Oozenberg Worms
The hallowed halls of Sgàineadh are, as everyone who knows that Sgàineadh even exists is aware, bursting at the seams with reams of paper, parchment and papyrus. Even tree bark, in some cases. One master wrote his entire post career thesis on one long linen scroll, to simulate the continuity and flow of life On the Road. There are as many different styles of writing, art, instruction and sheer bullshitery as there are differing types of people, bearing in mind that some of the Tchamut have serious psychological trauma to deal with. All of the originals are kept in climate controlled cave libraries. These libraries are cavernous, and accessed through tunnels that are almost as spokes leading off of the central hub of Sgàineadh's massive, silo-like crater. They occupy the lowest level of the complex, which is by far the easiest level within which to maintain the climate index necessary to archive all of the various mediums used in the recording process. There are a few more than a few psi-crystals present in the archive, due to their proximity to The Shifting Sands.
Each Tchamut will study copious numbers of these volumes, choosing one to do a final assessment and project on in order to graduate to full fledged blade priest. This entails, in turn, copious handling of said documents, and that would be enough to drive the archivists to possible murder, if it weren't for the possibility of blood corrupting their precious volumes.
The archivists are very serious about their work. However, in the words of one Reverend Jim Ignatowski, a Tchamut teacher of young students from the twelfth century NG, quote;
"...Ahhh, luckily enough? The Tchamut have had a solution to the problem for generations. Sit up Gibbons, this is a seminary, not slump night at the pipe den.
What many of the scientifically minded of our order have called "silica based life forms", the little cuties have a slight bluish glow that makes them seem somewhat alien in nature. While yes, they do have eyes that see in the electromagnetic spectrum, they can also see brainwaves and patterns of thought with other sensory organs that they have near the backs of their heads. Their segmengted bodies simply grow into two worms if they are severed in two, leading the ever effervescent Tchamut to call them "fantastical little creatures". Harmless to organic life forms, they are about the size of a human's hand, and resemble nothing so much as a combination of a garden slug and a huge inchworm with an almost anthropomorphic face.
What's that you say, Hendrix? It actually is slump night at the pipe den? You're very droll, your parents must be very proud.
Now then! Oozenberg Worms have psychic glands that pick up and feed upon psychic residue. In a practical sense, they can read and translate text that they crawl over. Imagine our ancestors' surprise when they discovered that two of the creatures will share the meal, with one ingesting and one regurgitating. In essence, one reads and the other copies. It is a wondrous ability that the archivists almost put a complete kaibosh on when they saw how much mucous the little darlings secrete as they perform either activity, but come to find out the substance actually acts as a natural protectant for the original, and keeps the ink on the copy from ever smudging...ah yes, the bell. Well then, dismissed. See you all tonight at the pipe den...
At one point in the library's past, they had Oozeberg worm clones working night and day. They figured out it was not really worth doing it that way; they have very limited space. So, they make them to order, now, with the library's small flock of worms, and the devoted archivists, sharing a fond psychic bond.Utility
One will crawl all over a piece of text, while another will crawl all over a blank sheet of paper, precisely copying what the first one is "reading" in a slug-like mucous trail. This can be accomplished at any distance as long as the two halves of the worm are on the same plane of existence (PoE).
They can actually do this with any object, given enough time, but the number of students making copies of their genitalia was far too distracting, so that part of the curriculum was removed. However, setting one worm on a famous sculpture, and another on a block of granite half a world away, will still result in two identical statues. This, rather amusingly, was the genesis of what the elder Tchamut professors have come to know as the 'genital profusion'.
Manufacturing
They were created in the distant past. Even when they are split in twain, they will join back together into one over the course of forty eight hours.
Social Impact
They have had an incredible impact on the culture of the Singers as a whole.
Oozenberg Worm
Parent Technologies
Access & Availability
The creatures are available throughout Sgàineadh.
Complexity
Comprised of silica crystals and Gaian Nanites in unknown ratios, and combined using unknown forces, the creatures possess some amount of independent thought, but exactly how much is unknown.
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