Photone

Photones are mysterious beings made of light energy, with an unknown origin and an eerie presence.

Appearance
Photones are bipedal beings made almost entirely of light energy, and are a shining, blinding white in color. Their bodies form an almost humanoid shape, though much taller and lankier than the average humanoid, with arms longer than their torsos and fingers longer than their heads. They lack a face other than two eyes, pitch black with white pupils.

Habitat
The Homeworld of Photones is unknown due to their method of reproduction. As beings made almost entirely of light energy,  Photones can persist essentially anywhere unharmed, including the vacuum of space.

Diet
Photones do not consume matter to survive like most life forms; They absorb light, providing a lasting source of energy to live. This can come from stars, or it could be artificial light.

Reproduction
Photonean reproduction consists of exciting the electrons in their molecules until they jump beyond boundaries, falling back down and producing photons. This is typically done by a Photone travelling into a star, though it is possible to reach the required heat through other means. The molecules released by this superheated reaction gather and a Photone embryo is produced, which is incubated by the star and shot out at lightspeed upon reaching adolescence. Due to this process, it is nearly impossible for a Photone to know its parent.

Photones lack consciousness until their jettison is completed, either by crashing into a celestial body or by travelling for long enough and burning off enough energy. They could even crash into another star, in which case a Photone could reproduce without even gaining consciousness.

Behavior
As they are rarely raised, and almost never raised by members of their own species, young Photones are naturally relatively primal, and are hostile towards potential threats. However, if they crash into a planet upon birth and a family of an alien species takes them in, they can be raised to fit that race’s behavior. Lacking an articulator, Photones communicate using telepathy, and have no known language of their own.

As they are made of light energy, Photones are not bound to standard laws of physics. They can phase through non-opaque objects and are unaffected by gravity, though they prefer to stay near ground, as it gets pretty boring elsewhere. They can choose to move at near lightspeed in the vacuum of space, and can move quite fast in the atmosphere of a planet or other celestial body.

As Photones mature, they begin to develop more organized thought, so many old Photones are quite philosophic. Most are troubled with never knowing where they came from, who their parent was, and what their purpose is.