| Class: | Beasts, Leviathan; island-sized or larger |
| Hab: | Marine or sky |
| Fre: | Uncommon to exceptionally rare; common in gas giant planets |
| Num: | Solitary |
| Lair: | n/a; it is its own home |
| Size: | ANY, 100' to continent sized, even bigger in gas giant atmospheres |
| Move: | May drift or be anchored or "walk" on terrain blow |
| Def: | Mountain o' rubber; by organ |
| Att: | By organ (terrain-scale and varied) |
| Int: | Non-sentient but wise |
| Spec: | Geographic scale |
| Posns: | Likely, from commensal "tenants." |
Island jellies are rather more like Portuguese Man o' War than jellyfish. They are colonial creatures with many and varied organs; damage to one part does not threaten the whole. These vast jellies are often considered less as "monsters" than as features of the terrain, whether it be the marine terrain of sea-island jellies or the firmament of sky-island jellies. On a "water-world," sea-island jellies may form the equivalent of land, reaching sizes of continental proportions. In fantasy dimensions with non-spherical "worlds," island jellies of sea and sky may have no limits; they have been measured at several thousands of kilometers in breadth. In the skies of gas giant planets or of non-spherical fantasy dimensions, sky-island jellies may potentially reach proportions greater than an entire terrestrial globe; such jellies may be virtual worlds unto themsleves. This is especially remarkable when one considered that the larvae are less than a single centimeter 1 cm in breadth.
Innumerable tentacles and other organs hang down from the bell, forming a vast inverted forest, with a depth of anywhere from a tenth the diameter of the main body to ten times its diameter. These organs are often clustered in specialized groups; given the scale of these vast creatures, these different organ clusters are like different areas of terrain. Commonly, stinging "guard tentacles" form a peripheral barrier against such larger creatures as might otherwise feed on the more delicate inner organs. Next may be regions of fine, branching filter-curtain tentacles, sieving minute particles from the sea or sky. The gigantic jellies often have stomach sacs located in other organs throughout the "hanging forest," stomachs that may have snaring and stinging "reaper" tentacles about them. Guard tentacles are also common near egg and larva sheltering organs.
Island jellies do not rely upon harvesting the bounty of the sea or about them for energy, although they use both filter feeding and the snaring of larger prey to ingest important nutrients. Their actual energy is mostly from photosynthesis; most island jellies have dorsal structures rather like masts and sails or like forests, providing them with light-capturing surfaces high above the accumulated ground litter that protects their backs from sun and predation.
The living island of the giant jelly may support as rich an ecology as any terrestrial island. Such jellies develop a thick layer of soil on their upper surface as a form of armor.
Island jellies have three major means of reproduction. One is simple fission; as colonial creatures, if a large portion of an island jelly is torn away, as by a behemoth or storm, it may grow to become a new island jelly. Island jellies may also deposit minute gametes upon the surface of far-traveling great creatures which swim through their trailing forests of tentacles, or upon the feet of wee sea birds which land upon the photosynthetic organ structures which rise from the jelly's backs; the swimmers or birds then carry the gametes away with them, to be released only when triggered by the presence of some other, different island jelly. Alternatively, the island jelly may spawn "gumi fish," which swim to another island jelly by their own motive power. Some island jellies produce a wide variety of other "gumi creatures" as drones to serve the great jelly.
While younger island jellies may plow through the sea or sky, propelled by the whirling of flattened propeller tentacles or wide-spread sails, mature island jellies become sessile, dominating choice positions in the open seas or skies, secured by anchor tentacles fastened to the ground, even if it be leagues below. While generally immobile, some mature island jellies do move, furling and unfurling anchor tentacles to cast them ahead to pull the vast creature forward. This may do some damage to trees or buildings as they jelly grasps at anchorages.
Most jellies have no intelligence, being basically big, organized bags of goop that rely strictly upon reaction, but the reaction responses of these vast island jellies may be incredibly sophisticated. Where they are worshiped, as by sentient inhabitants, they may display that bizarre combination of non-sentience with divine wisdom; being continental in size, they may partake of the innate divinity of the Earth. Science prefers to suppose that it takes extremely sophisticated responses to permit the evolution of a creature so long-lived - and vast.
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