Hibernation shell

A hibernation shell, also known as a hibernation layer, was a bulbous, partially-translucent, and shell-like biological cocoon made of dried, peeling, and hardened skin, which the body of a Mon Calamari could engage in order to undergo protective stasis during times of severe drought, stress, or illness. The shell obfuscated the identity of individual within, and muffled their words. Before to the development of weather controls considered modern during the High Republic Era, some Mon Calamari would, on rare occasions of historic drought, go into biostasis within a hibernation shell in the mud of exposed seabeds. In 228 BBY, Ghal Tarpfen extruded a hibernation shell when she was tortured and infected by the Blight whilst in Nihil captivity. She only emerged from the shell, very near death, after the crew of the Republic Defense Coalition Longbeam Aurora III rescued her, pulling the hardened skin off in order to save her life.

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