Species Profile: Spleech

Physical Characteristics

Most of a spleech’s body is radial, with the primary change being two elongated eyes in the front and a hard flap of skin covering the back of the head, leaving the eyes and area below the eyes open as if the flap were a helmet. The head in question is rather tall, making up over 80% of a spleech’s height, which is an average of .8 meters. The torso is quite petite, being half the circumference as the head, and radiates out to four thin tentacles. Around the base of the even thinner neck is a row of small holes used for speaking.

Spleeches have a lifespan that varies widely–some live only 30 years, others for hundreds. They are hermaphrodites, lacking even a concept of gender in their society; they just mate with whomever! After mating, spleeches lay 3-7 eggs in water and then leave them. The eggs eventually hatch into a new family of siblings, aaand now would be a good time to transition into history and culture!

History and Culture

Spleeches do not have a typical mother and father relationship, as when eggs are laid the spleeches leave them and are unlikely to ever actually meet their children. Instead, spleeches have a strong sibling relationship with their families, the 3-7 spleech siblings working together to survive and staying together for all their lives. Marriage is an alien concept to them—mates rarely stay together, instead remaining with their siblings, although on occasion two families have merged into one (usually those with fewer siblings, such as 3 or 4).

This was all thrown out after Conrad The Conqueror became the potentate, the despot tyrant, the emperor, the generalissimo, the high muckamuck! Conrad broke apart family units, instead having spleeches work in larger cross-family groups. Although there are vestiges of the old sibling family strength remaining, this structure is largely gone now, and almost every spleech now works under Conrad’s command, with all the other spleeches probably living on planets ruled by him anyway.

Spleeches were once the bottom of the barrel on their home planet, with many other sea creatures stronger or smarter. That all changed when Conrad The Conqueror took over, as nearly all intelligent life that was not spleech was killed or enslaved, leaving spleeches the dominant life on the planet, though only under Conrad.