Creature Creation Challenge #21

[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: Arcane
Body Part: Antlers

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​

 

[TheSoundTheory]

Name: Spear Head

Appearance: Humaniod creatures with antlers. These creature look completely human except for a few details. Spear Heads are named for their intricate antlers that grow at rapid rates upon their heads. These intricate and interwoven antlers are believed to symbolize major aspects in each creature's life. These antlers are made of very dense bone and, despite the varying patterns, always end in razor sharp points that could literally skewer a man. The second most distinguishable feature is that Spear Head skin come in human pigments that have gone through a grey filter; as if a faded painting came into a world or vibrant colors. This skin completely covers them and their faces seem to be only impressions of human faces (i.e. an soft hollow where eyes would be, a small lump where a nose would me, an indent where a mouth would be).

Eating Habits: Spear Heads have a mutualistic relationship with their environments. It is not known on what Spear Heads prey on, but it is general knowledge that whatever a Spear Head bonds to, that environment flourishes. Folk tales and legends tell of Spear Heads feasting on light, earth, or the life surrounding them. Whatever it is that keeps them alive, it depends on their bonded environment, meaning that if you kill the environment, you kill the Spear Head. This causes Spear Heads to be very violent toward anything unnatural to their environment.

Environments & Bonding: After about three years of living with its parents, a young Spear Head has reached maturity. It will go off and bond with an environment. A Spear Head may take years before bonding to an environment because bonding lasts for a lifetime. The environments, when newly bonded, are small (i.e. a tide-pool, a group of shrubs, anywhere where life survives with a potential for growth) and everytually grows over hundreds of years (i.e. a tide pool to under water caves or a coral reef). An environment can be anywhere and a part of bonding is adapting to that environment in such a perfect way that it transends science into the field of magic.

Life-span: Spear Heads will live as long as their environment survives.

Sentient: Yes, though they do not communicate with humans, it is obvious that they are intelligent and think at the level, and if not more so, than humans.

Sapient: Yes, Spear Heads are very impressionable and usually never forget. This earns them a lifetime of experiences in a matter of years, growing to the knowledge greater than several human lifetimes.

Major Competition: Humans. Because Spear Heads have such a detailed memory, they would remember the creature that caused a sharp can to kill a moutain goat, or a dolphin to choke because of a net or plastic. They will also remember the child that planted a flower with joy, or saved a fallen bird. Though Spear Heads learn quickly to dislike humans, they are kinder to children, ranging from neutral to friendly.

Mating Rituals: Being so tied to their bonded environment, mating season is specific to the Spear Head. When animals hibernate, for example, a Spear Head may think it safe to look for a mate. Or maybe in the spring, when new life is safe from harsh winters. Since a Spear Head does not feel comfortable leaving their environment for long, they often look for mates close by for only a few day a year and since it is rare that two Spear Heads coincedentally meet in close proximity on the same days a year, new Spear Heads are rare.

Reproduction: Spear Heads are empathetic to such a degree that as soon as two Spear Heads acknowledge each other as mates, the female becomes pregnant for several years, usually four to five. Birth is painless and seems almost as if the excess weight falls off the female, the hard skin of the pregnant belly conforming to the child within the fallen blob and becoming the characteristic skin of Spear Heads.
Organization: Spear Heads are solitary creatures. The only time they interact is during mating or the three years of raising a child.
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After I finished this, I realized it fit more into difficulty three more than two... oh well....

 

[ChadJ]

Name: Niloro
Appearance: quadripedal, cervid is appearance, fully grown ranging from 6-10 feet in height. 600-1500 ibs. Their fur is usually a blend of
deep green, lighter greens, brown and black. Their antlers are thick and usually black, reaching as high as 4 feet on some males.
Role: Prey
Habitat: The deep forests of the planet, sometimes the wide plains.
Life-span: 20-30 years
Sentient: yes
Sapient: no
Means of Sustenance: indigenous plants, leaves, algae
Favourite Food Source: spring leaves with fresh dew
Major Competition: Isine, small hexpedal carnivores that travel in packs.
Mating Rituals: They group into large herds for the mating week. Males will bring the choicest greens to females with whom they wish to mate.
Reproduction: Similar reproduction to mammals. 5 month gestation period.
Organization: Usually solitary or in pairs, rarely 3. Only large groups during mating season, 7 days out of the middle of summer.
Other: