Editing Tsochar (section)

===Development and Aging===
A single tsochar strand is only a small portion of an adult tsochar. During their first four to eight weeks of life, individual strands in the same area encounter each other and slowly self-organize, joining each other by ones and twos as they grow into tangles. These accumulating tangles begin to grow together, fusing mouthparts, sharing blood vessels and nerve connections, and gradually waking to full sentience about one year after hatching.

Tsochari are virtually immortal. As strands age and die, a mature tsochar subsumes newly hatched strands to replace the old. Roughly half of all tsochari strands become incorporated into mature adults in this fashion (the other half assemble new individuals, given the opportunity). An individual strand lives about 100 years. Tsochari grow larger as they grow older, adding more strands than they lose. The more strands a tsochar has, the larger those strands tend to be. Very old tsochari might consist of a hundred or more strands, some close to 20 feet long and 3 inches thick.

On rare occasions, tsochar strands never find others of their kind to fuse with, and live out their lives as small, solitary predators that prey on rodents and vermin.