Whirama

Have a black sphere as their core. This sphere is a high-tech marvel that is not understood. it produces power for around 200 - 300 years. This is the lifespan of the Whirama.
Whirama have a wide range of forms and often change their form significantly a few times during their lifetime. Most Whirama adjust their body to fit their function within the community they live.

Morphology

Whirama build their bodies from any materials available to them attached to the black heart. The morpholgy of the resulting bodies can vary widely. Some mimick the forms of organic species, many optimize their form for utility to fullfil their role, while others choose to only follow aesthetic principles when giving their body a from.
Some Whirama build themselves into a vehicle or a building to control it and provide utility to others. A few Whirama reject any form outside of the black heart and simply exist within it without interacting with the outside world in any way.

Anatomy

All Whirama only share their black heart as their common element. All other components can be unique to a single individual. That being said there are some elements that are shared by most Whirama, simply because they are useful. These elements have the same purpose, but may function differently or look very different.

The Black Heart

A black sphere created from a very stable, hard and durable material that is very hard to crack and has a very high electric conductivity. Its contents are unknown. The sphere can produce energy in the form of electricty and contains the consiousness of the Whirama. If the black heart is too damaged the Whirama dies in a large explosion.
The black heart of a Whirama is very valuable as it is a very long lived power source that can be connected to basically anything, however should the Whirama not have volunteered to give you access to their power, they will try to kill you as this is considered as one of the biggest crimes.
The energy produced by the sphere is finite. Once all of the energy is used up the Whirama dies. This is their natural death.

Secondary Power Source

Whirama always attempt to have a secondary power source. Although it is possible for a Whirama to utilize the power of the black heart, most avoid this as it has the potential to reduce their lifespan. What exactly that secondary power source is depends on what is available to them. Since the collapse the Whirama have no choice to pick whatever is necessary.

• Fuel Generator. A generator that takes a form of fuel and turns it into electricity by burning that fuel. This is one of the most common secondary power sources as the tools and knowhow to maintain and repair them are available. There is also a wide range of models available that can process different types of fuels. The most popular fuel generators can take any kind of fuel. The downside is that the Whirama needs access to a sustainable fuel source.
• Solar Panels. The second most common, but least effective form of secondary power source. These are only really useful when the Whirama has a battery integrated as they do not produce any energy during the night. They also require quite a bit of space, making this only viable for Whirama that have a large body. It is fairly common for Whirama who are a vehicle.
• Fusion Core Generator. A rare type of generator that generates power from a miniature fusion event. These cores are relatively large and only few have survived the collapse.
• Antimatter Generator. The rarest form of generators with only very few left since the collapse. They run for millenia and are extremely robust. Much smaller and practical than the fusion core, these are extremely valuable.

Batteries & Fuel Tanks

Batteries allow a Whirama to store additional energy that they can use for their bodies. This is especially useful if they have a power source that is not fully reliable or none at all. In this case a Whirama would regularly have to load their batteries before they run out. Some Whirama have even a preference for a setup like this as energy generation requires a lot of space or fuel or the Whirama might simply not have access to a generator to fit them.
In some cases this preference comes from the fact that they can more easily mimick the sleep cycles of organic sophonts.

Memory & Storage

The consiousness of a Whirama within the black heart can remember much more than most biological sophonts, but they also do not have full control of what might get lost, overwritten or changed when new information is added or during sleep phases. This is why most Whirama add some external memory units and some storage to their build. This is fully deterministic storage that they can fully control and decide what to store and delete. It is also necessary for computational units to work properly in most cases to have some kind of memory storage with caches.

Computational Units

Many Whirama that undertake complex tasks are likely to equip themselves with additional computational units. This can help them make calculations for specific scenarios much more quickly than without them. Usually they will schedule tasks when high precicion, speed or simply a lot of it is necessary. The main mind of the Whirama is of course capable of a lot by itself, but it cannot compete with a fully deterministic computational engine.
Most Whirama have just a few general purpose quantum CPUs. However, when a Whirama has a specific task they need to repeat often or regularly they might add specialized units that can take fewer instructions, but are much more effective at this singular task.

Sensors

The black heart itself does not have any sensors that collect data for the sphere to process and interpret their surroundings. As a result in order to interact with the world, the Whirama have to install sensors into their bodies. A Whirama will try to scavange or build any type of sensor that helps them percieve their surroundings.

Communications Equipment

Whirama have no way to communicate with non-Whirama with just their black heart. Communication devices might be fully digital, synthetic voices, mechanical voices or other wave forms.

Reproduction

The Whirama create new life by connecting their spheres in a special way. Two individuals join their spheres and this begins a process where a new sphere is formed using the energy of both parent spheres. When the new sphere is ready, the parents construct a body for their new creation. Any two individual Whirama can be involved as they do not have different sexes. It is possible for other individuals to join this process. This speeds up the process. As all individuals involved in conception are quite vulnerable at this time, it is common for four, five or even six whirama to be involved. If only two people are involved, the process will take about twenty days. Each additional person reduces the time by about one day. This has a diminishing return and with more than six, the rate of acceleration is greatly reduced. This means that fourteen days is a fairly common time for a new whirama to be born.
During their initial growth to a full sphere the new Whirama recieve knowledge and skills from their parents. This transfer is not perfect as a lot is left out, but it gives a Whirama a good basis to start their life. This means that Whirama start out in adulthood right after their first body has been completed. Their most important knowledge is related to the material sciences, engineering, mechanis and electronics related to their body. Otherwise they would not be capable of maintaining and repairing themselves at all.

Behaviors

Whirama

Body Construction & Modification

The first body of a Whirama is always constructed by their parents. Subsequent changes are often undertaken either by themselves or by trusted firends. How often a Whirama modifies their body depends on primarly three factors. They need to have a reason, the materials and tools to make the changes and they need to have the time to do them. For some changes they might also need support from others.
The reasons for body modifications might be driven by utility, for aethetics, orsimply for the sake of change. Sometimes changes are forced on them when they are damaged and they need to make repairs to their bodies. Self-repairing materials or repairing nano-swarms have been very rare since the collapse.

Whirama Collective

A collective is a group of Whirama that integrated their sphere into the same "body". Members of such a collective are usually closely aligned in goals or world views. However, sometimes collectives are formed purely for utilitarian reasons. Members of the collective have a directly connected electric or virtual interface that they use to communicate with each other. This means that they can communicate very quickly and share all of their thoughts and emotions with each other with very little delay. A deep understanding of each other forms their bond. Once a collective is formed it is rare for it to dispearse unless forced by external circumstances.

Lifespan

250 years