CunsnuC

The CunsnuC are a sapient race of giant colonial cnidarianoids native to the oceanic depths of the planet Cachalot.

Biology
The CunsnuC are gigantic invertebrates, large enough to dwarf even the whales of Earth. They are in fact colonial organisms, whose bodies consist of a multitude of individual polyps, specialized to perform different functions. It's not known whether a specific type of polyp acts as the brain or if their intelligence is indeed derived from the collective, but they seem to have no concept of individuality whatsoever.

Members of this species spend the days in the oceanic abysses of their homeworld, in depths of over 5.5 km, where not even a sperm whale could survive. At night, they journey up to the near surface to feed on plankton.

Their bodies are perfectly spherical, transparent and brightly bioluminescent, containing a variety of polypous multi-colored organs visible inside them. Their skin is covered with millions of fluttering cilia which propel them through the water like humongous rotifers. They can create air-filled bubbles inside their bodies and trap smaller creatures within them, including Humans.

The CunsnuC communicate by telepathy and are capable of influencing the minds of other creatures. It's speculated that this evolved as their principal defense mechanism; allowing them to simply "order" predators away.

Although they can control non-sapient creatures with great efficiency and even semi-sapients and sapients to some extent; the CunsnuC can also be negatively affected by the thoughts of other sapients. Despite their huge size, they're extremely sensitive to Human thoughts. In fact, the activity of Human minds is physically painful for them, even at great distances. To be in close proximity to one or more Humans is nothing short of agonizing for them, and the effects of the neuro-stimulating musical instrument known as a neurophon are lethal. Conversely, in spite of being evolutionarily-related to Humans, the minds of whales produce no negative effect on the CunsnuC.

Culture and society
The CunsnuC are a non-technological species and have no knowledge of other worlds; the existence of which is considered unthinkable by them. Since their intelligence is collective, they're all connected to each other and believe that nothing can exist outside the reaches of their collective experience.

Instead of developing technology, the CunsnuC prefer to direct their efforts towards the creation of new polyps to perform specific functions; although this is an extremely slow process that can take many centuries to complete.

Appearances

 * Cachalot, by Alan Dean Foster (1980)