Symbiote

The symbiote appears to be an organic, translucent, gelatinous organism. Various symbiotes can merge together to form a larger, singular organism and larger symbiotes can be split (although they do not typically split on their own) into multiple smaller organisms. The smallest observed independently functioning symbiotes have a mass of approximately 1 kg (~2.2lbs) with volumes ranging between 500mL to 1L. Forcing a symbiote to split smaller than this size tends to result in the organism losing cohesion and dissolving completely. Symbiotes are capable of creating spores that are smaller than this, which are used to integrate themselves with their host, but these spores must remain in close proximity to their parent symbiote otherwise they lose their agency.

The prevailing theory is that symbiotes reproduce asexually via splitting into multiple smaller, individual organisms. However, a symbiote has never been observed to split naturally and always requires an external entity to force the split leaving some scientist questioning the validity of this theory.

Symbiotes seem to siphon off energy released as a result of the biological process of their host, e.g. metabolic processes occurring on the cellular level. As a result, the host will require a larger intake of food (or equivalent) to survive but the symbiote will work for its host to ensure this occurs.

Concentrations of Symbiote populations are fairly sparse within the known galaxy. It is speculated that their planet of origin is somewhere within the Dominion of the Yesk but this is unverified. Symbiotes can often be found in and around old Yesk colonial outposts and occasionally in the wild surrounding meteorite impact sites.