Klikharp

Klikharps are brightly colored cricket-like insects with six legs, long antennae, and a shiny carapace. They are affectionate and musical pets with a mind of their own. Like the Shirren, klikharps were once components of The Swarm. Shirren scholars and scientists have long debated what purpose the klikharp’s musical gifts served within the Swarm. Did the gentle thrum once reinforce the hive mind? Was the music a way of keeping tempo for military operations? Whatever klikharps’ original purpose, when The Gap ended, shirren legends claim that the loyal klikharps made their first known choice when they sensed the shirrens’ desire to flee the Swarm’s endless cycle of destruction. As the Swarm churned in sudden confusion and disorientation, so the story goes, the klikharps thrummed in a single chorus and shifted their genetic code, breaking off from the hive mind as well. This break seems to have come at a terrible price; klikharps lost their native telepathic gifts and some of their functional ability to easily communicate.
Now, most shirrens feel a cultural duty to protect these loyal creatures. That a species on the run would take pets with them says much, not only about the shirrens, but also the early klikharps, who served as guardians and protectors, fighting and dying alongside their new friends. Shirren storytellers tell many tales of how klikharps’ thrums and companionship soothed the terrified exiles and kept morale up during their 3-year flight from the Swarm. When the glowing form of Hylax arrived at the Forever Reliquary to bless the shirren species, she offered the klikharps a blessing too. Although she could not return all that they had sacrificed, she enhanced their musical gifts, their sense of joy, and their love of choice in all forms. All klikharps chirp, but now they could echo the sounds of musical instruments, and some could take their musical gifts even further.
Shirrens cherish klikharps not just for the history of their loyalty, but also for their endless love of choice. Klikharps rarely blend in meekly to their surroundings, instead choosing to constantly shift their jewel-like coloration in order to attract attention. All klikharps are natural aural mimics, often changing their chirps to match the sounds of different musical tones. Although these charming pets were the very first companions of the shirren species, until recently they were a rare sight in most of the Pact Worlds. Then Bugspace, a Nchak-based band, released its viral song “Canticle for Klikharp and Guitar.” Now klikharps are enjoying a new wave of popularity, not just for their bright colors and musicality, but for their endless versatility as pets. Their mutable genetic code lets them fill many sorts of pet niches from charming entertainers to guards, mining assistants, pack animals, and even flying mounts.
Klikharps endlessly shift themselves into helpful forms to work alongside their chosen friends. Feral klikharps are uncommon, as they have never been a truly wild species. If abandoned or neglected, they focus most on the mutations that will help them survive. Their songs never go completely silent; they instead shift from instrumental music to soft, plaintive sounds that echo their environment. Rescue groups that specialize in retrieving feral klikharps have found music to be key in both luring klikharps out of their hiding spaces but also teaching them to trust again.