Shaper hands were cephalopoidal creatures used by the shaper caste of the Yuuzhan Vong. When a Shaper Adept was escalated to the rank of Master Shaper, they sacrificed one—or both—of their hands and attached the creatures to where their hands had been. The fingers of shaper hands were implanted with the tools necessary in shaping. Often, shapers would place weapons in the tentacles of the hand, such as finger-spears.
Shaper Initiates had a similar organism to replace their right hands on their escalation to Adept, but these creatures had five digits instead of eight.