Kaph'tal
A small sentient species of the Tranal Nomads.
They joined the TN when a TN worldship came close to their home planet. This planet was losing orbital altitude, causing it to heat up slowly. At the time, they were an information age species but the TN offered to save them via their worldship. Many kaph'tal accepted, bringing many lifeforms native to their planet to the worldship, but most of the species eventually died off in the heating conditions. This species was engineered by the Xadia to be a powerful force for the TN. Despite this, the quantum-mechanical nature of their physiology disallowed them from developing any very effective medical procedures until they discovered quantum mechanics.
The Kaph'tal make for an extremely powerful species in a large range of tasks. Extremely smart and very strong, they have held entire fronts with massive numbers disadvantages. Sometimes, the kaph'tal gunners are more accurate than some mechanical fire control systems, giving kaph'tal-crewed ships an immense range. They have a comparitively low population within the TN though, due to their origins where about 70 000 kaph'tal were rescued from their burning home planet. This is considered a very small population and although they have underwent reproduction and increased, they still make up miniature fractions of the total TN population.
They communicate not through sound or light but through quantum entanglement of particles within the brain. This has made it difficult to communicate to the TN at first, but the TN has constructed machines that can entangle with the Kaph'tal's communication particle. These devices have been miniaturised over time and are now compact enough to fit on their head comfortably. The machines recieve the message from the kaph'tal and then translate it to a local language, after which a speaker emits the sound.
As the kaph'tal can communicate to each other almost instantly from any distances, they have no requirement for information logistics. However, each member does not have a link with every other member of the species so to relay messages to another person they do not have a link with, they often have to relay messages through other people. This is a mostly subconscious reaction to anyone relaying, and they never read the contents of the relayed messages. The nature of quantum mechanical computing is such that finding the most efficient route is quite easy despite the huge number of nodes. Conscious messages are sent far less often than unconscious messages, so the kaph'tal are not a hivemind, and they do have individuality. A large variety of subconscious messages are sent all the time, such as what a different person sees may be usable on a subconscious level but not usable to the sapient mind. For example, one can subconsciousally recieve messages about hazards that are spotted by another kaph'tal. Individuals with a 'close enough' link may instinctively avoid the area, even if they have not seen the hazard. This becomes particuarly useful in times of war, but even makes avoiding predators easy. At birth, a kaph'tal child would initially establish links to their parents and possibly some very close family members. They would obtain about 10 links at such a young age. As a person grows, the number of links they have expands as well and one can obtain upawrds of 65 different links with other people, although they would only typically know of about 20. With a modern understanding of kaph'tal biology, these other 45 links can be identified with advanced technology.
Despite the information being transferred through their society so quickly, there would still be a need for writing because it remains for a longer period of time than a transferred memory. This allows the kaph'tal to advance technologically, and set up agriculture. Due to the notion that they are not constantly sending conscious messages between each other, disagreements and imperfections exist, leading to wars. Kaph'tal wars are far less frequent, but because a kaph'tal can directly feel the emotions of another kaph'tal, it can become difficult to kill others, even from long range. They develop a sense of empathy for others. A dying kaph'tal has all of their links severed, vastly reducing the amount of trauma on those who they are linked with but emotions from family members who might mourn their death can effect a large number of people. Such an emathatic society makes them treat other individuals 'better' than humans would, so there might not be a money system. The kaph'tal might be able to effectively handle communism, like Suons.
Digestion is designed to break matter down into individual atoms and quanta as they dont use large chemical molecules much - if they do, they could form it. As such, they have a chambered stomach where initial chamber brak down matter into molecules, and then a 2nd chamber that breaks molecules down into atoms. Only then can it be digested. The first chamber uses an exotic acid/plasma combination because it requires relatively little energy. The 2nd chamber relies more on quantum effects. It uses a low temperature plasma to establish quantum entanglement with many molecules and atoms within the organ, and then uses a small amount of energy to cause a reaction that completely destroys a single molecule - due to entanglement, all other molecules are destroyed as well. After breaking down all molecules, it condenses into a more liquid-like state. After this, energy and quanta are absorbed into the body as the liquid is sent through an intestine-like organ. It also makes use of wavefunction collapse microbes to influence the probabilities of obtaining desired materials for the body, allowing a kaph'tal to survive with less nutrients and produce less waste. For reproduciton, the male will send their DNA sample to the female through a large number of qubits through photons. This can work from a distance, and is an entirely clean way to reproduce. The kaph'tal are only ~1m tall at full size because quantum phenomena do not scale up well. Due to this, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are required in their diet, mostly. This can come from their microbiome as well, but is usually obtained from eating their equivalent of meat. This is an advanced material that retains its BEC property at standard temperature and pressure. However, this also makes the kaph'tal weak at higher temperatures as decoherence will kill them quickly. Quantum mechanical systems are often delicate. As such, they have developed a fear of heat.
The Kaph'tal make for an extremely powerful species in a large range of tasks. Extremely smart and very strong, they have held entire fronts with massive numbers disadvantages. Sometimes, the kaph'tal gunners are more accurate than some mechanical fire control systems, giving kaph'tal-crewed ships an immense range. They have a comparitively low population within the TN though, due to their origins where about 70 000 kaph'tal were rescued from their burning home planet. This is considered a very small population and although they have underwent reproduction and increased, they still make up miniature fractions of the total TN population.
Society
The kaph'tal have very unique needs that are very hard to meet for most other factions. This has created much difficulty for the banfranal, and as such the massive scale operation to save their species from the heating conditions of their home planet was not as easy as taking the kaph'tal from this planet. They require various quantum materials for food, are best suited to a different type of society from the banfranal and would also require different temperatures and atmospheric composition to survive. Initially, the banfranal built worldships designed specifically to handle its new kaph'tal population, and piloted by banfranal in a seperate compartment. This way, the kaph'tal could run their own type of society. The efforts to obtain many species from this planet that the kaph'tal used as food (e.g. farm crops and livestock) were considerably more significant than that to obtain the kaph'tal themselves. Much of a kaph'tal worldship would be dedicated to farming, and they would use colder lights to allow the farms to grow with photosynthesis. As TN technology developed, and their understanding of kaph'tal biology improved, they eventually invented methods to enable the kaph'tal to live with the banfranal, despite the massive size difference. The banfranal are a massive species which can grow to 12 m in length. The kaph'tal would wear a suit that kept the kaph'tal cool in the comparitively hot environment that the banfranal live in, and special masks allowing them to breathe kaph'tal air rather than banfrnal air. Over time, they could live together more and more, however, both species require different societies so it is commonly accepted that neither should participate in the economy of the other, usually. Both sides have to educate their children and thus cultures that the society of the other side works, but only for their species. Otherwise, the faction may end up in civil war.Communication
Possibly relevant article: Quantum Entanglement CommunicatonsThey communicate not through sound or light but through quantum entanglement of particles within the brain. This has made it difficult to communicate to the TN at first, but the TN has constructed machines that can entangle with the Kaph'tal's communication particle. These devices have been miniaturised over time and are now compact enough to fit on their head comfortably. The machines recieve the message from the kaph'tal and then translate it to a local language, after which a speaker emits the sound.
As the kaph'tal can communicate to each other almost instantly from any distances, they have no requirement for information logistics. However, each member does not have a link with every other member of the species so to relay messages to another person they do not have a link with, they often have to relay messages through other people. This is a mostly subconscious reaction to anyone relaying, and they never read the contents of the relayed messages. The nature of quantum mechanical computing is such that finding the most efficient route is quite easy despite the huge number of nodes. Conscious messages are sent far less often than unconscious messages, so the kaph'tal are not a hivemind, and they do have individuality. A large variety of subconscious messages are sent all the time, such as what a different person sees may be usable on a subconscious level but not usable to the sapient mind. For example, one can subconsciousally recieve messages about hazards that are spotted by another kaph'tal. Individuals with a 'close enough' link may instinctively avoid the area, even if they have not seen the hazard. This becomes particuarly useful in times of war, but even makes avoiding predators easy. At birth, a kaph'tal child would initially establish links to their parents and possibly some very close family members. They would obtain about 10 links at such a young age. As a person grows, the number of links they have expands as well and one can obtain upawrds of 65 different links with other people, although they would only typically know of about 20. With a modern understanding of kaph'tal biology, these other 45 links can be identified with advanced technology.
Despite the information being transferred through their society so quickly, there would still be a need for writing because it remains for a longer period of time than a transferred memory. This allows the kaph'tal to advance technologically, and set up agriculture. Due to the notion that they are not constantly sending conscious messages between each other, disagreements and imperfections exist, leading to wars. Kaph'tal wars are far less frequent, but because a kaph'tal can directly feel the emotions of another kaph'tal, it can become difficult to kill others, even from long range. They develop a sense of empathy for others. A dying kaph'tal has all of their links severed, vastly reducing the amount of trauma on those who they are linked with but emotions from family members who might mourn their death can effect a large number of people. Such an emathatic society makes them treat other individuals 'better' than humans would, so there might not be a money system. The kaph'tal might be able to effectively handle communism, like Suons.
Biology
The Kaph'tal are semi-immortal and incredibly intelligent despite their small size. This is due to their unique physiology which makes significant use of quantum effects. This makes them largely superior to many species in many ways. All this makes them a highly valuable species to the TN. They originated on a cold planet and thus use little energy but remain sentient through quantum effects. The kaph'tal nervous systems are based on qubits. They are transported through photons, exploiting the phenomenon of total internal reflection as photons travel through the system. This gives them an incredibly fast reaction time, and a huge number of instructions they can carry out just through a single neuron. Although the Kaph'tal have a smaller number of nervous system conductors than humans, they still have excellent redundancy and photons can be redirected to different conductors allowing for excellent redundancy. Their muscles are much more powerful than they need to be but are energy efficient and reliable. This incredible strength allows them to lift objects heavier than their body weight and take large forces. Their brain is based on a more quantum-mechanical neural network, making much more use of qubits rather than classical bits for lack of better analogy. Semi-immortality arises through a more similar method of DNA-equivalent storage to Suons. This information is stored in spacetime crystals which do not decay and require little energy input to maintain. As this information is also stored in qubits, a small amount of this exotic material is required by their body. They also have an ability to collapse wavefunctions in desired ways. This ability comes from an advanced symbiotic microbe which is a part of their microbiome and is the primary reason a kaph'tal would die with no microbiome. The kaph'tal have a large number of organs to contain within their body. As such, they have a non-humanoid anatomy with a relatively round body which can contain these organs. They also have a strong bone structure across almost all locations of their body, presenting few weak points. For manipulation, they have long tentacle-like appeandages that split off near the end into several small sections. These take up a similar role as fingers in humans but are soft. They are muscular however. They can get very precise with this type of manipulation. Locomotion is achieved through larger tentacle-like legs which are supported on large bones. The kaph'tal, notably, have no obvious cardiovascular system. Nutrients are 'teleported' around the body making use of quantum tunelling (the kaph'tal body uses very few molecules and mostly quanta in their biology). The favourable outcome through quantum tunelling is made far more probable through the wavefunction collapsing microbe. A similar microbe might allow for advancements in teleporter technology due to the similar applications.Digestion and Energy
Some species on this planet, though not the kaph'tal, have managed to make use of the Casimir effect to generate negative energy and form an energy generation phenomenon similar to ZPE machines, except far less powerful. The kaph'tal have an organ specialised for transmuting atoms between elements similar to a Transmutation Reactor. However, rather than performing reactions through exposure to extreme energies, they influence quantum tunelling probabilities similar to the Astromoeba in order to allow fusion. This creates a lot of energy especially if they ingest a lot of hydrogen. This may cause them to emit excess heat, and radiate it through a specialised organ. Their bodies are designed to not require much energy, but they can store hydrogen for energy.Digestion is designed to break matter down into individual atoms and quanta as they dont use large chemical molecules much - if they do, they could form it. As such, they have a chambered stomach where initial chamber brak down matter into molecules, and then a 2nd chamber that breaks molecules down into atoms. Only then can it be digested. The first chamber uses an exotic acid/plasma combination because it requires relatively little energy. The 2nd chamber relies more on quantum effects. It uses a low temperature plasma to establish quantum entanglement with many molecules and atoms within the organ, and then uses a small amount of energy to cause a reaction that completely destroys a single molecule - due to entanglement, all other molecules are destroyed as well. After breaking down all molecules, it condenses into a more liquid-like state. After this, energy and quanta are absorbed into the body as the liquid is sent through an intestine-like organ. It also makes use of wavefunction collapse microbes to influence the probabilities of obtaining desired materials for the body, allowing a kaph'tal to survive with less nutrients and produce less waste. For reproduciton, the male will send their DNA sample to the female through a large number of qubits through photons. This can work from a distance, and is an entirely clean way to reproduce. The kaph'tal are only ~1m tall at full size because quantum phenomena do not scale up well. Due to this, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are required in their diet, mostly. This can come from their microbiome as well, but is usually obtained from eating their equivalent of meat. This is an advanced material that retains its BEC property at standard temperature and pressure. However, this also makes the kaph'tal weak at higher temperatures as decoherence will kill them quickly. Quantum mechanical systems are often delicate. As such, they have developed a fear of heat.
Average Height
1 m
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