Cmaáz

⚠️ Content Note: The following page describes biological parasitism, including brain displacement and host body usage. It may be unsettling for some readers.

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Cmaáz are a small bug-like race located in many countries. They are considered to be one of the major races of Arzella. They have a somewhat unique capability. They can enter the body of another, typically through the neck, and dig up to the brain. From there, they separate the brain from the body and take its place, taking control of the target by emitting electrical pulses from their legs through the brain stem of the host. They eat and drink the blood, consuming the dying brain if and when the blood supply is low for one reason or another. They patch up the hole used to enter the skull with a hardened mucus-like structure they can produce that, over time, integrates into surrounding tissues. The bio-adaptive mucus can mimic a host's bone, muscle, skin, and even hair, rendering the entry wound nearly invisible. They breathe normal air, but when submerged in blood, they have special gill-like structures designed to filter the oxygen from the blood into the respiratory system. They reproduce outside of their host bodies. The females typically target female host bodies instinctively. This is because they restructure the womb of their host body as a nursery of sorts, often decorating it and making it a safe place for their eggs to hatch. Males are a little less picky with their choices of host body, but prefer males for the sake of simplicity and whatnot. Females typically spend hours every day perfecting their nurseries to make sure that their children will one day hatch into a nice home.

Cmaáz find it very tough to survive outside of a host. While they can survive temporarily in their native form, full function, including communication and complex tool use, requires a host body. They also need a host body in order to eat, as they mostly consume blood by "breathing" it while in a host body, meaning they often starve without a host.

Origins, Evolution, and Biology

The cmaáz are an insectoid species native to Arzella, evolved from a now-extinct family of airborne invertebrates on the planet Arzella that developed a method of manipulating host nervous systems via electrical impulses. The cmaáz co-opt host bodies not out of conquest or malice, but due to a long history of predation pressure that drove them toward sapience and concealment. Their use of host bodies is deeply tied to their survival, social structure, and even courtship, with their small, vibrant flying forms being primarily for mating and evasion.

While their body plan resembles certain real-world butterflies, this is incidental—an evolutionary convergence based on camouflage and mating signaling. Their “butterfly-like” wings and small size allow them to move efficiently and go unnoticed in their environment, especially when fleeing conflict or searching for a suitable host.

The cmaáz do not reproduce through their host bodies, and their true reproductive cycle remains tied to their native form. They maintain a separate, simplified vocal language for communication between individuals outside of their host form, while relying on host vocal cords for more complex interactions.

Culture and Morality

Their culture, shaped by survival and mimicry, is distinct: highly adaptive, yet increasingly engaged in moral and philosophical questions about autonomy, ethics, and symbiosis versus dominance. Though feared, they are not inherently evil or driven to domination, and individuals vary widely in temperament and goals.

The cmaáz have a diverse and complex culture shaped by millennia of survival-driven host usage. Ethical divisions exist: some question the morality of host killing, particularly when targeting intelligent species like humans or orvindar. Others embrace it as a necessary way of life. Most cmaáz eventually settle into a single host, developing identities and even relationships through that body. Some subcultures reject host usage entirely, living austere and challenging lives in their native forms. Their society frequently debates themes of autonomy, dominance, and survival ethics, particularly as they come into more frequent contact with other sapient species. These tensions increasingly define their place in modern Arzellan society.

Phonetics

Cmaáz speech organs don't produce quite the same sounds as most other intelligent species. They produce sounds mostly with their wings and a thoracic cavity that can open and close. They have a clicking organ at the end of their wings (similar to real-world Hamadryas butterflies) that can produce sound as well.

Consonants

	Plectral	Plectral-Alar	Alar	Alar-Thoracical	Thoracical
Disrumpal	!	k	t	p	ʔ
Stridulation		ʃ	s	z	ɸ
Membral				m	ŋ

Blank cells correspond to impossible combinations of place of articulation and manner of articulation.

• Plectral sounds are produced using a sound apparatus, located near the end of the wings. At the end of an upward wing stroke, the wings are clapped, and modified r-veins meet at a high speed.
• Plectral-Alar sounds are sounds produced with the wings, near the sound apparatus used for plectral sounds. These sounds mostly use the wings, though some speakers will partially plectralize their plectral-alars in speech.
• Alar sounds are sounds produced entirely with the wings, typically closer to the central areas of the wings.
• Alar-Thoracical sounds are produced with the wings very close to the thorax, often allowing these sounds to resonate through the thorax for louder sounds.
• Thoracical sounds are produced within the thorax or by constricting the thoracic opening.
• Disrumpal sounds are produced by snapping or clicking sounds or, in the case of the thoracic disrumpal, storing and compressing air in the thoracic cavity and expelling it.
• Stridulation sounds are produced by rubbing the wings together or by constricting the thoracic opening.
• Membral sounds are produced by vibrating a membrane in the thorax while constricting or completely closing a part of the thorax.

Vowels

Vowels are produced by allowing air flow from the lungs to pass through the thoracic cavity instead of the mouth.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	ɯ
Mid	e	ə	ɤ
Low	a	ɶ	ɑ

• Low vowels are produced with more expansion of the thoracic cavity.
• Mid vowels are produced with moderate constriction of the thoracic cavity.
• High vowels are produced with minimal constriction, sometimes influenced by wing movements.
• Front vowels are articulated near the thoracic opening.
• Central vowels involve neutral positions in the thoracic cavity.
• Back vowels involve the back of the thoracic cavity.

Tones

Tones typically begin at one tone and either stay at that tone or move to another.

	Extra High	High	Mid	Low	Extra Low
Extra High	˥	˥˦	˥˧	˥˨	˥˩
High	˦˥	˦	˦˧	˦˨	˦˩
Mid	˧˥	˧˦	˧	˧˨	˧˩
Low	˨˥	˨˦	˨˧	˨	˨˩
Extra Low	˩˥	˩˦	˩˧	˩˨	˩