[Cosmosdex] The Universal Encyclopedia
[Cosmosdex]
Mialcsem
Objectheads / Slime
Mialcsem
Art by, Glowymushroom
- Strength-2
- Intelligence-7
- Charisma-6
- Endurance-2
- Agility-4
- Luck-5
Common Jobs: Artist, Writer, Explorer, Alchemist, "Farmer"
Likes: Individuality, Robots, Artworks/masterpieces, Strange items
Dislikes: Blood, Injustice, Physical contact being made with their head
Attack Method: Usually, if forced into battle, they tend to attack with bludgeoning and other blunt objects — the less blood spilt, the better. Most mialcsem prefer to flee or negotiate first, however.
Attributes
Homeplanet: TaialnondemiLifespan: 300 years
Size: 5'3 ft tall
Diet: Liquids
Bodytype: Amorphous
Type: Elementbound Fluid
Social Class: Lower Middle Class
Rarity: Uncommon
Common Traits
This character has a collection of items or does lowkey hoarding of random objects they find. They are more likely to pick up just about anything they find and check it out. If an item is removed from their collection without their approval they may become minorly distressed.
This character is more able to survive in an unfavorable environment, given time. This character is able to handle radical changes without folding under pressure.
This character is scared of whatever X is. This fear may be rational or irrational. Depending on the character their fear may be met with different responses, such as some may become aggressive when one tries to force a fear towards them.
Gods
Mialcsem may believe in their personal god, Yhenang. Many Mialcsem goverment officals do honor limbo gods.
Gods: Yhenang, Sleeper
Original Creator: Apo11o
Physical Description
The mialcsem are comprised nearly entirely out of slime of various colours. The adults will almost always invariably have some sort of object as their head; this object may change their colour scheme as well as additional minor chemical components from their original jelly. Those that don't pick an object on their Helm's Day resemble their juvenile form, their body being made of the same hardened gel that seems almost like plates or scales. Their head has about the same consistency as the inside of a jelly donut. These adults who passed up the chance to transform still tend to differ from their children as, other than the obvious variation in size, they often grow billowing plumes off their heads.
Helm's Day takes place in the single week of puberty where an adolescent mialcsem's face begins to leak as the gel there reaches its weakest bonding point in preparation for having their chosen object inserted into it. It is, other than the day for having said item be pushed gently into their face, a time for the individual to lie down in their bed and sleep away for hours as their body undergoes the required changes to finish the process.
Mialcsem babies are very squishy, having not yet managed to build up the consistency to create any armour just yet; therefore, their entire body is made of the fragile inner goo that will eventually harden up until they're left only with an exposed head later on in life.
Newborns are so fragile they practically resemble baby slime slugs.
Personality
Mialcsem vary in personality as most sentient species tend to be, though it is an almost universal constant that mialcsem tend to be extremely paranoid and fearful about anything concerning coming into contact with their head. This is an ingrained reaction borne from their juvenile form's fragility that sometimes extends to their adult one as well. It's not unusual for them to have a preference for wearing hats as some sort of psychological comfort even if the hat is too soft to actually protect them or their head is hard enough that they don't require it in any case. If a mialcsem permits someone to touch their cranium, it is their sign of ultimate trust and the individual who was allowed to do so shouldn't take it lightly.
Many living with a mialcsem will notice that some of their items will suddenly go missing. It is likely that the mialcsem took it. While they aren't thieves and will, in fact, willingly hand the item back should it happen to belong to someone, anything they take a shine to in particular is usually taken to their 'hoard' - a collection of items every single one of their species has. While generally it is meant to be something they have so that their children can pick one out of the pile should they choose to do so, it's also a universal constant that every mialcsem will inevitably start their own hoard, whether or not they actually ever plan to have children. Everyone collects their favorite things, after all.
As they have no need for any amount of distinct genders and do not even have any genitals at all for other species to differentiate between, they generally don't bother identifying with any - however, some of the off-planet travelers tend to pick up pronouns and genders that they particularly emulate with, and begin using those. Because of their eccentric breeding habits, mialcsem also tend to become flustered and embarrassed if caught looking at gore, or if they happen upon a battle scene with excessive bloodshed.
Their culture is by and large - likely as a result of their tendency to undergo drastic physical transformations on their Helm's Day - rather accepting of abrupt alterations and tend not to judge when one of their group makes unusual decisions, though it will probably still be met with mild confusion and curiosity.
Mialcsem highly enjoy AIs and do not bat a single eye at them having equal rights. They consider robots to have the same rights as they do and making a robot is viewed as making a whole new life. Mialcsem robots are fantastic art pieces, much like many of the things mialcsem make. The robots tend to be made out of wood and as such can have a short lifespan if parts are not constantly replaced. As the robots are considered adults no one needs to take care of them but many mialcsem who live near the robot will go out of their way to get or even make replacement parts for their artificial neighbor.
Mialcsem look down upon others who knock people down or otherwise injure them in some fashion, accidental or not, and then proceed to walk away without offering assistance. Hit and runs are considered one of the worst crimes a mialcsem can commit. This, of course, is due to how physically being hurt is intrinsically tied with their way of procreation.
The mialcsem reproduce by bloodshed - or, more accurately, gelshed. Even after they go through their metamorphosis, they are still primarily slime-based beings. Despite their outer colourings, once they're cut they will still bleed the same viscous liquid they are made of, with their original colour pre-modification. About a liter taken from a cut in the arm and slowly dripped into a bowl with their desired partner's is how reproduction is traditionally done. The gel mixing together will harden into a new egg that will gradually build up plating for its shell and then eventually, after nine months or so, break apart to reveal a new baby.
This is obviously unfortunate when physical damage is taken by a mialcsem and the resulting mess is combined with another's. The last thing a grievously injured pair, whom may or may not even know each other, need is to take care of an extra egg. However, accidents happen and Mother Nature has not yet seen fit to give them an alternate method of producing offspring.
History
There is a story the species' young offspring are told of centuries past, pre-civilisation, where all mialcsem cringed and lived in fear of the mighty predators roaming their planet. With all their various, varied colours of goo forcing them to stand out like a black cat among a sea of white dogs and ridiculously fragile heads, they were easy pickings for a starving wanderer. However, some gained the ability to gently push leaves or other such debris into the goo of their mind and absorb it, assisting them in blending in with their surroundings as plant melded with goo and the ability even hardened their once so soft heads.
While it's entirely up to judgement whether or not the tale itself is entirely accurate, it's certainly not too farfetched to believe.
Before mialcsem were integrated into the entirety of the universe, many followed a deity known as Yhenang. This god was said to be made of the same substance as them, but somehow even better refined; fully fluid save for their hard, plated tail, they were capable of changing their shape into anything and anyone they wished. Unlike the mialcsem and their singular opportunity of change, Yhenang needed no helming nor specific day, shifting without limitation, entirely at will.
The stories told of their deity hiding amongst them, a god among the mortals. Posing as anything from an injured wild beast to a box on the side of the road, tales always speak of how the mialcsem that treated strangers kindly were rewarded and those that treated them cruelly simply for appearance were punished.
Subsequently, when the notails came knocking on their doors and toting the Limbo Gods as their own religion, it was something of a cultural clash and shock to have deities that were said to loathe you pushed upon them. It was generally agreed that only the 'face' of the mialcsem, its political leaders, needed to make to make the sacrifice and at least put on a show of assimilating into this system; the rest of the populace would be allowed to continue believing in their Yhenang.
The fact that their government has genuinely taken on the Limbo Gods as their deities seems to keep the notails content, at least. Being a rather explorative race, they achieved space travel in their own due time after a lot of discussion and wondering about what was beyond the multicoloured stars of their night sky; however, faster-than-light travel was technology that they had yet to puzzle out the ways of before the notails arrived. Nevertheless, with their help, the mialcsem now have even more items to pick from and places to investigate than ever before.
Subspecies
None / Unknown.
Special
Body Transformation: The mialcsem Helm's Day transformation is a sight to behold. Just about anything may be used as a head, even AIs. When an AI chip/core becomes a mialcsem helm they rarely fuse into one singular mind and tend to have two very different thought processes despite having a single head. This can cause both the AI and the mialcsem to become stressed out if the fusion was not agreed upon.
Other species have realized how worthwhile it is to farm mialcsem as, for example, they can turn a small piece of gold into a large amount due to their transformation of it into their head turning it proportionate to their body size. Not only that, but a mialcsem is easy to take care of as they only require a liquid, like water, to live, and it only takes their blood to make more of them. Even mialcsem who pass their Helm's Day without transformation are useful as their hardened plates make fine armor for many species like the arma.
While many would assume the mialcsem would be against this (and they would be right), most mialcsem are blissfully ignorant about the issue as their leaders do not inform them of it. The mialcsem leaders go out of their way to destroy all evidence that it happens as due to mialcsem farms many species have given the mialcsem as a whole a "get out of jail free" card. Many of the mialcsem leaders see this as a way to protect the mialcsem from being taken over.
People who do know about the mialcsem farms may do whatever is in their power to bust down farms and free the mialcsem, or at the very least spread the information about them. Some who do know about it feel the same way the leaders do, that the farming of the few is needed to protect the many.
Alchemy: While mialcsem never developed many weapons of war on their planet unlike many other species, they did create a type of unique alchemy. After studying how their own body changes when they gain their helm, the mialcsem were able to create objects just using alchemy. The process can take a long time but it's well worth it. The mialcsem alchemy system has been taught to other species for large sums of money and how it works is a heavily guarded secret.
Trivia
• Mialcsem are firm believers of being kind to strangers and gentle with belongings that aren't theirs. Though they may not necessarily believe in or worship the god that initially encouraged these behaviors, the influence of the tales of Yhenang has stayed through the centuries.
• As mialcsem find robots and organics to be on equal footing, rather than lesser simply because robots are artificially created, any planets that they rule tend to have helixians, zuid'tians and all manner of other AIs thronging among them.
• Their entire culture revolves around change. Subsequently, most mialcsem tend to either adapt to sudden and extreme upheavals to their life well, or at least be open enough to accept it.
• Mialcsem architecture and museums have the go-to standard for classical, good art. As they were incapable of carrying out wars without extreme difficulty, the majority of time where any other species would have been constructing weapons was instead spent refining and expanding their creativity, aesthetics, and other such social and cultural ventures.
• Kuppas are very good, as a whole, at making mialcsem uncomfortable. As mialcsem reproduce via blood, the concept of drinking or fighting specifically with it is a few steps beyond uncanny, even knowing that other species have different societies and biology than they do.
Image Gallery
No art currently, maybe you can help.
