chok

The chok are a sapient aquatic species ranging throughout the southwestern part of the ocean.  They spend most of their time underwater, but are able to support themselves on land for hours at a time.  They were first observed on the Long Coast around 1500 Vol, and regularly (though infrequently) barter with the coastal communities for what they consider interesting goods.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Chok are rotationally symmetric and almost featureless from the outside. Their upper half is rounded and can be elongated or flattened. Their lower half is skirtlike, and is usually drawn together so that it has a folded appearance. When swimming, the skirt is flattened out into vanes that propel the chok forward.

The interior of the skirt is visible only when multiple chok gather to form a swarm. The skirt opens flat to reveal eight long, boneless appendages that radiate outward from the center of the chok. The skirt is formed by membranes connecting six of the appendages, giving it the shape of a hexagon with two opposite sides longer than the other. Approximately a third of each appendage extends beyond the edge of the skirt, presumably folding up inside the chok when the skirt is closed. The remaining two appendages are free, and coil around the center of the skirt when it is open. The skirt membrane is extremely flexible, enabling the chok to shapeshift from a bulging disk to a near-perfect sphere.

Haftera's drawing of chok anatomy by The Big G

 

Locomotion

Chok swim short distances individually, but for long-distance travel they gather in groups and connect to each other to form a single massive swarm.  Swarms do not move quickly, but are capable of carrying cargo in their interior.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

The chok inhabit submerged coral reefs, many of them atolls formerly home to ocean-farming humans.  Presumably they are native to a similar environment in more remote parts of the ocean, and expanded into the abandoned atolls several hundred years after the human evacuations.

Average Intelligence

The chok are clearly intelligent, though to what degree is difficult to assess.  They have not been seen using tools, but the fact that they initiated and maintained trade with the Vastlanders for centuries indicates a very high level of cognition, perhaps frighteningly so.  Individual chok have long been known to be able to identify and remember individual humans, but until Haftera Djuur created a translation of their language, it's not clear that the chok believed humans were intelligent.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

It has been recently learned that the chok have a mutualistic symbiosis with a tiny organism that covers individual chok with a layer of hard armor.  The armor organisms provide protection and structural support to the chok, who otherwise lack a skeleton, and the chok transport the armor to new sources of food.

Civilization and Culture

Major Language Groups and Dialects

The chok communicate by manipulating shed fragments of their outer coating.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

The chok are collectors.  Their habit of trading with the Vastland humans seems more driven by curiosity than by economic gain.  They measure a thing's value mostly by how often they have seen it before, though they do also stockpile items that certain trading partners show continuing interest in.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

The chok carry on a small amount of trade with Vastland humans, limited until recently by the mutual incomprehension of the two species.

Average Physique

An individual chok does not have a fixed form. Their armor coating is hard in air, but extremely flexible underwater. They have been seen to change shape dramatically, shifting from spherical to linear in a mere handful of breaths. When on land, chok tend to favor a rounded pillar shape for stability, or to pair with another chok in disk shape for mobility.