Member
Konan375Recalled Soul / Hero
Name: Allure
Male: Definitely
Style: Beyond compare!
Soul: Proud soul of a singleminded conqueror
Personality: Allure is defined by his obsessive quest for beauty. He wishes beyond all else, not just to seek out the beauty of the world, take pleasure in it, and honor it, but to restore the beauty of disgusting things by obliterating their horrific visages and setting free their beauteous blood. Allure is not a creator, but a critic, and while capable of utmost courtesy and compassion for those he deems worthy, displays a ruthless cruelty toward any abominations he might encounter. He is highly narcissistic and never passes up to flaunt his own perfect beauty and inimitable, flourishing, flamboyant style. Along with his egocentricity is a certain sadism; splashing the landscape with fresh blood is every bit as intoxicating as a gorgeous living thing. Notably, Allure despises cosmic authority, but he is not ignorant of either it or its perpetrators. He will not, as such, pick fights that he cannot win, and instead fall back on his intoxicating charisma. An annoying cleverness and a discerning eye punctuate his behavior, making him eloquent, charming, and even wise when it suits him.
Good Looks: Standing at six and a half feet tall, Allure has a complexion best described as Hispanic, but the handsomeness of his body defies simple description. He is extremely muscular without being either bulky or awkward, contributing toward a lithe body type. Every contour, sinew, and line of face and body alike is perfect in symmetry and balance. Long, honey-colored hair falls to the small of his back in a tight braid, and his eyes are a piercing hazel. Long, graceful fingers sport sharp nails. He wears a baggy purple garment of woven plant fibers on his legs, with a forest-green fauld around his waist. The fauld has a design upon it best describes a winding vine dotted by red roses. A tight, equally red sash atop this fauld keeps everything in place.
Talents: the charisma of Allure is a power in its own right. No being, mortal, beast, or god, can look upon him and not acknowledge his perfect handsomeness, even if said being is not particularly attracted to him—though of course, it is a trial for any lady to not be! Being around Allure makes one feel happy and comfortable, even if only an inkling, and trusting him comes easy; after all, how could a man so gorgeously angelic be evil?
In terms of physical attributes, Allure is at the apex as well. Though all heroes display enhanced strength and speed -not to mention immortality- his acrobatic agility is of special note. Such is his fluidity of motion that he can, at times, seem weightless; at others, he is able to cover vast space in the blink of an eye.
Most intriguing, however, is Allure's discerning hand. At its core, to discern means to cut away confusion, error, and ignorance to discover something for what it really is, and to him it is not different. From his fingertips invisible claws of adjustable length can be extended at will, like unseen lasers, to instantly slice wherever he traces a line. The cutting power only increases in force when he makes his hand into a knife, and it is at its deadliest when he curls his fingers into claws.
Name: Allure
Male: Definitely
Style: Beyond compare!
Soul: Proud soul of a singleminded conqueror
Personality: Allure is defined by his obsessive quest for beauty. He wishes beyond all else, not just to seek out the beauty of the world, take pleasure in it, and honor it, but to restore the beauty of disgusting things by obliterating their horrific visages and setting free their beauteous blood. Allure is not a creator, but a critic, and while capable of utmost courtesy and compassion for those he deems worthy, displays a ruthless cruelty toward any abominations he might encounter. He is highly narcissistic and never passes up to flaunt his own perfect beauty and inimitable, flourishing, flamboyant style. Along with his egocentricity is a certain sadism; splashing the landscape with fresh blood is every bit as intoxicating as a gorgeous living thing. Notably, Allure despises cosmic authority, but he is not ignorant of either it or its perpetrators. He will not, as such, pick fights that he cannot win, and instead fall back on his intoxicating charisma. An annoying cleverness and a discerning eye punctuate his behavior, making him eloquent, charming, and even wise when it suits him.
Good Looks: Standing at six and a half feet tall, Allure has a complexion best described as Hispanic, but the handsomeness of his body defies simple description. He is extremely muscular without being either bulky or awkward, contributing toward a lithe body type. Every contour, sinew, and line of face and body alike is perfect in symmetry and balance. Long, honey-colored hair falls to the small of his back in a tight braid, and his eyes are a piercing hazel. Long, graceful fingers sport sharp nails. He wears a baggy purple garment of woven plant fibers on his legs, with a forest-green fauld around his waist. The fauld has a design upon it best describes a winding vine dotted by red roses. A tight, equally red sash atop this fauld keeps everything in place.
Talents: the charisma of Allure is a power in its own right. No being, mortal, beast, or god, can look upon him and not acknowledge his perfect handsomeness, even if said being is not particularly attracted to him—though of course, it is a trial for any lady to not be! Being around Allure makes one feel happy and comfortable, even if only an inkling, and trusting him comes easy; after all, how could a man so gorgeously angelic be evil?
In terms of physical attributes, Allure is at the apex as well. Though all heroes display enhanced strength and speed -not to mention immortality- his acrobatic agility is of special note. Such is his fluidity of motion that he can, at times, seem weightless; at others, he is able to cover vast space in the blink of an eye.
Most intriguing, however, is Allure's discerning hand. At its core, to discern means to cut away confusion, error, and ignorance to discover something for what it really is, and to him it is not different. From his fingertips invisible claws of adjustable length can be extended at will, like unseen lasers, to instantly slice wherever he traces a line. The cutting power only increases in force when he makes his hand into a knife, and it is at its deadliest when he curls his fingers into claws.
Stillborn Soul
Name: Venomweald Writhe
Soul of: the sovereign of seasons
Description: A heaving, spiteful plantmass. Buried beneath the tonnage is a soul distorted by the method in which it was brought into the world, and the chaos and hatred that suffuse it extend to its exterior as well. The Writhe is huge, approximately three hundred feet long, with a front end shaped like a colossal flower. Vinelike limbs adorn its surface, each of with ends in a fanged or fingered flower as well. This monstrosity, eager as it is to tear down and digest deep inside whatever vestiges of untainted life it can get its tendrils on, is responsible for the forestation of Venomweald as well as the mutagenic pools throughout it. The very same mutagen resides inside its gut, and can be freely spewed forth to taint whatever it comes across, should that unfortunate thing not already been destroyed by its immense, crushing roots or lashing tendrils. From poison the Writhe came, and to poison it would see the world fall. Only the inhospitable Firewind Desert prevents its toxin from reaching beyond the twisted jungle it gave rise to.
Appearance: Look upon the First Mistake, ye mighty, and despair
Name: Venomweald Writhe
Soul of: the sovereign of seasons
Description: A heaving, spiteful plantmass. Buried beneath the tonnage is a soul distorted by the method in which it was brought into the world, and the chaos and hatred that suffuse it extend to its exterior as well. The Writhe is huge, approximately three hundred feet long, with a front end shaped like a colossal flower. Vinelike limbs adorn its surface, each of with ends in a fanged or fingered flower as well. This monstrosity, eager as it is to tear down and digest deep inside whatever vestiges of untainted life it can get its tendrils on, is responsible for the forestation of Venomweald as well as the mutagenic pools throughout it. The very same mutagen resides inside its gut, and can be freely spewed forth to taint whatever it comes across, should that unfortunate thing not already been destroyed by its immense, crushing roots or lashing tendrils. From poison the Writhe came, and to poison it would see the world fall. Only the inhospitable Firewind Desert prevents its toxin from reaching beyond the twisted jungle it gave rise to.
Appearance: Look upon the First Mistake, ye mighty, and despair
The Resort
Lifeform
Name: Desert Ghost
Life Cycle: As birds, the ghosts hatch from eggs. The eggs are buried beneath the sand, preferably under the shelter of a bush, where they become hard. They soften if exposed to light. Parents must locate the eggs of their offspring and dig them up so that the chicks can break free. Ghost chicks are incapable of flight for the first year of their life, instead becoming fast runners across the sand. After they gain their wings, they continue to mature for a half-year before they can reproduce. Desert Ghosts live for 4 years in all.
Description: Small, finchlike birds with black feathers. Unremarkable in appearance and behavior, they nevertheless feature a special trait from which the name of the species is derived. Their bodies constantly produce an oil substance, which acts as a temperature regulator and anti-irritant, from their skin that quickly evaporates into powder when exposed to dry air and sun. This powder is crystalline and transparent, distorting light like thousands of tiny prisms, and from a distance farther than a few feet the ghost appears totally invisible to the naked eye. Ghosts employ this powder to escape from predators and camouflage themselves when hunting prey, primarily desert insects.
Appearance: Desert Ghost
Lifeform
Name: Parasitic Buzzard
Life Cycle: Though they range throughout the entire desert and sometimes beyond, buzzards reproduce exclusively at the Resort. They build nests in the tallest trees, for which there is often competition. Before laying eggs, they seek out or make a prey animal’s corpse and carry it to the nest. There, they ‘inject’ their eggs into the body through their mouths, where the embryo gestates and grows, using the body for a food source. After a period of two weeks, the chick breaks free of the corpse, and quickly consumes it. Buzzards are capable of reproducing as a defensive mechanism, and will attempt to implant their eggs into a living predator if threatened. Chicks take several years to mature, at which point they can reproduce immediately. They live between 6 and 7 years total.
Description: Few creatures, Firewind or not, and more infamous than the Parasitic Buzzard. With adults stretching several meters from wingtip to wingtip, armed with claws capable of slicing through flesh, and an extendable and flexible wormlike head, they are omens of death and decay. They are solitary and asexual carnivores that prefer to scavenge for corpses but are entirely capable of creating new ones when hungry. Buzzards are rather intelligent creatures, and despite being blind due to a lack of eyes are very perceptive when it comes to listening and smelling. Capable of carrying smaller, dexterous creatures on their backs or in their claws, buzzards serve as excellent methods of transport and self-defense to humanoids, provided a would-be tamer can avoid becoming a living host to an infant buzzard itself. Buzzard saliva is extremely sticky.
Appearance: Parasitic Buzzard
Lifeform
Name: Dirigible Cloudwhale
Life Cycle: These cloudwhales exhibit a uniquely destructive method of reproduction. Females do not, in a conventional sense, give birth. Between one and three calves grows to their juvenile forms inside the mother over the course of years. When the calves finally too big, the mother perishes and splits apart, releasing the calves into the sky where they can feed and fend for themselves. Cloudwhales live for 65 years on average.
Description: Despite the name, cloudwhales are not mammals, but a type of organism all their own, best described as a mix of fish, mammal, and reptile. Measuring hundreds of feet from nose to tail, they spend their entire lives floating in the sky on gaseous airsacks, never descending to the ground. They feed on clouds themselves, specifically the nutrients held in the water, but also derive a great deal of energy from a symbiotic relationship with specialized breeds of mosses that cover their bodies, giving them a yellowish-green hue. Practically ecosystems in their own right, individual whales go through seasons, and the moss blooms and spreads or wilts appropriately. Many kinds of moss typically colonize a single whale. Like the Brush Beasts down below, they are practically unchallenged by other forms of life—practically, that is, because it is not uncommon for skyrays to attach to them and gouge off a little flesh for food. Old and sickly cloudwhales attract more skyrays and even buzzards, which slowly kill them by using their flesh for food or incubation.
Appearance: Dirigible Cloudwhale
Lifeform
Name: Mottled Skyray
Life Cycle: Clutches of skyray eggs can be found in the pools of the Resort, laid there by mothers descended to earth. Skyray broods, after hatching, remain in a ‘bottom-feeder’ state for several months, scooting along the ground between pools for safety as they try to stay alive. After maturing, they are able to take to the sky, where they remain at low altitudes for most of their lives. Mating for skyrays is a particularly harrowing procedure: using their jets, skyray couples ascend to the top of their atmospheric tolerance and lock together as they start to dive. The fertilization process occurs while both are plummeting toward the ground, and though usually successful, this can result in an icky splatter if a particularly unintelligent couple misjudges the terrain.
Description: Not much differentiates skyrays from their aquatic cousins other than size and methods of transportation. While perfectly at home in water, these omnivorous, oxygen-breathing fish prefer to range across the sky at low altitudes, finding plants or carcasses to adhere to and start scouring. To fly, they employ miraculous, purely organic jet-propulsion organs; they intake vast quantities of air through specializes orifices, pressurize it within, and blast it from blowholes on their undersides to ascend quickly. After that, the lightweight skyrays rely on very efficient gliding. They are highly maneuverable but lackluster when it comes to carry capacity. Their tails do not have stingers, but can nevertheless whip and even skewer aggressors. Like all rays, their bodies are soft and rubbery to the touch, albeit ridged in places to be aerodynamic. From above, their mottled coating makes them look just like sand and rocks below. There exists a rare variant of skyray whose eggs are laid in pools of blood on the backs of put-upon cloudwhales. Known as shrinkrays, they are smaller but stronger, faster, and way harder to kill than their conventional counterparts, as well as colored scarlet.
Appearance: Mottled Skyray
Lifeform
Name: Onyx Phantom
Life Cycle: Phantom eggs are extremely difficult to find, and are well-hidden in high places in the desert. Circular and luminously white, they look like pearls, but are even more difficult to crack. Once hatched after a duration of 7 months, young phantoms are found by a parent, to whom they cling during their youth. A young phantom is often indistinguishable from its carrier. At the end of its first year, the phantom is large enough to go its own way. Their lifespan is quite possible indefinite, though after a certain point in their lives their dark feathers turn ghostly transparent.
Description: Speculated to be distant, more owl-like cousins of the Desert Ghosts, phantoms are even more ephemeral and mysterious creatures. They exhibit the same sort of invisibility-powder, but never appear during the day. Phantoms typically ‘haunt’ a single, special part of the desert, including caves, ruins, tombs, canyons, and so forth. They are herbivorous and feed primarily on cactus-fruits. Their activity, somber and lethargic sometimes while frenetic and excitable otherwise, seems tied to the phases of the moon. Most interestingly, phantoms appear to have some kind of telekinesis, with which they can manipulate objects and living things as if they were poltergeists. Phantoms garner associations with spirits and death in many cultures.
Appearance: Onyx Phantom
Name: Desert Ghost
Life Cycle: As birds, the ghosts hatch from eggs. The eggs are buried beneath the sand, preferably under the shelter of a bush, where they become hard. They soften if exposed to light. Parents must locate the eggs of their offspring and dig them up so that the chicks can break free. Ghost chicks are incapable of flight for the first year of their life, instead becoming fast runners across the sand. After they gain their wings, they continue to mature for a half-year before they can reproduce. Desert Ghosts live for 4 years in all.
Description: Small, finchlike birds with black feathers. Unremarkable in appearance and behavior, they nevertheless feature a special trait from which the name of the species is derived. Their bodies constantly produce an oil substance, which acts as a temperature regulator and anti-irritant, from their skin that quickly evaporates into powder when exposed to dry air and sun. This powder is crystalline and transparent, distorting light like thousands of tiny prisms, and from a distance farther than a few feet the ghost appears totally invisible to the naked eye. Ghosts employ this powder to escape from predators and camouflage themselves when hunting prey, primarily desert insects.
Appearance: Desert Ghost
Lifeform
Name: Parasitic Buzzard
Life Cycle: Though they range throughout the entire desert and sometimes beyond, buzzards reproduce exclusively at the Resort. They build nests in the tallest trees, for which there is often competition. Before laying eggs, they seek out or make a prey animal’s corpse and carry it to the nest. There, they ‘inject’ their eggs into the body through their mouths, where the embryo gestates and grows, using the body for a food source. After a period of two weeks, the chick breaks free of the corpse, and quickly consumes it. Buzzards are capable of reproducing as a defensive mechanism, and will attempt to implant their eggs into a living predator if threatened. Chicks take several years to mature, at which point they can reproduce immediately. They live between 6 and 7 years total.
Description: Few creatures, Firewind or not, and more infamous than the Parasitic Buzzard. With adults stretching several meters from wingtip to wingtip, armed with claws capable of slicing through flesh, and an extendable and flexible wormlike head, they are omens of death and decay. They are solitary and asexual carnivores that prefer to scavenge for corpses but are entirely capable of creating new ones when hungry. Buzzards are rather intelligent creatures, and despite being blind due to a lack of eyes are very perceptive when it comes to listening and smelling. Capable of carrying smaller, dexterous creatures on their backs or in their claws, buzzards serve as excellent methods of transport and self-defense to humanoids, provided a would-be tamer can avoid becoming a living host to an infant buzzard itself. Buzzard saliva is extremely sticky.
Appearance: Parasitic Buzzard
Lifeform
Name: Dirigible Cloudwhale
Life Cycle: These cloudwhales exhibit a uniquely destructive method of reproduction. Females do not, in a conventional sense, give birth. Between one and three calves grows to their juvenile forms inside the mother over the course of years. When the calves finally too big, the mother perishes and splits apart, releasing the calves into the sky where they can feed and fend for themselves. Cloudwhales live for 65 years on average.
Description: Despite the name, cloudwhales are not mammals, but a type of organism all their own, best described as a mix of fish, mammal, and reptile. Measuring hundreds of feet from nose to tail, they spend their entire lives floating in the sky on gaseous airsacks, never descending to the ground. They feed on clouds themselves, specifically the nutrients held in the water, but also derive a great deal of energy from a symbiotic relationship with specialized breeds of mosses that cover their bodies, giving them a yellowish-green hue. Practically ecosystems in their own right, individual whales go through seasons, and the moss blooms and spreads or wilts appropriately. Many kinds of moss typically colonize a single whale. Like the Brush Beasts down below, they are practically unchallenged by other forms of life—practically, that is, because it is not uncommon for skyrays to attach to them and gouge off a little flesh for food. Old and sickly cloudwhales attract more skyrays and even buzzards, which slowly kill them by using their flesh for food or incubation.
Appearance: Dirigible Cloudwhale
Lifeform
Name: Mottled Skyray
Life Cycle: Clutches of skyray eggs can be found in the pools of the Resort, laid there by mothers descended to earth. Skyray broods, after hatching, remain in a ‘bottom-feeder’ state for several months, scooting along the ground between pools for safety as they try to stay alive. After maturing, they are able to take to the sky, where they remain at low altitudes for most of their lives. Mating for skyrays is a particularly harrowing procedure: using their jets, skyray couples ascend to the top of their atmospheric tolerance and lock together as they start to dive. The fertilization process occurs while both are plummeting toward the ground, and though usually successful, this can result in an icky splatter if a particularly unintelligent couple misjudges the terrain.
Description: Not much differentiates skyrays from their aquatic cousins other than size and methods of transportation. While perfectly at home in water, these omnivorous, oxygen-breathing fish prefer to range across the sky at low altitudes, finding plants or carcasses to adhere to and start scouring. To fly, they employ miraculous, purely organic jet-propulsion organs; they intake vast quantities of air through specializes orifices, pressurize it within, and blast it from blowholes on their undersides to ascend quickly. After that, the lightweight skyrays rely on very efficient gliding. They are highly maneuverable but lackluster when it comes to carry capacity. Their tails do not have stingers, but can nevertheless whip and even skewer aggressors. Like all rays, their bodies are soft and rubbery to the touch, albeit ridged in places to be aerodynamic. From above, their mottled coating makes them look just like sand and rocks below. There exists a rare variant of skyray whose eggs are laid in pools of blood on the backs of put-upon cloudwhales. Known as shrinkrays, they are smaller but stronger, faster, and way harder to kill than their conventional counterparts, as well as colored scarlet.
Appearance: Mottled Skyray
Lifeform
Name: Onyx Phantom
Life Cycle: Phantom eggs are extremely difficult to find, and are well-hidden in high places in the desert. Circular and luminously white, they look like pearls, but are even more difficult to crack. Once hatched after a duration of 7 months, young phantoms are found by a parent, to whom they cling during their youth. A young phantom is often indistinguishable from its carrier. At the end of its first year, the phantom is large enough to go its own way. Their lifespan is quite possible indefinite, though after a certain point in their lives their dark feathers turn ghostly transparent.
Description: Speculated to be distant, more owl-like cousins of the Desert Ghosts, phantoms are even more ephemeral and mysterious creatures. They exhibit the same sort of invisibility-powder, but never appear during the day. Phantoms typically ‘haunt’ a single, special part of the desert, including caves, ruins, tombs, canyons, and so forth. They are herbivorous and feed primarily on cactus-fruits. Their activity, somber and lethargic sometimes while frenetic and excitable otherwise, seems tied to the phases of the moon. Most interestingly, phantoms appear to have some kind of telekinesis, with which they can manipulate objects and living things as if they were poltergeists. Phantoms garner associations with spirits and death in many cultures.
Appearance: Onyx Phantom
Mahd River Valley
Lifeform
Name: Spider Ox
Life Cycle: Despite their odd appearance, Spider Oxen reproduce in a manner directly comparable to everyday oxen. After sexual fertilization, babies gestate in the wombs of their mothers, and are birthed living as calves. Notably, baby oxen take months to grow their special appendages, and require feeding from their mothers during this time. After this, they can take up to ten years to mature fully, after which twenty more years of life typically ensue.
Description: Slow-moving, bulky, and dumb, oxen graze the lush grass of the river valley for most of the day. They live and move in small herds that often meet up. While capable of stinging blows with their unique appendages, they are fairly easy to slay, even though they have no immediate predators in the valley. Whether trundling on land or wading through water, oxen somehow exude an air of contentedness all the time. Various insects and parasites typically make themselves at home on their backs, which in term draw oxpeckers.
Appearance: Spider Ox
Lifeform
Name: Crocody Doggle
Life Cycle: Doggle eggs are laid in dens dug into sand banks and watched over attentively by both parents. Upon hatching, the puppy doggles are cared for and taught by the mother while the father hunts for the entire family. Doggles take about three years to mature fully, but even after separating they remember their littermates and parents and commonly socialize with them. Doggles can reproduce from maturity until year ten, when they start to decline. They only live 13 to 14 years.
Description: Though as much reptile as they are mammal, crocody doggles practically epitomize stereotypical dog behavior. Though varying slightly in temperament from individual to individual, these little beasts are social, playful, and decently smart. They exhibit pack behavior, especially when hunting for their preferred food -meat- though they can learn to eat all sorts of things. Being cold-blooded, they love the heat and grow less active when chilly, though their fur helps to conserve body heat. Doggles display an interesting affinity toward bonding with other creatures. Despite relative weakness in terms of combat ability, though their bites and tail slaps can be painful, doggles are very rarely hunted by other creatures. In fact, even aggressive animals are somehow disinclined to harm doggles, leaving these critters free to spend their time eating and frolicking in the river valley.
Appearance: Crocody Doggle
Lifeform
Name: Riverland Thane
Life Cycle: Thane ‘eggs’ can be found in the deeper parts of the Mahd River. Unlike normal eggs, which are shelled, these fleshy eggs are organisms in their own right, complete with beating heart and respiratory system. Over time they swell, becoming more complex, until the outer layer of flesh and now-useless organs is ripped apart and the new Thane rises to the surface, where the touch of sunlight causes its distinctive skin pattern to emerge. Thanes mature extremely quickly over the span of weeks, during which they exhibit voracious appetites, and from this period they emerge as new titans of the river valley. Adult thanes develop pouches on their undersides, with the number depending on their physical strength and vitality, which slough off into new ‘eggs’ that sink to the deepest parts of the river. Thanes’ lifespan lasts up to 19 years.
Description: Roughly the size of elephants, these vividly-patterned cephalopods patrol the Mahd River Valley as its undisputed lords. They feed on the great quantities of fish, seldom leaving the water. Their natural strength and fortitude prevents any of the valley’s denizens from doing them harm, but nevertheless the Thanes are violently territorial and best left alone. Neither bright nor sociable, they can at most be found in pairs, though the species itself is asexual. Despite their lack of intelligence, an odd ritual takes place among the riverland thanes at yearly intervals. The thanes separate into multiple factions, each laying a claim to a part of the valley, and then for up to a week wage a slow but steady war on one another. During this phenomenon, even other creatures of the valley follow the thanes’ lead in the great battles, picking sides and fighting to the best of their abilities. While there are always casualties, they are generally low, as most thane-on-thane fights result in impasses.
Appearance: Riverland Thane
Lifeform
Name: Insipid Bulbcrab
Life Cycle: After what can only be described as an extremely awkward and difficult mating procedure, female bulbcrabs stick fatty sacs on or next to river rocks, which release between two and six crabs a month down the line, provided the sac isn’t ruptured first. River currents can detach the sacs and send them downriver. The new crabs work as a loose unit to feed themselves, taking on a semblance of safety in numbers; juvenile bulbcrabs are far more aggressive than their adult counterparts. Bulbcrabs shed their shells regularly as they grow, up until they reach adulthood within the year. They live for less than 2 years in all.
Description: Bizarre crustaceans commonly thought to be relatives of the Fortress Reefbacks found in the far-off Drenched Flowerbed. They have four long, jointed legs that extend outward from a single dangling midsection, the bottom of which can best be described as a fleshy ‘hub’ from which numerous muscular tubes can extend. These tubes are powerful suckers, capable of pulling lesser crustaceans straight from the ground or blood out of an unmoving victim’s body. As stupid as they are hideous, they exhibit no drive except to find food and mate, which commonly gets them killed as they wander either into the territory of a Riverland Thane, or out of the river valley itself, where they can survive but often fall prey to desert predators. Their fleshy hubs are highly nutritious. While their legs end in spiky points, adults have neither fighting instinct nor fighting ability.
Appearance: Tower Siphon
Lifeform
Name: Riverland Horntail
Life Cycle: Horntails reproduce in a very similar fashion to the thanes, albeit in a less grandiose fashion. In addition, the fleshy eggs of the horntails are less disgusting, and adults typically gather them for safekeeping. Once born, young horntails mature at a middling pace, taking about six years to grow to an adolescent form. Another five years must pass before a horntail is a full adult, after which it can continue to live for sixteen years on average. Rather than growing dangling pouches that slough off to form into eggs, the ends of adults’ tails slowly swell up, before disgorging an egg. As such, horntails can reproduce multiple times in their lives, though only one baby can be born at a time.
Description: If the riverland thanes are the lords of the river valley, the horntails are its peasants, merchants, and soldiers. More omnivorous than their distant relatives, they feast on both fish in the Mahd or on fruit from the trees on either side of it. For both, they employ their remarkable intelligence to use sharp sticks as tools. Being highly sociable, with a hierarchy all their own, they dig pits and burrows in the riverside sand, which they defend and supply as a group. Horntails are the most friendly creatures in the valley to doggles, and the two species often cohabitate. Thought often seen standing on their hind legs, horntails travel on all fours, and can reach respectable speed on land or in water doing so. Despite their amicability to several of the valley’s species, horntails are distrustful and wary around most creatures, and with an acute eyesight spot and flee from threats before they can be perceived. A visitor to the Mahd River Valley might spend its entire stay without seeing a single one.
Appearance: Riverland Horntail
Name: Spider Ox
Life Cycle: Despite their odd appearance, Spider Oxen reproduce in a manner directly comparable to everyday oxen. After sexual fertilization, babies gestate in the wombs of their mothers, and are birthed living as calves. Notably, baby oxen take months to grow their special appendages, and require feeding from their mothers during this time. After this, they can take up to ten years to mature fully, after which twenty more years of life typically ensue.
Description: Slow-moving, bulky, and dumb, oxen graze the lush grass of the river valley for most of the day. They live and move in small herds that often meet up. While capable of stinging blows with their unique appendages, they are fairly easy to slay, even though they have no immediate predators in the valley. Whether trundling on land or wading through water, oxen somehow exude an air of contentedness all the time. Various insects and parasites typically make themselves at home on their backs, which in term draw oxpeckers.
Appearance: Spider Ox
Lifeform
Name: Crocody Doggle
Life Cycle: Doggle eggs are laid in dens dug into sand banks and watched over attentively by both parents. Upon hatching, the puppy doggles are cared for and taught by the mother while the father hunts for the entire family. Doggles take about three years to mature fully, but even after separating they remember their littermates and parents and commonly socialize with them. Doggles can reproduce from maturity until year ten, when they start to decline. They only live 13 to 14 years.
Description: Though as much reptile as they are mammal, crocody doggles practically epitomize stereotypical dog behavior. Though varying slightly in temperament from individual to individual, these little beasts are social, playful, and decently smart. They exhibit pack behavior, especially when hunting for their preferred food -meat- though they can learn to eat all sorts of things. Being cold-blooded, they love the heat and grow less active when chilly, though their fur helps to conserve body heat. Doggles display an interesting affinity toward bonding with other creatures. Despite relative weakness in terms of combat ability, though their bites and tail slaps can be painful, doggles are very rarely hunted by other creatures. In fact, even aggressive animals are somehow disinclined to harm doggles, leaving these critters free to spend their time eating and frolicking in the river valley.
Appearance: Crocody Doggle
Lifeform
Name: Riverland Thane
Life Cycle: Thane ‘eggs’ can be found in the deeper parts of the Mahd River. Unlike normal eggs, which are shelled, these fleshy eggs are organisms in their own right, complete with beating heart and respiratory system. Over time they swell, becoming more complex, until the outer layer of flesh and now-useless organs is ripped apart and the new Thane rises to the surface, where the touch of sunlight causes its distinctive skin pattern to emerge. Thanes mature extremely quickly over the span of weeks, during which they exhibit voracious appetites, and from this period they emerge as new titans of the river valley. Adult thanes develop pouches on their undersides, with the number depending on their physical strength and vitality, which slough off into new ‘eggs’ that sink to the deepest parts of the river. Thanes’ lifespan lasts up to 19 years.
Description: Roughly the size of elephants, these vividly-patterned cephalopods patrol the Mahd River Valley as its undisputed lords. They feed on the great quantities of fish, seldom leaving the water. Their natural strength and fortitude prevents any of the valley’s denizens from doing them harm, but nevertheless the Thanes are violently territorial and best left alone. Neither bright nor sociable, they can at most be found in pairs, though the species itself is asexual. Despite their lack of intelligence, an odd ritual takes place among the riverland thanes at yearly intervals. The thanes separate into multiple factions, each laying a claim to a part of the valley, and then for up to a week wage a slow but steady war on one another. During this phenomenon, even other creatures of the valley follow the thanes’ lead in the great battles, picking sides and fighting to the best of their abilities. While there are always casualties, they are generally low, as most thane-on-thane fights result in impasses.
Appearance: Riverland Thane
Lifeform
Name: Insipid Bulbcrab
Life Cycle: After what can only be described as an extremely awkward and difficult mating procedure, female bulbcrabs stick fatty sacs on or next to river rocks, which release between two and six crabs a month down the line, provided the sac isn’t ruptured first. River currents can detach the sacs and send them downriver. The new crabs work as a loose unit to feed themselves, taking on a semblance of safety in numbers; juvenile bulbcrabs are far more aggressive than their adult counterparts. Bulbcrabs shed their shells regularly as they grow, up until they reach adulthood within the year. They live for less than 2 years in all.
Description: Bizarre crustaceans commonly thought to be relatives of the Fortress Reefbacks found in the far-off Drenched Flowerbed. They have four long, jointed legs that extend outward from a single dangling midsection, the bottom of which can best be described as a fleshy ‘hub’ from which numerous muscular tubes can extend. These tubes are powerful suckers, capable of pulling lesser crustaceans straight from the ground or blood out of an unmoving victim’s body. As stupid as they are hideous, they exhibit no drive except to find food and mate, which commonly gets them killed as they wander either into the territory of a Riverland Thane, or out of the river valley itself, where they can survive but often fall prey to desert predators. Their fleshy hubs are highly nutritious. While their legs end in spiky points, adults have neither fighting instinct nor fighting ability.
Appearance: Tower Siphon
Lifeform
Name: Riverland Horntail
Life Cycle: Horntails reproduce in a very similar fashion to the thanes, albeit in a less grandiose fashion. In addition, the fleshy eggs of the horntails are less disgusting, and adults typically gather them for safekeeping. Once born, young horntails mature at a middling pace, taking about six years to grow to an adolescent form. Another five years must pass before a horntail is a full adult, after which it can continue to live for sixteen years on average. Rather than growing dangling pouches that slough off to form into eggs, the ends of adults’ tails slowly swell up, before disgorging an egg. As such, horntails can reproduce multiple times in their lives, though only one baby can be born at a time.
Description: If the riverland thanes are the lords of the river valley, the horntails are its peasants, merchants, and soldiers. More omnivorous than their distant relatives, they feast on both fish in the Mahd or on fruit from the trees on either side of it. For both, they employ their remarkable intelligence to use sharp sticks as tools. Being highly sociable, with a hierarchy all their own, they dig pits and burrows in the riverside sand, which they defend and supply as a group. Horntails are the most friendly creatures in the valley to doggles, and the two species often cohabitate. Thought often seen standing on their hind legs, horntails travel on all fours, and can reach respectable speed on land or in water doing so. Despite their amicability to several of the valley’s species, horntails are distrustful and wary around most creatures, and with an acute eyesight spot and flee from threats before they can be perceived. A visitor to the Mahd River Valley might spend its entire stay without seeing a single one.
Appearance: Riverland Horntail
