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R'lyeh: Striders
🕑 Added 2023-02-12 07:49:19 +0000 UTCOne of the most morphologically aberrant xenotherian groups, they are immediately recognizable at even a glance. Their unique shape of an extremely tall and upright upper body standing atop four digitigrade legs is utterly unlike any other animal group, although it does at times make them uncannily human in silhouette. These are the only specialized browsers among the xenotherians, the equivalent of long-necked animals like giraffes or the long-extinct sauropod dinosaurs. However, xenotherians do not have a body part analogue to a "neck" so the striders have instead greatly elongated and modified their entire body to reach high into the canopy, moving all six appendages to the lower half of the body in order to support themselves vertically.
However, it not merely their height which has evolved to reach high into the canopy, but the adaptation of the paired tongues into large, muscular hydrostats similar to the trunk of an elephant. The length and dexterity of these are exceptional among xenotherians, allowing them to function as a secondary pair of arms. These are stored coiled up in pockets next to the throat (which appear as the "chest" region for humans) when not in use. The lower pair of arms function primarily for defence, armed with sharp claws for swatting at predators, although different species have other secondary functions for it, including intraspecific combat, prey capture, or communication.
Most striders are social, although not necessarily with their own species, and all are K-type live birthers, only producing a small number of large, well-developed young at once, which are usually cared for by females alone. Young are able to walk and feed themselves soon after birth, although most require years of post-natal care before they can survive on their own. However, due to the overall large sizes and sociality of striders, they are one of the few R'lyehian animals which have a relatively low mortality rate from predation. They are also one of the most charismatic of R'lyehian megafauna to the human eye, which seems to work both ways, as striders by large seem to view humans as being one of them.
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Swamp Strider: One of the most aberrant strider species, this is one which has traded its natural height for width, spreading its legs outwards to better support its body weight when walking over the tangled aquatic vegetation of the island's wetland regions. This species is a wading opportunistic, with slender, spear-like forelimbs for impaling small aquatic organisms, which could be anything from drifting planimal eggs to the shoals of aquatic nundies and spisognaths darting between the endless tangle of roots. With less height, it can only browse from mid-level vegetation, usually feeding only on shrubby vegetation or creepers that sprawl across taller tree-like planimals. The swamp strider moves and rests in herds, but spreads out while foraging to avoid competing, using the tall, bioluminescent spines on the top of their head to identify one another in the dim, swampy undergrowth. Although primarily wading animals, they can also swim if necessarily, albeit awkwardly, resembling gargantuan pond skaters as they paddle with their front pairs of legs. Foraging over bodies of water helps protect them from most terrestrial predators and usually in water too clogged for large aquatic hunters to navigate, although the winged phantasm is a frequent threat.
Cave Strider: A strange and elusive member of the strider group, this species inhabits the stony bowels that lacerate the corpse-isle's underbelly, although it is not truly subterranean, because it will forage in the light-touched sinkholes and crevasses periodically, before disappearing back into the dark tunnels and caverns. Their body pigmentation is mostly dark in order to blend in with the darkness, but they are still able to communicate with one another using bioluminescent markings. Red patches of bioluminescent light on its arms are invisible to many other cave-dwellers, allowing for relatively safe communication, while patches of bright blue light normally hidden under mobile skin flaps are used to startle potential predators. Cave striders use flashing patterns and specific movements of their arms to communicate messages without making any sounds that might alert hearing-sensitive predators. Because populations are widely scattered, cave striders are protogynous hermaphrodites; they are born female and the largest member of a group will become the male, secreting pheromones which prevent the other members from transitioning until he dies, ensuring no competition. Birth rate is slow, but within the bowels of the rotting acropolis there are relatively few predators to worry about; the primary exception being the bizarre xin, which frequently preys upon the squat cave striders.
King Strider: Strange and lonesome wanderers of the alpine slopes, these golden xenotherians finds comfort not amongst its own kind but mingling within the herds of other montane dwellers, grazers such as the retchgoats and moon apes. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, as the great height of the six or seven-foot tall strider allows it to scan far and wide for predators, while the strider eats vegetation on sheer cliffs and tree-like planimals out of reach, allowing it to coexist without competing. The star strider has particularly long and spayed out legs for clambering across the uneven slopes and across crevasses more easily, with hooked dewclaws on each of its feet to cling tightly to grooves and cracks, allowing it to climb nearly vertical surfaces. The species is so named for its multi-pronged crest on the top of its head, giving it a distinctive silhouette visible from a distance. The species is very territory and has a number of visual display features to help it ward off challengers. Two pairs of particularly large and almost wing-like dorsal lobes can be ejected outward in a fearsome intimidation display, flashing vivid hidden patterns and making the strider suddenly appear far larger.
Cuttlecrab: When the twilight descends upon the rotting acropolis, the denizens of the interior lowlands retreat into hidden dens or shelter within the undergrowth of the neighbouring forests, because night sky above the R'lyehian prairies come alive with the shadowy wings of the huge predatory seekers, all too willing to tear apart any animal caught out in the open, descending upon such unfortunate stragglers in packs dozens strong. However, there is one grazer that braves the watchful eyes of these dreaded aerial carnivores, coming out to forage right out in the open. This strange xenotherian is in fact one of the only truly nocturnal grazers, awakening only in the evening to feed when competing pseudo-herbivores have gone dormant. A rippling, dark hide that shifts and fades with the movement of the stars and clouds in the sky camouflages them perfectly from above, while they move slowly and hunker low to avoid attracting their gaze. Herds are closely knit, but often disperse to feed; they communicate over distances through infrasonic rumbling that is picked up through their feet, and through bioluminescent markings in their mouth, which they can flash open for a split second to alert one another without being spotted. And once the sun peaks over the R'lyehian mountains, the cuttlecrabs scurry back into the forest undergrowth into hidden dens to await the fall of night again.
Star Strider: A violent and territorial inhabitant of the lowland prairies and savannah, these xenotherians have converted their whole bodies into powerful battering weapons, with reinforced hides covered in large chitinous scales and studded with hardened spiny knobs. In territorial disputes, males will swing themselves at one another in ferocious confrontations that will almost inevitably leave both bruised and battered. Females are more nomadic and social, but are just as battle-hungry; females will maintain a pecking order through combat and will determine the fitness of a male by having him fight the herd's matriarch before deciding whether he would be a worthwhile sperm donor. Both sexes will also vigorously defend themselves from predators by swinging their armoured bodies at full force. Although this may be rather ridiculous-looking from a distance, getting hit by a star strider is no laughing matter, with a force strong enough to rip through flesh, shatter bones, and send a man flying. The striders themselves are reinforced with thickened hides, a cushioning layer of subdermal fatty tissue, and plates of rib-like bones to protect their internal organs from serious damage. They are able to inflate air sacs in their upper body and raise their spines as an intimidation display, but they have been know to mistake human arm movements for an intimidation display and attack the perceived challenger.
Nebulous Strider: By far the largest of the striders, and one of the largest xenotherians period, this towering jungle browser stands nearly as tall as a giraffe and up to two-thousand pounds in weight. Their great height is accompanied by the reach of their prehensile tentacles, which can reach an additional six feet above them, allowing them to reach high into the canopy to feed on photosynthetic lobes and fruit-eggs far above what any other pseudo-herbivores can reach. Much of its upper body is filled with air sacs that help to oxygenate blood to the head and keep itself easily balanced by reducing its body weight. Healthy, full-grown nebulous striders are one of the few animals on the corpse-isle which are virtually immune to predation; not even the dreaded sabrebeast, a hunter that specializes on striders, normally feeds on the adults. Not merely is it their size which protects them, but the closeness of their social behaviour; adult females and their young travel together in herds, maintaining contact with subsonic booming and establishing social bonds by repeated cooperative grooming, and will help defend one another and each others' offspring when threatened. The slightly larger males travel alone in bachelor groups, usually siblings, but sibling groups may occasionally accept lone strangers.
