Slimoids

I was thinking about slimoids in the same vein as lemurians, and similarly, the lack of information on them is frustrating. For what I thought of them, I tried to go by what sparse notes there were listed under Slimoids, and I did some research on amoebas and drew a lot of potential anatomical parallels between the two.
------

Slimoids are amoebas humanoid beings. Their body makeup is strange compared to many others', and as such their appearance may have them mistaken for water elementals. Their body's interior is mostly a special plasm, while instead of skin they have a clear membrane. To eat, they can open a food vacuole from their lips or any other point on their body. Then they take in food- of any size that they can wrap their membrane around without risk of being injured- which is then broken down quite clearly in plain sight, which can be disturbing to see.

Their bodies are quite malleable. While this means they can slip into very small and irregular spaces to hide, it also means that they can be slurped up with ease. Slug-girls, as they are to oozes, pose a large threat for slimoids. A slimoid's only real weak point internally would be their 'nucleus' structure, a small nexus more magical than not, which serves multiple critical functions.

Slimoid nature means it's fairly easy for them to master the discipline of magic-structured shape-changing. This allows, with practice, for slimoids to take more detailed and differing forms, though keeping their amoebas nature. To defend themselves, it's not uncommon for slimoids to elongate their arms and form whipping pseudapods with them. Some are aquatic, while others are not. Those that are take more streamlined forms than their terrestrial counterparts. All slimoids need a moist environment, or at least easy access to water in order to survive, and they reproduce via mitosis.
-----

Thoughts?

Ohh nice work ! Thank you very much, this is really helpful

I saw this on the wiki. I like it!

Do they look like this, then? An encounter with one would be quite disturbing, if you can see the remains of its last meal from the outside... Definitely adds a chilling touch to any stroll through Felarya.

Two questions. First, just to be sure: They are intelligent / sentient, right? And if so, do they tend to be more individualistic, or to live in tight-knit groups?

Second, how big are they? Do they come in various sizes? They're small enough to fit in a (presumably giant) slug girl's stomach, but are they big enough to envelop a human? Or are there various sizes - some big enough to eat humans, others too small?

Are there any small enough for a human-sized slug girl to eat? (In other words, would it be ok if my little slug girl Vuni developed a taste for these slimy beings? )

French snack wrote:

I saw this on the wiki. I like it!

Do they look like this, then? An encounter with one would be quite disturbing, if you can see the remains of its last meal from the outside... Definitely adds a chilling touch to any stroll through Felarya.

Yeah, pretty much like goo-people I would imagine. Except maybe less melty looking.

Quote :

Two questions. First, just to be sure: They are intelligent / sentient, right? And if so, do they tend to be more individualistic, or to live in tight-knit groups?

Definately sentient, and they'd probably be individualistic, although you may see them together.

Quote :

Second, how big are they? Do they come in various sizes? They're small enough to fit in a (presumably giant) slug girl's stomach, but are they big enough to envelop a human? Or are there various sizes - some big enough to eat humans, others too small?

I would think that their size could vary- maybe they could control the amount of mass they have to suit their environment? As for slug-girls, any specimen that is about their own size would likely just treat them like any random ooze. They probably taste good to them. ~_~

Quote :

Are there any small enough for a human-sized slug girl to eat? (In other words, would it be ok if my little slug girl Vuni developed a taste for these slimy beings? )

Hehe, I don't see why not.

*nods* Thanks for the answer. I really like the idea. I'll try to work them into a story one day - by having Vuni eat a few, and maybe by thinking up a slimoid character, if ever I have any ideas. Nice work.

Supplemental ideas for slimoids:

Reproduction: Slimoids reproduce via mitosis, the specifics involved making them quite unique. When a slimoid reproduces, it physically splits apart, resulting in two individuals that are the same size with the same genetics. A slimoid also passes on memories... Though they can't determine which ones; their memories cannot be duplicated. What occurs is that in the split, a totally random and unbalanced number of memories are distributed between them. One may receive none while the other retains all, and must care for the other as an infant. Just as likely is that each will receive a mismatched cobble of memories that only make sense with what the other knows. In such a case they must depend on one another's knowledge for survival until they each know what the other does. Likely still, one receives only a few memories that are crucial to the others' sense of self-identity, leaving both with incurable amnesia. Because of this inherent risk, reproduction among slimoids usually only takes place either supervised within a group where a resulting problem can be overcome with knowledge, or else in a situation where their nexus is badly damaged and splitting into separate entities is a last-ditch resort for survival. Furthermore, the split leaves a slimoid completely vulnerable during the process and each resulting slimoid is somewhat reduced in size and must naturally regrow to what their native stature is.

Since slimoids are somewhat magical beings, they can be tracked and located by creatures that specialize in sensing magic, such as fairies, some nagas, ghosts, etc. Slimoids tend to be rather shy, though the more experienced shape-changers may be more emboldened.

That would be cool to see how a slimoid that loses it's second half pretty early (slug girl eats it?) would live, with hardcore amnesia.... good story idea....

Memory split is a fascinating idea in terms of character development... It does seem slightly odd as a natural process, though. Since it implies that reproducing may make the slimoid vulnerable, mess up its mind (or rather its two new minds), etc... It's not much of an incentive to reproduce. Have they got a strong, instinctive "mitosis drive" to compensate for that?

I've always liked Slime people, and these guys sound fun too. Still, wouldn't the way they reproduce mean that every Slimoid would be decended from one original parent, and all look roughly the same, if not identical? And the Slimoids running around today would probably all have veeeery weird minds, because of all the generations of random memories randomly distributed. So maybe the race would have a reputation for being unpredictable and odd?

Memory split is nice, and it also encourages Slimoids not to go on eating & reproductive frenzies: Memories get scattered more and more, until eventually they go insane if they don't let their minds recover.

Any maximum size a Slimoid can 'grow' to before it will invariably reproduce? Or is there no ceiling to their growth (for instance, could one eventually grow large enough to eat a Spine Beetle? Kensha Beast? Predator?).

French snack wrote:

Memory split is a fascinating idea in terms of character development... It does seem slightly odd as a natural process, though. Since it implies that reproducing may make the slimoid vulnerable, mess up its mind (or rather its two new minds), etc... It's not much of an incentive to reproduce. Have they got a strong, instinctive "mitosis drive" to compensate for that?

You're right about the drawbacks, it wouldn't seem like it does them much good with such a large possibility of making them less fit for survival than before the split. So I'd look at it as that would be more of a reason for them to live in communities, where those dangers of something negative happening to their two new minds during a split could be helped, and there would probably be a trigger for a 'mitosis drive' to be put into effect as well. Possibly if the hunting is going very well, the slimoid growing large...

As a possible positive situation you could have a powerful slimoid mage, and one day they just feel the urge to split. One possibility is that one of them keeps the knowledge and expertise to teach the other as an apprentice. Eventually you have two individuals that are better suited to survival.

Sillysausage wrote:

I've always liked Slime people, and these guys sound fun too. Still, wouldn't the way they reproduce mean that every Slimoid would be decended from one original parent, and all look roughly the same, if not identical? And the Slimoids running around today would probably all have veeeery weird minds, because of all the generations of random memories randomly distributed. So maybe the race would have a reputation for being unpredictable and odd?

Naw, that wouldn't be fun if they all were the same. I'm sure populations would differ, say some in the Topazial Sea grow to be about the size of a fifty foot mermaid, and have jellyfish-like characteristics or something, being perfectly transparent, while a population of Chidokai slimoids may be light green goo-people that are ten feet tall to wedge into hiding places.

EDIT: Because their nexus encompasses much magic, you could say that populations could magically evolve to better fit their surroundings instead of genetically.

Chances are that memories from many previous generations wouldn't survive at all in their most modern counterparts, you have too many splits, too many chances of the individuals retaining specific memories getting eaten. But you're right about the weirdness of their minds, some may recognize things they've never seen in their lives, or have bits of knowledge they couldn't have gathered on their own. So yeah, unpredictable, odd.. And perhaps useful for people seeking information. Or at least that's what people say.

Malahite wrote:

Memory split is nice, and it also encourages Slimoids not to go on eating & reproductive frenzies: Memories get scattered more and more, until eventually they go insane if they don't let their minds recover.

Any maximum size a Slimoid can 'grow' to before it will invariably reproduce? Or is there no ceiling to their growth (for instance, could one eventually grow large enough to eat a Spine Beetle? Kensha Beast? Predator?).

I don't know about insane, they likely have a mechanism that lets them deal with inherited memories better than a human mind might, nonchalantly mentioning things they just so happen to know in normal conversation if they're reminded... As for size, I think you would really have to look at populations and where they inhabit. They may fill different niches size-wise, some being small and split at a relatively small size, while others could be of giant scale.

I'm glad these ideas have gained interest, and stirred up discussion.

/Fish/ wrote:

Naw, that wouldn't be fun if they all were the same. I'm sure populations would differ, say some in the Topazial Sea grow to be about the size of a fifty foot mermaid, and have jellyfish-like characteristics or something, being perfectly transparent, while a population of Chidokai slimoids may be light green goo-people that are ten feet tall to wedge into hiding places.

Well, that sounds better, there's loads of potential for different types of Slimoids then. Hmm, as for facial features and such, maybe the Slimoids can remake their upper body as they want to, to differenciate from others, or just for fun? It'd be interesting to see the different forms they'd take, maybe some would model their membrane into a vague appearance of clothes, or that sort of thing.

Sillysausage wrote:

Well, that sounds better, there's loads of potential for different types of Slimoids then. Hmm, as for facial features and such, maybe the Slimoids can remake their upper body as they want to, to differenciate from others, or just for fun? It'd be interesting to see the different forms they'd take, maybe some would model their membrane into a vague appearance of clothes, or that sort of thing.

Yep, while 'newborn' slimoids would really just look vaguely humanoid, not having very much control over form-shifting unless that's experience that they've received from the split, once they get the hang of it they would personalize their appearance and shape. Facial structure, build, 'clothing', all that could be altered by the slimoid; they would only really have to share possibly a color that their plasm is if it has color, and general 'adult' or 'maximum' size rather with others in a population. Aside from that, they could wildly vary depending on personal preference.

So, different types? But wouldn't all within those types look roughly the same, except for a few differences? Actually.. that's a cool concept. That there was once a small group of different slimoids that created all the different slimoid types we see today. It would be cool if each "type" had inlaid memories relevant to that type's "mother slimoid".

Jætte_Troll wrote:

So, different types? But wouldn't all within those types look roughly the same, except for a few differences? Actually.. that's a cool concept. That there was once a small group of different slimoids that created all the different slimoid types we see today. It would be cool if each "type" had inlaid memories relevant to that type's "mother slimoid".

Different 'types' would have differences in size and color most likely, and from there like I mentioned before, individuals are really only bound to be similar by those but able to change their appearance and form when they get the hang of shape-changing. Otherwise the different 'base' types wouldn't be too terribly different, yeah.

As for the 'native inlaid memory' idea, that's rather interesting. Perhaps each type has their own origin legends based on fragmented things commonly embedded in their memories, the pieces of which some slimoids put together in what they believe is like a puzzle, trying to put together the full picture. Perhaps other slimoid groups use similar, though slightly different versions, less or more information to put together their own. Thus each group would have a generally similar 'origin story', though differing depending on distributed knowledge. Make sense?

I was thinking about how slug-girls are likely to be able to encounter and eat slimoids, and I thought it probably made sense for slimoids to be immune to the sticky properties of slug-girl slime, following them around to snack on anything that might get trapped in it. The only drawback they would have is that instead of sticky, the slime would be somewhat slippery to them and if a slug-girl backtracked, she'd have a better chance of being able to catch up and slurp them up.

/Fish/ wrote:

As for the 'native inlaid memory' idea, that's rather interesting. Perhaps each type has their own origin legends based on fragmented things commonly embedded in their memories, the pieces of which some slimoids put together in what they believe is like a puzzle, trying to put together the full picture. Perhaps other slimoid groups use similar, though slightly different versions, less or more information to put together their own. Thus each group would have a generally similar 'origin story', though differing depending on distributed knowledge. Make sense?

Makes sense to me. That would definitely give them a unique, and quite creative, characteristic.

Quote :

I was thinking about how slug-girls are likely to be able to encounter and eat slimoids, and I thought it probably made sense for slimoids to be immune to the sticky properties of slug-girl slime, following them around to snack on anything that might get trapped in it. The only drawback they would have is that instead of sticky, the slime would be somewhat slippery to them and if a slug-girl backtracked, she'd have a better chance of being able to catch up and slurp them up.

Interesting idea... But slug girls basically rely on the stickiness of their slime (whether laid on the ground or spat out in gobs) to catch prey. They're too slow to catch it any other way. Even if a slimoid slipped on slug girl slime (what a lovely alliteration! ), I think it would still be likely to pick itself up and get away before the slug girl can catch it.

French snack wrote:

Interesting idea... But slug girls basically rely on the stickiness of their slime (whether laid on the ground or spat out in gobs) to catch prey. They're too slow to catch it any other way. Even if a slimoid slipped on slug girl slime (what a lovely alliteration! ), I think it would still be likely to pick itself up and get away before the slug girl can catch it.

Unless you have a very wide slime trail and a small slimoid under the assumption that it would have difficulty traversing it, you're probably right. Only things I can think of that a slug-girl may be able to stop them from getting away is to spit slime and 'oil slick' them until she can catch up, or to slime up a wall and ambush them from above, or alternately to relying on trapping, is to pump slime into a hiding place to flush them out. There's probably a few more methods a slug-girl can use if she's crafty.

Or.. Maybe a slug-girl can become a SLIMEANCER.