Creatures

[L`aquera]

The name should say it all. This is where I'll be posting new creatures that are added to the bestiary.

This one was submitted by Thunder;

Name: Aphyon

Found Where: In the deepest darkest parts of the ocean.

Size: Their bodies can reach 10 feet, their tails equal the same length of their bodies. Though their tails when split become seemingly stronger and there are 10 to 20 tails. The first 5 years you own one they have up to 10 tails. They grow 2 tails a year.

Habitat: Within the darkness in which they dwell the deep dark waters could be hell. The pitch black unknown was what they called home as they were trapped within the depths within a cave their life did come. For there are two tiny beaches, only few could live above its watery grave. Until the day the stone went away, releasing them from their final days. The water flooded in taking what little beaches there was, think goodness the last hatching had just finished. The attacks have come because this was their domain. The attacks will go because these creatures are territorial and fear no one. For what they have been in, they enjoy not only the deep blue, but a lagoon that brings joy to them. Now that the time has come that they are able to come up to the surface. They can hide within the colors of the waters to almost transparent. Though they do love to sunbathe/moonbathe occasionally. The warmth of the sun or the moon brings forth the vitamins needed to cause their tail to look iridescent along with their bodies. They swim in the deep deep dark waters where no light from the sun may touch. However, that is not the only place they are willing to swim.

Description: Upon the waters and deep below the Aphyon dwell. Their colors range from deep dark brown, greens, blues, and black, with a touch of a seafoam green on the tips of the scales. Which helps to transform the colors to a clearer tone when closer to the surface. A large flat head with razor-sharp, large and small mixture of teeth. The bigger teeth help eat and shred its meal, while the small helps grind the bones. A long tail that splits open to reveal tails helps propel this creature when it needs to move quickly through the waters, or to protect itself from harm. They are about 10 feet (3m) long, upon their neck and tail is a long, thin, fin. The fin stays upon the Aphyon even when its tail splits open. There are five long webbed toes that help propel the creature through the water. Their forelimbs are shorter than the rear limbs. Their eye color takes any form of color with the serpents slipped most common are black eyes with a bright green slit down the center. Upon the top of their head is a medium hole that seals up when underwater so that when they come up they can get air. How to find out the age the Aphyon is by the rings. On each tail there are rings that state its age every 10 years; it will only be one ring at a time until the ring is full before it moves to the next.

What they eat: These creatures eat large fish or schools of fish. A treat that is a delicacy to them is any type of snake and eels. These are given only as treats for one can become sick upon eating too many. If you wish to treat them one snake a week, no more.

How to call them: One must gain their trust to call upon them. It is three short whistles. The vibrations upon the water sends forth the call upon these creatures.

Abilities: The way they swim is not like most for it can look like just a log floating in the water. If they choose for you to see them for when they come to the surface, they can become almost transparent to the same color as the water they are within. They keep their heads underwater for their eyesight is remarkable. They can see anywhere between 400 to 500 feet in front of them. As long as her head is below the water. They have an amazing sense of smell like a dog upon the land. These creatures are that within the waters. No matter where they are they can hear everything. They breathe under water more often than above.

Disadvantages: They cannot stay upon the land for more than 45 minutes at a time. Like a turtle that comes to the shore to lay eggs. There is only one female that has the ability to lay the eggs. Every male comes forth to help fertilize the eggs. Very few ever survive. Their eyesight above water is so bad they cannot see past their nose. Though they have a set of lungs to take in the air it is not large. Which is why they can not be out of the water for longer than 45 minutes.

Special: They can be trained. Once they are trained they are Loyal to the very end. They will protect you against any and all. When in a dire need no matter where you are in the water even if it may cost him their lives. They will come to your rescue. Because of the way their tail opens. It can help propel them through the water even faster. Depending on the size of the fish their tail can act as an agent to stun said food.

In Battle: In battle they use their tails which split, looking as if tails of many colors have formed where once a single tail had been that will sting and be sticky. They have razor sharp teeth and strong jaws that could crush a coconut.


This is The History of now for the Aphyon

In the far-flung reaches of the empire lay a quiet little island that most didn’t even know existed, a circle of sandy beaches that crept towards the volcano that had created the island over many an eruption, sand turning to glass that gave way to stone and rock formed by the magma as it rolled and cooled, leaving hollows and lumps, caves and ravines within its structure.

The island had no name, at least none recorded in the books of history, those that did find their way to the island, either by luck or misfortune were never heard from again, ships and people disappearing as if they had never existed, no sign for people to ever find or rescuers to ever seek out.

And then on one day, a female aeromancer was passing by, exploring, and mapping the far reaches of the empire, noting them down upon a crudely drawn map for later reference. She passed over the island and went to make note when eyes caught sight of something upon the beach. No thought of fear or danger, she descended towards it to see the rocks moving upon the sand, and then something pushing itself out of a hole within the cooled magma.

The brightly coloured beast emerged and rose upon its limbs to settle in a squat position, four hands pressing into the sand before it started to move forwards towards the sea, and for a moment the mage thought it was going to step into the water but instead it paused as if in deep contemplation, remaining almost motionless for five whole minutes before it suddenly began to dig into the sand with its hands. Quick work was made before it suddenly squatted over each impression in the sand before moving off, covering the hole after it did. This mysterious work was replicated another four times before the beast turned its attention back to the sea and strode out into it, vanishing from sight beneath the waves.

The mage continued to watch the scene below, as more of the beasts, although less brightly coloured, emerged from the waters, moving towards those impressions as if by instinct. Beasts stopped, uncovered whatever was within the sand and stayed there before covering the mysterious items and retreating to the water once more. Intrigued, she returned to her home to collect more belongings, and a month later was back at the island, finding herself a place to live upon the stones of the volcano, out of reach of the beasts.

And so her vigil started, recording and noting the things that happened, the ritual of the first beast returning to a cave upon the land for some weeks, before emerging again, digging into the sand and then into the water, the others coming to do as they would upon the sand before they vanished, and this time the birth was seen, creatures that emerged from the sand, babies of the beasts. First breaths taken of the air before instinct drew them out into the water to vanish under the waves.

She could only guess at what was happening within the depths, the only things seen were moments of something breaking the surface of the water now and again, or a Camerie rushing away from the island as if the beasts had frightened them off in some regard, although how or what was never discovered.

Not to be deterred, the mage continued her vigil for many years, taking note and recording the things that she had seen before she left the island upon her last trip home, as the weight of time and age was upon her. After reaching home, her records were donated to the empire, to be saved for future generations should the island be found, and the beasts were called Aphyon in recognition of the mage who’d spend her life watching and never interfering.

The Before Anyone knew

Many years ago, there were tales of giant creatures that roamed freely about the ocean. Legend had it that they were called Aphyon. There were tales of great danger that would befall those who searched for these creatures, tales of death and destruction wrought by these creatures upon those who sought them out. They could be found sun bathing something that they really loved.

The tales also told of the beauty and majesty that these creatures held, and of how terrifying they were when destruction was upon their minds. Of how their tails split open and tails burst forth to take hold of ships and people that were their targets, and of how after grasping and tearing ships apart, they would drag the remains down into the watery depths to consign them to a gloomy grave.

Their true history and origins are shrouded in mystery and fear, fear of what was unknown to mortal man, fear of what destruction could be brought to bear upon those who were too inquisitive. But there was one who had taken it to hand to document these beasts, to try and find the truth behind it all, and she had succeeded even if no one truly believed her accounts.

She had managed to find what appeared to be the eldest of these creatures and after her study had finished, she concluded that the females of this species were the ruling caste. These were her thoughts after watching the brightly colored beast mount upon a beach at regular intervals to dig holes and release her eggs within, six within each hole that was dug. After this was done and she returned to the sea, others came upon the beach to uncover and fertilize the eggs before covering them back up and returning to the sea once more.

With study over a prolonged period of time, it would appear that roughly half of the eggs laid would make it to hatching, whether this was due to the weather conditions or the confines of the sand would never be known. The only facts that would come from this were that the infants, once hatched, would make their way back into the ocean to be raised by their parents in some fashion.

This continued for years until the birthing beach was the epicenter of a large and destructive earthquake. The aftershocks of which lasted for almost a week before quietening down. Once the shocks had passed, and people came to explore the beach, the remains of eggs were found, smashed beyond recognition into the sand and rocks that had formed upon the beach. And since that day, the Aphyon have never been seen or heard of again, fallen into the myths and legends of the land, to be told about in hushed tones of those who claimed to have seen the beasts and lived to tell the tale.

[Aiden Alerico]

Nice job Thunder! This is very well written and am excited to see them in-world

[Thunder]

This is the link to the pictures of the Aphyon. https://imgur.com/a/EnXTVIk