Fask
A fask (pronounced /fæsk/) is a henotic entity made up of finger-sized creatures called fasklings. Fasks can be arbitrarily large, and can take on almost any shape, the only limitation being that they cannot form features finer than a faskling. This means, notably, that fasks cannot have hair. When fasks take humanoid form, as they often do, their "hair" will either be a solid mass inseparable into separate strands or will consist of finger-thick ropy tendrils rather than true hairs. Of course, the fasks can, and many do, avoid the issue entirely by simply being bald. Aside from the shape, fasks can change the color and texture of their bodies, either in whole or piecemeal, as well as their hardness, which means that a fask can give itself hard teeth and claws, or, conversely, can have most of its body rigid like an insect's shell but have soft, ropy tentacles.
While fasks do frequently take humanoid form, however, they are not limited to it. Fasks can appear in the shape of any creature that exists, or made-up creatures that don't, or even as inanimate objects; the only limitation on their form is that on fine features mentioned above. A fask's change in shape, however, does not inherently give it any special powers of its new form, especially those of magical origin. A fask in the form of a xekkoon will not automatically have a poison sting, and a fask in the form of a bhuriasan will not have the creature's magical abilities. Still, its form will have some effect on its abilities; a fask with long legs will be able to move faster than one with short, stumpy ones—or with no legs at all—; a fask with sharp claws will be able to slice through opponents with them whereas a flask with blunt tentacles will not; and a fask with human hands will be more capable of fine manipulation than one with clumsy paws. Also, fasks with wings can generally fly, albeit perhaps not as gracefully as a feathered bird, and fasks can also shape themselves gills and get the ability to breathe water. Fasks can also give themselves vocal cords, in which case they may be capable of speech.
Lifespan
Most fasks do not last more than a few minutes or hours—not because of any inherent limitations, but because they have no reason or desire to keep their form that long. A colony of fasklings forms into a temporary fask in order to perform some task or deal with some other creature, and then, when its purpose has been served, the fask dissociates back into the component fasklings. If the colony forms another fask later on, it will for all intents and purposes be a new creature, not a recreation of the previous fask.
On occasion, however, a fask for whatever reason develops a sense of identity and decides to remain intact, choosing to see itself as a distinct individual rather than just a temporary construct. In principle, there is no limit on how long such a fask may stick around; unless it falls victim to violence or mischance, a fask can in principle stay intact indefinitely. Those fasks that do linger tend to have very extreme personalities, with broad and exaggerated mannerisms and character traits; the importance they place on their sense of self that leads them to persist in their henotic form also leads them to make the most of what they are. These fasks tend to be terrified, or at least highly disturbed, by the thought of losing their individuality.
Even those fasks that do choose to keep their form and stay around as individuals, however, may eventually tire of this existence. After a few years, or a few centuries, they may choose to finally give up the personalities they prized so highly and discorporate back into their component fasklings—if, of course, they're not killed by violence or other causes first. (Sufficient damage may disrupt the fask's form enough to effectively kill the fask—forcing its dissociation—without destroying all the individual fasklings.) There are a few fasks who have maintained their identities for millennia and show no signs of tiring of them, but they are in the minority; apparently most fasks, however much they may value their emergent consciousness, do in the long run ultimately prefer mortality.
Diet and biology
Fasks do need to eat, but with their unusually adaptable physiology they can digest virtually anything organic. Their exact means of ingestion depends upon their chosen form; a humanoid fask is likely to eat through its mouth like an ordinary human, but doesn't have to; it can choose to have a large mouth in its abdomen instead, or to devour things by enveloping them. Fasks of other forms may have even more possibilities. In any case, fasks can also ingest rocks and metal and other inorganic materials, but cannot digest them, and will generally pass them unchanged. Fasks are unaffected by the vast majority of known poisons and toxins, and are able to safely digest them like any other organic substance.
The anatomy of the fasks is completely arbitrary; since all metabolic functions can be carried out by the component fasklings, there's no need for the fask as a whole to have any complex systems. It's very common for fasks to simply be solid lumps of flesh, with no visible internal anatomy. However, other fasks do like to give themselves some semblance of normal anatomy—or maybe some bizarre internal structure that doesn't resemble any sort of "normal" anatomy at all.
Intelligence
While fasklings individually are not much more intelligent than the average mouse, many fasklings in combation form a gestalt intelligence; a human-sized fask is comparable in intelligence to an actual human. Because each faskling essentially contributes a part of its intellectual capacity, the larger the fask, in general, the greater the intelligence; a fask the size of a housecat may still be sentient, but will definitely be somewhat stupid relative to the average human, while a fask the size of an elephant will probably be brilliant. There is a point of diminishing returns when the time taken for messages to be passed between the fasklings becomes significant enough that the effect of the addition of more fasklings on the fask's intellectual abilities becomes negligible; this happens when the fask reaches about the size of a whale. The necessity of integrating commands among all the fasklings also affects the fask's coordination; as a general rule of thumb, a larger fask will be stronger but somewhat clumsier than a smaller one.
Because its intelligence is not centralized in a brain but distributed throughout its body, however, a fask suffers mentally when it is physically damaged. It doesn't take much of an injury to kill one of the fasklings that make up its form, and an injured fask will have its intelligence and consciousness impacted as well. Over time, the fasklings can multiply over time and effectively heal the gestalt fask (at about the same rate as injuries would heal in a human), and as this occurs the fask will regain its intelligence and memories. Because the damage to a fask involves the death of its component beings, some methods of magical healing do not work on fasks, or work with reduced effectiveness—although other forms function normally.
The fact that the fask's intelligence and memories reside in a distributed manner among all the fasklings that compose it, however, leads to an unusual method of exchanging knowledge and ideas among fasks. A fask can imprint a single one of its fasklings with the information it wishes to share, and then expel that faskling from its form, to join another fask, to which will then be imparted the imprinted knowledge. Any sort of information can be shared this way, comprising words, images, abstract concepts, or any combination. There is, however, a limit to how much information can be shared; individual ideas and facts can be easily shared, but not detailed skill sets and bodies of learning. In any case, the transfer of the faskling does, of course, lead to a slight decrease in the size of the first fask, and an increase in the size of the second, but if only a single faskling is transferred the difference is rarely significant except perhaps for very small fasks. If a fask uses this ability many times in quick succession before the fasklings have time to replenish their numbers, however, or shares knowledge with too many other fasks at once, it may seriously affect its size and therefore its intelligence.
Fasklings often seem to carry some sort of vestigial memories from fasks they have been a part of in the past. This has no direct effect on the actions of the individual faskling, but means that the next fask it forms may have these memories, albeit perhaps in vague and incomplete form. One of the most common vestigial memories is that of language. Fasks have no languages of their own; they typically learn the local language of the creature they are trying to imitate, or the society they're trying to fit in with. But some of the fasklings may carry vestigial memories of these languages, enough to rebuild a reasonable fluency when they form a new fask. It's quite common in Eidecia for even a newly formed fask to know one or more of the local languages.
Formation
The formation of a fask is not an instananeous process. The fasklings crawl into contact with each other, gradually form the general shape of the fask, and then slowly merge together into one collective organism. The exact length of the process depends on the size of the resultant fask, as well as other factors concerning the complexity of its form, but as an approximate rule of thumb it usually takes about 1.5 seconds per kilogram of mass. During the time of formation, the incipient fask is all but helpless; any quick motion or hard blows are likely to knock some of the merging fasklings out of position and interrupt or delay the formational process.
No advance planning is necessary regarding the form of the fask. In general, in response to some stimulus or need, two or more fasklings will crawl together and begin to merge, and more nearby fasklings will see it and join in; the shape of the fask they form can be decided on the fly during the process of formation.
Dissociation
When a fask feels that it has served its purpose, or for whatever reason decides to terminate its henotic existence, it can simply choose to dissociate back into the fasklings that make up its form. Unlike the formation process, dissociation is nearly instantaneous, the fask falling apart into a number of fasklings almost as soon as it has determined to do so. These fasklings are then free to form into another fask, or to go their own ways and never meet again.
It is possible for a fask, before dissociating, to imprint certain commands upon the fasklings it is about to dissociate into. Even after dissociation, these fasklings will do their best to cary out the commands. The imprinted commands, however, will only last a matter of minutes, so it isn't possible for the faskling to be given long-term instructions. It is possible for a fask to imprint a command for the fasklings to rejoin after some other actions or some fixed period of time; by this method, a fask can temporarily separate into its component fasklings, the better, for example, to pass quickly through a small aperture. (As long as the fasklings have begun to merge into the fask by the time the imprint wears off, they will continue the process.)
It is also possible for a fask to dissociate only part of its body. It can choose to dissociate one limb, or half its torso, or any other portion it desires, while leaving the rest intact; just as with total dissociation, the fask can imprint the dissociated fasklings with commands, including the command to rejoin it. Partial dissociation does cause a decrease in the intellectual abilities of the fask just as damage does, since it is losing some of its fasklings; these abilities are restored if and when the fasklings rejoin it (or if it finds new fasklings to replace them.) In any case, this process involves less overall risk to the fask than total dissociation, since its identity remains within the undissociated part and even if the dissociated fasklings are unable to rejoin it the worst that it entails is a drop in size and intelligence.
Transformation
Even a fask that has decided to retain its form is not fixed immutably in a given shape. Fasks can alter their forms without dissociating, but it is a slow and tiring process, though painless. Depending on the extent of the alteration, it may take as long as a quarter of an hour to complete the transformation, though very simple changes, such as a slight lengthening of limbs, may be completed much more quickly. In any case, extensive transformations will leave the fask fatigued and slow to react, a condition it may take hours to recover from. In an emergency, a fask may actually find it slightly faster to dissociate completely and reform in a new shape than to transform directly, though of course this leaves the fask more vulnerable during the process of formation.
Given that all fasks are made up of individual fasklings, they can split or join in arbitrary ways, and undergo virtually any sort of ananomic transformation. This will not necessarily produce copies of the original fask or fasks, however; if a fask undergoes darsis, for instance, the new, smaller fasks may have their own distinct personalities, though they may share some of the original fask's memories.
Society
To speak of the society of fasks is something of a contradiction in terms. Most fasks are ephemeral entities that exist for a single purpose and dissociate back into their component fasklings after their purpose is served. Their behavior toward other creatures depends largely upon the purpose they formed to fulfill; fasks created to defend certain areas may attack intruders on sight (or they may not, and attempt to talk them into leaving instead, resorting to physical deterrence only as a last resort), while a fask created to impart information or ask for help may only be interested in talking. Regardless, such fasks have no need or desire to form any sort of complex or formal associations with other beings, and don't really last long enough for any discussion of their society to be meaningful.
As for those fasks that do choose to prolong their existence, they generally adapt to the surrounding society, rather than forming a culture of their own. Such fasks tend to do well in diverse and cosmopolitan communities (the eidopoles, where fasks are relatively common, certainly qualify); in other communities, they may be objects of hatred or fear, and have a much harder time winning acceptance. Many fasks choose to set out on their own on lifestyles of itinerant adventuring, hoping to bolster their all-important sense of self and find a place for themselves in the cosmoi. Fasks—except for the most malevolent—are especially inspired by any cause involving helping people retain their individuality in the face of some threat to it (such as thelxis or mental transformation); they find such a prospect especially horrifying, and are ready to prevent others from falling victim to it.
Fasks in human form, or the form of other intelligent races, may choose to wear clothing the better to match the race they're imitating (assuming, of course, that the race they're imitating wears clothing in the local culture). Other fasks, even those of bizarre form, may wear clothing for reasons of warmth, comfort, or aesthetics. However, the strong sense of individuality present in most lingering fasks is generally reflected in their sartorial selections; the clothing of fasks tends toward the outré and often to be downright impractical. Of course, not all fasks wear clothing at all, by any means, even those that do take humanoid form. They don't necessarily have anything to hide, after all, since fasks don't have to have any sort of genitalia (though some may choose to give themselves apparent genitalia anyway).
Fasks tend to gravitate away from professions with great risk of physical injury, given the effect of such injury upon their intelligence. Fask mages and artisans are much more common than fask warriors and laborers. Some fasks do have innate magical powers, though it's unclear how or why this happens, and whether it occurs because of some special trait of some of the component fasklings or because of some accident of the fask's formation.
Unless it intends to stay around for some time, a fask is unlikely to bother choosing a name for itself, though it will not necessarily object to someone else choosing one for it. A fask that does decide to try to find a place for itself in a community, however, will generally require a name. Often, it will pattern itself after typical names in the local populace, choosing some name that would not be out of place for a normal member of the community. Other fasks may choose (or be given) simple descriptive names after some detail of their appearance ("Silver Eyes", "Roundnose"), or choose to be named after their chosen professions, or after flowers, gemstones, or whatever else appeals to them. Some fasks choose names that seem to be more or less random strings of letters or phonemes ("Chgamchi", "Qibelar", "Iaoa"), or abstractions the connections of which to the individual fask may or may not be clear ("Gimel Dalet", "Cube Root of Five", "Clarity", "Mr. Barbecue"). Not having biological parents in the usual sense, fasks do not inherit surnames (unless they're adopted into a family), but some fasks choose to give themselves surnames or titles anyway, either to fit in better with the community or just because it appeals to them.