Creature Creation Challenge #4

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 with a specific body part around a specific theme

This Week's Criteria:
Theme: Bioluminescence
Body Part: Spiracle

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:

 
So I'm actually using this in this case more to better understand one of my current rare but nifty alien types that I don't actually use so far. I barely know it, so this is to help me push myself to understand it. Sorry and thanks in advance~

Name: Kurtali Larvae
Appearance: Though they seem more like giant worms than anything else, Kurtali Larvae are generally at least three stories high as infants, and can be up to six stories high as an adult. They have off-white, slightly pink bodies that are made of up to thirty segments, and each segment has two pairs of small, stubby legs. The body is covered in a slight waxy film, and the wax tends to hold a sort of luminescence to it that is a light yellow, though barely visible. On the largest segment at the front of the body, there is a spiracle that acts as a mouth and sicks in food with a strong inhale that could take in multiple buildings at once. They have no eyes, but there are two small antennae on their heads that act as sensory devices.
Role: Technically they aren't prey or predators...But they are more like prey overall.
Habitat:
Most Kurtali larvae live in small communities of ten or so in large open spaces, particularly deserts.
Life-span: After birth, Kurtali larvae live about a day maximum, and take five hours to reach adulthood. Once in adulthood, after about two hours, females begin to secrete eggs. Males tend to secrete the hormone to activate eggs and fertilize them about an hour later, and it takes two hours for the eggs to incubate- by then, most males have died off. Females live for twenty hours, ten being before the birth of children and ten being after- but sometimes the timing can be a bit different.
Sentient: Yes
Sapient: No
Means of Sustenance: Mineral rich substances, such as sand or metal.
Favourite Food Source: Most seem to prefer metal, but they'll basically eat anything within range that has high mineral content.
Major Competition: Mostly each other.
Mating Rituals: They tend to inbreed, males using their spiracle to excrete special hormones onto eggs spit from the female's. The mating tends to be random, and most females don't know or care who the father of their children are.
Reproduction: A litter of Kurtali Larvae are born every ten hours or so based on the life span due to the two hour incubation after the egg is laid and then then fertilized.
Organization: Most live in only their families, which continually grow and die each day. Otherwise they stand clear of each other, to avoid using each other's resources.
Other:
Many times, these larvae are confused with other species of large larvae that have other habits and dietary needs, especially one particularly from a similar and close-by planet that is said to cause those who touch it's spit to relax. Unfortunately, touching the spit of a Kurtali larvae is a problem, because it and its body contents are all basically liquid metal, and it will harden quickly once it touches air. If you cut one open, expect that.
 
Name: Quaktua [Treacherous Beauty]
Appearance: Growing to a length of two feet in average these bulky yet elegant fishes have vibrant scales that range between blue, green, black and purple, along their wavy fins the colour is more translucent and bleak. Across their bodies they have unique markings in red, yellow and light green, no quaktua has the same markings and they signify to all other beings that they are poisonous, and its not just for show. Their patterns are actually bioluminescent, they absorb light during the dy when the quaktua swim near the water surface and at night they light up while the main colour dulls down at night allowing their markings to really show off. They have a set of whiskers around their nose that they use to sense temperature and movements relying more on that than on their bad eyesight. On the underside of their bodies they have a few sacks filled with a deadly poison, this can not be avoided by simply cooking quaktua, the venom is too strong besides when a quaktua dies and their heart gives up the venom is released into the body as the oxygen needed to make and contain the venom isn’t being pumped around anymore. Behind their black eyes are small spiracles, a sort of gills that connect to the trachea to help the larger gills to take in as much oxygen as possible to keep the fish alive as well as produce it’s deadly venom. Their large intake of oxygen is important not only because of that but quaktuas are vulnerable to their own venom and so they desperately need a lot of oxygen.
Role: Omnivore
Habitat: Any river or flowing body of sweet water.
Life-span: 2-3 years
Sentient: No
Means of Sustenance: Underwater plants, algae and some insects and small crabs.
Favourite Food Source: Algae.
Major Competition: Other small fish who eats the same.
Major Threat: Humans.
Mating Rituals: Every autumn the Quaktua gather in groups where pairs are formed, generally the most striking males are chosen by the females, the pair swim around in a playful dance that ends with the mating.
Reproduction: The eggs are laid during winter when many of the dangers to the unhatched eggs are sleeping and the waters are calmer than in spring. The small fishes are able to survive on their own from when they hatch but their venom isn’t developed until they reach six weeks so the parents protect the eggs together, taking turns for leaving to eat, and when the eggs hatch the parents help out for a around six weeks to make sure their offspring, and genes survives.
Organization: Quaktua live alone most of the year although they do not keep territories, only during mating do they form groups where pairs are formed but three weeks after the eggs hatch the pair splits up and leave their young. Next year its most likely the same fishes wont mate again, everything to help strengthen their species by widening the gene pool.
Behaviour: Calm and peaceful the quaktua are rarely aggressive not even during mating periods, the female chooses the most colourful and bold male not the strongest one. Having no natural predator they also do not need to be aggressive or nervous, instead they go about their day eating and taking in a lot of oxygen to make their venom.
Other: Their glowing bodies at night time is a popular thing for humans to go and watch, a romantic night out for couples or a family evening with the kids.
 
Name: The Horrible Hellchain
Appearance: The Horrible Hellchain is a large forest dwelling crustacean. The head is similar to that of a horseshoe crab, and the body consists of several charcoal gray, armor-plated body segments similar to that of a millepede. A large pair of sharp claws extend from the mouth, and the body is lined hundreds of sharp legs, and hairy "feelers" that extend from out of the underside of the armor plating. Each segment has a pair of spiracles, one on the left and one on the right, with blue or green bio-luminescent light glowing from it. Faint light also glows between the gaps in the armor plating of each body segment. In the middle of the head, there is a dark patch, a light sensing organ used to detect daylight and the glow of other Hellchains. They can grow up to 100 feet long and 4 feet in diameter.
Role: Predator
Habitat: Rainforest, jungles, swamps, some thick forests. They crawl through the undergrowth of the forest and burrow into the ground during daylight hours.
Life-span: Up to 200 years
Sentient: No
Means of Sustenance: These blind creatures prowl around the undergrowth of jungles and forest, snatching up and devouring any edible meat that they detect with their sensitive feelers. Their powerful claws can rip an animal to shreds.
Favourite Food Source: They don't have a particular preference, but because of their ferociousness, many indigenous tribes and cultures living near thick tropical forests have developed a mythology about these creatures. They are said to be creatures that have crawled straight out of Hell, and will devour sinners and stray misbehaving children who wander out into the forest at night. Their eery glow makes them easy to associate with demons and the supernatural, and it is said to be a terrible omen of death to see the pale glow near your village. It is said that the glowing spiracles are a chain of demon's eyes, watching the villagers. Many tribes attempt to offer sacrifices to the creature in the way of prisoners, first born children, virgins, etc. in an effort to satiate the creature and keep it away, but unfortunately it is an effort in futility. This only encourages it as now it knows of another abundant source of prey.
Major Competition: Other Hellchains; larger adults may unknowingly consume younger and smaller ones, and they typically avoid each other except during the mating season.
Mating Rituals: During the dry season, they seek out areas with other Hellchains nearby. Females lay faintly glowing, pin-pong ball sized eggs in animal burrows or under tree roots, which the males later find and fertilize.
Reproduction: Each Hellchain is hatched after a short gestation period, already developed into a miniature version of an adult, about 6 inches long. They grow rapidly in the first 5 years of life (and thus have an insatiable appetite) before reaching maturity, where they continue growing (and eating voraciously) for the rest of their lives, gaining approximately 1 new body segment every two years. Older specimens can become extremely large.