[Sunberth] Flora/Fauna Submissions

[Twister]

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Sunberth Flora/Fauna Submissions
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Since there's been interest in this sort of development project in the city, I figured I'd make a submission thread for flora/fauna around the city and the outskirts, to keep all projects and ideas in one place. Keep in mind that any submissions you make should be unique to the city environment, preferrably without being too outlandish. Anything too dramatic will be directed to the World Development forum instead.

Once there's a bigger demand for this sort of thing, an actual submission form will be developed. For now, posting up your raw ideas for discussion and review here will suffice. That way you can get more feedback from more minds than just mine.
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[Amon Torque]

Name:Fleeter

Animal Group:Rabbit

Food Type:Herbivore(Bark)

Location:Sunberth woods

Rarity:Common

Recommended Hunting Skill Level: 2

Recommend Trapping Skill level: 1

Physical Description: The fleeter has a light brown coat that changes to bleached white in the Winter. It is, on average, one foot from tail to head, and stands at eight inches tall. During the Spring, the rabbit tends to be well fed and pudgy, but during all other months it is slender and agile. These rabbits get their name from there best attribute; speed. They run at a remarkable pace when threatened, but can only keep it up for a minute or so, based on the individual. The top speed is similar to that of a diving eagle, outrunning nearly anything. Its brown coat is soft and thick, making it an ideal material for those wealthy enough to afford the fur. Small antlers sprout from the top of its head, only two to three inches long.

Feeding Habits: The fleeter eats only bark, although from what tree it does not matter. It uses its antlers to scrape the bark off, leaving bare spots on trees. The fleeter usually returns to the same tree to feast more than once, making the trees that have been scraped ideal spots to set traps.

Mating/Reproduction: During the spring the males begin making loud clicking sounds, banging their teeth together. If a female wishes, it seeks out these sounds and mates with the male, searching for the largest and strongest of them. Once pregnant the female is watched over by the male until she has the children in three to four weeks. After two weeks of nurturing the parents abandon the nest, leaving the young rabbits to fend for themselves.

Uses: Besides using their soft coat for clothes and blankets, the fleeters meat can be tasty in any meal. The citizens buy the meat for its fantastic taste in the spring, but through the other seasons the meat is not nearly as abundant. The antlers of the fleeter can be made into tools, seeing as they are nearly impossible to snap and do not corrode. One can find the dead fleeter's antlers lying around the forest or take hunt the rabbits for them.

[Amon Torque]

Name:Bullhorn Toad

Animal Group:Toad

Food Type:Insectivore

Location:Costal Sunberth and around Lakes/Swamps

Rarity:Uncommon

Physical Description: The Bullhorn is a light green toad about the size of a large fist. It has dark brown sporadic splotches along its back, and can be clearly identified by the red spot in the center of its back. It has webbed feet for swimming, and long back legs that allow it to spring up into the air.

Feeding Habits: The Bullhorn will eat just about any insect that comes its way, but its favorite is a fly with a tiny amount of neurotoxin. The fly is ingested and the toxin excreted through glands on the frogs back, but it is mixed with other poisons from bugs eaten. It feeds at dusk and sunrise, then burrows down into the mud or sand for the day.

Mating/Reproduction: The toads loud croak is a constant call to mate. After mating the female lays eggs in forty eight hours. If not eaten, the eggs hatch into tadpoles, which must stay submerged for a week before developing into a full toad.

Uses: If one is particularly starving, the legs of the toad can be eaten for a high protein meal, although they taste like mud. Some use the toad as a way to achieve a euphoric state by licking its back, but this also results in vomiting, excessive sweating, and whatever other poisons the frog had ingested.

[Amon Torque]

Name:Sunberthian Mutt

Animal Group:Dog

Food Type:Omnivore

Location:Sunberth Hills and Forested Areas

Rarity: Semi-Common

Physical Description: These disease ridden mutts are about the size of a greyhound. They have sharp pointed teeth with two on top longer than the rest. Patches of the grey fur that cover these wolves are often missing, from fights or disease. Flies commonly buzz around the dogs. They have a small tail that has about a half inch of fur covering all of it. Strange knowing eyes accent the fierce animals face, usually light blue in color.

Feeding Habits: The Sunberthian Mutt eats both berries and flesh, scavenging off the lands as it roams either solitary or with a pack. When desperate, the dogs may attack things larger than them, but usually scavenge dead or hunt small animals.

Mating/Reproduction: Although baffling, the dogs only mate by the light of the full moon in Spring. If the moon is clouded over, they skip the mating session. When choosing a mate, the males howl and the longest howl wins a mate. The pups are born a month the mating, and stay with their parents to the end of Spring. And although the pups separate and form different packs, the mated dogs stay together until one or the other dies.

Notes: There are both solitary dogs wandering the forest and packs of them in the hills that occasionally venture to the forest. They are aggressive early Spring, all through Winter, and at the end if Fall. Otherwise, a fire will keep them at bay, or even loud shouting most of the time.

[Sh'Ky Naes]

Name: Sunberthian Copallina
Type: Flower
Location Found: Hills and clearings in forests, bare hills, away from the city.
Physical description: A short, slightly stubby flower, the green, thick stem covered in thin hairs, five individual petals form a radial star around a blood-red stigma. Each petal is ivory, but when night falls, it folds up into a tube, turning ebony, and releasing flourescent pollen up into the air. This pollen has no special properties other than the fact that it glows, and is an allergen, like other flowers'. The stem can be broken, to secrete a milky substance, one with a repugnant smell.

Properties:
- The Flourescent Pollen
- Copallinan Nectar: The sap from the flower's stem smells terribly, a tangy lime odor, but the juice itself has several useful properties, such as being a natural disenfectant, and when mixed with water and sugar, creates an alternative to beer or ale. However, it takes large amounts of the stuff to be effective, and it isn't really efficent to spend time like that while you could be using cheap alcohol.

Reccomended skill levels:
(To identify the flower) Herbalism L1
(To extract the sap) Philtering L1, Herbalism L1
(To preserve the pollen) Herbalism L2, Philtering L2

[Autumn Leithea]

I believe we should have an equivalent to OOC marijuana in the form of a fast-growing weed called "Skunk Weed". I've been using it in some of my posts. Do say so if you'd like me to stop.

[Kelski]

Suggested Addition To The Skull Crows:

Makath.

A shadow called Musi crept forth and wrapped around the skulls – all except the one being bleached – and spoke of them to Kelski. “Little Nightstalker… why do you decorate the bones of the dead?” It asked, a dark tendril reaching out and touching the Kelvic along her forehead, brushing back a lock of her ombre hair. Kelski smiled, turning her head and nibbling at her shoulder in pleasure at the touch. It was as if she were preening though she had no beak or feathers to work with. Her big collar didn’t get in her way, as her body had learned to adjust around it.

“The human who thinks he owns me requested it. He wishes to give it to someone he dislikes, someone who cannot refuse the gift even though he says it’s a token of bad luck.” The Kelvic answered. The shadow chuckled. “Do you know what they are?” Kelski shook her head, her hands still busy with the chain links, putting them together. She leaned over to slide her soldering iron into the fire to heat, in preparation to soldering the links closed.

“I don’t. But I saw them. They were birdkind like me. They seemed sad.” She said, countering what Jaren had said about them being bearers of bad luck. Kelski looked up from her work and studied the shadow with its tendrils all around, touching everything and conversing with her. She was so grateful for its company and the company of its companions. When she slept, they often crowded around her and enfolded her in their darkness, easing her nightmares and keeping her safe.

“They are very intelligent. As smart as shadows for certain. Eywaat is their Lord. He is the Alvina of Birds and Ingenuity. He once told them that their bones hold the wisdom of their lives. So they wear the skulls of their fallen, especially the ones they admire, because the bones hold their memories. And when they wear the memories they can experience them.” The shadow said softly, its darkness brushing the one completed skull and the other one that she still had out to decide what to do with.

“The one soaking in the poison… its memories are ruined. It has lost its magic. You did this.” It accused, gently touching the jar the skull soaked in.

“I didn’t know.” Kelski said softly, her eyes tearing up. She’d never heard anything so beautiful. She was glad the shadow told her. She wouldn’t look at the Skull Crows the same way again… even if the story wasn’t true. Who knew? She trusted the shadow’s word more than she trusted most people.

“I won’t do it again. Jaren just wanted it to be a cursed thing. Maybe this way I am exactly following his word. I hope another bird got to wear this skull before I found it upon the ground. Maybe another bird holds the same memories now that the crow who owned it had.” Kelski said, more to reassure herself than the shadows.

Musi was joined by Shuva and the two shadows entwined as if to comfort each other as Kelski soldered her chain, making it all one length. When she was done she carefully laid the chain aside and got to work on the filigree design she’d put on the skulls’ forehead.

If this is not approved, I'll just say that's what the shadows told Kelski and not what the truth is. She doesn't need to know the difference.

[Regime]

You're suggested add on to the Skull Crows is approved. Its a wonderful idea that I'll be sure to use in the future.