Rimworld

Aging the target might be construed as an additional offering if the life-force/time-essence/whatever is of use to Horax and it gives an equally younger replacement colonist in return. I'm convinced the brain damage is just a side effect.

I agree Horax is technically capable of taking anyone on the planet. I don't know why it never happens to our colonists (even if Horax doesn't directly do it, other hostile colonies on the planet presumably enact the ritual occasionally). I think we're forced to accept that it doesn't happen because the game would be less fun if it did.

I don't think Horax sends anything to attack colonies outside the attacks of the final monolith missions. It makes most sense to me that the incursions are random incidents tenuously caused by whatever it is that the Horax does. Maybe it doesn't even think in a way a human can recognize. Even the final missions might be an unconscious automatic reaction rather than an intentional, focused attempt by Horax to destroy the colony, which we presumably wouldn't be able to withstand. I've only completed the Anomaly storyline once (I didn't particularly enjoy it), but I don't recall that blowing up that one node definitively eliminated Horax. Instead, I remember the story being vague beyond the fact that the link to our particular world is disrupted.

I hadn't considered that, but it's often true. There is a progress bar and animations so I feel obligated to watch it.