Vermicious Knids (pronounced as K'nids) are sapient, amorphous shapeshifters from the planet Vermes that were encountered by Charlie Bucket in the Space Hotel USA, which they had invaded.
Biology[]
A member of this species has been described as "an enormous egg balanced on its pointed end”. It was estimated to be "as tall as a big boy and wider than the fattest man".
They have greenish brown skin which is described to wrinkly and has a wet, shiny appearance to it. Its eyes are said to be found in the widest part of its body which was estimated to be ¾ up from its pointed end; they are described as large and round, and are as big as "teacups". Its eyes are white but have bright red pupils. It is said that it does not have a mouth, ears or nose.
The Vermicious Knid is amorphous and it seems that its body is made up of one huge muscle. It was said to be "like a mixture of rubber putty with steel wires inside". Due to the description, they must also have a backbone which is also flexible so that they can manipulate their bodies in any shape they want. Also, they can withstand space but cannot withstand extreme heat which is one of the reasons why they cannot invade the Earth. When they attempt to enter the Earth's atmosphere, they easily burn up because of friction and this is said to be behind the phenomenon of shooting stars.
They are capable of flight through an unknown mechanism and can reach extreme speeds: the Knids pursuing the Glass Elevator reach 34,000 miles per hour, and Wonka states that this is 'dawdling' to a Knid. How fast they can go is not known, but it is probably very close to the speed of light, as they are capable of crossing the space between Vermes and Earth in the span of a year at most (either that or they are immortal/unfeasibly fast breeders).
Knids lack mouths or any other orifices, and are implied to feed by simply engulfing targets.
Habitat[]
They were originally from the planet Vermes, which is said to be 184,270,000,000 miles from Earth. They are said to have invaded Venus and Mars, as well as the Moon, but could not invade the Earth due to intense heat produced when entering the Earth's atmosphere (the former makes no sense: Venus's atmosphere is much thicker than Earth's). They are also comfortable in space; this indicates that Vermes is a frozen world of extreme colds.
Culture and society[]
A Vermicious Knid spelling the one (English) word it knows how to spell.
They are said to be murderous, brutal and terrifying, but also show-offs. This is one of their defining characteristics and also one of their weaknesses. They like to write with their bodies, which bought time for Charlie and the others to escape to the Glass Elevator. Proud as they are of this ability, the only word that they can write is "SCRAM". Why the one word they know how to spell happens to be an word forged from Human linguistics is anyone's guess.
References[]
- Roald Dahl, and Quentin Blake. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. New York: Puffin, 1998 Print.