Glossary:Symbiote Codex

Symbiote Codex

Symbiote Codices refer to both the trace amounts of living abyss left in the bodies of symbiote hosts, with the greatest concentrations being found in the hosts' spinal cords; and to the metaphysical records of the personalities, memories, and any unique powers those hosts possessed stored within the Symbiote Hive-Mind. Absorbing an extracted physical codex enables a symbiote to temporarily channel the Hive-Mind's metaphysical codex, granting the symbiote access to any powers they possessed and sometimes letting the recorded codex's consciousness take control of the symbiote itself. It was theorized by the Maker that if a symbiote that has been disconnected from the Hive-Mind absorbs enough codices, its connection will be restored; though the only symbiote this is shown to have worked for was the Carnage symbiote - which already possessed a lingering connection to the symbiote god Knull due to absorbing a piece of the Grendel symbiote-dragon, which Knull had created and remote-piloted.

While it generally takes forty-eight hours for a symbiote to fully bond to a host, anyone who fully or partially bonds to a symbiote for any length of time is left with a codex. Supernatural entities like demons can also be imbued with symbiote codices, and can transfer them into people who've never bonded to symbiotes themselves - for example, Alejandra Jones received a codex from her Spirit of Vengeance, from when both it and the Venom symbiote had bonded to the Red Hulk. During her time bonded to the Venom symbiote, Anne Weying's codex merged with her womb which led to her becoming pregnant with her son Dylan. Dylan was a symbiote codex incarnated into a human form, making him a naturally created Human-Symbiote Hybrid. It is unknown if Dylan is also Eddie's biological son, as an alternate version of him was still born way after Eddie's death who didn't even bond to the Venom symbiote.

The consciousnesses of hosts are preserved within the Symbiote Hive-Mind as codices, effectively making it an afterlife for deceased hosts. Hosts who have been bonded for lengthy periods of time are able to move freely through the Hive Mind, and can even subtly influence the world around them by manipulating ambient living abyss. The Hive-Mind also doubles as an afterlife for deceased symbiotes, with the Tyrannosaurus symbiote being reunited with Rex Strickland after its death, and Cletus Kasady being reunited with the Carnage symbiote after his death. Should a metaphysical codex come into contact with a symbiote that still exists in the world of the living, they can merge with it to become incarnated through it, and they can also temporarily indwell symbiotes should their physical codex be consumed; as seen when Flash Thompson's codex temporarily assumed control of the Venom symbiote. Additionally, hosts who possess uncommonly strong bonds to their symbiotes can imprint their codex into that symbiote, letting them survive even after the death of their physical bodies. For example, Rex Strickland's codex piloted the Tyrannosaurus symbiote after his death, Cletus Kasady's codex piloted the reborn Carnage symbiote following his death, Emperor N'Jadaka's codex piloted his symbiote following his death, and Gorr's codex piloted the All-Black symbiote even millions of years after his death.

A codex can also be used as a template. The Carnage symbiote extracted All-Black's codex left in Malekith during the War of the Realms and forced Drorin Runehewer to forge a new Necrosword using it. Ultimately, Carnage used the heat of the dwarves' forge and assimilated uru to complete the weapon, which it dubbed All-Blood.

Codices can also affect the behavior and abilities of their hosts in various ways:

• Cletus Kasady's Carnage codex compelled him to travel to the Negative Zone and bond to a symbiote that had been imprisoned there, and he retained a psionic link to it even after they were separated.
• Eddie Brock maintained a psionic link to the Venom symbiote after they were forcibly separated by Flash Thompson's Anti-Venom symbiote.
• Claire Dixon was resurrected and empowered by the eldritch magic of the Darkhold, which her former symbiote - Raze - had been imbued with.
• Andi Benton's Mania codex attempted to warn her that she was in danger when the Cult of Knull began hunting former symbiote hosts.

Additionally, exposure to certain stimuli can cause codices to reconstitute themselves into fully-fledged symbiotes or pseudo-symbiotes, which under some circumstances has enabled deceased symbiotes to be resurrected:

• On multiple occasions, Cletus Kasady was able to regenerate the Carnage symbiote from remnants left in his bloodstream. Even when the symbiote had been seemingly completely extracted from him and eaten by Venom, he was able to reconstitute it by amalgamating the trace remnants of it left in his body with the symbiote he'd found in the Negative Zone. The remnants of the Carnage symbiote in Cletus' body attempted to repel a third symbiote that was forcibly bonded to him by the Poisons and subsequently consumed to create Poison Carnage, but were suppressed until that Poisoned symbiote's death.
• The original Anti-Venom symbiote was formed when trace remnants of the Venom symbiote in Eddie Brock's body were infused with Martin Li's Lightforce energy and merged with his white blood cells.
• Trace remnants of the Venom symbiote left in Mac Gargan's body were reactivated when Maniac bonded him to a piece of the Mania symbiote, transforming him into a Venomized version of the Scorpion.
• Eddie Brock amalgamated dozens of extracted codices from numerous symbiotes to form a powerful gestalt symbiote.
• Conan's deceased symbiote was resurrected when living abyss from a symbiote dragon interfaced with the codex it had left in his body.
• On Earth-41940, Scream was able to manipulate multiple codices through their connection to the Hive, both taking them under her control and causing them to resurface in old hosts.
  • The Venom Symbiote codex in Eddie Brock overpowered Eddie's current symbiote, the Toxin Symbiote.
  • A reality-displaced Ben Reilly of Earth-94 rebonded to his reality's Carnage Symbiote through Scream's manipulation of his codex.

Artificial symbiotes like Earth-1610's Venom and Carnage symbiotes, Earth-65's Venom symbiote, Earth-12041's symbiotes, and the Venom Virus do not leave codices in their hosts; though they can be amalgamated with codices or living abyss to augment them.

The King in Black's codex can be sent through time so its bearer would maintain their native universe from within.

Alternate Realities

Sony's Spider-Man Universe (Earth-688)

In this universe, a codex is created after a host is revived by their symbiote, and can only be destroyed once either the host or the symbiote is killed. It primarily manifests itself as a shining yellow spiral. The codex is what keeps the creator of the symbiotes, Knull trapped in his prison, and he has sent the Xenophages to bring it to him and free him, a task which they failed in. The Xenophages are only able to track down the codex if the symbiote fully engulfs the host and loses the trail when it disappears back into the host.

References

Links

• 3 appearance(s) of Symbiote Codex
• 2 mention(s) of Symbiote Codex