Squallids are a special form of subpuppet created by Metastae when their overcoats grow too great in mass. They have limited special abilities, but serve important roles as growth mediators. A group of Squallids is known as a heap or a mass.

Squallids are formed almost entirely of gangrenous mass, giving them a cellulite-like or fleshy appearance, with details that appear fuzzy at first glance. Their only major resemblance to puppets is form factor, their eyes, and their hairy manes and tails. They mostly appear as featureless ponid creatures, with their defining trait probably being the extensible umbilical that connects them to their host Metasta.

Being made entirely of Metasta overcoat, Squallids are capable of adjusting almost all the details of their form so long as they have the body mass to do so. They don't often do this without explicit need for a different shape, however, and seem to prefer to stay in an approximately equine form that is typically 2' 8" (81cm).

Squallids effectively act as extensions of their host Metasta's squall, containing spare body mass and being capable of forming their bodies into different shapes, both for utilitarian purposes and combative ones. While not the most durable puppets, the fact that their bodies are a mostly homogenous slush of tumorous tissue means they are extremely difficult to kill, as they can reattach their own dismembered limbs, regrow punched holes, and have an immense amount of material give.

Squallids are largely dependent on their physical connection to their host Metasta, but there is evidence that they receive some amount of psionic connection. More specifically, a Squallid can survive for about five minutes in a state of low brain activity (similar to a coma) before beginning to decompose after its umbilical is severed, and if recovered in time, the umbilical can be reattached and the Squallid can make a full recovery.

Squallids, being mostly unspecialized, rarely find exceptional uses during peacetime. They mostly act as force multipliers for their hosts, bringing excess food back to the Metasta to help recuperate its caloric upkeep.

Squallids, being effectively constructs made from Metasta mass, are almost identical to Metastae epigenetically, with just enough extra information to make a body entirely out of adipose tissue and a modest lattice of nervous structures and nodes. They do not have any particular standout traits, thusly, reflecting their relative lack of specialization.

I must be careful not to show the Squallids in sensitive company, but sometimes I can't help myself... There's a charm to something so rough-cut. Plus, they have the honorable job of helping Metastae maintain their bodies. They're quite the respectable little things, and they work hard to help both their parents and the others.

Squallids are a very strange little puppet, basically completing the triangle as a physical puppet where Elementals are magical and Phalanxes are psionic. Plus, they help enforce the idea of Metastae being a thing that grows and changes in nature over time.