#Arclund

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Curious Cultivars

Keg/Stew Plants (Heliamphora pulmenti) are a domesticated form of pitcher plant found within a number of Dwarven nations, and are believed to be some of their oldest floral domesticates.

They have grown to prodigious size thanks to constant care and careful breeding, creating “pitchers” that can grow up to three feet tall.

While originally not seen as much usage, the natural resistance to most toxins, poisons and acidic material amongst the Dwarven people has lead to their food using a number of substances that would be considered harmful if not outright lethal to other peoples.

It’s not certain who dared to drink from the slurry of proteins and acids within the original pitchers but it was found to have an deeply intoxicating effect on those that imbibed it, and experience relatively novel for Dwarves.

Since that point they have been adapted not just to creature brews, but hearty meals of “stew” as well.

The plants are often raised communally with people throwing in all manner of food scraps, soup bones, and etcetera that both feeds the plant and creates a “brew/slurry” that can be extracted without doing any harm to the plant.

These “stews” are often used sparingly, as bases for festival meals or during important personal events, as it still contains the strong intoxicating effects, yet there are those, seen as feckless by their kin that have become addicted to Keg Plant food/drink and consume it for every meal if they can manage to get away with it, though due to the heavily communal nature of Dwarven society they rarely manage to do this without at least some form of intervention, either kindly or harsh depending on their neighbors personages.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Striding Cnidaria

Fastodai Marching Reefs (Scleractinia incessuscutum), coral are tiny communal animals that normally from colonies, whose bodies form complex organic formations of various shape, and color.

The singular truth of their species by and large is that these formations are sedentary.

Yet in the main island of the Fastodai Archipelago, this truth is thrown out the window.

In the highlands, a vast basin of coral, sponges and titanic sea stars is hidden, exposed to the open air, pools of salt-water filling their bulbs, and raining down in vast water falls from basins in the mountains surrounding it.

Here a unique form of life plods across the salt-flats, baths in the water falls and consumes sea moss, algae and smaller invertebrates through the potions holes in their large lumbering feet.

Marching Coral, is home to thousands over polyps that through communal symbiosis, and magical alteration function like a living circulatory, digestive and nervous system. Rare individuals can grow to the size of a Northern Brown Bear, though most only reach the size of sheep.

Curiously, the bony exterior seems to have a personality all its own, comparable in temperament to an enraged boar when it’s placid plodding nature is infringed upon one too many times.

Where this sentience comes from is not fully understood, but some scholars believe that the stone that makes up at least part of their carapaces was imbued with energy from the Plane of Earth.

Like all coral they bud, though their young are easily the size of grapes and are lifted by air currents into the basins resting far above. There the Marching Coral root and grow, collecting the minerals they need to form their first carapaces, and eventually send themselves over the falls.

The local Beth and Iripe have nothing to fear from the plodding, passive beings nor vice versa, as their tough hides and slow nature make them disadvantageous as both prey and pack animals. Some Iripe gather buds to use in cuisine and drink, and when a Marching Coral expires, a race begins to crack the shell and get at the slurry inside, as the polyps degrade into a briny sludge that is used in numerous Fastodai dishes, though in sparing amounts as even amongst the Fishfolk there is a concept of “too salty.”

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Peculiar Pinnipeds

Ice-Carvers, Chisel-Tusks, Morekabany (Odobenus villugigans) are species of largely terrestrial Walrus that wander the northern shores of the Troshun Tundras.

Ice-Carvers are still semi aquatic, though they have lost much of their original buoyancy, trundling within the Elvana’s Touch Reef, a strange biome of chill resistant coral and the other animals that came to call it home, many believed to be transplants from Jotunheim.

Their faces, still closely resemble their aquatic cousins, excluding their much wider and thicker tusks that project forward like a bulls horns that they use to bash apart ice and dig through permafrost.

Their diets are omnivorous, consuming shellfish and crustaceans alongside kelp and terrestrial mosses and grasses.

Their bodies however, with sticky limbs and humped backs covered in thick water wicking fur more closely resemble bison or boars.

Males tusks are larger and sharper than females and are used in spare contests to gain the latter’s favor during the mating season.

Females can give birth to a single pup or twins ever three years, which they raise communally, guarding them ferociously from the various beasts that see them as a succulent snack, particularly the titanic Glacier Bears stealthy Grey Orms and cunning Orca.

While most Ice-Carvers stick to the Troshun coasts as mentioned, some time ago the Ratfolk of Finnick took a shine to the sturdy beasts.

While not common amongst their south-heading caravans it is uncommon to find a Finnick Trader in Troshun with a cart not drawn by one of the plodding but reliable beasts. The domesticated Finnick breed are more herbivorous, yet it isn’t unheard of to see them cracking open scavenged bone to suck out the marrow within.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember #6: Botanical

The Borean Blue Tomato (Solanum frigucaeruleum), is a breed plant that only grows in one place.

Boreas’ Landing, a spire of rock and the surrounding plains locked in eternal winter due to the blood of the God of Winter seeping deep into the earth.

The fruit grows amongst the plains and foothills, resembling in every facet a regular tomato except for its ice-blue coloration.

Their flavor is crisper than other tomatoes, with the slightest ting of cooked venison infused within.

The real curiosity about the Borean Blue Tomato is that they nearly immediately rot in temperatures a few steps above freezing.

What is more, they require water from snow melt specifically to grow, and the attempts to grow them in other alpine locals have led to their taste fouling, hinting that something within the soil is what gives them their desirable taste.

They are a staple foodstuff for the folks living across Landing, and Korveli mages were able to craft enchant crates that allow them to sell the fruit to other countries and has led to the construction of a few “Blue Houses”, greenhouses specifically used to grow the tomatoes and other strange flora that has emerged across the peaks.

There are members of different alchemical and Druidic organizations that have been attempting to learn if Borean Blues can be crossbred with other tomatoes, but there has been little to no success so far.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember #5 Flying Eurypterid

Clatter-Drakes, Kikimor, Parachute Bugs (Jaekelopterus volares) are a curious breed of sea scorpion that can be found in rare clutches amongst the outer islands of Gennaios and the northern span of Fastodai.

Many scholars believe that the creatures come from somewhere within the vast Terracuzan Hurricane.

The second largest sea scorpion known to those of Arclund, Clatter Drakes on the surface vary little from their fully aquatic cousins at first glance.

Externally mind, the outside of their bodies being much flatter and their blue shells patterned to resemble the creating waves they soar above, and a third eye which rests on the bottom of their chin, allowing them to keep an eye above and below, ever watching for prey and predators, though many biologists are curious to learn what animal readily makes a meal of the twelve-foot long beasts.

Internally their bodies have a curious mixture of bladders that can fully with both water and air, giving the entities variable buoyancy as they choose, and can even expel it quickly to rocket free of the ocean or drop like stones onto the surf, often when in sight of prey.

Of course, one might be asking, how do they fly? Well, while their fore claws are well-muscled limbs used in both the capture of prey and primary locomotion on land, resembling a strange fusion of sea turtle and seal in movement, the rest of their limbs are fused together into a great membrane.

Clatter-drakes enjoy resting on the tops of sea spires and steep cliffs, where they lay their rock-colored eggs, as it is much easier for the great creature to launch from these areas.

They drag themselves off the cliff and unfurl their membranes, the undulations resembling the swimming fins of sea snails.

Their common names are derived from the clacking of their shells as they flap their wings.

A few folk have taken to eating their meat, claiming that it tastes like a heartier/sweeter crab, but lost ships have been known to look for Clatter-Drake pods, which often number around six in number, as the beasts only launch from the waves and into their air when they know they are close to land.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Gymnosperm Endotherm

Helora (Ambulocyclades sapiens), the Joybond is an interesting alliance of nations, united prior to their Arrival on Arclund amongst their neighbors, they counted the Isikhulu Humans, who had fled their home during the rise of the Primarchs, refusing to bow to the Tyrannical mages and their Destructive Master.

They were ferried from their home by the Primordial Herald known to Mortals simply as Joy, an inscrutable being whose true power has rarely been seen. The being brought them to many worlds, where they allied and rescued a number of other people from the Silicon-based Petreen to the Churchan-touched Shifters. Yet, the people that they knew the longest were the Helora, mobile, sentient plants, believed to be derived from a species of cycad, that adapted an endothermic vascular system, allowing them mobility and warmth as their original word cooled over time, letting them seek out living prey as the soil and sun become rarified resources.

Standing between five and seven feet-tall the Helora have adapted a form that on the basest level resembles most mortal life, standing on two hind legs with two main arms, yet their bodies are composed entirely of tightly intertwined “vines”, thick bark forming in osteoderm like patterns to protect their core structures, and their heads, which have adapted to mimic the shape and function of a human face are made entirely out of mobile pinnate leaves that shift in form and coloration to convey their emotions.

Some people find it somewhat eerie to look at a Helora and see a face looking back at them that is in truth hollow, lacking eyes, and a true mouth.

Helora speak through the usage of pheromones, and sign language, but are able to converse in other languages by fluttering their leaves, giving their voices a rustling, whispering quality.

Able to extend their limbs and reshape their bodies as is their want, Helora often change shape throughout their lives, better constructing their forms for their chosen profession, but some have been known to change appearances at the drop of a hat.

In private and amongst their Joybond allies, Helora often take on a much more basal form, and are notably some of the best hunters at the Joybond’s disposal, though in their new home many have returned to supping of the sun alone.

They have widely integrated across the Intlizyo jungle, often living amongst Lizardfolk villages and can occasionally be spotted within Last Sky, trading their kills for goods from across the sea.

Religion matters little to them, but they do offer thanks to Joy and a god of nature they insist is not Gaea, but do little to explain their ministrations.

Helora are able to produce offspring with a partner or on their own, producing a seed that must be incubated within carefully monitored earth for several months, and these nurseries are one of the most well protected areas in Joybond territory, with Shifters, Petreen, Isikhulu and Lizardfolk guards offering additional protection, while Helora parents root themselves to better care for their nascent child.

Helora are nominally a genderless ancestry, though some have been known to add masculine or feminine characteristic to their form as is their want, and they put no considerations on their children to be anything but who they desire to be.

Romantic relationships are rare amongst their kind, and it is almost unheard of for a Helora to fall for another ancestry but it has happened, though these bonds often stay in the spectrum of asexuality.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Ant-agonizer

Moundbreaker Deer (Cervus foderes) are a species of deer found within the vast Hondonas steppe, that due to the harsh environ turned to a different type of nutrition.

Ants, specifically the domed ant nests that rise like miniature cairns across the steppe.

They are sturdy constructions, protected by vicious and large-jawed guardians.

Yet the Moundbreakers consume them as readily as any other after they crash down the proverbial “gate doors”.

Their thick and sturdy antlers have been adapted to work in a manner similar to a pick/shovel, capable of cracking open the rough exterior and then root within, digging until their reach a chamber, long tongue probing for any unfortunate “front liners” with eyes closed, their thick skinned eyelids protecting against stinging bites. Their diet means that unlike most other deer species they do not shed their antlers, which continue to grow throughout their lives, with some males headgear getting so large they struggle to lift their heads and often end up being picked off by predators.

Moundbreakers only stand around four feet tall at the shoulder, and their fur is a drab grey-tan most commonly though albino, melanistic and piebald fur is not unheard of.

Male and females both grow antlers, with males competing for mates not by charging and battling with each other as is common amongst other deer species but by charging mounds. The first to break through is considered the victor and gets their pick of the females, while the loser stalks off after a consolatory meal.

Dennikar Dwarves readily hunt the deer, but while the meat and hide is used it is the antlers they are truly after as when worked properly it is good at reinforcing armor, but most commonly sees usage as material for weapon hilts and hafts, as there is little in the way wood across the steppe.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Neoteneous Nymphs

Gallinippers (Aedes multiforma) are a plague that can be found in most swamps and marshes across the face of Arclund.

While the name is a bit humorous/corny there is little to be laughed about when it comes to the creatures themselves.

They resemble oversized mosquitos in their varying stages of life and share most of their proclivities.

However, while only female mosquitoes drink blood, Gallinippers all genders hunt ichor.

Gallinippers do not discriminate when it comes to food, and a single one could drain a human dry within minutes.

What’s worse is they rarely are found alone, traveling on small swarms.

Males resemble regular mosquitos though are about the size of a sparrow, females are neotenic, and remain aquatic throughout their lives, simply growing in size and aggression, with some reported to reach lengths of most common fish including bass and salmon but it is the third gender that is the most dangerous.

For the Broodkeeper has multiple mouths to feed. Broodkeeper’s function nominally like a male seahorse incubating the eggs, laid within them by females then fertilized by visiting males in a pouch and then carrying for the larva until they pupate, showing a greater level of care and protection than most insects give their young. One broodkeeper is born for five of the other genders, and they are the largest, too heavy to fly much of the time and nearing the size of an eagle.

Gallinipper larva are around six inches long, with snapping mouth parts they use to hunt all manner of other insects, small fish and amphibians, but they are ever eager to target larger prey when working together though any sign of true danger sends them running back to the Broodkeeper.

While they are considered a threat and nuisance in many locales across the world it is within the Daari they are looked upon with true dread, for they spawn largely within the Bitterlands, and the corruption there has warped many into new and monstrous forms, while others have been imbued with all manner of horrible diseases.

Some within Crimson Oath, however, have taken to raising Gallinippers, keeping them fed with their magically augmented blood, and trained them as surprisingly accurate and cunning bloodhounds.

Yet, this has done very little to enamor those folks struggling against the Bitterlands with those of the Oath, who are already looked upon with some level of suspicion.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Silicon Slayer

Refactora, The Mirraptor (Pseudodeinonychus vitrum indeprehensus) are a transplanted species to the interior of the Intliziyo Jungle in South-Central N’jando. Their body plans ape the native Raptors of the region, though this is a clear sense of convergent evolution when one considers that the creatures were brought by the Petreen following the destruction of their lunar homes centuries ago. They stand as tall as a common plow horse and are relatively light in build and weight despite the fact their bodies are made entirely of slate-colored crystal. A singular ocular organ crafted of distinctively photoreceptive crystal rests in the center of their wide heads and mirroring the flesh creatures they resemble, they have mouths filled with sharp, shearing fangs, short forelimbs, and long back limbs ending in a deadly set of curving claws.

Refactora were used by the Petreen as hunting companions across the earthen expanses of their old homes, hunting down creatures as equally armored as them, though often of a deeply plodding nature, allowing the Refactora to take their time against their prey, wearing them down and while the Petreen brought domesticated herds of “Plodders” with them from their homes, for those Refactora that were separated from their master’s when the Dome went up they found themselves in unfamiliar that was utterly alien to them.

The herbivores of the Intlizyo were much quicker, and many favored forms of locomotion not conducive to the earthen creatures, including the ability to brachiate and swim, things that Refactora were both terrible at.

It looked as if those exiled Refactora would starve, another transplanted being that found itself unable to find a niche on Arclund without the aid of their transplanted masters. Yet, the Refactora are quite smart and learn quickly from each other and other beings. They had always had the ability to change the coloration of their earthen skin, refracting light in different patterns as a manner of communication.

Yet, several realized that if they fully refracted incoming light across their entire body, they became entirely unseen amongst the greenery of the jungle and that prey unable to differentiate their scent from the earth and stone beneath their feet often stumbled directly into their path. The Refactora have since become one of the deadliest predators within the Intliziyo, and their pattern of hunting has been shared by Feral Populations to Petreen and Lizardfolk domesticates after an attempt by the former to curb their spread.

Of course, the prey of the jungles do not have the necessary mineral count for these elemental beings, so they must either gorge themselves in a constant stream of hunts or substitute their diets with river clay, stones, and other mineral deposits, which have lead to many congregating around the mineral-rich mesas of Yilo-Tanda, a Dwarven settlement that does not take kindly to the creatures attacking their pack animals or mines. They are one of the few people that hunt Raptora, using acid-tipped and sound-based weaponry to weaken them before going in for the kill. This has caused no small amount of tension between the Udagi Dwarves and the Petreen, especially since the former has begun enticing Cavern Sloths, immense, thick-skinned lithovores to the surface using Raptora hide in an attempt to curb their numbers.

Refactora reproduce asexually, laying a single crystalline egg alongside a grouping of around ten after killing an elder Plodder. So despite their devastating appetites, this has limited their spread, as it is rare for the native fauna of the Intliziyo to grow to comparable sizes as such a gigantic beast.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Bigfoot

Dunetopper (Apteryx harenaesaltator) are a species of bird spoken of in the scant reports that come in regarding the vast and alien continent of Lashan.

In the interior of the western portion of the continent, a curious environment is spoken of, two expansive plateaus topped with white sand deserts.

The Twin Welts, lack the “hidden” verdancy that most other deserts contain, and as such water is a resource hunted avidly and aggressively by all the fauna that have adapted to these sand plains in the sky.

The Dunetopper, is one such animal, believed from descriptions to be a descendant or cousin of the Kiwi Bird of Ukutsha Isle.

They reportedly stand four feet at the hip, with a compact body and a lengthy beak they use to probe the sand in search of prey.

Yet their most definitive features are their wide webbed feet, that each spread out almost a foot in width.

Thanks to the weakened gravity that affects much of Lashan this enables them to race atop the dunes without disturbing much of the granules, and near silently as well.

This adaption helped disguise them from the numerous subterranean predators that call the Welts home, blood drinkers and flesh liquifiers, gaining the water their desperately need from the “mobile aquifers” hunting the sands above.

They are silent even when it comes to vocalizations, and interact with a there of their kind very rarely outside of breeding seasons, in which females enter into brutal yet surprisingly silent duels as they attempt to charm a mate, and very often blind their opponent.

Little else is known about the animals, as the Welt is the second least forgiving biome on Lashan, and the scant books outside scholars that have gotten their hands on are filled with more clear conjecture and superstition than actual fact.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Mountain Mollusk

Rattlus (Nautilus circamactus) are odd inhabitants of Boreus’s Landing, a craggy broken peak with unseasonably chill weather all year round, the peaks never being free of a great deal of snow.

How a species of nautilus managed to make it to the peaks is currently unknown, yet some believe that they are descendants of a freshwater species that has since gone extinct, that were best known for leaping up streams and small water falls akin to salmon and one clutch got trapped in an ever receding lake that has since frozen over completely.

The Rattilus, only require water when it comes to laying their eggs as they now stand, keeping their young in the few unfrozen pools and water ways that mark the complicated cave systems that run through Boreus’s Landing.

They are named for their primary form of locomotion: rolling.

About three feet in diameter, they maneuver down steep peaks, their heavily reinforced slate grey shells absorbing the shock, and thanks to an adapted muscle system at the base of their bodies they can also leap to clear gaps and cliffs, tethering to the other side using their whip-fast and extendable main arms, which they also use to snag their preferred prey: birds.

The upward climbs following a descent are prodigiously slow in comparison as they use their many forelimbs to find hand holds to anchor and pull from, often employing a small series of hops using their “foot”

Despite their thick shells, and near suicidal form of locomotion, they are one of the preferred prey animals by many of the predators that call the peaks home, and have also become a bit of a culinary stand out amongst the native folk that live across the lower climbs.

Their shells are used to adorn armor and some take them as their totem animal, living lives of daredevilry, though more often then not they miss their handholds compared to the strikingly accurate jumps of the Rattlus.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Desert Doom

Maul Drake (Ankylosaurus laquemalleus) are the terrestrial apex predators of the mountainous borderland that separates the Jennovari Desert to the north and Intliziyo Jungle to the south.

They are ambush predators, that live rather sedentary lives, their craggy hide allowing them to disguise themselves as rocks and boulders, the rest of their body buried in sand.

Their sense of smell is incredible, allowing them to detect prey, particularly their directionality.

When hungry they open their mouths, releasing a scent from glands on the corner of their jaws that depending on locality smells like fresh meat or rotting fruit.

Prey that are drawn in quickly come within striking distance of their jaws, but they only bite to constrain, the thick armor plating across their entire head including entire eyelids protecting it from the frantic attacks of trapped prey.

Their main killing weapon is their namesake, a vaguely anvil-shaped club at the tip of their tail.

Using their powerful legs which they use to anchor themselves they bring their tail down with immense power in a way not dissimilar to that of a scorpion in a manner dissimilar to most Ankylosaurs, with a sound of a dozen cracking pops.

The force can shatter steel easily, and is said to leave the faint scent and appearance of burning, regardless of the mashed remains of what ever poor creature has stumbled across them, which it greedily swallows down whole.

Infants are cared for in a manner also not dissimilar from scorpions, incubated by the mother, and then riding around on her back for the first year of their life, with the mother allowing them the first bites of the meals she catches before chasing them off once they get large enough.

Some of the mountainfolk have learned to not so much tame but make usage of the Mail Drakes as defense against raiders and other dangerous animals that call them home, marking where they lay hidden through carefully disguised trail markers.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Reaving Renovator

The River Gardeners, Saber-Claws (Therizinosaurus hortulanus), are thirty feet tall Therizinosaurs with dappled green and blue scales along their lower bodies and black fathers along their upper bodies though they are often “dyes” green due to constant exposure to algae. While their wild cousins avoid or outright confront any mortals that stumble into their territory, the River Gardeners have long been domesticated originally by the Udagi Dwarves and then adopted and used by the local humans and Rivaldo refugees of Last Sky. Horses, do not do well in the thick jungle so were ineffectual mounts, leading to the adoption of small Duckbills as the city’s main form of mount. Yet, these tamed Hadrosaurs had little in the way of defenses against the predators and aggressive “River Barons” (Hippos), and few roads and numerous river ways quickly become overgrown by prolific foliage.

Enter the River Gardeners, the Dwarves worked with the beasts natural inclination to carve paths and pull apart vegetation and turned them into true environment engineers. Their handlers reward all their work, and despite a low level of intelligence they’ve been known to forming tight bonds with whomever gives them the largest treats.

These bonds and great strength have crafted powerful caravan guards, particularly in the river ways, where the River Barons are concerned they’ve learned to avoid the Gardners for as placid they’ve been bred to be more than one testy Baron has been sent rolling ass over tea kettle by a swipe of a Gardener’sclaws.

Of course a number of River Gardeners have escaped over the years and intermingled with their wild cousins, breeding aggressive environmental engineers nicknames “River Stewards”, as they do not guide or shape so much as utterly reformat their chosen territories to their desires alone, not the guiding hand of a rider.

These Stewards lay large clutches, and their reshaping of the terrain has negatively impacted some species including other Therizinosaurs that call the Intliziyo home which have begun to be pushed further and further into particular niches and even the Apex predator of the region known colloquially as the Sail Titan has felt the changes brought by the Stewards and their domestic Gardener kin.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Deep Dive

Cetetitanosaur (Brachiosaurus Cornucetus) the calamity that sank Lashan beneath the waves was unexpected and the terrifying for the rest of the world.

Yet in time survivors of that lost continent would emerge, far far in the future.

Most of the Aertitanosaurs went extinct with the loss of their homeland or died from starvation or thirst as they couldn’t find anywhere to land.

A few however managed to find a large island that remained and were able to survive their for a time, but it was their experimental sojourns into the sea that would elevate them to a new era of stability.

Naturally buoyant thanks to their numerous air sacs, the were able to float atop the waves and consume both sea foliage and fish that got too close to their hungry jaws. Today, they are omnivores, that use suction and their blunt crushing teeth to swallow copious amounts of not just loss sea algae and grasses but shellfish and squid as well, with one story telling of a sizable bull swallowing a Giant Squid whole, though the veracity of this claim is unconfirmed.

In time they would leave land behind, and would become one of the largest sea faring animals ever known to Arclund, with average lengths being around 112 feet long. The largest documented bull bordered in 130.

Their back legs become small flippers will their wings stayed the same relatively size, giving them an almost manta ray-like appearance when seen head on, these fins are used for stability and directionality over mobility however as foreward thrust is largely the purpose of their wide, flat tails and the enlarged “propulsion hump” that fills with methane and allows for sudden bursts of speed.

The air bladders along their necks have become more akin to air tanks, storing extra oxygen which they can contract that allows for diving while allowing them to stay beneath the waves for the longest amount of time of any known air breathing sea creature on Arclund.

They are rarely predated upon as adult as they are prodigiously strong and their deceptively thick skin means that even young specimens can survive strikes that would cripple a whale of similar size. Thst being said some animals, including Goliath Sharks have learned to work in pairs to take down Cetetitanosaurs, with one targeting their air sacks and the other aiming for the tail.

Despite this most Cetetitanosaurs are “islands of peace” with small fauna clinging to their bodies or following in their wake as the cruise about the southern oceans.

Males still “grapple” each other in competitions to impress females, intertwining and diving until even their great forms begin to strain. Young are born live, making them the first case of live birth amongst sauropods, and usually only one calf, a sizable disparity from their ancestors vast clutches.

A number of Underfolk have attempted to court the Cetetitanosaurs, but so far they have not made much headway, as the animals are bullish and stoic, dubbed “Mute Whales” by the Merfolk, as they do not sing, but communicate through murmuring subsonic hums that are too soft for most other life to detect.

They namely lurk around the relatively “shallow” waters where Lashan once stood but have been spotted as far East as Marakaj and North as the peninsula of Vanaan.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Full Boar Action

Atipa-Tcoba (Mammut carngulosus) are one of the most powerful and terrifying predators found within the Tuiscint Fen, and one of the main reasons why the Svens had such trouble trying to push into the region.

Their heavy armor and reliance on clockworks often got their forces moored in the muck and mud, and building bridges took time they could often ill afford beset by the Fenfolk at all turns.

But they came to learn when the Fenfolk vanished back to the reeds in a flight like startled deer, something far worse was approaching.

They first learned this lesson at the Grand Coniungens Bridge, which sits to this day not even a quarter finished, wood bleach ruddy-pink with the sun dried ichor of all that died that day.

And the Atipa-Tcoba were the cause.

Standing near sixteen feet at the shoulder, with shaggy green-grey fur, and wide plodding feet, that when combined with the tell tale trunk makes it easy for folk to believe the animal before them is just another of the relatively placid animals known by many as Mastodon, Mammoths or Elephants.

And then they lift their trunks to reveal overly large mouths filled to the brim with jagged, shark-like teeth.

They hunt in herds nearing a dozen members, and work together to overwhelm and bludgeon their prey until they can shovel what remains into their awaiting mouths with their four “fingered” trunks.

They are surprisingly resilient even for animals of their size, their fur seeming to form an extra left of protection against piercing weapons and fire, making much of the Sven arsenal next to useless against them.

They seem to favor hunting sophonts over other prey, which considering their size includes practically everything in the Fen.

Fenfolk fear and honor the Atipa-Tcoba, which is best evidenced by the translation of their name: “Hungry Lord”. Those wishing for protection against them, and to scare off other dangers risk life and limb to claim one of the animals teeth from their “graveyards”, great tarry midden heaps where elder individuals go to die, that often means however, elder bulls and cows could be lurking somewhere in the muck, waiting for the daring to fall into their awaiting grasp.

Atipa-Tcoba are patriarchal, counter to most pachyderm familial culture, and tend to calve every five or so years, with mothers growing increasingly ravenous and aggressive as the pregnancy progresses, in some cases even cannibalizing weaker members of the heard if unable to come across any other food, though that is a very rare occasion, as even for an Atipa-Tcoba, killing one is a struggle not worth risking, meaning that attempts more commonly lead to gruesome scars for the victim and exile from a herd for the mother. instead of a death.

Some Fenfolk stories have begun circulating in Austellus of Atipa-Tcoba carrying or adorning themselves with pieces of Svenik armor/Gregorian parts but even amongst the rebellious folk of the South, that claim seems too spuriously outlandish to believe.

Another claim, some view as spurious is that the animals is not a Mastodon at all.

But an Entelodont, the only problem being, stories of these animals predate the first emergence of Entelodonts on Arclund, who first arrived as domesticated companions of the wild Ruudashi people centuries after the eldest artistic depictions.

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember: Terrestrial Pterosaur

Tunnel Penguins, Hammerjacks (Tapejara foderes) are found living within the waterways of the Intliziyo Jungle. Portly, semi-aquatic beings, many have erroneously come to believe they are a form of Penguin that somehow managed to find its way from the frozen north to the tropical expanses of the Intliziyo.

In truth, the black “furred” animals with wide, thick-clawed forelimbs and webbed back limbs, drawing some similarities to the equally awkwardly looking Platypus, are in fact Pterosaurs. This is best evidenced in their heavy ornamented beaks and shrunken but still wildly-colored crests.

While they namely use their forelimbs to dig winding tunnels near river banks, they use their heavy beaks to crack the occasional rock that get in their way, having a surprising amount of strength, that some argue is at least partially magically augmented.

They are opportunistic omnivores, scavenging fallen fruit/nuts, picking at carrion and hunting fish as suits their fancy.

Males are quite competitive, and their head butting contests over females are often noisy affairs, which often leads to the loser or both getting attacked by an attracted jungle predator. Female lay clutches of up to eight eggs, and they nurture their young for a short period after hatching, but they are eventually left to fend for themselves, being largely aquatic for the first year of their life.

Tunnel Penguins are the favored prey animals of a number of river predators, and even the native ancestries have taken to hunting them, claiming the meat tastes of a curious fusion of turtle and chicken. A number of dishes in Last Sky, rely on the animals meat and eggs, so a number of tamed Tunnel Penguins can be found in partially aquatic enclosures on the riverside portions of the Outer City.

(Decided to try my hand at coloring them)