Creature Creation Challenge #10

Malkuthe Highwind

Kayyan'Haien
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per week
Writing Levels
  1. Prestige
  2. Douche
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
Genres
High Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Yaoi, Political Intrigue, Supernatural, Post-Apocalyptic
Creature Creation Challenge
This challenge explores one facet of worldbuilding: creature creation, as the title says. Whether or not you're a worldbuilder, at one point or another, you're bound to create different kinds of flora and fauna for your world. This challenge brings two new things to the table: first, all the submissions for this challenge will be put into a "bestiary" of sorts in the Worldbuilder's Guild which will be a resource for yourself and anyone who needs creatures for their worlds; second, every week, there will be a different difficulty for the challenge.

Difficulty 1
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- build a creature around a specific theme

Difficulty 2
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- build a creature with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 3
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- build a creature to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 4
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- build a creature based upon an animal on earth to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 5
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- build a creature that will survive in a specific environment based upon an animal on earth and fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme.

This Week's Difficulty:
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- build a creature that will survive in a specific environment based upon an animal on earth and fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme.

This Week's Criteria:
Theme: Elemental
Body Part: Feet
Role: Sapient Omnivore
Animal Basis: Lion
Environment: Volcanic

Feel free to use this following template for your creatures. You can add on to it or remove things from it as you wish or not use it at all.
Name:
Appearance:
Role: Predator/prey/producer
Habitat:
Life-span:
Sentient: Yes/No
Sapient: Yes/No
Means of Sustenance:
Favourite Food Source:
Major Competition:
Mating Rituals: Courtship rituals, mating grounds, mating season, et cetera
Reproduction: you can include period of gestation
Organization: does this creature travel in packs or herds, or is it a solitary creature that only meets with members of its species for the mating season?
Other:

 
Name: Argonyx​
Appearance: Large, four-legged elemental of molten lava and stone, breaths superheated smoke, has prehensile tentacles about its face looking like a "mane" that it can use for grasping and manipulating objects.​
Role: Predator
Habitat: Large and dormant/active calderas with high temperatures​
Life-span: 500 years to 700 years​
Sentient: Yes
Sapient: Yes
Means of Sustenance: It eats the lava-fish elementals and farms the crystal hedges that thrive about the rim of the caldera​
Favourite Food Source: Its favorite foods are derived from crystal hedge-roots and lava-fish heads, prepared in supremely hot lava and served fresh.​
Major Competition: Stone bears and fire-dragons compete with it for the lava-fish​
Mating Rituals: They create elaborate costumes of woven crystal branches, then have the males fight one another in duels on the most delicate parts of the caldera. Whoever falls into the lava first loses. Winners then must display their costumes to the females, who can ask questions before making their choice. The Argonyx mate for life.​
Reproduction: The Argonyx have a three-year cycle, which begins about a century and a half after birth and marks adulthood. At the end of the second year in the cycle, an egg is produced, brightly glowing and encrusted with diamond. It takes the next year after that for the baby to develop fully, and during this time the egg must be protected from predators and incubated at exactly the right temperature. After the end of the third year, the egg shatters, and the baby Argonyx emerges. The mother takes care of her young until adulthood. Up to three Argonyx cubs are born at a time, so populations are generally stable, neither increasing nor decreasing.​
Organization: The Argonyx are very much social creatures, forming villages and clans and choosing a Placet to lead them. Household affairs are looked after equally when there are no cubs, but if the female is pregnant, she will stay within the village as the male goes to hunt and farm. All adults pitch in to gather the food and defend the village, and when the leader dies a new one is chosen by the entire clan.​
Other: Argonyx are highly intelligent, though their technology is primitive. They are capable of learning all manner of language, but it is difficult for them to comprehend such concepts such as "to have a fever". Their language is based very much around fire and proverbs and sayings concerning fire, and sometimes it can be difficult to know what an Argonyx means unless one is familiar with the legends and stories associated with the terms being used.​
 
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