Ipsiji

Twitching, slipping, it approached, neck slowly extending as it did. Every inch of its body moved on its own like a thousand shifting grains of sand. It's gaze fixed me and I looked into those eyes. They were the only constant thing about it, those lights deep within their sockets, pulsing to some distant rhythm from beyond our sky.

-- Kamath Nauman

The world of Ipsij is entirely one organism, mechanically constructed and magically operated. The Ipsiji are its children, units that have broken off from their parent, called the Mother, and have a limited free will. There is infinite variation in form among Ipsiji though they commonly resemble something like a monkey or a humanoid crawling on all fours.

Children of Ipsij

All Ipsiji are linked to the Mother by their clock: a kind of otherworldly temporal energy that relays thoughts and emotions over vast distances with little delay. Through this link, they are aware of her commands and the state of things at home. Though it does not directly control their behavior, it does heavily influence it and Ipsiji found openly disobeying their Mother will be reprimanded mercilessly. From time to time, an Ipsiji is given too much free will and the Mother is forced to sever tie, an action which almost always results in death.

Biology

Ipsiji bodies are something between flesh, metal, and energy. The arms, legs, neck, and torso are comprised into discrete units of this substance which are visible when one dilates its body. Ipsiji are capable of stretching up to twice their body length and some specialized types have limbs that may stretch further. An Ipsiji's head is made up of a material very much like porcelain, however, and cannot change shape. At the head's center is the core which manifests the clock link to the Mother. Many Ipsiji have multiple cores with sometimes multiple heads. If the bodies are severed with the heads remaining intact, the different parts become autonomous and also linked by their clock.