At first seeming to be entirely skinless, the Kan-mahk are a people veiled actually in a transparent outer membrane which keeps their innards - really just formless chunks of meat and protein, from losing coherence and spilling everywhere. This is quite a tenuous arrangement because their tegument is only a few millimetres thick and, not supported internally by solid flesh or sinew, can be ripped very easily. Luckily most individuals are capable of surviving with up to two thirds of their entrails missing, but given that their brains are spread out in one lengthy spool of ‘string’, this can drastically reduce their intelligence. Stored all throughout the body, their memories are not so permanently affected however and the hurt are instead just forever incapable of forming new ones. To that end positions of leadership in Kan-mahk society are occupied mostly by the young, who are deemed after a few accidents (sadly an assumed eventuality for most) to be lacking too much in mental faculty to make important decisions. While still capable of completing daily tasks, older people are incapable of anymore understanding the cause and effect behind things and so make for notoriously terrible problem solvers. Traditionally very few Kan-mahk devoted themself to rigorous study in any one field, aware that eventually they would be unable to progress any further in their understanding of a chosen discipline. Instead most aspired to become well-rounded people with practical skills, in particular a knowledge of historical events and mathematics. In their society this is the most popular aspiration - to be completely ready to care for themselves when the time of learning permanently ceases.
With each of their number capable of sustaining indefinite flight, the earliest days of Kan-mahk society were spent in transit from between the many fragments of their homeworld, which was reduced in some disaster that predates their evolution into hundreds of pieces. Tethered by the pull of a very weighty planetary core that somehow survived the cataclysm, each remaining chunk of land came in time to be covered in vegetation on every side, so that today they resemble enormous boulders planted all over in grass and vines. The work of physically connecting each of these parts has always captivated their people, who until very recently lived in primitive clans responsible for the safety of their own personal holdings. Today there are great vines that bridge many of the continents, ensuring unification in purpose and government. In situations where it seems as if two landmasses will collide, the people band together in a magnificent display of unity to literally shunt one of them out of the way. This is only possible because of the carapace that they have on their backs, a hard length of chitin evolved to prevent falling stones from puncturing their delicate skin. Proving endlessly useful in such an unpredictable environment, these are an imposing feature that the Kan-mahk take great pride in embellishing with stickers and charms, both avenues of self expression which are new to them. Upon dying their bodies waste very quickly away into nothingness, leaving behind only their armour complete with all its modifications. In the traditional spirit of defeating wastefulness, these shells were used to craft toboggans made for ferrying valuables between their ‘island’ homes, although given that they do not have hands the species is not usually very fond of accruing material wealth. Using a dead person's carapace for a practical purpose is the only way of properly remembering them, and there is a belief that the dead can get bored if not included this way in tribal life. Today Kan-mahk ships are easily distinguishable by the plows they have, formed from out of shells that are in some cases millenia old.
Apart from being set in a famously effulgent region of the galaxy, the planet where they originated is illuminated at all times throughout the day by the coursing energy of its exposed core. This means that many of their people have an acute fear of the dark, refusing to travel into gloomy regions of space and finding it nearly impossible to sleep with the lights out. Orbs of light figure very prominently in Kan-mahk mythology, and aside from the brightest globe at the centre of their personal universe, the silhouettes of many nearby stars have been prescribed with sets of characteristics, divine personalities that are apparently evident in the way that they glow. Capable of reflecting light, an individual's filmy skin can occasionally cause halos to appear in the air around them if the conditions are just right, and there are also certain organs buried randomly inside of them which glow.