Here is my idea for a genuinely alien race with biology that defines its culture or mindset:
The DwA!gog
Introduction
The DwA!gog are hive minded creatures that only make up a ‘person’ if there is more than three of them directly linked up to each other on a semi-permanent basis. Sometimes DwA!gog ‘individuals’ are made up as many as fifty DwA!gog component creatures linked up together as a big herd.
Physical Appearance
Solidly built, upright oval bodies (light brown skin) that are five feet tall and two feet wide with complex sensory organs at the top, the waists of these oval bodies bare four large tendrils and four communal umbilical cords, with forty to sixty smaller tendrils encircling a mouth and womb at the base. The mouth and womb are housed within a pair of hardened beaks. The four trunk like tendrils (dark brown in colour) are the DwA!gog composite creature’s arms, while the communal umbilical cords (fully retractable) are fleshy links that make DwA!gog ‘individuals’, the passing of nutrients, and their reproduction cycle possible. The DwA!gog have no carbon bone frames, but instead very dense and interlinked muscle cells. The composite creatures have four hearts and four brains each. The sensory organs on top of the composite creature’s body is encased within a transparent, sealed dome of rubbery membrane; they ‘hear’ through their tendrils (which have long strands of hair).
Psychology and Culture
Since a DwA!gog ‘individual’ is made up of upwards of a dozen disposable ‘units’, that contributes to the DwA!gog having very, very old living memories and being able to directly exchange their raw experiences by occasionally swapping or giving composite creatures between ‘individuals’. Composite creatures have a natural life cycle roughly comparable to homo-sapiens from Earth, but their reproduction cycle is markedly slower and they have trouble moving up steep slopes by themselves, let alone in connected herds that make complete ‘individuals’. They can submerge themselves into fresh water for prolonged periods of time and prefer their habitation built by the lakes and inland oceans on their homeworld. DwA!gog composite creatures have an intelligence similar to pre-teen homo-sapiens, but of course herds are immensely wise, empathetic, and intelligent.
The DwA!gog
Introduction
The DwA!gog are hive minded creatures that only make up a ‘person’ if there is more than three of them directly linked up to each other on a semi-permanent basis. Sometimes DwA!gog ‘individuals’ are made up as many as fifty DwA!gog component creatures linked up together as a big herd.
Physical Appearance
Solidly built, upright oval bodies (light brown skin) that are five feet tall and two feet wide with complex sensory organs at the top, the waists of these oval bodies bare four large tendrils and four communal umbilical cords, with forty to sixty smaller tendrils encircling a mouth and womb at the base. The mouth and womb are housed within a pair of hardened beaks. The four trunk like tendrils (dark brown in colour) are the DwA!gog composite creature’s arms, while the communal umbilical cords (fully retractable) are fleshy links that make DwA!gog ‘individuals’, the passing of nutrients, and their reproduction cycle possible. The DwA!gog have no carbon bone frames, but instead very dense and interlinked muscle cells. The composite creatures have four hearts and four brains each. The sensory organs on top of the composite creature’s body is encased within a transparent, sealed dome of rubbery membrane; they ‘hear’ through their tendrils (which have long strands of hair).
Psychology and Culture
Since a DwA!gog ‘individual’ is made up of upwards of a dozen disposable ‘units’, that contributes to the DwA!gog having very, very old living memories and being able to directly exchange their raw experiences by occasionally swapping or giving composite creatures between ‘individuals’. Composite creatures have a natural life cycle roughly comparable to homo-sapiens from Earth, but their reproduction cycle is markedly slower and they have trouble moving up steep slopes by themselves, let alone in connected herds that make complete ‘individuals’. They can submerge themselves into fresh water for prolonged periods of time and prefer their habitation built by the lakes and inland oceans on their homeworld. DwA!gog composite creatures have an intelligence similar to pre-teen homo-sapiens, but of course herds are immensely wise, empathetic, and intelligent.
