Cassandra: An oracle from Greek mythology. Snakes whispered in her ears, telling her the future. Her prophecies were always true, but she was cursed that nobody would believe her.

This is a scenario where you control a Neurax Worm and have to take over humanity. But there's also a bioweapon that you have to deal with.

To win, you need to do two things:

1. Stop the bioweapon from destroying humanity, either by bringing down the company that produces it, or slowing it down long enough for humans to make a cure.
2. Get humanity to worship you, either through forcefully breaking their minds (Transcendence) or through their own free choice.

To achieve this goal, you need to make use of your mind-affecting abilities. The release of the bioweapon relies on a number of events occurring in the world, and you have the power to change those events. Can you save humanity, and then take it over?

There's a lot going on in this scenario, so here's a quick rundown to help you follow things easier.

Loxias: That's you, a Neurax Worm. You want to take over the brains of humanity and get them to worship you. Technically, you can also win by killing everyone, but only after dealing with the bioweapon. You lose if humanity cures you, or if the bioweapon takes over.

ACHILLES: The bioweapon. It will be released at some point, unless you can manage to stop it, and will spread throughout the world, killing everyone on Earth. Your mission is to slow it down long enough for humanity to cure it.

Cassandra "Sandy" Troi: The archaeologist who discovered the Worm - and the first infectee, which means you have some control over her actions based on the traits you evolve. She owns a plane. Her outlandish theories are almost always right, and almost never believed.

Hector Troi: A former employee of STYX who was defamed as a terrorist because he was getting too close to the truth. He will be captured early on and held for interrogation. He knows the location of Styx's secret bioweapon lab, but getting him to spill the beans will be difficult. The Neurax Worm might help...

Children of Eris: A group of rebels fighting against their country's government. They will operate in a single, random country; this country is where the bioweapon will start (unless it is released early from the lab). Their tension will build steadily until it reaches a breaking point, at which point the weapon will be released. You can speed up or slow down the tension by infecting their country and evolving certain symptoms.

STYX: An evil corporation operating in four countries. Managed by Alpheus Jackson, they are the ones behind everything. Their plan is to create a bioweapon, stir up conflict through ERIS, then hand the weapon to ERIS and let nature take its course. Jackson's plan is to cull the human population and set himself up as a ruler over the survivors, letting ERIS take the blame. But the weapon turns out to be more lethal than he had planned...

Compulsions and Phobias:

Hodophobia: Greatly reduces your international transmission. While this seems useless, it can help you focus your attention on key countries (using Trojan Planes to get around) while minimizing humanity's overall panic.

Ablutomania: Compulsive hand-washing makes it harder for the weapon to infect worm-infectees. A must-have for slowing down the weapon, and you can use it without revealing yourself.

Xenophobia: In the normal Neurax Worm scenario, countries are quick to shut their borders. Not in this scenario, unless you evolve Xenophobia. This is a good way to make sure countries are prepared for the weapon before it appears, though you will have to show yourself to make them actually do it. While the weapon can cross closed land borders, it can do so only slowly, and it can't travel by sea or air at all if the ports are closed. And it won't do anything to stop your Trojan Planes.

Nosophobia: Makes Neurax-infected countries much more neurotic about disease prevention, causing them to take measures that slow down infection much faster. This will slow down your spread as well, but it's a good way to make sure countries are prepared for the weapon before it arrives.

Hypochondria: Makes it harder to stay hidden, but also makes it harder for the weapon to hide if you share a host. This is especially good if you release the weapon early, since it will help people spot the weapon before it builds up to full strength.

Antibodies:

A must-have if you're going to try and fight the weapon directly. Normally, infecting areas already taken over by the bioweapon will be hard, unless you evolve antibodies to defend yourself. The antibodies will not take effect right away - the more you interact with the bioweapon, the stronger your antibodies will become. Evolving Antibody 2 and 3 will make this happen faster.

In order to actually protect humans from the bioweapon, you'll need to evolve Antibody Production as well. This reduces your own infectivity (since the worm is spending energy protecting humans instead of laying eggs).

Hiding:

Cerebral Bore and Cerebral Melding sacrifice some infectivity in order to stay hidden. This will let you spread around the world without being noticed. You'll still have to deal with the bioweapon, though.

Sublime Symbiosis lets you merge entirely with your host, greatly reducing both infectivity and severity. It also grants occasional bonus DNA based on how many humans you have infected. You might want to evolve this after spreading around the world.

Divine Manifestation:

You can unlock the Divine Manifestation ability by evolving Hallucinations and Cognitive Scrambling symptoms to make Full Integration appear, then evolving that. This will allow you to set up "Preemptive Disease Protocols" by communicating with a country's leaders directly, which will greatly slow down the weapon. If you manage to evolve Divine Manifestation before the worm's ability to manipulate thought is discovered, people will begin to worship the hallucination as an actual god.

The weapon will be released when ERIS reaches its turning point - whether the weapon is done or not. You can influence the time of its release by traveling to their country and evolving certain traits.

Despair and Adoration will cause tension to rise more slowly, increasing the time you have to prepare.

Aggression and Cognitive Scrambling will cause tension to rise more quickly, causing the weapon to be released quicker - but it will also be weaker due to being released prematurely.

The more of the country you infect, the stronger your impact will be.

The weapon is being developed in a secret lab somewhere in the world. To find the location of this lab, you must get the information out of Hector. You have two options - either send a plane there quickly so that he can meet with Cassandra, then evolve Immaturity and Mania to coax the information out of him, OR infect 15% of the country, and evolve either Immaturity or Cognitive Shift to make him unable to keep a secret. Once you know the location of the lab, you can slow down the weapon's development by infecting its country and evolving research-slowing traits.

If you infect Hector's country, and then evolve both Aggression AND Cognitive Scrambling, the secret lab will be attacked - releasing the weapon immediately in its location. The weapon will be weaker than if you waited longer, but you'll have less time to prepare for it since it will be in a different location.

Styx is behind everything. They operate in four countries; you can slow down both weapon development and ERIS's tension at the same time by damaging the corporation.

There are two ways of stopping STYX.

The first is to create chaos in the countries with STYX property. If you manage to completely bring down all four countries before the weapon is released, the company will collapse and development on the weapon will stop. This tends to happen if you play aggressively.

The second way is to play through the story with Cassandra. If you discover the secret lab, evolve Insanity to attack it and get captured, then devolve Insanity, Mania, and Immaturity, Cassandra will meet and infect the CEO of the company. Evolving any serious syndrome after that (Insanity, Schizophrenia, Suicide, or Aphasia) will cause the CEO to leave the company, stopping development on the weapon.

If STYX is stopped, ERIS will build tension much more slowly, and the bioweapon will stop growing stronger. However, the bomb will still go off eventually unless you either start a mainstream Neurax Worm religion or destroy their country's government.

There are two ways of starting the worship of the Neurax Worm.

The simplest is by playing through Cassandra's story. Cassandra must meet with Hector, then you must evolve Perceptive Jolt and Perceptive Shift to make her recognize the problem with ERIS, and evolving Devotion to make her start the new religion in an attempt to slow down ERIS. This can happen before or after meeting with the CEO of STYX, but not after being captured but before the interview.

The second way is to evolve Divine Manifestation before scientists discover that the Neurax Worm can manipulate thought. Divine Manifestation requires you to evolve both Hallucinations and Cognitive Scrambling, then Full Integration. This is tricky and requires careful control of severity. Do this, and people will treat the hallucinations as an actual deity.

If the religion spreads across the world and either the bioweapon is stopped or civilization collapses, you can win without evolving Transcendence.