Kalran: Tales of the four nations/Penitent harvester

"Is it work time?"

-A Penitent harvester exiting the Penance center

Tactical analysis

 * Ready to harvest: Formed from the children of the accused families. The Penitent harvesters role in battle is to harvest essence off the corpses of enemies, or the few penitent soldiers that couldn't be revived, which is turned into panacea. With the added benefit of having a strong enough regeneration that they they be brought from the brink of death after a second of rest
 * Need an injection: Another role they have is also empowering the penitent soldiers by injecting them with additional panacea, temporarily healing and empowering them
 * Just a kid: Harvester are not front line troops, and should never be sent into combat, though they still gain experience by drinking the harvested essence. They have no means of defending themselves and their protection is pretty much the clothes they wear, which can be a problem if the enemy finds them. On the other hand, enemy soldiers and defenses, if not aided by a detector, will not usually open fire on children, unless specifically ordered to
 * A scary world: Harvesters who have gone through multiple battles, therefore gaining knowledge and showing trust to still follow the empire, are given special cloaks, which makes them invisible until they use their syringe, and a special collar that enhances their scream, making anyone trying to harm them reel in pain as they shrieked in terror

Overview
The Penitent harvesters are Nekomata children. Their skin noticeably pale with glowing eyes, due to their genetic modification, alongside a lobotomy scar. With varying hairstyles, hair color, and some even wearing hats

Their attire consist of either dresses reaching below the knee, for girls, or a button shirt with shorts, for boys, and both wearing knee high socks with loafers.

History
"W-what have you done to my little girl!"

-Prisoner 789982, formerly named Julia, towards a guard upon witnessing the Harvester 789983, formerly named Miko

In the Ouroboros government crimes against the governor is not tolerated, with every relative of the criminal being considered as participants in it and therefore taken with them.

At first the government don't know what to do with them, trying to indoctrinate them was too risky while letting them go would potentially incite a future rebel. Alongside this time was also when they began researching this newfound panacea, only to realize that the amount of ichor, a crucial ingredient for panacea, made by the young Azoth, which are the only known creatures that made it, was simply too little to be mass-produce, limiting panacea to be used by civilians.

Until it was found out that by implanting a young Azoth into a humanoids host's stomach, the symbiotic interaction between host and slug yielded up to thirty times the quantity of usable ichor, if making it unstable to the point of causing insanity from prolonged use. And that only young children were found to be the only viable hosts. And killed two birds with one stone with the Harvesters.

The Harvesters are children of these criminals, ranging from three to ten years old, who had the young Azoth implanted, giving them the added benefit of a powerful regeneration ability, into them whose role was to ingest ichor, letting it multiply in their stomach, before expelling it from their mouth, a rather painful procedure, though there were cases where they had to inject and drain it from them or, if failing that, cut them open and drain the ichor, since their regeneration will keep them from dying. And at first they were limited to the labs until a scientist had an idea.

It turns out that with some modifications these Harvester can also make panacea by drinking the blood, the greatest medium for essence, of corpses, further increasing panacea yield. Naturally, the children were unwilling to cooperate. To overcome this basic obstacle they began to modify their lobotomy on them so that these Harvesters would see it less grisly. And armed them with a syringe, with it's container having a straw for the Harvesters to drink the blood, afterwards and the rest is history.

Now these Harvesters march the battlefields, singing and skipping as if on a field, drawing up blood from corpse being drinking it like milk, such a sight serving as a warning to would be rebels to show that it's not only they who will suffer the governess wrath but so will their children. While the childs hemselves works to atone for their parents sin.

Though it's also known that as the child, and by proxy the Azoth, grows the creature will begin to try break free from it's host, often scarring the child, but thats another story.