Creature Creation Challenge #19

[Malkuthe Highwind]

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 Levels, #7bd181

Difficulty 1

- build a creature around a specific theme

Difficulty 2

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

Difficulty 3

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

Difficulty 4

- 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

- 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, #7bd181

Build a creature with a specific body part around a specific theme​

Criteria, #7bd181

Theme: Competition
Body Part: Padded paws

Creature Template, #7bd181

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:

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The Bestiary​

 

[AlagasianFlame]

Name: nche nkịta or just nkịta, for short
Appearance: wolflike, but with paws of a cat so they can sheath their claws when not in use, usually dark colored, can semi-shapshift into a human-like shadow form, can grow up to 5 feet at the shoulder when in wolf like form, are usually around 6 or 7 feet when in the human like form.
Role: Predator/prey/producer
Habitat: The outer gates of Hell
Life-span: unknown
Sentient: Yes/No
Sapient: Yes/No
Means of Sustenance: Human souls
Favourite Food Source: The screaming tortured souls who accidentally wander into the city of hell
Major Competition: Other demons and each otherOrganization: There are only two of them in existence at the moment.
Other: They guard the outer gates of the city of hell, where most of the other demons reside. Because they must guard not only the gates, but the entire perimeter of the city, they cannot travel to the other dimesions to hunt. Their only food source is the occasional soul who somehow managed to find their way out of the 'bad' part of hell and have drifted towards the city. Because of this, it is usually a fierce competition of first there first served. Despite the constant competition, the two of them have decided to keep in good relations with each other, because holding grudges could potentially endanger the city.

 

[Moogle-Girl]

Name: Leonto (plural leonten)

Appearance: Leonten are small beasts, only about knee-high, and resemble small brown bears. Their necks and snouts are elongated, with a large, well-defined nose and long fangs, two of which jut down from the mouth. Their fur is thick and coarse, and often has an oily appearance to it due to the copious amounts of concentrated toxin that is secreted from their skin.

Role: Predator

Habitat: Cool, sparse forests. Some strains also make their homes in the Savannah.

Life-span: About 12 years.

Sentient: Yes

Sapient: No

Means of Sustenance: Leonten are strictly carnivorous. The toxin that they secrete rubs off onto foliage as they walk and causes the digestive system of afflicted beasts to shut down, becoming unable to digest food and filter out the nutrients. Leonten stalk the clearer parts of the forest, looking for prey that's showing signs of malnutrition and swiftly taking it down.

Favorite Food Source: Because a leonto's toxin needs to be ingested to take effect, they typically eat whatever herbivores are living in the area. Leonten are not picky eaters.

Organization: Leonten are highly solitary creatures. Because they are opportunist hunters, many leonten in an area will compete over territory and the prey living within. Each leonto has a distinct scent that rubs off in pheromones along with their toxins, which they use to mark their territory. Male leonten will often purposefully mark over the scents of their competitors.

Gender differences: Female leonten have smaller fangs and thicker fur. Though the females hunt just as often as the males, they do not secrete the scented pheromones. Instead of manning territory, it is their job to attract a potential mate with a specialized set of calls that sound somewhat like the bay of a wolf.

Reproduction: Leonten have a gestation period of six months and produce litters of four to five pups. As the pups are born fully mature and ready to start hunting, they are weened after only about seven days, and then abandoned. Typically, only one to three of the pups will survive the first month.