Veino Garn
Saaraai-Kaar
Images: Artist: Francisco Corvino, 2012 (http://www.francescocorvino.com/personalworks.html)
http://www.francescocorvino.com/images/personal/francesco%20corvino%20_5b.jpg
Name: Grevain
Designation: Semi-sentient
Homeworld: Argyra IV (http://starwarsrp.net/topic/36355-argyra-iv/)
Language: Telepathic music, tendril to tendril idea transfer
Average height of adults: 300 meters long, 8 meters tall
Skin color: Deep blue, very deep purple,
Hair color: N/A
Breathes: Type 1 Atmosphere, Salt Water
Strengths:
-Telepathic: Can communicate to a limited extent to Force sensitives, telepaths, others with the ability to access the thoughts of others. Others will still hear their music, but can’t communicate with them.
-Large: They're at the top of the marine food chain, being too large for most other predators to attempt eating.
-Intelligent: They work in groups to create a bubble net to trap the microorganisms and have been noted to problem solve.
Weaknesses:
-Gentle Giant: They have no defenses other than their size, so they're vulnerable attacks by sentients, and have been hunted to the endangered status. The only possible physical defense they might have is to ram an attacker, but that would cause damage to the brain and skeletal structure. Individuals have been found to have such damage, and it is speculated they attempted to ram a poacher’s submarine.
-Slow Growing: It takes nearly two hundred years to reach maturity, and mothers only raise one at a time. This makes it difficult for scientists to manage a population growth plan, since it would last for generations of standard sentients. It also makes their chances of recovering from the low population a much lower than other species. It is completely possible they will be extinct within the next two centuries.
-Vulnerable: Due to their slow growth, they are vulnerable as prey for several decades before they reach a size large enough to make it infeasible for predators to attack them, especially the La’Gyra “Dragon Fish”
Distinctions: Their sheer size is one, but also their six flippers, and a ridge that extend up from the skull. They also have tendrils that grow off of this ridge, typically between 25 and 125 meters in length, ending in a small orb that glows and pulses with light. On calm nights, some beings can see the faint glow from the ocean’s surface as small dots of moving starlight, easily confused for satellites or starship lights reflected from the sky.
Average Lifespan: 1000 galactic standard years
Races: None noticed
Estimated Population: They are only found on Argyra IV, and are an endangered species due to being hunted for their meat and the orbs, which are used as decoration, both visual and auditory, as they continue to play the music even after removed from the body.
Diet: They eat microscopic organisms that dwell near the sea floor. Their mouth opens, and then unfolds to expand into enough area ingest enough to fuel their body mass.
Communication: This is one of their most unique features. They communicate through music, both telepathically and sometimes auditory. Different rhythms seem to correlate with the emotions of distress, contentment, happiness, and sorrow. It is unknown if other rhythms are associated with other emotions. Despite that, it is a very beautiful music, rich and deep and ancient, like that of a grand symphony. It seems to originate from the orbs at the end of their tendrils, with some correlation between size and pitch.
The telepathic music has been noticed by telepaths and Force sensitives to contain images of the planet’s history, of changes in water-level, the disappearances of older, even more massive species, the first encounter with sentient land-dwellers from the rest of the galaxy, and the rise and fall of various islands. It also reveals images of them being hunted.
The auditory music is full of clicks and squeaks and long wails that reverberate through the water for kilometers.
Culture: None
Technology level: None
General behavior: They live and travel in matriarchal pods, while males tend to travel alone except during mating season every fifty years or so. Then they travel across the planet to the pod in which their mate resides. During this time, their song is more expressive than at any other time, becoming a major tourist draw.
The pods communally hunt and raise young, with members sharing the feeding and teaching responsibilities for the young. Typically, there are no more than 6 young in a pod of generally around 15.
They travel across the planet near the planet’s surface, herding microorganisms into bubble nets to feed after using the light from their orbs in conjunction with some of their music to draw the microorganisms closer together. Then pod begins to circle, blowing air up from their blowhole to trap them to feed.
They’re capable of holding their breath for 15 hours or so, and then they surface, with most of their air going into their lungs and some of it being stored in air sacs to release during the hunt.
History: Early settlers and explorers were often surprised and concerned when they would be in the middle of the ocean and hear music inside their heads. At first, they thought there must be something causing them to hallucinate in their food. Then they checked with others and realized they all heard the same music, and hallucinations are never the same for different individuals.
It became known as the mystery of the sea, and dozens of composers from all skill levels attempted to put its note to paper and reproduce it. Few managed it. Only one managed it well, but she committed suicide not long after, adding a further sense of intrigue and mystery to the music. Eventually, tourists and scientists came to investigate the phenomena, only to find that finding it was harder than they anticipated. They both stayed, the tourists for the climate, and the scientists because the mystery was addicting.
They set up a network of observation posts, and marked the times they could hear the song, measuring intensity and type of music, charting the course. This revealed to them that were multiple origins of the song. They brought in submarines and went under the sea to find its source, travelling ever deeper until they caught the first of the behemoth creatures slowly swimming along the bottom.
They became a popular tourist attraction. One washed up on a beach, dead, and scientists took it as a specimen. They discovered the origins of the music was in the orbs, and pretty soon black market entrepreneurs were hunting them for their orbs, and then later on, their meat, because it was rich and hyped up to give psychic powers. It didn’t. But it worked well enough to create a large enough market for them to be hunted into an endangered species.
They are now rare and hard to find and the black market trade has dwindled some, given their cost, but it still remains. Conservation movements have begun, but they were disrupted by the occupation and underfunded.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To flesh out the world of Argyra IV, giving it a sense of strange and wondrous beauty to mesmerize and enchant those who encounter them with their ancient songs. Also to create plot hooks and mysteries to investigate in regards to research and poaching.
http://www.francescocorvino.com/images/personal/francesco%20corvino%20_5b.jpg
Name: Grevain
Designation: Semi-sentient
Homeworld: Argyra IV (http://starwarsrp.net/topic/36355-argyra-iv/)
Language: Telepathic music, tendril to tendril idea transfer
Average height of adults: 300 meters long, 8 meters tall
Skin color: Deep blue, very deep purple,
Hair color: N/A
Breathes: Type 1 Atmosphere, Salt Water
Strengths:
-Telepathic: Can communicate to a limited extent to Force sensitives, telepaths, others with the ability to access the thoughts of others. Others will still hear their music, but can’t communicate with them.
-Large: They're at the top of the marine food chain, being too large for most other predators to attempt eating.
-Intelligent: They work in groups to create a bubble net to trap the microorganisms and have been noted to problem solve.
Weaknesses:
-Gentle Giant: They have no defenses other than their size, so they're vulnerable attacks by sentients, and have been hunted to the endangered status. The only possible physical defense they might have is to ram an attacker, but that would cause damage to the brain and skeletal structure. Individuals have been found to have such damage, and it is speculated they attempted to ram a poacher’s submarine.
-Slow Growing: It takes nearly two hundred years to reach maturity, and mothers only raise one at a time. This makes it difficult for scientists to manage a population growth plan, since it would last for generations of standard sentients. It also makes their chances of recovering from the low population a much lower than other species. It is completely possible they will be extinct within the next two centuries.
-Vulnerable: Due to their slow growth, they are vulnerable as prey for several decades before they reach a size large enough to make it infeasible for predators to attack them, especially the La’Gyra “Dragon Fish”
Distinctions: Their sheer size is one, but also their six flippers, and a ridge that extend up from the skull. They also have tendrils that grow off of this ridge, typically between 25 and 125 meters in length, ending in a small orb that glows and pulses with light. On calm nights, some beings can see the faint glow from the ocean’s surface as small dots of moving starlight, easily confused for satellites or starship lights reflected from the sky.
Average Lifespan: 1000 galactic standard years
Races: None noticed
Estimated Population: They are only found on Argyra IV, and are an endangered species due to being hunted for their meat and the orbs, which are used as decoration, both visual and auditory, as they continue to play the music even after removed from the body.
Diet: They eat microscopic organisms that dwell near the sea floor. Their mouth opens, and then unfolds to expand into enough area ingest enough to fuel their body mass.
Communication: This is one of their most unique features. They communicate through music, both telepathically and sometimes auditory. Different rhythms seem to correlate with the emotions of distress, contentment, happiness, and sorrow. It is unknown if other rhythms are associated with other emotions. Despite that, it is a very beautiful music, rich and deep and ancient, like that of a grand symphony. It seems to originate from the orbs at the end of their tendrils, with some correlation between size and pitch.
The telepathic music has been noticed by telepaths and Force sensitives to contain images of the planet’s history, of changes in water-level, the disappearances of older, even more massive species, the first encounter with sentient land-dwellers from the rest of the galaxy, and the rise and fall of various islands. It also reveals images of them being hunted.
The auditory music is full of clicks and squeaks and long wails that reverberate through the water for kilometers.
Culture: None
Technology level: None
General behavior: They live and travel in matriarchal pods, while males tend to travel alone except during mating season every fifty years or so. Then they travel across the planet to the pod in which their mate resides. During this time, their song is more expressive than at any other time, becoming a major tourist draw.
The pods communally hunt and raise young, with members sharing the feeding and teaching responsibilities for the young. Typically, there are no more than 6 young in a pod of generally around 15.
They travel across the planet near the planet’s surface, herding microorganisms into bubble nets to feed after using the light from their orbs in conjunction with some of their music to draw the microorganisms closer together. Then pod begins to circle, blowing air up from their blowhole to trap them to feed.
They’re capable of holding their breath for 15 hours or so, and then they surface, with most of their air going into their lungs and some of it being stored in air sacs to release during the hunt.
History: Early settlers and explorers were often surprised and concerned when they would be in the middle of the ocean and hear music inside their heads. At first, they thought there must be something causing them to hallucinate in their food. Then they checked with others and realized they all heard the same music, and hallucinations are never the same for different individuals.
It became known as the mystery of the sea, and dozens of composers from all skill levels attempted to put its note to paper and reproduce it. Few managed it. Only one managed it well, but she committed suicide not long after, adding a further sense of intrigue and mystery to the music. Eventually, tourists and scientists came to investigate the phenomena, only to find that finding it was harder than they anticipated. They both stayed, the tourists for the climate, and the scientists because the mystery was addicting.
They set up a network of observation posts, and marked the times they could hear the song, measuring intensity and type of music, charting the course. This revealed to them that were multiple origins of the song. They brought in submarines and went under the sea to find its source, travelling ever deeper until they caught the first of the behemoth creatures slowly swimming along the bottom.
They became a popular tourist attraction. One washed up on a beach, dead, and scientists took it as a specimen. They discovered the origins of the music was in the orbs, and pretty soon black market entrepreneurs were hunting them for their orbs, and then later on, their meat, because it was rich and hyped up to give psychic powers. It didn’t. But it worked well enough to create a large enough market for them to be hunted into an endangered species.
They are now rare and hard to find and the black market trade has dwindled some, given their cost, but it still remains. Conservation movements have begun, but they were disrupted by the occupation and underfunded.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To flesh out the world of Argyra IV, giving it a sense of strange and wondrous beauty to mesmerize and enchant those who encounter them with their ancient songs. Also to create plot hooks and mysteries to investigate in regards to research and poaching.
