OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To add some dangerous life to Kalidan-Lysenia
- Image Credit: Russell Dongjun Lu
- Canon: N/A
- Links: Tygeria, Tygerii
- Name: Magn-Vermanii is the traditional Tygerii name, also just called "Vermin"
- Designation: Semi-sentient
- Origins: Kalidan
- Average Lifespan: Females: 30 years. Males: 5 years
- Estimated Population: Planetary
- Description: Magn-Vermanii are effectively massive mutant rats which have been rapidly evolving
- Breathes: Type 1
- Average Height of Adults: Female: 2 meters. Male: .5 meters
- Average Length of Adults: Female: 3.3 meters. Male: .8 meters
- Skin color: Tan or gray
- Hair color: Dark gray, black, brown, and on rare occasions: white
- Distinctions: Perhaps the most defined trait that sets the Magn-Vermanii apart from many species is what many scientists theorize is the beginnings of a hive mind, or at least a very primitive version of one. Magn-Vermanii females have incredibly developed brains which are able to effectively "link" with brains that are similar enough biologically. Mostly this ability is used to control their significantly less developed male offspring who swarm around their mother protectively even though to her they are little more than expendable drones.
- Races:
Gender Dimorphism: Female Magn-Vermanii are significantly larger, longer, stronger, and have significantly more developed brains that manifest minor psychic abilities. The females effectively act like a "queen", travelling around the planet, bringing its little brood around with it. It uses this brood to gather food, resources, and even create a nest. The queen itself is smart enough to use simple tools, and often spends its days doing the more complex tasks its brood is incapable of doing.
Males are significantly smaller, feel less pain, and are nearly helpless without their mother. Should a mother be killed and not be able to direct them, the males will go completely feral, attacking and eating everything, even their own species or siblings.
Albino Variant: Albino Magn-Vermanii females are significantly larger, can birth and control larger broods, and are far more intelligent some even theorize fully sapient. The exact reason for this drastic difference in what usually is a birth defect in other species is unknown, but the Albino variant is often hunted by the normal Magn-Vermanii.
- Force Sensitivity: Rare
Tail Whip: Female Magn-Vermanii tails are covered in thick calloused skin, and are incredibly flexible. They are able to be swung very quickly and with enough power to break bone. Some Magn-Vermanii have been found putting wood or pointed rocks on their tails, treating it almost like a spear, some have even be caught fishing this way.
Swarm: The primitive hive mind of a family of Magn-Vermanii make them incredibly dangerous, allowing for the mother to swarm her opponents with her offspring while preparing for a more lethal attack (if they aren't killed by dozens of gnashing teeth) or flee.
Disease Ridden: Magn-Vermanii are a host to many many diseases, specifically an offshoot of the gulag plague that mutated on their homeworld. Should anything bite a Magn-Vermanii or come into contact with its blood, they have a high chance of becoming infected with a myriad of diseases. This has caused many of the Magn-Vermanii's natural predators to stop preying on them, causing their population to surge.
Dread Fangs: Like their rat ancestors, the Magn-Vermanii's fangs are incredibly sharp, durable, and regrow incredibly quickly. The bite power combined with the sharpness and strength of a female Magn-Vermanii's fangs have been known to gnaw through duracrete and durasteel.
Weaknesses:
Toxins: Their symbiotic relationship with disease has had a strange effect on their immune system. The immune system is so preoccupied making sure that the diseases don't try to kill the host that it is incapable of dealing with any sort of foreign toxin. Gas weapons or a direct injection are incredibly effective.
Guns Guns Wonderful Guns: Magn-Vermanii are incapable of long ranged combat, so any sort of gun is able to take them out.
Unstable: Their ancestors were experimented on to an ungodly degree, this combined with heavy doses of radiation has caused their genome to be incredibly unstable.
CULTURE
- Diet: Omnivore
- Communication: Chattering, screeching, clacking their teeth together, and those females related directly can communicate very basic concepts telepathically.
- Technology level: Extremely Basic Tools and Construction seen in most hyper intelligent animals.
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General behavior: Magn-Vermanii are survivalists, they roam the planet seeking areas to build nests and grow their brood and produce more of their species. The most powerful Magn-Vermanii have even become leaders of other female Magn-Vermanii, creating super nests numbering in the dozens of females and hundreds of males all roughly coordinated to build super nests. These super nests have been incredibly difficult to purge in the past but with the Eternal Empire setting up on the planet, the purging has become significantly easier.
Magn-Vermanii that have settled down will often travel to other colonies, where they will trade a single drone with a female Magn-Vermanii they are unfamiliar with. This is how they reproduce, a method which has kept their genetics rather diverse. A natural evolutionary behavior as the nests that didn't practice this often lost their immune system to inbreeding and died from the very diseases they used for protection.
Similar trips are made by Magn-Vermanii to collect food to bring back to their nest, be it a super nest or not.
Many Magn-Vermanii don't nest down all year, tending to live a rather nomadic life style and hunting and gathering their way to success. This breed tend to be slightly larger and more muscular, their muscles having been used far more than those who laze around in the nest and let their male drones do all the work.
As the Gulag Plague hit Tygeria and its colony Lysenia, the nobles were unified in one singular purpose: A cure. An uncountable amount of credits were funneled into research to combat the plague, everything from lab equipment, personnel, gulag plague specimens, and even non-consequential lab rats. These lab rats were introduced to countless drugs, gene therapies, and lived in horrific inhumane conditions. With the fall of the Tygerii civilization due to nuclear war, the rats were freed.
It is unclear if the Tygerii were purposefully trying to evolve the rats to be more human, or if it was just an unforseen consequence of so much gene therapy and drugs, but these rats were far more intelligent. Over 800 years they would grow drastically in size, their new intelligence causing them to out compete many native species trying to survive in this new wasteland as they reached apex predator status their intelligence only continued to grow until manifesting into the psychic abilities we see today.
The biggest threat on Kalidan, once called Lysenia, was these rats. Even the biggest raider caravans were steer clear of the larger Magn-Vermanii nests, fearful of the hundreds of rats that could poor out and overtake and chew through their largest tanks. Yet as the Eternal Empire has come to call this world home, the rats have been constantly pushed back. The "Rat City" as it was called, a nest hosting over a hundred queens was crushed and the strange nest which seemed almost like some sort of city, was burned to the ground. The leader of this city was reported to be an albino, but its whereabouts are unknown.
