Difference between revisions of "Fauna2"

Latest revision as of 05:31, 19 July 2015

General content: | Felaryan fauna | Felaryan flora | Races | Characters | Locations | History and Lore | Science and Magic | Culture and Customs | List of all available articles

The Felayan fauna is composed of many species from many worlds which makes it very varied and unpredictable. See also carnivorous plants and plant life. These pages feature mostly dangerous or remarkable creatures. There are many, many others, from small animals to harmless herbivores, or unreported species that aren't listed here but exist and are part of the great Felarya food chain.

• Jungle fauna - page2 - page3

• Marsh fauna

• Aquatic fauna

• Rough terrain fauna

• Dungeon fauna

• Plains fauna

• Ice terrain fauna

• Dimensionally unstable terrain fauna

• Underground fauna

Threat Ranking:

• Minimal: A totally harmless being such as a mouse or a rabbit.
• Very Low: Mostly herbivores but who can still strike back if attacked.
• Low: Various animals such as felines.
• Moderate: A moderately dangerous Felaryan creature can still be very dangerous in another world. For example a great white shark would rank between Low and Moderate here...
• Medium: A predatory, dangerous and often man-eating creature.
• High: A great predator. Crisis is in this category.
• Very High: A top predator. This creature could take on a small army.
• Critical: In Felaryan scales, very few creatures reach this rank.
• Extreme: A guardian or a mythical creature. Only a god can hope to survive a confrontation with one of these.

Note that threat ranking is based on the threat that the creature represents for a normal human. It's not necessarily linked to the strength of the creature. For example the dryad Cypress would rank very low because she is very friendly to humans, yet she is a powerful being.

Jungle fauna

In Misty glade

Ostralik

Ostralik

Size: 25 feet on their long legs.
Threat: Moderate

This strange creature is a mix between a giant ostrich and a reptile. It possesses a very long, outstretched neck, a reptilian head, scales in place of feathers and a semi-transparent body. Their legs are sturdy and long which makes them very fast and agile runners. Ostraliks are voracious, and will eat anything that seems even remotely edible. Their maw, throat and stomach are amazingly stretchable and can accommodate very large prey. If the prey looks like an easy target, the Ostralik will simply try to snatch and swallow it right away. If the prey is tougher, the Ostralik will use its powerful legs to stun it and knock it down first.

Blue Collared Cockatrice

Size: 5 feet
Threat: Low

A strange creature with the body of a bird, the crest of a rooster and the tail of a lizard. They are harmless to a normal human, as they feed purely on magic, but they are the bane of any spellcaster. Once they have sensed a creature possessing magic, they will chase it and drain its magic at an alarming rate. While chasing their target, they also emit an extremely annoying grating sound that can disrupt even the most focused of spellcasters, making it very hard to cast any spell. Blue collared cockatrices are an important threat to any purely magical creatures such as elementals.

Edgar Dragon

Size: 40 feet
Threat: Moderate

A strange and rare creature living in several magic-rich zones of Felarya. They stand on their hind legs, having no front ones, and posses large, delicate, colorful pixie wings. They have two heads, each adorned by long antennas, each head having its own personality and mind. Their body doesn't actually looks very draconic, and no one know how they got their name or who this Edgar is. Edgar dragons are clever creatures and very capable of speech but with one little restriction: they can speak only in rhymes. They do it amazingly naturally, though. Interestingly enough, if you manage to make a Edgar dragon say an unrhymable word, the beast will collapse unconscious, and will sometimes even die.

Hecatick

Size: 3 inches
Threat: Very Low

Hecaticks are a strange species of parasites native to Felarya. Resembling ticks, they live a similar lifestyle, hiding in tall grass and such while waiting for suitable prey to pass. However, instead of sucking blood, hecaticks feed on the magical energies that flow through all living things in Felarya in varying amounts. In order to get at this food source, hecaticks latch on to a host and then begin feeding. They don't bite and the process is perfectly harmless. The magical essences then flow into them, causing their abdomens to expand. Once satiated, they fall off. Hecaticks are naturally attracted to beings with great magical powers. While not harmful on their own, in large amounts they can drain a being's magic, thus making them temporarily vulnerable and unable to use spells for a short period of time. Hecaticks also possess a unique natural ability which is the projection of a "bubble" around themselves that not only masks their presence from "magical senses" but also "repels" basic magical spells, causing them to wash around them as if an invisible barrier were present and making them extremely annoying to get rid of. It's theorized that hecaticks do not "see" in the typical sense, instead being able to view concentrations, flows, and gradients of magic that exist within the world, a useful ability in a world as magic-rich as Felarya.

In Bulvon wood

Giant Nematode

Size: 30 to 130 feet long
Threat: Moderate to Medium

These animals come in a myriad of forms and sizes but the most common variety runs from thirty to a hundred and thirty feet long. They have a slender unsegmented body with sensory hairs and warts running along their length and a characteristic head shield. A very simple animal in design, it has six lips running around a circular mouth lined with blunt projections that serve as teeth. They eat almost anything, vegetable or animal, and are relentless in pursuing a food source once they locate it. Surprisingly, they do not have stomachs; their food going right in to their intestines. This makes being swallowed by one a very unpleasant experience and you can often tell what a nematode ate last by the bulges in its body. They're extremely adaptable and can be found almost anywhere in Bulvon wood, even underwater, although they prefer to live underneath logs and rocks in the leaf mulch out of the sun. This brings them into conflict with both Dridders and Chilotaurs. The latter hate them with a passion, as one variety of Giant Nematode possess a sharp stylus-like beak, which it uses to puncture Chilotaur eggs and drain them of the gooey contents. Nematodes themselves lay their eggs in the leaf litter where they are ingested by the giant snails of Bulvon Wood. Upon hatching the infant nematodes live as parasites in the snail's belly feeding on the vegetable matter the snail provides until the time they are passed naturally from the snail's body thusly being dispersed throughout the jungle.

Chorygate

Size: 80 to 160 feet
Threat: Medium to High

This strange creature resembles an enormous earthworm that has been squashed flat.  They range in size from eighty to one hundred and sixty feet long for the most gigantic, but thankfully rare, specimens. They come in a wide variety of often bright colors. They are very common predators and are one of the main causes of death for visitors to Bulvon wood. They feed on anything: corpses, eggs of insects, worms, snails, and unlucky adventurers. These critters can also swallow prey their own size, and they are a lot quicker on the strike than one would think. The mouth of a Chorygate can extend quite a distance as well. It's worth noting that their slime is one of the most disgusting substances in Felarya, causing retching and nausea for any poor predator silly enough to put one into their mouths.

Bulvonian Snail

Size: 15 to 40 feet
Threat: Very Low

The Giant Snails of Bulvon Wood are perhaps one of its most common residents and found pretty much everywhere in the area. They are heavy bodied creatures with dark chocolate-brown shells, although some albino specimens or brightly colored ones do exist. They usually grow to about 15 to 20 feet, with some specimens reaching twice that size. They are thankfully mostly vegetarian, although they will rasp away at any bones they find in order to collect the calcium they need to grow healthy shells. They eat a variety of foliage such as ferns, cyclades, and many species of shrubs. Reproduction is by the usual hermaphrodite method which results in thousands of eggs being laid in damp soil and abandoned by the parents who serenely slide off to go mindlessly about their business. Most are devoured by parasites and predators before hatching and the tiny snails themselves are a favorite snack of Chilotaurs. Giant Snails are pretty placid as a rule and, so long as you avoid being crawled over by one, pretty much harmless. In fact, some residents on Bulvon Wood hitch a rides on them. It's slow but it throws off any predators tracking your scent. A few enterprising nekos dangle cabbages tied to the end of long poles, like fishing rods, to lure the snails in the direction they want to go.

Drashig

Size: 7 feet
Threat: Low

A sort of Reptilian bird, the Drashig is commonly found in Bulvon wood, and some greater specimens are said to live in Deeper Felarya. Their main ability is to spray a corrosive venom to fend off predators, that they get from consuming a certain type of insect. Drashigs are not very aggressive and won't attack humans if they are not provoked. But if they do, they can become serious opponents, with their very painful acidic venom and sharp talons.

Gumamboo

Size: 16 to 50 feet
Threat: Medium

This creatures resembles a large orange-ish slug covered in numerous thin white sharp spines. It's very slow, like all slugs, but it's still a dangerous creature. When it locates a prey, it fires spines at it. The spines are coated in a very quick acting venom that makes the victim fall asleep where it stands. Even a simple scratch from one of them will make an human-sized prey feel extremely drowsy and barely able to move, allowing the Gumamboo for another, more successful, shot. Once its prey is down, the slug proceed to lazily slither its way to it and swallow its meal down. Its large fleshy mouth allow it to easily slurp up a small naga or even a smaller slug. It then retract in a ball of spines in order to quietly digest. Gumamboos represent an important threat for adventurers, being very capable of decimating a whole careless group in an instant.

Pyrabite

Size: 11 inches
Threat: Very Low to Moderate in group

Often mistaken for an insect, the Pyrabite is, in fact, a flying crustacean creature found mostly in Bulvon wood and very damp environments. It makes a characteristic and rather annoying, loud buzzing noise, but is usually pretty harmless... unless it feels a nearby magic source. For unknown reasons, magic is known to drive Pyrabites into a frenzy, making them hyper active and very aggressive. When in this state, it will start to attack nearby creatures at random, even if they aren't the source themselves, lashing at them with sharp pincers and emitting high-pitched shrills. Pyrabites are one of the reason you don't see many fairies venturing in Bulvon woods, besides the general hostility of the place of course.

In The Bach

Groomer

Size: 12 feet
Threat: Very Low

A strange species of arachnid that lives in large groups in dark places such as crevasses, caves, or the place called "The Bach" in Bulvon wood. Black in color and about twelve feet long, they resemble a scorpion that has been flattened by a heavy object, and ironed out flat. With their multiple scuttling legs and twitching palps they look absolutely creepy, and some nagas will just send them flying with their tail, repulsed by their alien appearance, and thus they miss out on the groomer's "services". Groomers survive by eating the parasites off various creatures, from the fleas off a neko, to the dirt and fragments of dead skin off of a large naga.

They are almost totally harmless, even for humans, in spite of their size. If a human goes to a groomers lair with no hostile intent, a groomer will soon appears and give him the same treatment as other creatures, removing pests and parasites like head lice. While coming into contact with a groomer is rather scary, adventurers who have tried it have admitted afterwards that the animal knows it's job very well and that the session was definitely refreshing. Groomers are quite intelligent and have a sort of limited telepathic ability. They can’t talk out loud so they communicate mind to mind with each other, and those lucky individuals who are also telepathic. They taste incredibly foul, which must have helped them get established.

In Threnos island

Alga Pepari

Size: 2-6 feet
Threat: Threat: Minimal

This dark green colored fish is only found in the Emerald river of Threnos island. It is very sought after by all types of predators, from humans to mermaids. Not only are they absolutely delicious, but they carry the healing properties of the algae they consume, making them very healthy to eat. Their scales can also be ground up to make a very potent healing salve that, when put on a wound, will help it heal twice as fast. The alga pepari is very common and some places in the Emerald river are teeming with them.

Giant Green Catfish

Size: 20-30 feet
Threat: Threat: Moderate

A very large catfish that lives mostly in tropical waters. They are of a dark blue-green color, with a powerful tail and a very wide mouth. They are considered a delicacy for their delicious meat, but their size makes them dangerous to hunt. Many people have become the hunted instead of being the hunters, and only very skilled fishermen should go after them.

Mirror Fish

Size: 2-4 feet
Threat: Very Low

This strange and rare fish lives mostly around shores in shallower waters. They have wide eyelids, which are the same silver-grey color as their bodies, and that gives them a strange and rather unique look. Their scales are mobile and are not flush with the skin, instead sticking out at a slight angle, which does not affect its swimming ability. When frightened or threatened, the fish will immediately lay all of its scales down flat and close its eyes, turning itself into a fish shaped mirror. This maneuver often confuses and startles an unaware attacker which give the fish time to flee. Some of the smaller mirror fishes are often kept as pets because of their docile nature, and because if you make any sudden movements towards them, they become very handy makeshift mirrors.

Serpent Fly

Size: 1-3 feet
Threat: Very Low

Unlike what their name says, these small creatures are more like gliding snakes. They glide by flattening their bodies out and leaping between trees, fluttering their small wings to catch prey such as birds and small mammals. Serpent flies can't control how far they move through the air very well, so if another creature gets in the way, they may end up colliding with it. They are otherwise totally harmless to humans.

Seaweed Snake

Size: 30 feet
Threat: Threat: Moderate

A large snake living on the shores of Threnos island. It is dark green in color, like seaweed, and it has adapted so that seaweed will actually grow on its nutrient rich skin, giving it even better camouflage. They can hide frighteningly well in the beds of giant seaweed, to the point it's near impossible to spot one when it's staying still in ambush, until it's too late. Seaweed snakes are dangerous and voracious, feeding on anything of the right size to be swallowed.

In grove of carnivorous plants

Steam Scorpion

Size: 20 feet
Threat: Moderate

A large species of scorpion, living mostly in undergrowth vegetation. They are rather similar to other scorpions, aside from their glowing red eyes and the scythe like appendages in place of claws. They possess the strange ability to discharge toxic steam from their shell, like a steam machine, and they use this when they want to intimidate an opponent, or when they are preparing to charge. The steam quickly becomes non-toxic after a short period of time in contact with the air. Steam scorpions are rather peaceful toward humans though, and feed mostly on other insects and spiders. They are extremely territorial however, and if you inadvertently enter their lair you will be faced with an enraged mass of chitin, toxic steam, and blades that can cut through a tree when charging at full speed.

Titan Chameleon

Size: 40 to 60 feet
Threat: High

Chameleons are known for their ability to blend into their surroundings, allowing them to remain unseen. The Titan Chameleon takes this ability one step further by using total invisibility! Countless adventurers going through the grove have suddenly found a sticky tongue adhering itself to their body and pulling them into a mouth seemingly opening in mid air. When moving, the chameleon becomes partially visible, and even then it's little more than a shimmer in the air, outlining its huge body. Their tongue is very sticky, and once it's attached to you, there is little hope of escape. The Titan Chameleon can also capture prey incredibly fast, having been known to devour entire parties of travelers in mere seconds. Fortunately they remain rare and are only found in the Grove of carnivorous plants.

In Thayrn forest

Mangurr

Size: 8 to 10 feet
Threat: Low

The Mangurr of Thayrn forest is a heavily built gaur-like herbivore whose body, excluding the face and legs, is densely covered in shaggy, coarse dark-blue hair. Slow, listless and hornless, these creatures seem like they would be easy prey for carnivores, but are in fact something that many prefer to leave alone. Indeed, any parasitic invertebrate that tastes a Mangurr's blood will be forever enslaved by the will of the beast, and over time they are gathered in ever increasing numbers under their fur. Should a predator threaten the Mangurr, up to several pounds of blood-suckers will pour forth and swarm the attacker, each draining their share of blood and leaving behind extremely itchy and painful rashes. Mangurrs typically feed on shrubs, fungi, tubers and whatever else of vegetal origin they may find rooting around. Their bodies have extremely high concentrations of blood vessels to accommodate their hungry swarms, but they will regularly comb them with long, barbed tongues to gain a little fix of protein and avoid anemia.

In Chidokai forest

Jaykay Bird

Size: 2 feet
Threat: Minimal

A sort of parrot native to the Chidokai forest. Males are brightly colored, usually having alternating patterns of blue, green, and red, while females tend to be a uniform forest green. Their diet consists of citrus fruits such as mangos, nuts, and berries. Their beaks are made of densely packed calcium-rich bone, and they are often hunted by Felaryan natives for their beaks as they make very useful tools. Jaykays possess a pair of antennae that allow them to hear any sounds in their vicinity. They then tend to repeat them, including any conversation they've heard, sometimes spoiling an ambush or annoying a predator to no end. Moreover, their antennas are able to pick up radio transmissions as well, with the jaykay retransmitting it with remarkable accuracy. They aren't complex creatures though, so they just use this ability to warn of danger, and in mating calls to see who can transmit the most attractive signal. This is why sometimes you can suddenly hear music in the middle of the jungle in Felarya! Dryads don't like them much as the birds sometimes intrude in to their private network and prevent them from sleeping with all the noises they make.

Escalnai Slug

Size: 1 to 4 feet
Threat: Minimal

Escalnai slugs can be found wandering next to rivers of Felarya and in other places where there is a lot of humidity. Basically harmless herbivores, these slugs are known to release a special secretion from every pore of their bodies as soon as they sense danger. When it comes in contact with the air this secretion instantly becomes hard, protecting the slug. In this state they don't look any different from a stone, so predators don't notice them and pass by. Once the area is safe again, the slug breaks it's thick stone-like shell and go back to searching for food. Escalnai slugs taste surprisingly good when grilled.

Muris

Size: 3-8 feet
Threat: Minimal to Low

The Muris is a giant rat-like creature found in Chidokai forest. They look like normal rats, save for their greenish fur that allows them to better blend into the foliage, and their unusually long sharp claws for easily climbing trees. They are most commonly found running around in the canopy, hunting birds and other small prey. Muris are very plentiful and provide a quick snack for most predators in the area, though said predators don't find them very tasty and sometimes have trouble swallowing them due to their over-sized claws. Muris are almost harmless to humans, although they can become aggressive when hungry and sometimes gather in to large packs.

Lykorpid

Size: 6 to 14 feet
Threat: Moderate

A strange crustacean creature mostly found in Chidokai forest or other humid, marshy areas. Its bulky body is entirely covered by a sleek but tough chitinous carapace, ranging in color from brown to emerald green. It stands on six very strong, sturdy, talon-like legs that allow the creature to cling to tree trunks and branches, much like a spider. Whenever an unsuspecting prey walks underneath it, the Lykorpid falls on top of it and proceeds to devour it whole with its large circular mouth situated below its body, circled by numerous small eyes that give the creature a very wide lateral field of vision. They sometimes eat humans, although the creature prefers to hunt smaller prey. One of the most remarkable traits of the Lykorpid is it chirps like a bird in order to deceive potential prey. It doesn't trick birds who seem to be able to easily identify the impostor but rather creatures that hunt them and make up the bulk of the Lykorpid's diet. When it feels threatened, a Lykorpid lowers its body and raises a few of its legs in a defensive posture. If the warning is ignored, the tip of the Lykorpid's legs becomes of a blood red color, a sure way to tell the creature is ready to attack. With their powerful and sharp legs, they pose no small threat, even for much bigger creatures.

In Chomikai commons

Gargoyle Fox

Size: 6 to 11 inches
Threat: Minimal

The Gargoyle fox is a small, harmless fox-like creature with grey fur and black stripes. It has quick, agile feet that allows it to run away from predators, and to dig burrows to shelter itself from dangers and raise its young. Aside from its elusiveness, the gargoyle fox has another self-defense mechanism. In case of being caught or getting hurt, it can self-petrify, hardening its body in seconds to protect itself from harm. Unlike an Escalnai slugthat imitate a rock, a Gargoyle fox literally become one. The hardness of that new form is nearly-impenetrable for most physical and even magical blows. Its taste become dull and cold as well, just like like a rock, in order to make predator give up on them. The fox becomes a lot heavier as well, making it harder to lift or carry while in stone form. If left alone for a while, the fox's body will eventually cancel the petrification so it can move again. In case of his stone body being broken by extreme means during petrification, the fox will die. Gargoyle foxes are pest to farmers in Chomikai as they often attacks small farm animals and they are hard to eliminate. They can be trained into pets, and can make durable friends to children.

Bold Glutton

Size: 8-12 feet tall when rearing up
Threat: Moderate

This brown creature looks like an over-sized mix between a bandicoot and a hamster, except for four black, beady eyes, and a neckless body with a large three-foot wide mouth. Its throat is decorated with a long, red gall. The glutton spends most of its life on or near the water, regularly coming out to forage. It uses its over-sized mouth to stuff a large gullet quickly, later regurgitating its meal and sending it down its true digestive tract. The bold glutton has very well developed senses of smell and taste, and seems to have a weakness for large stockpiles of produce. Sometimes after catching wind of one, the animal spends some time planning on how to get to it. Its sense of smell is good enough to tell just how long any particular human has spent near any spot close to the stockpile, and its cunning is incredible: it's been known to figure out not only patrol schedules, but also avoid some basic traps.

Some farmers have made it a point to cover their produce in wax or poison. This doesn't deter the creature though, whose resilient and developed digestive tract allows it to store poisonous food in its gullet harmlessly until it has a chance to clean it off or find an antidote. It's not known how the glutton can find antidotes: it's suspected its sense of taste is just good enough that it can taste the right antidote for a poison. The creature is so bold that if caught red-handed by a farmer in the act of stuffing its gullet, it'll consider stuffing itself with the farmer too. It stops paying attention to its nose while eating, so there is a chance to sneak off before it notices, but once it does, sudden movements are a very bad idea. An agitated glutton will resort to swallowing a threat whole if possible.

Red Crawler

Size: 3-9 feet long (1-3 feet tall)
Threat: Low alone to High in group.

A staple animal in Felarya, the crawler is more common in the Chomikai commons, where the lack of predators allows these creatures to breed in ludicrous numbers. Ten-legged, long, with black beady eyes and a red carapace, the crawlers live in underground colonies of up to 150 specimens. Crawlers have a ravenous hunger, and seldom pass up a meal while hunting. If it isn't possible to distract them by dropping some food, crawlers have been known to attack humans: they aren't very fast, but they are persistent, and their jaws inject a slow-acting paralyzing agent.

Furthermore, they have a sort of natural armor: the top of their flat bodies secretes a thick layer of reinforced foam that forms both an insulant and a buffer to the outside, which sometimes they augment by sticking on it the toughest pieces of debris they can find. Its underbelly is relatively undefended, but its low stance prevents most creatures from exploiting that: they are notoriously hard to eliminate with a flamethrower or even low caliber gunfire. Hand-to-hand is more effective on small numbers, but large numbers are nearly uncontrollable, even by multiple fighters, as they tend to have prepared tunnels and pitfalls anywhere they are willing to show up en masse. It is recommended to stay off the ground by any means necessary wherever there are crawler alerts.

Credits to:

• Nksrocks for the Escalnai Slug
• Shaman for the Steam scorpion
• Jasconius for the hecatick
• Militant prey for the Jaykay Bird
• Servomoore for the Eisner
• Zoekin for the Giant nematode, Bulvonian snail, and Chorygate
• MrNobody13 for Void beetle
• tkh1304 for Gargoyle fox
• Stabs for the Bold glutton and Red crawler
• Slimetoad for the Mangurr
• Moonlight-pendent for the Giant Green Catfish, Alga Pepari, Muris, Mirror Fish, Serpent Fly, Seaweed Snake and Edgar dragons
• Archmage Bael for his help on writing some entries, and Oldman40k2003 and French-snack for their great help at editing. ^_^