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Chorals are the only known sapient species known to be native to the Embrace. Ehiphem is a very young Choral.
Chorals are colony organisms, consisting of anywhere from thousands to millions of tiny semi-crystalline wormlike creatures inhabiting a mineral shell. Though entirely unintelligent when considered separately, they achieve sapience through a collective telepathic linkage. While each component lives for only a few years, they are constantly replaced; the colony as a whole can live for a very long time, and in fact they do not die of old age as such; a colony is more likely to perish due to a lack of space or resources. Their native habitats are chemical-rich pools formed by water percolating down through the rock; they derive most of their sustenance from these, but are capable of siphoning off life energy from other local organisms as a supplement.
They grow throughout their lives, and the largest that have been found are columns several meters thick and nearly fifty meters tall. For most of their lives, colonies are too large and heavy to move, but at their very earliest stages, they can “crawl” very slowly using thin, cilia-like components. For faster travel, they may use these to attach themselves to passerby creatures. This is one of the two usual means by which Chorals colonize new habitats, although, since suitable pools are relatively rare, there is something of a subculture of perpetually parasitic Chorals throughout parts of the Embrace.
Chorals reproduce by budding or breakage; whether on purpose or by accident, a piece of a colony separates and falls off, and, if it lands in a place where it can thrive, begins to grow as a separate colony. The new colony begins with a similar set of memories and personality traits to its “parent”, but slowly diverges over time. This process may be hastened by other nearby colonies contributing some of their components to it, as Choral society sees value in colonies having a healthy mix of others' experiences and viewpoints.
Colonies communicate telepathically both internally and between each other, though some low-level functions are performed through chemical signaling. Choral society tends to be contemplative and communal, since most members of it are sessile and unable to use tools in the normal sense. If something is needed by one member of a community and another has access to it (as, for example, a particular chemical concentrated in a particular area of a pool), it is customary for the former to take telepathic control of the latter and direct them to collect and send it. This is considered entirely normal, proper, and polite by both parties, so long as the one under control is not made to neglect themselves. This tendency has flavored interactions with non-Chorals, who - to the Chorals' hurt bafflement - often do not react well to this treatment.
Though Chorals are widely known in the Embrace, they are not often seen, even the parasitic ones. Opinion on them is decidedly mixed, since although very useful, their telepathic abilities can be the subject of fear and paranoia, and some communities will seek to destroy any that they find.