Chatcaavan Shapechange

the shapechange

Details here about how the shapechange works.

History

The Change is female. Female Chatcaava are responsible for it--they're the ones who originally had the ability, and through them they gave it to males. (They're also responsible for wings, and for the draconic shape). They're the only ones who can gene-fix characteristics so they remain hereditary, which is why the Chatcaava look like dragons; their original mammalian form was not scaled or able to fly. Those are characteristics females learned for the species to give them the ability to survive their environment.

There was, however, an accidental mutation that caused a generation of animal-like throwbacks, and this was so horrific that there was debate over whether the Chatcaava should be allowed to continue to Change. There was a fight--the winning faction decided Changing was too dangerous and gene-fixed females into the four-armed shape, which could no longer shift (and therefore no longer choose new traits by Touching other species). Females were complicit in this decision (they had to be in order to ensure the change to the breeding population).

The sad animal-like things were loaded onto ships and sent to the furthest frontier. The Twelveworld is a redoubt encircling the home of these revenants.

In the modern era, while male Chatcaava (and winged females) are capable of the Change, it is rarely if ever done. Second-Who-Was had never Changed, and Emperor Kauvauc Ueneuvin did not do so until Lisinthir Nase Galare convinced him to; the Queen Ransomed did change, but was beaten for it in her youth. According to Second, "What makes us Chatcaava is that we can Change--and we don't."

The Breath of the Living Air is inevitably an ambassador, because to learn new shapes requires befriending new species.

Process

Shifting is a skill like a martial art - not everyone is capable of the same shapes. Just like the capacity to be an Olympian athlete is possible to all humans, but is in reality limited by training and aptitude and vicissitudes (whether you're born with certain setbacks). So something like a Naysha might require the equivalent of a Master's level of skill, while a Flitzbe might require an Adept-level, and there might only be 5 or 6 people in the entire Empire who could pull it off.

Touch

The Touch creates a warm sensation in the Chatcaavan who uses it, with a sense of gathering power and heat. When completed, it "crested and rolled over her, sharp as an orgasm" and the receiving Chatcaavan gets a general feeling of the target's sense-of-self. If the Touch is aborted before it completes, it throbs and burns. Performing the Touch can create a heat or pressure-like sensation until the shape has been Changed into.

"It is a source of information. The Touch does not create clones."

It is easier to grasp the gestalt of a non-sentient pattern, though the Queen Ransomed was the first modern Chatcaavan to examine one (the horse on Escutcheon). It feels nothing like a sentient's pattern. With consideration, it is possible to sense separate characteristics that might make useful 'borrowed' traits, as well as other data (like the possibility that an animal species has been domesticated).

Change

It is easiest to Change into a new shape when curled in a ball, though those who are well-practiced can do so while standing or moving. When Changing, the Chatcaava lose access to their senses and are temporarily unaware of their surroundings. New forms can be painful to Change into, and those who are less practiced at the Change may find it painful as well. It happens in a series, from essential features to more superficial: "From the inside to the out, she Changed. She took on an Eldritch's metabolism, and an Eldritch's organs. Harder, the skeleton; it always pained her to lose the extra limbs, mass consumed and routed elsewhere to match the new shape. Last the fascia, and the skin." The Change is complete: it copies things like esper abilities along with physical details. Conservation of mass is respected; for example, a Chatcaavan's wings will be absorbed and repurposed for greater height when shifting into an Eldritch. It is easier to perform the Change when curled into a ball, but possible to Change without doing so, though it is more difficult and potentially more painful.

In the unpracticed or unskilled, the Change can be nauseating to watch, as the Chatcaava begins to glisten and seems to melt.

Holding a shape is "not like carrying a too-full bucket, or holding back an elastic. You will not feel tension or anxiety about returning to your true shape. It will feel more like clothing. When you decide you are done with your attire, you shed it."

"You can always Change, no matter what form you’re in. Your shape is not you. It is not capable of limiting your abilities or you would be unable to switch back." "She could tell him what it was like to Change. She knew what it was like to take another into herself so deeply she became them while somehow remaining herself."

Biology

The physical sex of a Chatcaavan is preserved during the Change, even if they take the pattern from a member of a different sex. Clothing and adornments are also retained unless removed; for example, the Queen Ransomed's collar persists.

The Attendant's castration went through the Change unchanged. (Though it is implied that was at least in part due to his self-view.)

The Slides

Changing shape while transiting a slide helps push back the voices of the planet killers. "Before I shifted shape, I could barely think my own thoughts. It was as if the hate was everywhere, and it was me. Only by Changing was I able to find my true core, the untouchable one."

Quotes

• "Perhaps that is the point of the Change," Lisinthir said. "Not to lose yourself in others, not to contest with aliens at a bone-deep level... but to learn them, understand them, and encompass the best of them."

• "We Change," The alien said, and something about the word made him feel its weight,even in Universal. "We can get young on other species. Our seed fools their bodies into nurturing it until it develops, but it is born Chatcaavan." Laisrathera, page 156