Name: Ironx Class: Large (rhino sized) Species type: Metal Rhino Image/Appearance Description: [Img]http://www.creaturespot.com/storage/long-necked-behemothsmall.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1339581684518[/Img] Females have shorter, blunt tipped horns then males. The dominate males hold the larger horns due to increase testosterone levels from its high ranks. Brief on Behavior: An Ironx is a social, docile creature that consumes variety type of metal, ores and rock as its main diet. Often seen and heard bashing its large curved head into ground, the hardened parts from its long horn to the ‘bearded’ chin is reinforced for breaking up the topside layers to reach the taster mineral beneath. These large mammals can eat as little as few tons of metal to the weight of a small hill on average, depending on the quality of the minerals consumed. Running in herds consistent of 15-20 members, there is a close kinship with most of the members of the group displayed in gentle rubbing of hides and close proximity like most herd animals. It also for protection for their eyesight is based on movement, making it hard for a predator to sneak up on an Ironx herd thanks to the many eyes constantly peering about. Leading and general protection falls to the dominate male, called a Ram, usually covered in trophies of his duty and most aggressive of the bunch. In maintain his rank he is usually the Ironx with the toughest hide and he alone is allowed to breed with the females. Other males in the group tend to be passive but quickly turn aggressive when danger arrives and will aid the dominate male in defending the herd from predators or rarely challenging him to leadership. The Ram often chases young male offspring away from the herd at the time they reach adulthood, the positive in this is that male keeps his standings while passing his genes and creating new herds. Sometimes during these events a female or two will end up following the banished male. The young male will end up confronting other herds, attempting stealing a female or two into his own herd before the current dominate male can realize it. This reason is enough for a dominate Ironx to be always be alert. When a dominate male loses a challenge the creature is forced into the back of the herd, usually ending up being picked off by carnivores though the herd will leap to the creature’s defense, usually a short confrontation, before backing off the moment they realize the creature is dead. Females are passive and gentle, cows and yearlings making up the majority of the herd, tending to stick close. The common defense is to go into an all-out stampede of panicked beasts’ hell bent for the horizon. During this behavior, common and placid habits of the Ironx are tossed out the window with only one thing on their mind: Just run, leaving everything, living or dead, in their path trampled underfoot. Abilities: Hard outer shell: From eating hard rock, ores and metals, their stomach digests it thanks to the harsh acids. Then turning it into a liquid, it is then secreted from its pores to create an outer casting. The only places spared from this process are the joints, a thin layer of skin allowing mobility. Nutrients from fossilized animals and plants embedded in the digested rocks are separated, used as absorbed substance for the shell which is comprised of the ores’ material itself. Every year just in the season between spring and summer, the creatures shed their outside skin leaving behind a moist soften layer underneath that must take months to dry. Currently the most dangerous time for Ironx, it makes them vulnerable to attack by larger predators and even clever smaller ones thinning out their numbers. Flat, grinding teeth: Their teeth are among one of the hardest substances in Tiien, they have to be to crack and grind the materials they feed upon. Many had considered using Ironx teeth for weaponry and armory, yet to harvest enough would require the slaughtering over thousands Ironx just to create a single, human size armor, leaving much raw material behind. In the end the effort isn’t worth the production and far too wasteful. Razor sharp horn (males only): Strong to stand large amounts of pressure and easily slice human flesh, the Ironx’s horn can’t cut completely though the hide of other challenging Ironx most the time or armor strength objects. Merely causing cracks or large chucks to fall off the Ironx’s hide, leading an exposed area that isn’t protected for a few months as if they had only shed their skin in that section, leaving it wet and soft. Though rare since the Ironx tends to allow his foe to back away from the fight, a horn can end up killing a challenger if plunged into any soft plated armor from time to time. Motion and excellent hearing sense: Ironx have excellent hearing, able to detect very faint sounds from a pin dropping to the cracking of stone under foot. However their sense of sight is based on motion alone, as long as predator or creature continues to move the Ironx’s brain picks up the tiny vibrations in the air thanks to the specialized organ in the back of its head. The long horn in back stretches its sense of motion to a vast area in its surroundings. Location: Djarkel Extra: In tamed herds, hide thick and hardness can be influence by the irons, ores or minerals fed to the beasts, creating large qualities of strengths from Copper, Bronze and few other lesser metals. Platinum, Titanium, and higher strength metals may be produced as well but rarely at any quality near the original because of the high density is too difficult for their body to break and reform it. It also explains why wild herds’ shells are considered less ‘pure’ due to the lack of controlled ingredients in their diet, their casted off outer layer is a mixture of the metals in unpredictable strengths. Using the Ironx’s hide is a cheaper alternative to mining large quantities; the quality is sacrificed somewhat by the metal lasting only half as long making the mining of such ores still required. An Ironx’s hide strength is best depicted by the metal’s color in the hide’s shine and appearance, often determining their rank within the herd with the strongest taking the highest rank. Ironx meat is thick, and grey in color with a slight gravelly texture and sparkle like some minerals when left uncooked. When inflamed by extremely hot temperatures the meat has a smoky, hearty flavor like prime rib that flakes off in one’s mouth. A native dish called Shigha is to cut out the Ironx brain, coat it in heavy seasoning and sea salt, wrapped in a heavy board leaf before burying under low burning embers, covering it over with a pile of rocks for a day. The dish looks like a greyish pink version of homemade cheese and curled milk cross, the wrinkles crumbling and thick before it’s put into soup. The hint of sweet, smoky flavor surpasses its unappetizing appearance. Ironx blood is black often used for clothing dye and rock jewelry. Grinded up bones are used in variety of fertilizers, ideal from the soil’s nutrients stored in the marrow fit for growing potted plants or crops in other lands.