Wol Cabasshite

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Wol Cabassh

• Size:
  .8 meters long; 1.2 meters with tongue fully extended.

• 

From the Expanded Universe

A commonly misunderstood and mischaracterized species, Wol Cabasshites are a unique example of a culture that has advanced to sentience without the need for technology. Their evolved brains are indeed highly intelligent, but with a life cycle so abstract and alien, their musings are often indecipherable. Indeed, studying Wol Cabasshite philosophy has long been a fashionable pastime of the intellectual elite, with longstanding debates regarding interpretation of the most famous and bizarre of Wol Cabasshite texts.

The closest known genetic relative of the very long-lived Wol Cabasshites is a small, non-sentient species of plasma leech parasite whose entire life-cycle occurs on spacecraft where they feed on plasma and other energetic power sources. Millennia of space travel have spread both the non-sentient leech and the Wol Cabasshite throughout the galaxy, far from their homeworld of Wol Cabassh.

Wol Cabasshites are remarkably hardy. They can exist in both vacuum and atmosphere, having no respiratory system and a naturally pressurized interior. Wol Cabasshites can tolerate remarkable temperature extremes.

With a plasma-rich diet and extraordinarily high metallic content in their blood, Wol Cabasshites exude a magnetic field controlled by certain internal muscles, including their tongues. By shaping and focusing this field, Cabasshites communicate with each other at a range of up to 25 meters.

Their language uses phonemic pulses of energy with syntactic contours in the field. Magnetic singing is an important part of Wol Cabasshite cultures. Gifted Wol Cabasshites can use magnetic fields to communicate directly with the neurons of other sentients, though this often requires direct contact. The sometimes unsettling sensation of direct neuron communication with a Wol Cabasshite has spread to rumors that the species can take control of a subject's brain, though that is not the case.

The Wol Cabasshite ability to manipulate magnetic fields has resulted in the development of devices by other cultures to assist in communication. Wol Cabasshites can operate devices attuned to their magnetic singing for the purposes of locomotion, communication and even defense, though most don't bother. Most Wol Cabasshites are content to simply sit and contemplate the nature of the universe... and eat.

Physiologically, Wol Cabasshites are mostly stomach; they even have two brains, one for digestive tasks and one for cognition. They eat constantly, extracting nutrients and metals from nearly any substance they touch. There are no known substances that are toxic to Wol Cabasshites, though they are susceptible to Brainworm Rot Type A, an airborne virus that affects their cognitive functions. Given the bizarre nature of Wol Cabasshite thought, diagnosis is very difficult.

Although Wol Cabasshites reproduce asexually by vomiting out their stomach linings (which become pupal Cabasshite), adults may exchange genetic material during mutual tongue grooming. This results in organisms exhibiting isolated genetic properties of other individuals.

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This entry was developed by Hyperspace member "ejmacki".