 April 17, 2011 - 5:40am | I already created one creature- the wyvoles and their smaller domesticated version which was in the illustrated incredibly well by crow in SFman15 "Opiate of the Osakar" I particularly like that creature as it has the same skin flaps as the yazirian and demonstrates a closeness on the evolutionary tree In the following post I'll be putting forward a whole zoology for the yazirian home planet. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 17, 2011 - 1:42pm | The Yazirian word for bird/avian is Shing its a generic word much the way we use bird. The skies of Waloo are filled with 1000s of species of shing. Shing are quadrupeds (4 limbs) and covered in a downy like hair. A cross section of this hair shows it to be ovoid an barbed filaments at both ends of the oval that allow it to interlock to the filament above and below it making a "feather." The central spine can be very stiff or soft depending on its purpose and placement on the shing's body. Both limbs are generally covered with flight feathers. The fore limbs are powerful and power flight by flapping while the hind limbs stretch out behind the shing with the feathers in an upright position to use for steering. The hind limbs have smaller and fewer feathers then the fore limbs but some species of shing will use their hind limbs in power flight but these are the exception. Shing have a thin light-weight body covered in soft, short and tightly layered feathers to minimize heat loss. Their necks are long or short depending on the species. Heads are streamlined without a protruding ear. The mouth of the shing comes in two varieties, a toothed boney "beak" and a muzzel similar in shape to the yazirian's. It's believed that the differences in mouth construction represent 2 major evolutionary branches. Generally the female is the most brightly colored and the male is drab but there are some notable exceptions. Shing, Tiny to Small The following represents 1000's of small shing that vary largely in color and diet and are quite harmless though considered good eating.
Many of the tiny shing species use flocking as a defense, moving in groups so large that predators have difficulty picking out individuals. This could qualify as special defense depending on the weapon used but a cannister or shot gun type weapon would treat this as a special vulnerability. Shing that are herbivores eat nuts, seed and fruit while the omnivores would add insectoids and other small creatures to their diets. Significant species of small shing are the red crested, the blue crested, the ruffled or Karuf Shing, and the voort karuf shing (chief ruffled shing). These species are all highly sought after for their feathers which command a high price. On crested varieties the crests are brightly colored and stand up from the head and neck for intimidating other shing or as part of mating displays. The ruffled shing has ruff that encircles the head like a yazirian's mane and is puffed out to intimidate predators or in mating displays. The ruffled varieties are more aggressive and will attack if cornered. The feathers of the voort karuf shing (chief ruffled shing) are very rare and traditionally have be reserved for ornamentation of yazirian clan chiefs. Chiefs with the highest status will have their mane's adorn with a full compliment of voort karuf feather encircling their head. Traditionally the war leaders or hunt leaders of a clan use the red crested shing's feather for adornment. Heck'nor: from Heck Shing (literally: Clawed Avian) Heck'nor are the predators of Waloo's skies. The typically have clawed wing knuckles and use stoop attacks to dive on prey using the violence of their impact and their razor claws to disable prey. They are acrobats extraordinaire, able to manuever in power dives and rarely miss their target. Aggressive and territorial and some species cooporate in group of up to 20. Disturbing a heck'nor rookerie can have fatal results as they will suicidally defend their young till they judge the threat dead or of sufficient distance.
Singnificant varieties: Razor Clawed: this variety is small in size and noted for doing and extra 1d10 of damage with its attack but is only found in pairs or solitary. Voort Na Voor Heck'nor (literally: Chief of Chiefs Heck'nor or Cheif of the Heck'nors) This variety is of medium size (at the largest end of the scale), very rare and the male is the more brightly colored. Both genders have a half ruffle under thier head and the feathers are the most prized on Waloo and generally reserved for the greatest clan chiefs. EDIT: All shing and heck'nor probably should be egg layers as a successful strategy for reproduction in avian beings- reduces wt carried for the female once she lays the egg, allows for male incubation of the egg and shared labor in tending the young. Could easily be that the male attends to the female while she's tied to a rookerie or nest. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 2, 2012 - 8:40am | Next catagory: Patagium-niums A patagium is a skin flap stretched between the limbs of an animal that allows for gliding. On Waloo there are 4 principle animals with patagium, yazirians, narzim, wyvoles, and the munsk. Most are arboreal but some have sub-groups that have adapted to other terrains. Yazirians are well detailed elsewhere. The wyvole is detailed in SFman 15 "Opiate of the Osakar." The wyvole was concieved of as the "wolf" of Waloo. The domesticated wyvole comes from a smaller mountain dwelling sub group of the regular wyvole. The Munsk
The munsk has a light slender body, short neck, small head with a mussel and no tail. They are all agile gliders and seek to avoid predators. Their gliding performance is 3 times that of a yazirian. They have two small spincters that emit their musk from their anus when they feel threatened. They will attack if cornered but generally use their musk and flight to avoid predators. Narzim
Narzim look like a small primitive looking yazirian with matted hair but no mane. They are a distant living cousin on the evolutionary tree to the Yazirian and nearly became extinct as many clans sought to erradicate them from their lands. In the modern Frontier small colonies of narzim are maintained on Hentz and Yast where they are carefully managed. They have the same patagium skin flaps as yazirians but are able to triple the yazirian's gliding performance. They use this gliding ability to perform thier spit attack, particularly with creatures larger then them. Their spit is infectious to nearly all animals and avian of thier native planet as well as humans and dralasites (vrusk are immune). A troop of narzim will use their spit attack and pester prey for days looking for the prey to be weakened by the fever before swarming it. Spit Fever [-15/D10] Spit Fever is a contact infection form the spit of the narzim. Once infected, a creature suffers a -15 penalty to all abilities checks for 100 hours or 5 GST days. A noted vrusk scientist on Yast has been exerimenting with narzim spit looking for cures to other diseases. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 13, 2011 - 1:43pm | Note: iggy named the lask and the furvurs in his legend of the first yaz clan these will need treatments EDIT: add to that mekal, bogah, lopah, peegat, dropah, sorga, and plaat I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 4, 2011 - 12:23pm | Two new animals from another thread: the kesheck, a giant carnivore and the VOR, a small herbivore with stiff brittles that were harvested to make brushes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 12, 2012 - 9:23pm | BTW, I was waiting to put these here |
July 10, 2012 - 5:52pm | Just found this on DA and it sort of picks up some of my ideas for the wyvoles. http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=11&offset=360#/d56u2ee I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 10, 2012 - 7:04pm | Great render of what could be a wyvole or some other yazirian beast. -iggy |
July 11, 2012 - 7:02am | Great render of what could be a wyvole or some other yazirian beast. its not a great match but very close so I would make it a new even more ill tempered and dangerous beast. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 11, 2012 - 5:22pm | Ya'Graght How's that for a name of an even more ill tempered and dangerous beast? -iggy |
 July 11, 2012 - 6:15pm | And of course the question. Why the heck did they recreate it after the exodus?  What role does it play in the ecology that such a foul tempered created was even reintroduced?Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
July 11, 2012 - 8:13pm | Ahh- you have not read my material on the Fo1- the second of the Two Wings of Fo1 belief states: Belief #2 We MUST recreate the Garden of Yaz on Yazira blessed worlds like Hentz no matter what the cost. (pre existing ecosystems will be pushed aside). This belief has given rise to eco-theism a worship of the perfect ecosystem that no longer even exists. A deifying of the legendary ecosystem of Yazira. "We will recreate this world in the image of Yazira" Because Fo1 controls GODco and is into terraforming I sort of interwove that with their religious belief and their Star Exodus and the destruction of the home planet that we worked on for a cause of the Star Exodus. In one sense Fo1 worships an ecosystem that only exists in the minds of the Yazirian leadership on Hentz. See: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/6027 It stems from religious belief that they would try to recreate the Yazira ecosystem with even the dangerous predators and lets face a Yazirian would find it cool that they preserved/ transported the most dangerous creatures from their lost home world. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 11, 2012 - 9:35pm | Actually I have read all of that and figured that would be the reason (I was even thinking that was the reason as I was writing the post) but wanted to throw it out there to see if there was anything else. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
July 12, 2012 - 2:53am | Actually I have read all of that and figured that would be the reason (I was even thinking that was the reason as I was writing the post) but wanted to throw it out there to see if there was anything else. No I got nothing else at this time, just a desire to preserve their home planet's ecosystem. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 12, 2012 - 6:43pm | What about the creatures that never existed but through gene-engineering they have created and rewritten history to say that they did exist? Sorta like if we were sent to a new world and the people opening up the gene bank pulled out a unicorn and said here it is, it was never a myth. -iggy |
September 9, 2012 - 9:41am | What about the creatures that never existed but through gene-engineering they have created and rewritten history to say that they did exist?
Well if your goal was to recreate the ecosystem that was I would seem odd to pull a "myth" out of the gene bank. But lets suppose the leader of the Fo1 went off on his own vision of yazira's ecosystem and did this. It would certainly create a huge controversy. All records on Hentz will be made to conform to the new truth. Opposition would come from other colonies.Sorta like if we were sent to a new world and the people opening up the gene bank pulled out a unicorn and said here it is, it was never a myth. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 9, 2012 - 9:57pm | Or maybe there could be the correcting of sins of the universe. Think Mr Hammond restoring the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Now take this from a Fo1 view point and you could bring back some animals that nature removed but the powers that be decide should not have been removed because, "we did something wrong". This is not as fanciful as bringing back a unicorn, but that can be rationalized in the human sense because they are referenced in scripture. So maybe an ancient yazirian text has some animal named that has become a myth. Never mind the arguments that the animal is just known by a new name in modern times and the old name became applied to a mythical creature. There could be textual references that are enough to rationalize on for some leader with enough knowledge of the yazirian DNA pool to see the mythical creature preserved in the branches of several creatures DNA that just need to be put back together. -iggy |
September 10, 2012 - 4:37am | Or maybe there could be the correcting of sins of the universe. Think Mr Hammond restoring the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Now take this from a Fo1 view point and you could bring back some animals that nature removed but the powers that be decide should not have been removed because, "we did something wrong". This is not as fanciful as bringing back a unicorn, but that can be rationalized in the human sense because they are referenced in scripture. So maybe an ancient yazirian text has some animal named that has become a myth. Never mind the arguments that the animal is just known by a new name in modern times and the old name became applied to a mythical creature. There could be textual references that are enough to rationalize on for some leader with enough knowledge of the yazirian DNA pool to see the mythical creature preserved in the branches of several creatures DNA that just need to be put back together. Ok, now I know how I would use this, sathar have turned top leaders of F01 and are using and deluding them to create new sathar attack monsters. the sathar are famous for bio-constructs and they would quite obviously love to get access to the Ark of Yaziria and all that juicy DNA coding! [sathar rubs his worm tentacles together and laughs in maniacal manor, "Buah, ha, ha, ha!"] So there is the justification but its crap its just the excuse that the worms have sold the top guy through hyptnosis. Its quite the coop by the worms. By subverting this one individual they gain massive indluence in the Frontier plus access to all that juicy DNA, access to files on what GODco has done with terraforming on various planets across the Frontier which will let them tailor plagues and stuff to cause ecological crashes or make the blue plague look like a case of the sniffles. This could be a major campaign. the Devco system which is run by CDC and is the system that many survivors of the Blue plague were resettled in could be a test bed for some of this stuff as GODco, which owes money to CDC would be there terraforming so there would be a major facility there. Adventure turns into an investigation of GODco which leads to Hentz. Climax is built so that it looks like things are over once the top guy at GODco is taken down but troubling thing are discovered in the files at GODco that lead an NPC to say, "thank god we stopped this from going further." the problem is that it still is going further and the new phase is centered on Fo1 and the ark of yazira. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 10, 2012 - 8:26pm | Jedion, That sounds like a good outline for an adventure. Maybe a couple of modules there? |
