Phase Whale Race

The species colloquially known as the phase whales are one of the rare aquatic sentient races that have grown to become a strong power in the Red Ocean. The phase whales physically resemble other whales, both sentient and non-sentient, due to evolving in similar aquatic environments. Phase whales exhibit an extensive degree of diversity in size, shape, evolution and abilities. This is because their natural growth stops at a certain point. Instead of settling for their mature forms like many other races, they have opted to utilize their high mastery in biotechnology to augmented their own bodies according to their tastes, their scientific knowledge base and the resources they have at hand.

Physically, phase whales are large aquatic organisms that range considerably in size. They are born the size of an aircar and can grow to become the size of a human destroyer. Phase whales never stop growing in size as they age, but it takes an exceptionally long time for them to grow to larger. The current known record of the largest and oldest phase whale ever encountered by humanity has reached an age of 8634 years. This extremely wise and powerful phase whale has reached a length of 1.3 kilometers. At a certain point in their life cycle, phase whales are able to produce phasewater in their own bodies.

Every phase whale beyond a certain point of maturity boast a system of complementary and related organs that are capable of producing phasewater. We call this the phasewater production system or PPS for short. When every phase whale ages and reaches maturity, the alien develops numerous precursor organs in their bodies that can help them regulate and control any phasewater they have absorbed from their environment. However, the precursor organs cannot produce the key substance itself unless the phase whales have upgraded them through biotechnological means.

When Phase whales reach maturity and leave the gas giants that they grew up in, they give in to their curiosity and explore different star systems and phase whale enclaves. Over the course of their travels, they gain inspiration from what they witness and develop their own plans for self-improvement. Once they have made enough gains, they will settle onto a gas giant or other site and slowly begin to research methods to strengthen and augment their own bodies. A single cycle can take decades if not hundreds of years. There are even examples where phase whales have shut themselves in their biolabs for millenia just to get everything right.

One of the disadvantages of the phase whales is that they do not easily pass on their own research and accomplishments to others. The only exception is their direct offspring, but even then not everything gets passed on. This has led to a pattern of long-term stagnation as the phase whales have only marginally grown stronger over many eons. The phase whales must have been extremely assured of their superiority. Such a pattern of behavior was only fine if stronger external threats did not show up. Their presence across the Red Ocean allowed them to keep an eye on every alien race.

The delinquent phase whales are able to plunder the hard work of others by one of the simplest and crudest methods possible. They defeat their targets in combat and eat the biological parts and organs that they value the most. Through an unexplained process, the winner can forcefully assimilate the stolen biological augments and gain strength in a fraction of the time it takes to develop these improvements the proper way.