Living Hieroglyphs

Name: Living Hieroglyphs


Description: Hieroglyphs are a simplistic interloper species that originates in Hyperspace, inhabiting a high range of ECF zones where they exist as the culmination of complex mathematical equations represented by free-floating fractal shapes. In realspace, they culminate as pitch black two-dimensional fractals with a seemingly infinite amount of angles spanning smaller and smaller space.




Above: The mapping of the geometry of a hieroglyph found on an Axolotian vessel in 3285.


Behavior: Hieroglyphs, at least in realspace, tend to be stagnantly uncaring about other forms of life, the only interaction it has with members not of its own species being what it is known for. Hieroglyphs cling to the hulls of ships coming out of hyperlanes and even the exterior of larger interloper species. Within hyperspace, it is notably much more active, able to propagate itself more easily and as such takes a more parasitic approach to what it clings to, attempting to consume pieces of what it’s stuck to, but in realspace the hieroglyph becomes much more sedentary and motionless as the laws allowing it to locomote are unwritten.


Tamability: Hieroglyphs are untamable as they lack the mental and sensory ability to communicate with other species. However, in hyperspace, they can be used as cleaning tools when cultivated over something that needs to be eaten away at, and in realspace they make very nice-looking decorations.


Where is it found?: Hieroglyphs are native to Hyperspace in many places across the dimension. In some places, they cling to walls, in others, like in hyperlanes, they float freely in space, but they always are observed to fling themselves at the surface of other organisms, which hitches them a free ride. In realspace, they can be found on the outsides of ships and interlopers, where they are generally considered benign pests.


Rarity: They are quite common in non-settled parts of Hyperspace, the only reason being is that they are exterminated basically everywhere else for their aggression and annoyance status. In realspace, they’re basically nonexistent when it comes to participation in ecosystems..


Diet/Method of gaining nutrients and energy: Some hyperspace species subsist off of the idea of their own existence, feeding off of the flux they generate themselves. A hieroglyph is similar, in that it is the characterization of a mathematical equation. As a fractal, a hieroglyph constantly is breaking down some of its infinite mass for its cuil flux, cannibalizes it, and rebuilds it all over again to achieve a state of stasis. When in stasis, a hieroglyph cannot grow, but it can metabolize the flux of other beings when clinged to them in hyperspace, allowing them to grow in size. When in realspace, their flux cannibalization becomes more insular, which prevents them from growing.


Products?: Modern art. Really gross toxic soup probably.


Reproduction: Hieroglyphs, at the end of their short life, will split into two other hieroglyphs of roughly equal size, essentially halving the mathematical equation. Hieroglyphs, however, can also materialize into existence if the equation that they represent is written or calculated in areas with high ECF.


Size: Hieroglyphs can span from a few square centimeters in size to three meters in diameter, but they’re also technically limitless in size.


Weight: Lighter than paper.


Lifespan: Hieroglyphs live for about five years before they split. The original never truly “dies,” until it is unable to split any more, where it withers away into stagnant flux.


Abilities: Living Hieroglyphs are egregiously durable in that the only way to truly scrub one from existence is to drain it of flux entirely. Pulling one apart is easy, but it’s a lot like a hydra in that, in such a situation, you’ve now got two hieroglyphs on hand. They are capable of surviving in high-ECF zones and are often likened to earth barnacles. As fractalloids, the structure of a hieroglyph spans even smaller than an atomic level, though the flux gained from cannibalizing itself reduces as the cannibalized limbs become smaller. Hieroglyphs are deathly toxic to realspace organics, and consuming one will induce severe cuil sickness and, most likely, death. In realspace, Hieroglyphs can consume the flux of other lifeforms to add to its mass, and latch onto the bodies of corporeal beings like cookie-cutter sharks.


Flaws: Hieroglyphs die instantly when exposed to normantium or any other low cuil levels as their flux-cannibalization cycle is halted. As sedentary lifeforms in realspace, hieroglyphs don’t particularly pose a threat to anyone, but in hyperspace they’re barely nuisances. Hieroglyphs display no forms of complex thought whatsoever, and are incapable of any of the common senses that most realspacers would expect.


Other: In a euclidean sense, a hieroglyph always represents modified, infinitely-diverse versions of the equation D = log N/log S, used to calculate the dimensions of fractals in general.