Identification: anomalous phenomena that seem to be behaving almost as if they were… alive!
Variants: range from space‐fantasy psi‐nexus twisters to hard‐SF magnetohydrodynamic energy fields
Also Known As: Photohelices, Psychogyres, or Plasmovolutes
Origin: a black hole accretion disk, nth‐dimensional quantum roundabout, or chronospastic infarction
| LOOKS: | once you've upgraded and recalibrated your bioscanners they're fairly decorative | B− |
|---|---|---|
| BRAINS: | once you've upgraded and recalibrated your IQ‐scanners they're still only decorative | 55 |
| LETHALITY: | high, but not intentional | 0.35 |
| CULTURE: | they claim to have one, but it never shows up on the socioscanners even after you've upgraded and recalibrated them | 12 |
| HARDNESS: | moderate, though their average nosedives if you include Cosmic Encounter | 5½ |
| TOKENISM: | antimatter tokenism, which unfortunately works backwards | −50 |
Religion: whirling dervishism
Hobbies: morris dancing
Arch‐Rivals: the obvious‐but‐impossible Spectraloids
Natural Predators: the Hyperextremophiloids, accidentally
Affiliated With: secretly in league with the scanner manufacturers, I bet