a couple monster ideas

changeling and succubi/incubi are fun. weird things that fuck with your perception and secretly work to murder you. i don't like how succubi are always played as sexy women who want to fuck men to death, seems uncomfortable and objectifying to me, so here's a different way to do it.

CHANGELING
psychic parasite, cultivated by elves. after stealing a fetus/infant/child sometimes they implant/replace it with a changeling to avoid detection. latches onto guardian host (often times mother, but any guardian its most in contact with). host becomes incapable of being seperated from baby, obsesses over it, eventually growing paranoid and caustically protective, afraid that any and everybody is out to hurt them/the parasite. the parasite feeds on these feelings and uses these twisted ideas to form a disguise of a harmless, though particularly emotionless, child. implying the child is anything but ire draws anger from the host, as does threatening or trying to remove parasite. if parasite is removed from host they will both eventually die. a detect alignment will show chaotic, a reveal trueform will show the parasite in reality (a gray, lanky, slimey, featureless, wrinkled bug eyed thing roughly the size and shape of a child but with remora sucker for a mouth). the truth will rupture the mind of the host. removing a changeling is very difficult.

changeling is the neonate form. it creates paranoia and protectiveness in the host to create a fugue state which forces the host to flee into a deep dark secluded place where the changeling can finally consume the host and gestate. after a period of time the parasite absorbs the mind of the host, using its soul and death energy as fuel to power a quantum 'jump' into the ethereal realm where it becomes a gaseous psychic daemon which wanders the cosmos absorbing sentient radiation from other beings like a filter feeder.

SUCCUBUS
related to changelings. seeks out lonely betrayed depressed individuals and attaches to them, slowly becoming domineering and posessive partners. feeds on absorbing their will energy until the host is completely dependant on them. works basically the same as a changeling, but in reverse, the host is completely dependant on the succubus and in advanced cases cannot be away from the parasite without suffering panic attacks neurosis and self harm. the succubus seeks to gaslight demean manipulate and control all those around them and they worm into the minds of their subjects, replacing all of their memories personality and eventually whole mind with the will of the succubus. succubi will often try to gather more than one host, particularly powerful succubis may be found at the center of some chaos cults.
succubis will stalk their host for weeks, watching them and observing their lives from afar, occassionally trying on different forms and meeting the host to calculate the optimal form for psychic bonding to the host. this form will often take the shape of what archetypal
ideas the host wishes to see in themselves. some succubis take on a weak helpless or desperate form at first to build a bond of trust with the subject, before shifting to control.

changelings and succubuses are not truly intelligent, as they only imitate life and personality based off of the expectations of their prospective host. through the psychic connection they osmosis ideas to use, but cannot create new ideas of their own. once disconnected from their host they revert back to their true form, mindless insectile screeching and vicious. they are, however, easy to kill in this form as they have no other real defenses.

succubis spread by implanting eggs into their host(s) and taking them to a secluded place where the hosts are injected with paralyzing venom. then the succubus leaves. eventually the eggs hatch and eat their way out of the still living hosts, slowly feeding and molting until they reach maturity and disperse.
succubis typically ignore the existance of other succubis. rarely two succubis may compete for the same host, at such time a vicious game of manipulation takes place which often results in the death of all involved.