Furtle[]
Physical Characteristics[]
Furtles are land-based reptiles of great size and power. Each furtle has four sturdy limbs with talon-tipped digits attached to a central shell made of thick copper-laced armoured plates. Unlike many shelled creatures, these segments are independent and a furtle can drop individual plates to allow a new, larger plate to grow back in its place. The shell varies in thickness but is generally up to three inches thick, with living tissue on the bottom supplying it with nutrients to grow. Because of the copper in its blood used to fortify the shell, a Furtle's blood is blue.
The furtle head is small and rounded with a hooked bill that it uses to clamp down on food. The furtle's eyes are well adapted to the dim light of caves but it is near-sighted and struggles to identify objects and creatures more than a few dozen meters away. The neck of a furtle is flexible and can retract partially into the furtle's shell if threatened.
The core body temperature of a furtle is over 100 degrees. Through the cracks in its shell plates and openings such as its mouth, heat can escape. Over time, this constant exposure to heat can leave evidence of furtle habitation such as lack of snow or greenery and petrified or otherwise charred woody material.
Furtles are Alnasian and can draw on the Titan-mother's blood. They do this primarily to cause violent flares or localized heat blasts. Natives animals that share its habitat are predominantly adapted to live in the cold and these powers ensure the furtle is never threatened by any of local fauna.
Behaviour[]
Furtles are opportunistic omnivores, eating woody plant matter primarily but also foraging for carrion, fish, or blueguin eggs when the opportunity presents itself. They are usually solitary, but are not particularly territorial either.
The brain of a furtle does not appear very powerful. Although they are capable enough to dig caverns to live in and to identify and avoid subterranean hazards, they have not been observed taking this instinctual behaviour to problem solve situations outside of their norm. As a result, furtles often have run-ins with people living in the same area, as the furtle cannot properly identify the danger each poses to the other.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
Furtle mothers stay with their eggs, keeping internal temperature high as the eggs cannot maintain the furtle's extreme body temperature for long. Little else is known about furtle reproduction and lifestyle.
Leviathan[]
Physical Characteristics[]
Leviathans are oceanic mammals of immense size, ferocity, and strength. They have an tear-drop shaped body with a curved mouth with jutting fangs up to 2 meters long. They have three 2 to 4 meter long fins angled apart by 120º and weighing up to a ton each. Their body then tapers into a small tail coated in dozens of meter long ridges extending up to 20 cm from the skin, which it uses to direct water flow and keep the Leviathan moving straight.
The Leviathan has a special skin made with fragments of bone. This armour is dark and strong, resembling cracked obsidian glass. This skin is able to expand and collapse as the Leviathan moves, and when it dives deep below the surface of the ocean. The underside of their body and mouth is made of light grey skin capable of swelling with air when diving or prey when eating.
A Leviathan has four eyes, two pointing forward at 30º apart and two pointing forward at 90º apart. These eyes are normally 15cm across. They are coloured dark yellow and have vertical oval pupils. When in combat, a Leviathan can retract its eyes into its skull to protect them. They have excellent sight, comparable to humans on the surface. Below the water, they have vision that can see up to a kilometre away at the surface, and a hundred meters away near the seafloor.
A Leviathan has eardrums inside its head, made to detect low noises such as prey. Noises from drums can get their attention, but normal ranges of conversation are inaudible to them.
Leviathans also have electric receptors on the front of its body and fins. These receptors can detect vibrations in the water from up to 20 kilometres away. In battle, they can accurately jolt enemies with electricity, or gather in a group to call down lightning strikes on enemies.
A Leviathan is able to easily eat a horse whole. Once swallowed (often whole) prey is quickly digested inside the highly acidic stomach of a Leviathan. If one where to manage to remain in a Leviathan's mouth, it would be protected from the effects of the ocean, although it would eventually suffocate.
Behaviour[]
Leviathans hunt alone for most of their lives. They eat fish, whales, and animals that stray too close to the shore. Sometimes they will dive to great depths to each squid or crustaceans.
When hunting, a Leviathan positions itself directly below a target and then rises suddenly to the surface, using its electricity receptors to stun its target. If it fails to catch or kill its prey, the Leviathan will circle, attacking repeatedly with its fins until the foe is crippled.
Leviathans will even go on the shore to catch food, although they are slow and vulnerable when doing so. Using their fins, they can push themselves back into the ocean. Occasionally, a Leviathan will attack sailing ships and sink them, eating the survivors.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
Leviathans live independent lives. They an produce low rumbling noises as to alert others to their presence over long distances, but have no means for communication up close. When they see each other, they will occasionally remain together for several years, but eventually depart. During the time spend together, they are much more likely to attack ships.
Leviathans mate at roughly 50 years of age, and will mate again every ten years until they die. They give birth one calf at a time. Calves will stay with their mother until they are ten years old, and will then swim off on their own.
Leviathans are long-lived, and some individuals have lived beyond 1000 years, though most live to about 500.
Morempai[]
Physical Characteristics[]
Morempai is named in Cellian, meaning “Death Empai” for this magical mammal's fearsome domination of the boreal forests around Ghidovia.
A morempai is a massive feline, the largest land animal on Altus, and capable of defeating even Rendiols in battle. Their paws are the size of shields, and their fangs are as large as broadswords. Built with plenty of muscle and an elongated body, morempais are able to lunge with great force to fell foes in a single strike.
Morempais have thick tails which they use to balance while running, but also to fight with. The tail carries plenty of momentum when it is spun to bat at foes, and will easily shatter bones. Their tail is roughly 40cm in diameter. Morempais have two forward-facing bones exposed on their shoulders with jutting shafts of bone up to 1 meter long pointing forward. These prevent attacks from easily striking their necks, and help them, pin foes to the earth while standing above them.
Morempais are covered in tight skin over muscle, coated with a thin layer of white for camouflage. They have erect ears tipped in black fur which they can point in almost any direction while listening for prey. Their eyes are narrow, black, and forward-facing, but rather poor.
A morempai has another powerful tool at its disposal – their ability to manipulate the magic of winter. Apart from their ice-cold blood which can shatter metal and freeze flesh on even a moment's contact, morempais are capable of summoning frigid effects to defeat enemies. Under their feet, a constant cold aura persists which allows them to walk across moving water or up waterfalls and rapids. They may also freeze water in the air, causing walls of ice to form nearby and trap prey close to them. If they corner a foe, they can also summon spires of ice from air which smash into the earth and imprison their foes.
Behaviour[]
Morempai are a magical creature that once ruled the Arctic south of the Donaughen Forest. They are able to walk onto the ocean without harm due to their ice generation. Many will hunt fish exclusively, only venturing on land in order to sleep. On land, they will stalk all manners of creatures and have a voracious appetite.
Whenever possible, Morempais will stalk prey, often for days, to see if it will lead them back to more of its kind. They will then descend and ruthlessly murder all within, even mortals. Entire ships have been eaten by a single Morempai that arrived in the night.
Morempai will stay on their own, roaming the land and fighting other Morempai for land. If two should encounter each other, they will fight until one retreats or dies. Such battles are often drawn out affairs as the two enemies will stalk each other, waiting for a moment of weakness. These battles will sometimes spawn freak blizzards.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
Morempais are not born. Those who remain are the remaining creatures from when Ghidovia City was mysteriously frozen.
As the Morempai have gotten older, they have kept their old wounds and their thinned numbers. Today, only about 10 remain in the wild, and some of these may have died already.
Rendiol[]
Physical Description[]
Rendiols are long serpentine creatures with a wide jaw, and two wings. The wings made of webbing between their long fingers. The front three fingers have 60 centimeter long claws
The jaw of a Rendiol is twice as wide as its body and can dislocate to below their skull to fit large creatures inside. Using horizontal incisors and a serrated tongue, they can ensure prey which gets caught in its mouth does not escape. Its snout is softly rounded at the front where two slits of skin act as a nose. It has thick rimmed eyebrows to protects its eyes from blunt force.
A Rendiol's entire upper body is covered in interlocking scales that are stronger than steel and reflect glimmers of direct light. Each scale is around 400 centimetres square and weigh half a kilogram. Its underbelly, which contracts and recoils regularly, is not protected by scales but is still made of hard leather. Rendiol skin is always a shade of yellow or light brown, but their scales come in rocky grey, sandy brown, and dark blue, depending on their habitat.
Rendiols brew a deadly mixture of acid in their mouths which they use to partially digest prey before consumption. If enraged or attacked, this acid can burn through armour in less than one minute, which is longer than it would take for acid to drip through and dissolve the skin and muscles of the creature wearing the armour.
Behaviour[]
Rendiols are predators with no natural enemies. Due to the difficulty of gaining altitude and relative weakness on the ground, Rendiols prefer to make their roosts at very high altitudes or in inaccessible locations such as cliff edges, remote islands, or mountaintops. Roosts are made out of stones, metals, and sand.
Rendiols are incredibly intelligent creatures, capable of reasoning with in their language, Erendire. Because they only need to eat once per month and are otherwise sedate, a Rendiol has free time to play or amuse itself. Many Rendiols will take prisoners or pets back to their roosts to play with, abuse, or torture before consumption.
When hunting, a Rendiol will fly high in the sky, hide among sand, or lie in the water. Using the element of surprise, they snatch their prey and depart at once. Unless pinned down or restrained, a Rendiol will always prefer to flee instead of fighting.
When flying, a Rendiol uses its wings to generate lift and then glides along in a slow descent. To steer, it uses its tail which spins slowly behind it like a gyroscope. On the land, it will fold its wings inside and walk on two legs and its slithering tail, keeping its head raised. In the ocean, it partially folds its wings and uses them like flippers.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
Rendiols can live for thousands of years, growing larger each time they molt. Molting is a slow process that can take a month or more. If disturbed during this time, a Rendiol will be weak and may be slain.
Rendiols are very territorial because large groups of them tend to eat or chase away all food in an area. If a conflict erupts, the beasts will sometimes fight long wars of attrition rather than an up-front battle.
A Rendiol, male or female, can only mate once every hundred years. When one enters a period of heat, it will search for months for a mate. The two depart once finished, and will not interact again. Baby Rendiols are 5 feet long, and grow over the next two to three years to be 20 feet long, and are then set free.
Rendiol will protect their young if they meet them later in life, but seldom visit each other. Instead, families might recruit mortals to act as messengers in return for sparing a village.