Visceri

"You cannot slow us. You cannot stop us. The Godmind shall ascend."

- Planet-Wide Psychic Transmission detected overhead Lak'Vrey (circa. 953.M40)

The Visceri are a race of highly psychic humanoids native to the Sephadollion Sector, masters of psionic sorcery that in ancient times once lorded over the entirety of the said Sector. They were thought to be exterminated twice, once during the Great Crusade at the hands of the Luna Wolves Legion and once during the xenocidal campaign known as the Lak'Vrey Retaliation. However, in recent years, many have begun to suspect that the Visceri did not die with the destruction of their homeworld, the survivors still lying in wait, watching, preparing, growing in strength until the day they might rise up to challenge the Imperium once again.

Viscerath
The planet Viscerath had always been an inhospitable world, it's landscape nothing but wide basalt plains occasionally broken up by large crystalline formations that towered overhead like mountains of glass. No one would have expected life to thrive here, but it did, in the form of tiny mammalian creatures that lived with the crystal crags, gathering around the small water reservoirs that collected in the deepest recesses of the earth, feeding on lichens and mosses that grew around them. Over time, these tiny mammals began to evolve into sentience, forming primitive tribes of humanoids that roamed the grey plains, searching for resources in a land with so little to offer. They called themselves the Viscerai, a name that literally meant "Children of Viscerath" in their native tongue.

Then, one day, a tribal shaman named Ank'ir discovered a strange, glowing crystal within the depths of the the largest of the glass-crags, the Spine of the World. This strange, fragile rock increased his latent psychic abilities tenfold, allowing him to preform what could only be described as miracles. With the stone as his talisman, Ank'ir could move boulders with a thought, read the minds of his followers like an open book, call down lighting from the heavens at will. With this newfound power he united the nomadic Viscerai by force, transforming the scattered tribes into one great nation. Thus the Viscerai entered their golden age, and Ank'ir would forever be known to them as the Great Uniter.

As their civilization slowly progressed, science taking the place of superstition, the Viscerai began to discover that not just Ank'ir but all of their species were latent psychics. The mammalian ancestors had always possessed a sort of danger-sense, to warn them of the coming of larger predators, and thus this gift had been passed down through the generations as this psychic ability. Curious, the Viscerai's greatest minds delved into depths of the Spine of the World just as Ank'ir had, to discover that there was indeed truth to the legend. The crystals were real, and within the underground they were in surplus.

The crystal substance was named Lumen, and while it was fragile and practically worthless as an industrial material, the Viscerai scientists discovered that it had an extraordinary effect on Psykers. Prolonged proximity to a Lumen crystal focused a Viscerai's natural psychic abilities, increase their power tenfold. Excited by the prospects of this discovery, they of course revealed their discovery to the entirety of the Viscerai nation. They were found dead two days later, both their Lumen stockpile and all their research on the substance taken.

Ruination
The perpetrators of this heinous act were later discovered to be a group of Viscerai renegades known simply as the Chosen. This strange cult had always been seen as little more than a disorganized mass of madmen by the rest of the Viscerai, seeing their claims of Daemons and Dark Gods lurking beyond the veil of reality as little more than the ravings of lunatics. However, with the power of the Lumen on their side, the Chosen were revealed for what they truly were; servants of the Ruinous Powers. Using their newly augmented psychic strength, each and every one of the Chosen Cultists sacrificed themselves in a diabolical ritual that tore the Materium asunder and brought the forces of Chaos down upon the Viscerai, who experienced the full wrath of the Dark Gods on that day. Millions died at the hands of unholy warp-spawn, and thousands were transformed into living warp-gateways as the Daemonic overwhelmed the Viscerai's weak psychic defenses. It seemed that their entire species was doomed.

Their salvation came in the form of an unexpected hero: a young Viscerai scientist by the name of Lo’daan. Decades before, Lo’daan had theorized the existence of an immaterial plane that existed just outside the reality in which the material universe was situated. He had even published a formula he called the Calmspace Theorem, in which a psychically gifted individual, if properly focused, could project his own will into the immaterial plane through sheer logical reasoning. Of course at the time his theories had been dismissed as ludicrous, but with the oncoming daemonic scourge at their doorstep, the Viscerai turned to Lo’daan to save them from oblivion.

The resources of their entire civilization placed at his disposal, Lo’Daan created the schematics for a device he referred to as a Calmspace Generator. Powered by psychically-charged Lumen crystals, this warhead-like machine would focus the psychic power stored within the crystals Viscerai into a massive blast of psionic energy that would, in theory, send shockwaves rippling through the Immaterial Plane, thus banishing the psychically-spawned creatures that plagued them back to their home dimension forevermore. Throwing themselves into this project, the Calmspace Generator was finished in less than a Terran week, and not a moment too soon, for the Daemons were closing in on Viscerath’s capital city of Choraal. The remnants of the Viscerai military desperately held off the warp-spawn to give Lo’daan and his technicians just a few more precious hours to complete their weapon. Lo’daan completed the final procedures as the Daemons breached the walls of the development compound, and activated the Generator.

The blast from the device’s activation was enormous, manifesting within both the Materium and Immaterium as a massive wall of pent-up energy. Daemons all across Viscerath screamed with rage as they were ripped from the material plane and forcefully shunted back into the Warp, the Chaos Gods themselves momentarily united in their anger at loosing world ripe with such radiant souls. The wall of light completely vaporized the development center, the Generator within, and even Lo’daan and his valiant assistants, leaving nothing behind but a smooth, glass-covered crater. All across the planet the Viscerai gathered to praise their salvation from the predations of the Warp and mourn their savior, the young scientist turned martyr.

Rebuilding
In the wake of the daemonic incursion that would later be known as the Days of Ruin, Viscerai society was forced to rebuild from the ground up, in some cases quite literally. Around the crater christened Lo’daan’s Rest, the tenacious survivors constructed the city of New Choraal, where its newly-formed government would decide the fate of the species.

Determined to never again suffer an event like the Days of Ruin, the Viscerai Ruling Coalition (the VRC) placed heavy restrictions on the mining and distribution of Lumen crystals, their usage now requiring first-class authorization from the Coalition itself. The worship of the Daemonic was made a capital offense, those that practiced such beliefs would be sentenced to immediate execution. Finally, the VRC poured its resources into understanding the nature of the Immaterial Plane, redubbing the Calmspace Theorem the Calmspace Principle and reinstating it as the Viscerai’s first major law within the area of warp-science.

After several decades had passed and the Viscerai having finally solidified their control over most of their ravaged homeworld, scientists discovered that the Warp and the powers within were in fact derived from the base emotions of not just the Viscerai, but all living creatures throughout the cosmos. Psychic creatures such as themselves were particularly affected by the Warp due to the fact that the Warp was in itself composed of psychic energy. With this revelation the VRC was faced with a dilemma; if the Warp was inherently corrupting to psychics such as themselves, what was to stop another daemonic incursion from happening in the future? Thus they tasked their most prodigious scientists with a new task; to find a way too permanently protect their species from the predations of the Immaterial Plane.

Doing so was easier said than done, and thus the Viscerai science division was forced to explore multiple avenues for potential success. They dabbled in the arts of biotechnology and geneshaping, complex mechanics and extra-dimensional physics, and after nearly a century of research the conclusion was created in the form of the first Psionic Crucible. The device would re-create any sealed within, augmenting their bodies to more efficiently channel the psychic power that lay within them through a combination of genetic alteration and Lumen-powered bionic enhancements implanted by the micromachinery within the Crucible. Curious, the VCR’s most prestigious members entered separate Psionic Crucibles to test its effects, and did not emerge disappointed. Their lifespans had been increased by centuries, they’re psychic powers leaps and bounds beyond their counterparts… and yet they were still not satisfied.

The newly-born Viscerors’ emotional responses had been dulled to a significant degree, but not entirely. They could still feel, and therefore they were still vulnerable to the powers of Chaos. Demanding to know why this was, the science division cautioned the Visceror that reliance on logic alone in decision-making, particularly in a leadership role, could have unforeseen consequences. Undeterred, the newly-ascended VCR ordered the creation a second set of nine-specially crafted Psionic Crucibles, from which nine beings would be reborn once more to form a new ruling council. With no choice but to comply, the nine Super-Crucibles were built, and from them nine new beings were born. They now called themselves the Visceryn, the “Saviors of Viscerath”.

With their rebirth the Council of Nine was formed and the old VCR disbanded, the new Visceror noble caste taking up its former position. Thus the inhabitants of Viscerath were officially renamed the Visceri, a broad all-encompassing term for the original Viscerai species and its two new subspecies. With the creation of the Council the Visceri civilization entered its Golden Age, one dictated by the cold logic of the Visceryn. All “superficial” practices were abolished, things like art, music and literature deemed unnecessary for the Visceri’s advancement as a species. New technologies were unlocked, including eventual discovery of how to synthesize artificial Lumen; a cheaper and more durable replacement capable of focusing psychic energy, though only natural Lumen retained the ability to store and amplify it. The basalt plains were industrialized as Viscerath became one teeming cityscape of a planet, the crystal spires hollowed out and transformed into places of government and administration. The Spine of the World became the Council of Nine’s fortress, and palace of glass from which they lorded over their subjects.

In just a few short decades, the Visceri had been transformed from a race of peaceful intellectuals to a coldhearted empire hellbent on advancement no matter the cost, and in this quest for advancement they looked to the stars, and saw them ripe for the taking…

Expansion
The first planet to fall under Visceri dominion was one that bore no name, a solitary planet orbiting a lone yellow star in Viscerath’s neighboring solar system. Appearing in the skies of this world in gleaming new starcraft equipped with warp-capable engines, the Visceri descended from on high to discover another sentient species: humans. Small tribes of primitive hunter-gatherers, the descendants of colonists left stranded by the Age of Strife, saw strange creatures fall from the skies in the bellies of metal birds and flocked to them, worshiping them as deities.

The Visceri meanwhile saw a potential resource in these ape-like mammals, and utilizing a potent form of psychic brainwashing known as Mindscourging, transformed the human population into an army of mindless slaves susceptible to their every command. Using them as their labor force, the Visceri transformed the nameless world into a continent-stretching Megacity much like what their homeworld had become. With its completion, the Visceri christened the planet Lak'Vrey, a name meaning “Second Home” in their language of Cerith.

From Lak’Vrey the Visceri spread throughout the galaxy like an intergalactic cancer, spreading to one planet after another in their relentless expansion. Human colonies fell under their sway as entire populations were subjected to Mindscourging, reduced to little more than teeming hordes of thralls bent to the will of their uncaring masters. These “Thrall Legions” as they were known, soon became an important facet of the Visceri society, as they served as both as an expendable workforce and source of cannon fodder within the Visceri’s armies, and were perhaps one of the largest contributing factor to the rapid pace of their conquests. Having conquered nearly an entire sector of space with minimal resistance, the Visceri now believed themselves to be unstoppable, a master race that would soon dominate the entire galaxy… until an Imperial Fleet appeared within their borders.

Wolves at their Door
Fresh from the Pacification of Luna, the Primarch Horus and his Legion were spoiling for a fight, and they found one in the Visceri. Almost immediately after entering the Sector their fleet was beset upon by Visceri Inceptors, who skimmed the fleet with a short-lived bombing run before vanishing into the blackness of the void as quickly as they came. The Imperial commanders were befuddled by the sudden skirmish, but Horus knew exactly what had happened: the xenos had retreated to inform the rest of their kind.

And inform the rest of their kind they did, the Viscerai scouts bringing the appearance of the Imperium's forces directly to the attention of the Council of Nine.

(MORE TO COME)

Biology
The name Visceri is in fact a broad term used to describe the race as a whole, for the Visceri are in fact divided up into three separate subspecies. The first and most numerous of these subspecies are the Viscerai; natural-born Visceri with low psychic aptitudes (ranging from the Kappa to Epsilon Grade). They somewhat resemble humans, but with thin, wiry, hairless bodies, chalk white skin, slanted foreheads, enlarged craniums, slitted nostrils and small holes is the sides of their heads that serve as sound receptors. Growing from the backs of their heads are several short, fleshy tendrils that some have mistaken for hair, when in fact these are nerve cords that focus and develop the Vicerai's natural psychic abilities.

When a Viscerai reaches high enough rank and merit within Visceri society, he or she is sometimes selected to be sealed within a Psionic Crucible, a unique coffin-like device that instigates a process known as the Ascension. Gestation can take several years, but when the Acsenion is complete the Visceri emerges as a fully-fledged Visceror, a member of the second "noble" subspecies. Visceror are physically different from the Viscerai in several ways: their craniums are more elongated, their nerve-cords longer, their bodies having grown taller to the point where they stand at a good seven feet. Changes also occur within the Visceror's body; their dopamine receptors have atrophied, leaving them with less access to emotion in order to temper their psychic power, and their sexual organs have disappeared, leaving them unable to reproduce. However, their psychic ability now ranges from the Gamma to Delta, making them dangerous psykers. Their lifespan has also trippled as a result of the Ascension process, as their bodies have reached such a level of internal homeostasis that they very rarely require sustenance.

A rare few Visceror are marked to one day ascend into Visceryn, the dangerously powerful ruling subspecies of the Visceri. When a member of the ruling Council of Nine dies due to age or accident, a chosen Visceror once again enters the Psionic Crucible, gestating for up to three or four decades before finally emerging. Visceryn have lost all their sensory organs save for their eyes and ears, communicating entirely through telepathy. They grow an extra pair of arms, and both their sexual characteristics and dopamine receptors disappear entirely, leaving them completely genderless and emotionless. Now Beta Grade psykers (though there have been reports of Alpha Grade Visceryn), the Visceryn govern over Visceri society as members of the ruling body known as the Council of Nine.

Society and Culture
"...for the Visceri, there are no variables, only absolutes. There is life or death, success or failure, victory or defeat, and nothing inbetween, for they cut out doubtfulness from their civilization like a societal cancer. I wonder, what is it like to never question the what ifs of existence? To trust that all shall play out as foreseen, no matter what the circumstances may be? I wonder..."

- From the compiled research of Cutler Kar (Pre-Defection)

Visceri society was one shaped by circumstance. The Days of Ruin forced them to realize the grave danger their own psychic ability represented, and thus they took measures to prevent such a catastrophe by creating the emotion-nullifying Psionic Crucibles. This in turn led them to the formation of the Council of Nine, who reorganized the Visceri into the image dictated by their own purely logical minds. It was that same logic that led to the creation of the Godmind, and thus Visceri society was irrecoverably changed into was it is in this day and age.

Their society is one based off of logic, and therefore the Visceri base all decisions depending on what is nessacery for the continued growth and expansion of their society. It was nessacery for the Psionic Crucibles to be built so that the Warp would hold no sway within their civilization, and therefore it is necessary for the Visceri to expand their borders so that they might re-order the galaxy into one dictated by logical necessity so that Chaos could no longer effect it. This is the mindset of the Council of Nine, and therefore it is the mindset of all Visceri, for the the Visceryn are the only ones within their society that live free of the parasitic influence of emotion. Emotion feeds Chaos, and therefore emotion is the enemy. The Visceri refer to this species-wide mindset as "The Cause".

Visceri culture is barely deserving of the name, for there is very little of it. They have no art, no music, no literature, for all of these things were deemed irrelevant. Their language survives only because of it's value for communication, and even that has been stripped down to it's bare basics. This same this same societal drive for logical necessity is reflected in their creations as well; their buildings, ships and weaponry all baring the same minimalistic style of precise geometric lines and perfectly symmetrical shapes. Indeed, their is little passion in the Visceri's society, only what they must do to advance The Cause. One might consider this to be a sad existence, but to any member of Viscei race, it is merely the way of things, for their civilization has progressed in such a manner for so long that it is quite likely they know no other way of living.

The Three Castes
The three Visceri subspecies also make up the three major castes within their society. The natural-born Viscerai make up the lowest rung on their societal pyramid, and are therefore the most numerous. This is partly due to the fact that one of the duties of the Viscerai Caste is the continuation of their own species through reproduction. However, there is no such thing as marriage or even mating within Visceri society: if a Viscerai wishes to reproduce, then he or she must formally inquire if a Viscerai of the opposite gender wishes to produce children at regular required intervals throughout his or her lifetime. The Viscerai of the opposite gender will of course except, as is their duty, and both will send samples of their DNA to Reproduction Center where their "children" will be grown from their combined genetics. Another duty of the Viscerai Caste is that all members must serve within either the Military, Science, or Government Divisions of their Caste depending on their preference. Some will even transfer from multiple Divisions in order to advance the Cause in as many ways as possible.

The second "noble" Visceror Caste is responsible with the oversight and administration of whatever Division they belong to, and thus only Viscerai that show exceptional leadership skills within their chosen Division are chosen to be granted the honor of the Ascension. Visceror leadership roles vary depending on which Division they belong to; Visceror Battleminds serve as commanders and powerful battle-psykers within the Military Division, Visceror Aethersmiths create powerful psychic weaponry and technology within the Science Division, and Visceror Overseers within the Government Division serve as the direct mouthpieces of the Council of Nine, relaying their orders to their fellow Visceri.

There is only one role for the final Visceryn Caste: membership within the Council of Nine and therefore command over the entire Visceri species. Visceror who show exceptional promise are chosen to undertake a second Ascension only if a member of the Council dies or is killed. As the purely logical rulers of the Visceri, the word of the Council of Nine is law, and none question it, for to defy them is to defy the Cause.

The Godmind
"So long as the Godmind exists, victory is all but assured."

- Kaas'va, Visceryn Councilor

The psychic gestalt known as the Godmind plays a critical role within Visceri society. A consciousness of pure thought and will anchored to the Material Plane within the Lumen Motherstone, the Godmind represents the hope and ultimate goal of the Visceryn: to create their own God of the Warp. Once it is powerful enough, the Godmind will be released from the confines of the Motherstone so that it may carve out it's own kingdom of logic and order within the Empyrean, fed by the Visceri's combined psychic strength until eventually it dominates the whole of the Warp. With that final victory the Visceri shall be free of the everlasting scourge that is Chaos, and with the power of a God at their beck and call they will reshape the galaxy in their image. That is their ultimate design thousands of years in the making, and thus the Godmind's true purpose is a closely guarded secret of the Council of Nine, lest their enemies catch wind of their plans.

To the rest of the Visceri species, the Godmind represents their final victory, though in what form they do not know. The Visceryn tell them of the Final Ascension, in which the Godmind shall see the galaxy bow before them, and that knowledge alone is enough. However, this knowledge has also led to the phrase "The Godmind shall ascend" to become commonplace as a kind of motivational saying, a reminder of the Visceri's inevitable triumph over all their enemies. When the Imperium first encountered the Visceri, they assumed the phrase was some kind of warcry, and the Visceryn in turn encouraged said belief, programming their Thralls to constantly chant "The Godmind shall ascend" in battle in order to keep their attention away from the Godmind's true purpose.

Currently, the Godmind's receptacle sits within the innermost vault of the Visceri Arkship Chariot of the Nine, protected by powerful Calmspace Generators and Hexagrammic Warding Runes so that the Chaos Gods remain oblivious of it's presence. Even now it waits, slowly growing in strength, waiting for the day of the Final Ascension to arrive...

Language
The Visceri's native language is known as Cerith, and it is perhaps the most literal language in the galaxy. Before the Council of Nine it was a beautifully complex dialect of both verbal and psychic intonations, where every sentence spoken was akin to poetry in structure and wording. The Visceryn abolished that simple beauty, reducing each and every word down to it's most literal and basic meaning in their quest to create a perfectly logical society. It is completely devoid of any metaphorical quality, and therefore every Visceri quite literally says what they mean to say while speaking. This also has lead to the saying "joking with a Visceri" within the confines of the Sephadollion Sector, a phrase that essentially means doing something futile or pointless.

When spoken, Cerith sounds like a collection of simple vowel sounds, mostly due to it's sheer simplicity. There are downsides to this format of language, as it is relatively easy for non-Visceri to learn, but on the other hand also quite effective for getting the point across in a few words as possible.

Thralls
"The humans should be grateful, for we are giving them a chance to contribute to the Cause. They should be very grateful indeed."

- Commander Or'set Thralls are psychically brainwashed non-Visceri about as commonplace within the Visceri society as Servitors are within Imperial Society. They serve as menials all kinds, from workers to servants to cannon fodder within the infamous Thrall Legions. Due to their sheer usefulness, Thralls are considered a sort of resource, and many Viscerai raids on unsuspecting planets have been merely to refresh said resource.

Thralls are created through a process known as Mindscourging, in which an unfortunate individual's mind is wiped of personality and independent thought by the means of a Mindscourge Gauntlet or similar device. In place of those traits, psycho-hypnotic guidelines are implanted, forcing the newly-created Thrall to obey any and all Visceri that might command him or her, and said process can also be fine-tuned so that a Thrall only obeys a specific master. A Thrall's mind cannot be restored by any known means after being subjected to Mindscourging, as they are little more than fleshy shells programmed to obey a set of directives.

There are several different variants of Thralls within Visceri society, the most numerous of which are Lesser Thralls. These Thralls are programmed to repeat the same task endlessly, and thus are usually used as menials. Next there are Greater Thralls, who can obey complex orders in order to preform a complex task, usually in service to a Viscerai or Visceror master. Then there are Battle Thralls, Thralls that have been programmed to associate certain images (usually that of enemy soldiers) with certain negative emotions, primarily anger. Nicknamed "Berserkers" by Imperial forces, Battle Thralls rampage across the battlefield with suicidal abandon regardless of the wounds they received, tearing the enemy apart in close combat armed with basic melee weapons. Naturally, these Thralls serve as the frontline vanguard of the Thrall Legions.

The rarest type of Thrall are Prime Thralls, who are subjected to a unique Mindscourging process that leaves them with some semblance of free will even after being programmed. Prime Thralls command other Thralls, retaining just enough decision-making ability to be semi-effective leaders whether in combat or in a workplace. Typically Prime Thralls were once commanders of some kind before being Mindscourged.

When not being used by their Visceri masters, Thralls are kept in stasis within Temporal Stasis Pods, which keep them in a state of suspended animation until they are called upon again. The sides effects of Temporal Stasis render Thralls pale and virtually hairless, making them easily identifiable. They are also characterized by their blank unchanging expressions and glassy, almost lifeless eyes, only the slight rise and fall of their chests giving any indication that they are in fact living beings.

Humans are the most common type of Thrall, though their have been mixed reports of Ork, Tau, and even Eldar Thralls being utilized by the Visceri. The only creatures seemingly immune to the Mindscourging are Space Marines, due to their inhumanly strong willpower, and Tyranids, as the process annihilates what little consciousness they possess, killing them instantly.

Homeworld
The Visceri homeworld is known as Viscerath, located at the very border of the Pyssel Sub-Sector within the Sephadollion Sector. Though no non-Mindscourged human has ever set foot upon it's surface to date, before being subjected to Exterminatus Viscerath appearance from orbit was described as "a glittering network of monolithic infrastructures, stretching as far as the eye could see". Given this description, the Inquisition classified Viscerath as a sort of xeno-constructed Hive World before ordering it's destruction.

Viscerath is now classified both a Dead World and a Forbidden World, as both it and the solar system in inhabited were declared quarantined by the Ordo Xenos in the wake of the Lak'Vrey Retaliation. The thermonuclear fires of the cyclonic torpedoes burned away most of the planet's atmosphere and penetrated so deeply into the crust that the molten mantle began to spill out on to the surface, the fumes from witch creating a new toxic atmosphere of deadly and volatile gases, transforming Viscerath into a volcanic hellhole completely devoid of life.

Lumen
One unique feature of Viscerath was a naturally-occurring mineral that formed within it's crust, known as Lumen by the Visceri. It appeared a bluish, crystalline substance, usually taking the form of large gems that while as fragile as glass, retained incredible psychoreactive qualities. Akin to the psychoconductive crystals used in the creation of Psychic Hoods and Force Weapons, Lumen not only focused psychic energy but amplified it, allowing even a being with the barest amount of psychic potential to focus his power to devastating effect, so long as he or she remained in contact with the Lumen. It was an essential material in many of the Visceri weapons and technologies, and it was once hypothesized by xeno-researcher Cutler Kar that Lumen could be used to create superior Force Weaponry.

It was also discovered that the Visceri could synthesize Lumen, though there were some drawbacks. This artificial substance, while more durable than natural Lumen and easy to produce, could only store psychic energy within rather than focus and increase it. It too was also heavily utilized by the Visceri for a number of different purposes, one of the most notable being the the binding and subjugation of summoned Daemons.

However, Lumen appears to be a mineral only produced within the confines of Viscerath's underground, and thus many a corporation and/or Mechanicus instillation has petitioned to establish mining operations on the planet in an attempt to discover if any viable Lumen deposits still remain remain. So far, each and every one of the prepositions have been denied, courtesy of the Emperor's Inquisition.

Trivia

 * Credit goes to Supahbadmarine for originally coming up with the idea for the Visceri. I sorta just built upon what he had already laid down.