Southern Fauna

These creatures can be found in the Western region and specifically in the cities of Augiery, Desnind, Niomyr, and Quacia. Unless specified, these animals and monsters can be self moderated.

Ditos

Created By: Nymph

Location: Augiery

Weight: 1500 pounds

Height: 5 meters

Length: 7 meters

Purpose: Occasionally used as a food source

Population: The Naerikk suspect there are only 25-30 of these creatures left within the cavern.

Habitat: The ditos live in the underground caverns beneath the Southern Region. They claim large areas of the cavern. Anywhere from 2-4 dito will live in the same territory at any given point. This group consists of the mated pair and their growing offspring. When the offspring are old enough, they will journey through the cavern to establish their own territory and create their own family. Within their territory there are often large "farms" of fungi that the dito ingest.

Lifespan and Development: Mothers tend to give birth to one or two eggs every 50-60 arcs. A female dito will give birth to 2-3 clutches before passing on. Once born, the dito will remain in the egg for a full arc. A young dito will emerge from the egg, hanging around its mother as it grows. It takes approximately 30-40 arcs before the creature will be fully grown. It relies on its parents to provide for most of its life. A grown dito will then leave the nuclear family to make room for the mother's next clutch. It will seek an area within the cavern to call its own. After establishing its territory, the dito will seek out a mate. These beasts mate for life; the loss of their loved one often causes severe depression of the one left behind. It is not uncommon for a dito to pass on due to starvation after losing its mate because they choose not to survive. It is a peculiar trait the Naerikk have noted.

The ditos are blind despite having large black eyes. Having been in darkness for many arcs, the creatures have not found use for sight. Instead, they have long tendrils that waves back and forth in front of their face. These tendrils act like fingers, sensing objects in front of their face. It is suspected that the creature can sense nutritional substances and moisture through these finger-like projections.

Diet: Ditos eat fungus and small plants that cling to the roof of the cavern they preside in. They are mainly fungivores, it is not unheard of for them to suck a bat or two into their mouths during a meal.

Temperament: A dito is a very peaceful creature when not provoked. They simply exist, choosing to occupy with drinking, eating, and sleeping. When provoked, they tend to attempt flight. Fighting is difficult for them as they are large, slow, and do not have physical features to use as weapons. If push comes to shove, they will attempt to smack a creature with their tail to buy themselves time to get away.

Abilities: The fungus that the dito normally feed on are toxic to mortals and most other creatures within the cave. They have a special fermentation process within their hindgut that allows them to destroy the toxins and gain nutrients from the meat of the mushroom. Once enough fungus has been ingested, ditos will produce a pellet in their feces that is edible to mortals. These pellets are soft, spongy, and may be harvested. Known as "dito loaves", this form of food is often seen on Augierian naval ships during extended voyages due to the high calorie content.

Icraphern

Created By: Avrae Kyric

Locations: Makubwa Lori, Magani (Captive)

Pronunciation: Ick-Ra-Fern

Height: 2 feet

Length: 3-4 feet

Weight: ~25 pounds/11.5 kg

Native to: Southern Idalos

Appearance: Icrapherns greatly resemble the modern day deer, but they're also very different. They're very small, delicate creatures, only growing to about two feet tall at their torso (or three feet if you count their extremely long neck and antler), and being around three to four feel long in length. With four very slender, fragile legs, Icrapherns are often shaky when standing and prefer to be sat down. Therefore, they're not very active creatures except when they have to be, running almost like they're on stilts. Icrapherns have a single white antler in the middle of their head. Their head is fairly small and elegantly pointed, with usually beautiful, dark eyes that range in colors of brown and green. An Icraphern's neck is exceptionally long and tall. The Icraphern's ears are delicate and leaf-shaped, pointed backwards. However, the biggest diferential of an Icraphern from a deer is their pelt. Icrapherns have a base pelt of white, but their fur gets longer and changes color- the tips and long strands are a pale green color. The fur on their skinny legs is also very long and a grayish color. The Icraphern's tail is long, white, and short furred, often curling at the tip.

Temperament: There's no hazard to them. Icrapherns are peaceful creatures, who won't fight or become aggressive. They lean heavily towards fleeing when there's danger, and have no offensive attributes.

Other Information: The Icraphern are a herbivore species, they don't eat meat. They've been said to lay in soft, hidden spots and poke their head up with their long necks through the foliage to observe their surroundings. Icraphern meat is a delicacy, but they're more prized for their incredibly soft pelts. Their shaky, weak bodies make them easy prey, and if it weren't for the Icraphern's keen senses, ability to fit into small hiding spaces, and tendency to breed like that of rabbits, they might be a more rare species because of poaching.

Iyọ

Created By: Nymph

Locations: Makubwa Lori, Desnind (Captive)

Height: 1-1.5 feet

Wingspan: 2-3 feet

Length: 0.5-1 foot

Weight: Caterpillar: 2-4 kg/4-8 lbs; Butterfly: 1-2 kg/2-4 lbs

Native to: Southern Idalos

Appearance: The Iyọ are born as round, translucent, glowing eggs just before the new arc begins (Cylus). They are about the size of a nectarine at this stage, able to fit within the palm of any human hand. The color of the egg’s glow is highly suggestive of the adult Iyọ color. Once the eggs hatch, a fat and fuzzy caterpillar emerges with stripes of the glow color they will carry throughout their life. These “glow bugs” start off small, about the size of an average adult human’s palm. Over the course of the next year, they get progressively bigger until they weight about 4-8 pounds and have a length of approximately 1 foot. At this point, they are mostly fat. They have spent all of their life storing energy for the final transformation, which starts at the beginning of Cylus.

For some reason, all these “glow bugs” form a cocoon starting the 1st Trial of Cylus. The cocoon is thick enough to prevent any light from escaping and all wild caterpillars are very difficult to find at this time. They spend the next 21 to 22 trials within the cocoon. Once they have incubated, cocoon splits to reveal a large butterfly with their wings glowing the color they were born with. Captive butterflies are expected to mate with their lamp mate within a day or two before the release on the Trial 23 of Cylus.

Iyọ have been highly sought after mostly for their glowing nature. They come in three colors: yellow, green, and blue. The larger the caterpillar gets, the more light they emit. This has become extremely beneficial for people using them as lamps as they tend to produce the most light later in an arc.

Habitat: Wild Iyọ commonly live in the forests of the Southern Region. They are native to the Makubwa Lori mostly because they were a result of Lisirra’s plague. The contamination of the forest resulted in a mutation of normal butterflies. This mutation caused the caterpillar stripes and the wings of an adult butterfly to glow. This species was named after the word “lamp” in Xanthea, as Sev’ryn native to Desnind have used these mutated insects to provide light to their city.

Lifespan and Development: Iyọ live for one full arc, being born on the 23rd of Cylus and generally dying at the end of Cylus the following arc. They spend a majority of their life living as caterpillars, eating and growing fat for the final metamorphosis. The cocoon portion of their life lasts 21-22 days, based on gender. Males tend to emerge from the cocoon first and the females follow a day later. The mating process is uneventful, as they produce similar to fish. The eggs are laid by the female and then fertilized by the male.

For the next 24-36 hours, the eggs will move from opaque to translucent before finally glowing the color that they will maintain for the rest of their lives. If an egg remains opaque, it is generally removed as it is unfertilized. Captive Iyọ clutches will be manipulated so eggs of the same glow color are housed in the same glass lamp for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, the Sev'ryn hope that the pair include a male and a female. If there are two males or two females in a lamp, this pair will not produce a clutch. Since there is about 8-10 eggs in a clutch and about 50% are fertilized, there are enough Iyọ to fill lamps that did not have a mated pair.

The eggs hatch by the end of Cylus, around the time the adults die. The young caterpillars will glow from hatching and immediately start feasting on the forage the lamp owner provides. They will grow slowly over the next arc until the cycle starts over again.

Diet: The caterpillars have a voracious appetite for anything green, be it grass or leaves to tough vines or water plants. Anything that lives and grows is food for these small eating machines. They do not need a source of water as the plants they ingest are generally high in water content; however, this means that dried plant material is not a nutritious food source. The adults eat a similar diet of plants, but will also suck nectar from night flowers that bloom during Cylus.

Temperament: These animals are no known to have a temperament. They are known to glowing and eating. Beyond that, they have no real 'personality'.

Abilities:

Glowing Stripes/Wings - Green, Yellow, or Blue

Uses:

Lightsource – Various colors

In a time of need, they have been used as a food source