colour versions of the virus. The soul exception is the DarkForrest, which will always appear black/dark grey in colour. Triffid are another exception, but the eggs they spawn are the neutral dark grey colour.

Viral Forms
There are many forms of the Virus.

Bug
There were Bugs in Darwinia prior to the coming of the Virus. They were a benign virus designed by Dr. Sepulveda to not grow beyond a certain limit, maintaining the balance of the world. The Darwinians hunted them for food as well as used them for other purposes. It is believed that the Virus adopted the form of the Bug in order to manifest its bug-like forms.

Virii
The initial form of the Virus. These two-dimensional creatures slink along the ground, slowly consuming the world of Darwinia. They multiply endlessly, creating great swarms. Eventually, the Virii combine and evolve into the next form.

Centipede
An early mutation of the basic Virii pattern caused them to expand into three dimensions. These Centipedes are stronger than the Virii they mutated from, but are also more concerned with their own survival. They will flee from an attacker if they take damage. Unfortunately as each part of their body is destroyed, they will simply break up into smaller and smaller components until fully wiped out. Centipedes are capable of consuming any Souls they find lying around and regrowing parts of their body.

Spider
The Viral outbreak was able to find and mutate the last of the Bugs that existed within Darwinia, and the Spiders are the result. They are blessed with extremely strong rear legs and are capable of leaping great distances. They prefer to pounce on prey from a distance, and appear to be invulnerable to standard Laser blasts. They can also lay spores, which will hatch into many more Virii if they are fertilised with a soul.

Spore Generator
During mutation, some of the Bugs gained the ability to lay vastly greater numbers of spores than the Spiders. These bloated and cumbersome creatures were gifted with the ability to hover above the ground out of danger. They are able to seed entire areas with dormant spores that will hatch into hundreds of Virii if fertilised by the souls of dead creatures. Thankfully the spores they lay cannot survive large falls, so the Spore Generator must descend to within weapons range in order to seed the ground.

Egg
Bloated, red sacs of viral death. Eggs are more dangerous than spores created by Spiders and Spore Generators. Launched by Triffids, Eggs can erupt into full-grown Spiders or large groups of Worms.

Ant
Ants are the primary work force of the Virus, working tirelessly from their giant Ant Hills. They collect Souls as well as Darwinians - to harvest their Souls, obviously - returning them to their Ant Hills to create more of their kind.

Red Darwinian/Evilianians
These Darwinians were born after the viral infection corrupted the Pattern Buffer. While Darwinian in form, they are motivated by the same drives as the other viral forms: spread, corrupt, multiply.

Evilians are witnessed in the sequel Multiwinia, though mostly their origins are unknown they serve the same purpose as the RedDarwinians did in the first game though are slightly bigger.

Soul Destroyer
The ultimate form of the Virus, the Soul Destroyer is the final evolution to counter the ever-strengthening Darwinians. Unlike the other viral forms, which kill the Darwinians to use their Souls and make more of them, the Soul Destroyer has adopted a more destructive weapon: erasing Souls from existence. Darwinians who die by a Soul Destroyer do not return to the Soul Repository and can never be reincarnated. They are gone forever.

Infection
The Virus in its raw form. It is not adapted to the environment of Darwinia and appears only as streams of glowing, red energy. It is quite dangerous as it cannot be directly combated and destroys anything it touches. Only by destroying its source can it be taken out.

Dark Forrest
Appearing in Multiwinia, the Dark Forrest is a corrupted normal forest that has been transformed by the virus as it ravaged the world.

Trivia

 * The Arrival of the Virus is one of the key important events in the history of Darwinia, having had the most impact on the Darwinians. IT caused the arrival of the first new Tribe and the destruction of Souls and set them Darwinians on the path to become the Multiwinians.