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Ardran facts
14 years ago
So, after a couple of submissions of my new species, I decided that I need to put up, somewhere permanent, all the information about these little guys so that not only I can reference them, but other people can, too. Also, there are facts about their planet and the other species that live with them.
The Planet
The planet is actually a Moon for another planet that is twice the size of Jupiter. The host planet has a weird axis tilt and shape that only allowed a little bit of sunlight to hit it at a time. The Ardran's home planet takes 22 hours to get completely around the host planet, and they only have about 2-3 hours of sunlight before they are put back into the darkness for another 22 hours. The big planet has the same placement as the Earth, so it and the Ardran's planet have a 365 day year cycle. The Ardran's planet is the most comfortable in the Spring and Fall months, but, unfortudently, this is when it rains the most. Sometimes, it rains so much that the lands flood and force the inhabitants to take to the trees and mountains to live. It is extremely hot and dry in the summer, and bitterly cold during the winter.
Ardrans
Ardran's a very large creatures. They range in size from a wolf to a Irish Wolfhound, but there have been a select few Dominant males who have been known to be the size of a medium horse, but they don't usually last very long as they are too heavy to stay in the trees during the rainy seasons. They have very large eyes because it's almost always dark on their planet, so they are nocturnal, and, when there is sunlight out, there irises are slitted like a cat's.
Their ears are large, even for their body size. They're like a Fennec Fox in the sense of body-ear ratio. The ears are used for tracking small prey at night, like a type of rodent that is common in their planet, or to listen for the wing beat of they natural enemies, the Tyraptor. In the sense of very large body parts, their paws are also very large, with very thick pads at the bottom that they use to protect themselves when climbing jagged mountain sides, or scaling the bark of trees. They have long, sharp claws in their paws that are retractable that they use for shredding their prey, and for climbing trees. Their tails are also very long, at least a little bit longer than the length of their own bodies.
Ardrans use their tails as anchors during the rainy season to stay in the tree tops when the lands flood. They wrap their tails around the branches to create stability instead of waving their tail around, as they have white tips on their tails that would attract attention to them in the darkness.
Ardrans have stripes that go down their back to prevent Tyraptors from seeing them from above, leopard like spots on their sides to aid in hunting in the bushes and undergrowth, and a varying pattern of swirls on their front paws. The swirl patterns are an indication of status. The more intrinsic the pattern, the higher that Ardran's status is. Normally, dominant male/female Ardrans have black tipped ears, and the Dominant female/submissive have a black band under their patterns. Their patterns are the only markings on their bodies that they have any control in changing.
They can change their fur color at will to either blend in with their surroundings, attract a mate, or to just show some personality, but they always have some variation of white on their bellies and at the tips of their tails.
They live in a sort of hierarchy type of leadership, much like a lion pride, or a family of Meerkats. They constantly grow their families bigger and bigger, like rats, or monkeys. If a offspring chooses to leave the pack at any time, they are allowed to do so, but it takes a lot to get back in. Usually, this only happens when a male goes looking for a new female, and when that happens, it's very rare that the male takes the female back to his home pack.
They are some-what Monogamous. They choose a mate, either female or submissive male, and that is the only one they will mate with, but if one or the other dies, they will not stay single for long. They go through a mourning period, the longest one was seven months, and then, if it was the female/Submissive lost, they court a new mate, if it was the male/Dominant that was lost, they allow someone else to court them.
If there are no males in the pack, then there are two Dominant females, and one that does the job of a male. If there is no male in the pack, a female becomes a Hermaphrodite to impregnate it's mate and will remain like that until a male pup is born, which there will be no more pups born until that pup is of age and chooses a mate. It's not so similar if there are no females in a pack. If there are no females in the pack, the Dominant male takes a Submissive male as his mate and that Submissive then becomes Dominant Submissive. Even if the Submissive bares a female pup, the Submissive will continue to bear pups until it comes the day when both the Submissive and the Dominant male are dethroned, and someone else takes over the pack.
They're burrowing creatures. They dig deep, intricate tunnels under large trees, or under areas where they are a lot of trees close together, and they live in them, like Meerkats. If they aren't burrowing like this, then the pack would be living in the mountains, where they would find weaknesses in the rock formations then create elaborate tunnel systems into the mountain for their burrows, but also to create points where they can either surprise their favorite goat-like prey by jumping at them when they are in front of one of the entrances, or gaining the advantage by using the tunnels to get above them.
They are mostly Carnivorous, but during the Summer, if it's so hot that the water dries up, and Winter, when the migrating herds are no longer around, they have been known to survive off of the vegetation like the leaves at the tops of trees, moss on the side of rocks, or the softened bark of young trees. They do not particularly enjoy eating like this, and only eat like this as a last resort.
Despite the fact that they are animals, they have above human intelligence. They are just more in tune with nature than humans. They understand a lot of things, and are even able to create different languages for the different packs, learn each other's language, and other things. They understand that the best way to survive is to survive by living with nature, instead of against it, like humans do. This is why they don't do things, like build above ground cities or anything like that. A sign of their intelligence, is that they use sticks, twigs, and other natural products to create braces in their tunnels, much like the support system minors use in the wells when digging, and they use a special breed of mushroom that glows in the darkness to light their way through the tunnels, also to indicate which tunnel leads where.
The Mystics
The Mystics are what the Ardran's call a pack of super Ardrans that live in the Mountains. The Mystics are known for their ability to find cures to most ailments, they chart and map the stars, and are basically like little monk scientists at the top of the mountains. A Mystic is usually identified as they wear some sort of necklace or collar made of either shells or special, shiny stones that they believe protect them from harm. What ever harm they think of, really, mythical or physical or environmental.
Tyraptors
Tyraptors is a bird of prey similar to a Rahonavis with a Wandering Albatross in Body-Wing Spand ratio, an elongated snout like a mix between a Rahonavis with a sharp curved beak like any bird of prey, with needle like teeth past the beak portion of the snout, and, of course, the nocturnal eyesight of a Great Horned Owl that Ardrans call Monster Raptors. Like the Ardrans, Tyraptors are very intelligent creatures, and are often lost in thought until they are hungry. They are a little bit bigger than a Pterosaur, so they are usually relatively easy to spot.
Their feathers are darkly colors, like either brown, black or a mix there of. Like the Ardrans, their eyes are slitted when the sun is out. These birds next in the mountains, or cliff sides of canyons, or atleast they try to nest in the mountains, as any nest left in the mountains is at risk of being raided by mountain Ardrans or the Mystics.
Tyraptors are Supermegapodes, which means that their young hatch with their eyes open, all their feathers, and the ability to walk/run, and, sometimes, fly. This is to make sure that they survive as their parents don't stick around too long after they hatch. Tyraptor young are about the size of a Lovebird when they hatch and take about a year to grow to their full size like their parents.
Until they are fully grown, young Tyraptors usually find a grassy place or a tree, where it can hunt Gerem, young or small Serps, and Haladem until it's big enough for bigger prey like Ardrans and Deer.
Serps
Serps are snakes that grow to be about the size of a python, if they live that long as it takes a long time for them to get that big. They have hoods like a cobra with the same eye like markings on the back of their hoods. Their venom is extremely toxic, similar to a Daddy Long Leg's in venom power, and their fangs are twice the size of a regular snake's teeth but still fold down when they aren't using them.
They rarely use their venom to kill prey, as they do not like the taste of the meat with the poison in it, so they usually suffocate their prey to death like a python. While hinting, they move slowly and straight like a Black Racer snake, but when running, like running after a prey or running away from something, they slither like a sidewinder snake. They rarely ever move their head unless they are looking around. They have large eyes, as well, and a membrane that flits over their eyes to keep their eyes moist. These are also an intelligent species, but not exactly up to the same par as Ardrans or Typraptors.
They mostly stick to hunting Gerem, young Tyraptors and Haladem, but the more adventurous ones will attempt to hunt Ardran pups. They breed like most snakes, and bury their eggs in dirt mounds where they are incubated by the natural heat from the ground. They do not stick around and take care of their young, so they're on their own after they hatch.
Gerem
Gerem are cat sized rabbits that live on the Ardran planet. They are usually hard to find because they rarely come out from the bushes. They live off of grass, and insects. Their ears are very large for their bodies for listening for things, and their eyes very big and rarely ever close them.
Like their Rabbit bases, they burrow underground to have their pups in the fall. During the rainy seasons, they block up the entrances to their burrows with rocks or they find higher ground somewhere, which isn't very good for them, as it makes them easy targets for Ardrans, Tyraptors and Serps.
Haladem
Haladem are basically the same as Southern Flying Squirrels with the ears of a Red Squirrel, and the eyes of a Bushbaby but are the size of a small dog. Their markings very with each Haladem. They are an intelligent species, but they are the most hunted and, therefor, produce the most off spring. Most female Haladem birth 15-20 young to a litter in the trees in the summer months, where the male takes care of the female so she doesn't have to leave the nest. The only time the babies are threatened is if it floods in the fall as they are just about to leave the nest and the Ardrans take to the trees, making young Haladem sitting ducks for Ardrans looking for an easy meal.
Deer
The biggest herbivore on the planet. They are the size of a Moose with very hard hooves. All males have huge 10 point buck racks once they reach age that fall off in the spring and grow back bigger by the time fall is around. Their young are born in the late summer months, and are able to stand and run within minutes of being born, but they are uncoordinated, which makes them easy targets for Ardrans and Tyraptors.
Golm
Golm are similar to Irish Goats with very thick racks and heads, and long downy fur like a Mountain goat. Their coats grow the thickest in the fall and Winter months, and, in the spring, they rub against the mountain sides that they live on to scrape their coats off so they don't over heat and die. Ardrans use the scraped off wool to line their burrows, or to trade for something valuable from the Mystics. They are often hunted by mountain dwelling Ardrans and the occasional Tyraptor.
others
There are other various birds and mammals on this planet, but these are the ones that are the ones I'm going to focus on. I'll probably show the occasional other species of bird or rodent, or maybe make up yet another breed of animal like the Ardrans to be someone to cause a riff between them, but I highly doubt it.
There you have it. Other creatures are free to be made up as one will, and I really don't care if someone else makes up some of the other creatures as long as you stay within these guidelines; they can not be bigger than Ardrans or Tyraptors, they can not be smarter, they can hunt the pups or chicks, but to take on an adult would be suicide, really. They also can not be, like, all powerful or something like that. If you wish to make another bird of prey that could, occasionally, take out a Ardran, that is fine, but not one who's diet is primarily Ardran.
The Planet
The planet is actually a Moon for another planet that is twice the size of Jupiter. The host planet has a weird axis tilt and shape that only allowed a little bit of sunlight to hit it at a time. The Ardran's home planet takes 22 hours to get completely around the host planet, and they only have about 2-3 hours of sunlight before they are put back into the darkness for another 22 hours. The big planet has the same placement as the Earth, so it and the Ardran's planet have a 365 day year cycle. The Ardran's planet is the most comfortable in the Spring and Fall months, but, unfortudently, this is when it rains the most. Sometimes, it rains so much that the lands flood and force the inhabitants to take to the trees and mountains to live. It is extremely hot and dry in the summer, and bitterly cold during the winter.
Ardrans
Ardran's a very large creatures. They range in size from a wolf to a Irish Wolfhound, but there have been a select few Dominant males who have been known to be the size of a medium horse, but they don't usually last very long as they are too heavy to stay in the trees during the rainy seasons. They have very large eyes because it's almost always dark on their planet, so they are nocturnal, and, when there is sunlight out, there irises are slitted like a cat's.
Their ears are large, even for their body size. They're like a Fennec Fox in the sense of body-ear ratio. The ears are used for tracking small prey at night, like a type of rodent that is common in their planet, or to listen for the wing beat of they natural enemies, the Tyraptor. In the sense of very large body parts, their paws are also very large, with very thick pads at the bottom that they use to protect themselves when climbing jagged mountain sides, or scaling the bark of trees. They have long, sharp claws in their paws that are retractable that they use for shredding their prey, and for climbing trees. Their tails are also very long, at least a little bit longer than the length of their own bodies.
Ardrans use their tails as anchors during the rainy season to stay in the tree tops when the lands flood. They wrap their tails around the branches to create stability instead of waving their tail around, as they have white tips on their tails that would attract attention to them in the darkness.
Ardrans have stripes that go down their back to prevent Tyraptors from seeing them from above, leopard like spots on their sides to aid in hunting in the bushes and undergrowth, and a varying pattern of swirls on their front paws. The swirl patterns are an indication of status. The more intrinsic the pattern, the higher that Ardran's status is. Normally, dominant male/female Ardrans have black tipped ears, and the Dominant female/submissive have a black band under their patterns. Their patterns are the only markings on their bodies that they have any control in changing.
They can change their fur color at will to either blend in with their surroundings, attract a mate, or to just show some personality, but they always have some variation of white on their bellies and at the tips of their tails.
They live in a sort of hierarchy type of leadership, much like a lion pride, or a family of Meerkats. They constantly grow their families bigger and bigger, like rats, or monkeys. If a offspring chooses to leave the pack at any time, they are allowed to do so, but it takes a lot to get back in. Usually, this only happens when a male goes looking for a new female, and when that happens, it's very rare that the male takes the female back to his home pack.
They are some-what Monogamous. They choose a mate, either female or submissive male, and that is the only one they will mate with, but if one or the other dies, they will not stay single for long. They go through a mourning period, the longest one was seven months, and then, if it was the female/Submissive lost, they court a new mate, if it was the male/Dominant that was lost, they allow someone else to court them.
If there are no males in the pack, then there are two Dominant females, and one that does the job of a male. If there is no male in the pack, a female becomes a Hermaphrodite to impregnate it's mate and will remain like that until a male pup is born, which there will be no more pups born until that pup is of age and chooses a mate. It's not so similar if there are no females in a pack. If there are no females in the pack, the Dominant male takes a Submissive male as his mate and that Submissive then becomes Dominant Submissive. Even if the Submissive bares a female pup, the Submissive will continue to bear pups until it comes the day when both the Submissive and the Dominant male are dethroned, and someone else takes over the pack.
They're burrowing creatures. They dig deep, intricate tunnels under large trees, or under areas where they are a lot of trees close together, and they live in them, like Meerkats. If they aren't burrowing like this, then the pack would be living in the mountains, where they would find weaknesses in the rock formations then create elaborate tunnel systems into the mountain for their burrows, but also to create points where they can either surprise their favorite goat-like prey by jumping at them when they are in front of one of the entrances, or gaining the advantage by using the tunnels to get above them.
They are mostly Carnivorous, but during the Summer, if it's so hot that the water dries up, and Winter, when the migrating herds are no longer around, they have been known to survive off of the vegetation like the leaves at the tops of trees, moss on the side of rocks, or the softened bark of young trees. They do not particularly enjoy eating like this, and only eat like this as a last resort.
Despite the fact that they are animals, they have above human intelligence. They are just more in tune with nature than humans. They understand a lot of things, and are even able to create different languages for the different packs, learn each other's language, and other things. They understand that the best way to survive is to survive by living with nature, instead of against it, like humans do. This is why they don't do things, like build above ground cities or anything like that. A sign of their intelligence, is that they use sticks, twigs, and other natural products to create braces in their tunnels, much like the support system minors use in the wells when digging, and they use a special breed of mushroom that glows in the darkness to light their way through the tunnels, also to indicate which tunnel leads where.
The Mystics
The Mystics are what the Ardran's call a pack of super Ardrans that live in the Mountains. The Mystics are known for their ability to find cures to most ailments, they chart and map the stars, and are basically like little monk scientists at the top of the mountains. A Mystic is usually identified as they wear some sort of necklace or collar made of either shells or special, shiny stones that they believe protect them from harm. What ever harm they think of, really, mythical or physical or environmental.
Tyraptors
Tyraptors is a bird of prey similar to a Rahonavis with a Wandering Albatross in Body-Wing Spand ratio, an elongated snout like a mix between a Rahonavis with a sharp curved beak like any bird of prey, with needle like teeth past the beak portion of the snout, and, of course, the nocturnal eyesight of a Great Horned Owl that Ardrans call Monster Raptors. Like the Ardrans, Tyraptors are very intelligent creatures, and are often lost in thought until they are hungry. They are a little bit bigger than a Pterosaur, so they are usually relatively easy to spot.
Their feathers are darkly colors, like either brown, black or a mix there of. Like the Ardrans, their eyes are slitted when the sun is out. These birds next in the mountains, or cliff sides of canyons, or atleast they try to nest in the mountains, as any nest left in the mountains is at risk of being raided by mountain Ardrans or the Mystics.
Tyraptors are Supermegapodes, which means that their young hatch with their eyes open, all their feathers, and the ability to walk/run, and, sometimes, fly. This is to make sure that they survive as their parents don't stick around too long after they hatch. Tyraptor young are about the size of a Lovebird when they hatch and take about a year to grow to their full size like their parents.
Until they are fully grown, young Tyraptors usually find a grassy place or a tree, where it can hunt Gerem, young or small Serps, and Haladem until it's big enough for bigger prey like Ardrans and Deer.
Serps
Serps are snakes that grow to be about the size of a python, if they live that long as it takes a long time for them to get that big. They have hoods like a cobra with the same eye like markings on the back of their hoods. Their venom is extremely toxic, similar to a Daddy Long Leg's in venom power, and their fangs are twice the size of a regular snake's teeth but still fold down when they aren't using them.
They rarely use their venom to kill prey, as they do not like the taste of the meat with the poison in it, so they usually suffocate their prey to death like a python. While hinting, they move slowly and straight like a Black Racer snake, but when running, like running after a prey or running away from something, they slither like a sidewinder snake. They rarely ever move their head unless they are looking around. They have large eyes, as well, and a membrane that flits over their eyes to keep their eyes moist. These are also an intelligent species, but not exactly up to the same par as Ardrans or Typraptors.
They mostly stick to hunting Gerem, young Tyraptors and Haladem, but the more adventurous ones will attempt to hunt Ardran pups. They breed like most snakes, and bury their eggs in dirt mounds where they are incubated by the natural heat from the ground. They do not stick around and take care of their young, so they're on their own after they hatch.
Gerem
Gerem are cat sized rabbits that live on the Ardran planet. They are usually hard to find because they rarely come out from the bushes. They live off of grass, and insects. Their ears are very large for their bodies for listening for things, and their eyes very big and rarely ever close them.
Like their Rabbit bases, they burrow underground to have their pups in the fall. During the rainy seasons, they block up the entrances to their burrows with rocks or they find higher ground somewhere, which isn't very good for them, as it makes them easy targets for Ardrans, Tyraptors and Serps.
Haladem
Haladem are basically the same as Southern Flying Squirrels with the ears of a Red Squirrel, and the eyes of a Bushbaby but are the size of a small dog. Their markings very with each Haladem. They are an intelligent species, but they are the most hunted and, therefor, produce the most off spring. Most female Haladem birth 15-20 young to a litter in the trees in the summer months, where the male takes care of the female so she doesn't have to leave the nest. The only time the babies are threatened is if it floods in the fall as they are just about to leave the nest and the Ardrans take to the trees, making young Haladem sitting ducks for Ardrans looking for an easy meal.
Deer
The biggest herbivore on the planet. They are the size of a Moose with very hard hooves. All males have huge 10 point buck racks once they reach age that fall off in the spring and grow back bigger by the time fall is around. Their young are born in the late summer months, and are able to stand and run within minutes of being born, but they are uncoordinated, which makes them easy targets for Ardrans and Tyraptors.
Golm
Golm are similar to Irish Goats with very thick racks and heads, and long downy fur like a Mountain goat. Their coats grow the thickest in the fall and Winter months, and, in the spring, they rub against the mountain sides that they live on to scrape their coats off so they don't over heat and die. Ardrans use the scraped off wool to line their burrows, or to trade for something valuable from the Mystics. They are often hunted by mountain dwelling Ardrans and the occasional Tyraptor.
others
There are other various birds and mammals on this planet, but these are the ones that are the ones I'm going to focus on. I'll probably show the occasional other species of bird or rodent, or maybe make up yet another breed of animal like the Ardrans to be someone to cause a riff between them, but I highly doubt it.
There you have it. Other creatures are free to be made up as one will, and I really don't care if someone else makes up some of the other creatures as long as you stay within these guidelines; they can not be bigger than Ardrans or Tyraptors, they can not be smarter, they can hunt the pups or chicks, but to take on an adult would be suicide, really. They also can not be, like, all powerful or something like that. If you wish to make another bird of prey that could, occasionally, take out a Ardran, that is fine, but not one who's diet is primarily Ardran.
