Quaffan

The Quaffans (singular Quaffan) were a sentient species from Rai Korobolt, a world in the.

Biology and appearance
Though semi- by the most liberal definition, Quaffans possessed numerous characteristics which distinguished them from most other species. They had four eyes; the upper two were divided by a midband and had two different light receptors. Including the light receptors in each lower eye, Quaffans had a total of six visual sensors, resulting in sexnocular vision. In addition to perceiving brightness and movement like most sentients, they saw a greatly diversified color picture than s, and could see into the ultraviolet spectrum as well.

Quaffans possessed tough, shelled heads, except for their eyes and vocal tentacles. Their mouths, concealed behind their vocal tentacles, were for breathing only; they lacked Human-like vocal cords to produce speech. Instead, Quaffans could vibrate their three vocal tentacles to produce a variety of sounds; even more were created when the tentacles were in contact with one another. As a result, Quaffans could comprehensibly replicate numerous alien languages, including Orhyo and, though alien listeners often described Quaffans as speaking with a "buzzing" tone. Quaffans did not have a sense of smell, though they could hear well.

Quaffans were capable of breathing in and out of water. In air, they breathed through their mouths, exhaling through the large cavities to either side of their lower eyes. In water, they drew water in with gills on the backs of their heads, expelling carbon dioxide through their exhalation cavities. Quaffans took food through their mouths only. They primarily ate smaller sea life, but supplemented their diets with various plants; their systems were incapable of processing mammal meat and similar fare.

Quaffans had two arms and legs like other humanoids; their legs ended in feet with two long, multijointed toes, each of which had smaller digits with a single joint each. Their hands had opposable thumbs and two finger-like digits; all three were hard-shelled and shaped much like the pincer claws from which they had evolved. The fourth "digit", located where a Human's index finger would have been, was a tentacle roughly twenty centimeters long. Quaffans could grip with their three fingers alone, but the tentacle allowed both a stronger grip and more dexterity.

Like those of most crustaceans, Quaffan bodies were divided into head, thorax, and abdomen, though their thoraces and abdomens were connected by immovable joints and thus did not appear as drastically segmented as those of sentient insects such as s and Xhal. In addition to their primary arms and legs, Quaffans had much smaller {{w|Decapod anatomy#Abdomen / Pleon|pleopods]], a pair each above and below the thorax/abdomen joints. These pleopods were used for reproduction. Females used their pleopods to scoop out eggs and deposit them; males used them to withdraw globs of fertilizing "male jelly" and smear them on eggs. Fertilized eggs incubated for roughly seven standard months before hatching. Quaffans did not experience sexual pleasure due to reproduction itself, but failing to discharge genetic material over an extended period of time could become uncomfortable.

Born without limbs (which developed over a few years), Quaffans grew to physical maturity in approximately nineteen standard years. As they grew, they grew new shells inside the old ones; the old shells cracked and fell off in the process. Though Quaffans were {{w|Motility|motile}} for most of their lives (roughly sixty standard years), in old age they could become {{w|Sessility (zoology)|sessile}}, generating tissue which would connect them to a substrate. Quaffans in sessile state generally exhibited diminished consciousness which xenobiologists described as a "trance", though some could recover enough consciousness to speak if directly addressed. Fully sessile Quaffans lost the ability to move independently, apart from their eyes and vocal tentacles, but their nerves decayed as well, leaving the experience mostly painless.

Society and culture
Quaffans tended toward both stoicism and fatalism, accepting the ups and downs of life without complaint and acknowledging the inevitability of death and decay. Because of their tough shells, Quaffans had little need for the physical comforts of other species, and often built all their homes and other structures (including beds and other furniture) out of tough materials such a, , or.

Quaffans mated for life. However, because biological sexes were largely indistinguishable, and because reproduction did not involve a pleasurable mating act as it did for mammals, Quaffans tended to choose mates based on intellectual and personality compatibility alone. Lifelong Quaffan mates often chose to become sessile next to one another.

Sessility itself was not dreaded or even considered particularly daunting. Quaffans dedicated large substrate areas to sessile members of their species, somewhat equivalent to retirement communities among other species. Sessile communities had professional caretakers, though young Quaffans sometimes came by to visit recently sessile relatives or ask advice. A minority of Quaffans elected to become sessile in their own or family homes.

Singing was a common way of expressing oneself among Quaffans, and a choir of Quaffans humming songs in their native language was described as "eerily beautiful" by many offworld visitors. Some Quaffans enjoyed painting their shells different colors; engraving shells was a more permanent expression, analogous to Human tattooing.

History
Quaffans evolved from seagoing crustaceans, although they became amphibious millions of years before the. Most adopted a "live and let live" policy with both their neighbors and non-sentient animals; their hard shells made them difficulty to seriously injure, and their stoic nature rarely allowed for long-term grudges and vendettas.

Some time after 14 ABY, the Zarban Hegemony arrived at Rai Korobolt to incorporate the planet and the Quaffans. With a few outliers who were greatly supportive of or strongly opposed to alien rule, the majority of Quaffans simply accepted the turn of events. A few ventured offworld, some living on aquatic Bosys, but most Quaffans preferred to remain among their own and had little to do with aliens. They accepted the Hegemony's incorporation into the Golden Empire, but as a whole were not much more enthusiastic about the new government than the old one.

In the galaxy
The overwhelming majority of Quaffans lived out their lives on Rai Korobolt, interacting little with aliens and developing strong ties only with their own communities. A noteworthy exception was the Chorus of Shoktofen, an all-Quaffan choir which toured the Golden Empire.

Behind the scenes
The ultimate sessile state of the Quaffans was inspired in part by Wyvern, a crewman of the ' in ', who is shown having become largely "part of the ship".