Authors: M.J Kreyzer
Damidian Razorbacks
The largest subspecies of Razorback, Damidians are stockier and more muscular than their Sestik counterparts. Their arms are larger, their waists thicker, though Damidian Razorbacks store more fat and can live for weeks without food. Their flight speed is slower than that of their Sestik counterparts.
Damidian Razorbacks are burrowers, using their diamond-hard claws to carve out large, deep caverns for themselves. Spending most of their days in their caves, Damidian Razorbacks will emerge towards the twilight hours to hunt, after which they will return to their caves, which they will rarely leave, until the next day's hunt.
Sestik Razorbacks
Compared to their Damidian relatives, Sestik Razorbacks are lankier, faster, and more ferocious. They are also regarded to be more ferocious and especially territorial. And while both Damidian and Sestik Razorbacks are considered to be solitary creatures, Sestik Razorbacks have less of an aversion to social interaction than do Damidians while some biologists have recorded several rare instances of Sestik Razorbacks caring for their young, a behavior which was typically thought to be nonexistent.
Unlike Damidians, Sestiks create large burrows or claim entire portions of a particular area as their nesting grounds while being incredibly protective of this area. These areas will oftentimes be cleared out by the Razorback itself, creating a clear indication of where its territory begins and ends while other times this definition is less distinct.
Quos
Quos are have the most diverse population and have over a dozen various subspecies including Miniature Quos, carnivorous Quos, and amphibious Quos. Their general appearances are fairly similar, though. After reaching full maturity, Quos can grow to a maximum length of thirty feet and a maximum weight of twenty-one tons. They have shorter, stockier extremities and virtually no neck.
Quos are usually found in herds though and are maternally inclined. They nurture their young to maturity while those young will most often stay within that herd. With that logic and the Quos' behavior in mind, a general estimate of the age of a herd can be determined by its size.
Quos can be found in areas all over the world in any manner of environments. With their size and decidedly lower intelligences, their remarkable ability to evolve and adapt remains a mystery to biologists and animal psychologists alike.
Hoppers
Hoppers are small, around three feet in length and weigh an average of eighty pounds. They have no arms and instead rely on their mouths as their primary tools. With powerful hind legs, Hoppers are quick, agile, and extremely dangerous.
Hoppers live in hives, carving tunnels into hard deposits of dirt and mud and softer sedimentary rock. An average hive of Hoppers consists of roughly five or six hundred tightly bunched animals, a limit which, when reached, typically prompts one of the several Queens to relocate to a new area and establish a new hive.
The Queens, as one would think, are responsible for giving birth and building the hive's population. Capable of laying six eggs at a time, a Queen can generate ten new eggs every month, making it the largest mammal capable of this type of mass reproduction.
Nandril
A furred quadruped growing to be up to 4 feet in length and 120 pounds. Nandrils live in families, choosing a lifetime mate and having up to five offspring. After five pregnancies, the female Nandril becomes barren. Due to this fact, Nandrils, though lacking the sophisticated intelligences of the Stykler, places a high value on family and are extremely protective of them.
Nandrils appear to be a large, stocky mixture of a large feline and canine, possessing similar characteristics of both while maintaining its own unique appearance. With opposable thumbs, Nandrils possess a unique inclination towards the creation of tools which results in the construction of elaborate nests, located either in the tree tops or on ground level of more thickly wooded areas.
The most unique aspect of the Nandril is, in spite of its more primitive intellect, it possesses a quality unique only to itself and humanity. That quality is its sense of aesthetics. Though by human standards their attempts at art and decoration are crude and unruly, it creates an entirely new field of animal studies as various species of Nandrils around the world have developed complex cultures and subcultures creating several dozen subspecies of Nandril that are identical in their genetic makeup.
General Reference
The Rune
Origins
- With its first writings appearing around 17 M.E written by Durant philosophers, and scholars, the bulk of its writings didn't appear until circa 75 M.E when a young warrior monk by the name of William began his own independent records concerning the first century of the new Epoch. While his observations were greatly criticized by his colleagues as being 'radical', 'out-of-touch' and ultimately incongruent with the then-established principles of God, William refuted the idea that God would only wish to save a few of his children while maintaining an egocentricity that required his followers to worship him. Such ideas, as William asserted, were blatantly hypocritical and violated the most basic concepts behind the Durant faith. Following an eight month long exodus into the Marsecta Desert, William returned with a new epistle, aptly named 'The First Epistle of William.' In it, he described a higher code of conduct, dubbed the 'Degrees of Reconciliation' which he said were necessary principles that must be adhered to should an individual wish to transcend mortality and dwell with God in the hereafter.
The inclusion of William's writings ultimately separated the Rune into two different versions. The first version is simply referred to as the Sacred Rune, a body of work that excludes William's writings and is the doctrine by which the Purist faith follows. The second version, referred to as
The Rune
, contains both the original writings of Durant prophets and the writings of William and Vergil Semprys.
The Rune
is separated into two sections which serve to distinguish the former from the latter. The first section, containing original writings, is referred to at the
Alpha Rune
, while the second section is known aptly as the
Beta Rune.
Together, they form the work that the Durant faith is based upon.
Remittance
Remittance has both religious and scientific value and is an act performed in the last moments of a person's life. In its religious aspect, Remittance is a preparation for the spirit's crossing into the spirit world, acting as a last minute purification of the individual in question. In the scientific aspect, Remittance binds the individual together in their entirety so that nothing is lost in their transferal to the next dimension.
To perform this ritual, the one presiding over it must have proper experience with Furo and Elemental, otherwise it will have minimal to no effect. They then place one hand on the persons head and the other on their heart and give a prayer much like the one used in Durant healings. Following the prayer's closing, the Remitter will remain with the dying individual until they've passed on. Then, following that, the Remitter will again place one hand on the person's head, give one last phrase and leave them to rest.
The Furian Renaissance
The Furian Renaissance began in the year 246 M.I following Malcolm Rowling's discovery of Furo. Over the next three years, led by Rowlings and his chief physicists, Doctors Charles Bannick, Daniel Cooper and Gregory Hollice, and their respective teams advanced technology at a blistering speed. Within three years, people had gone from flying turbine jets and devouring fossil fuels to living in an era of high technology, where things like teleportation and hovering battle cruisers nearly two miles long were commonplace. And while historians (all of them commissioned by the Commune) will insist that the Renaissance lasted only three years, its widely recognized to have lasted another fifteen years, including the Durant Relocation Act, a legislative move that allowed scientists, physicists and biologists to use Durant specimens for research. Its believed these experiments are what yielded some significant scientific findings, including modern anti-gravity technology.
The Slick List
During a census taken in 246 M.I questioning the citizens on their race (Made possible by a legislative measure passed only a year earlier) Durants were required by law to divulge the relevant information, the results of which were used to generate a comprehensive list of Durants and their homes. After the fall of the Union and the Commune's obvious hostilities towards the Durant race and religion, Durant individuals and even entire families began disappearing. Shortly after these incidences began occurring, the freedom of Religion was abolished in a general election held to elect the next 'President' which, of course, was Marcus Lynch. Once the Dark rebellion formed in 251 M.I, it was discovered that the information gathered during this census was being used to profile Durants and take them into custody. Following an elaborate cyber-attack on the Communal Subnets, these documents were destroyed, with what files remained being contaminated. As a result, their replication was made impossible. These remaining files, contaminated though still usable, were located on a small hard disk referred to as the Slick List. Throughout the early stages of the Durant Relocation Act, the Slick List proved to be the Commune's most formidable tool and served as the primary source of intelligence that made the Invasion of Elysium so quick and efficient. Shortly after Elysium fell, this Slick List would be captured and destroyed in a naval battle between Dark and Communal Helios in the stratosphere above the Carpathic Ocean. The destruction of this disk bought several million Durants the time they needed to relocate to a safer, more discreet location, the tragedy at Elysium serving as a reminder that they were no longer safe.
Pit Fighting
Pit Fighting, the most popular sport on Havok, is an elaborate show of hand-to-hand combat with hard, non-lethal weapons mixed in.
The Fight itself takes place on a platform suspended in the air above a stadium's floor. The goal of any Pit Fight is to either subdue their opponent, knock them out, or knock them off the platform into the net below.
In Pit Fighting, the fight can take place on a limitless amount of platforms. Smaller platforms are reserved for one on one fights while larger, ten-on-ten battles will be waged on larger, more elaborate platforms. These platforms can have several levels with any type of obstacle placed thereon, each element adding another variable to how the fight might play out. On larger platforms, holes will be placed in various places on the platform, making it so that there is always an edge nearby.
The Semprys Lineage
Starting with William, the Semprys Lineage was considered royal with each Semprys regarded as a prophet. While William Semprys' role as a prophet was hotly contended and disputed in the faith's earlier days, William's martyrdom prompted followers of the Rune and Durant doctrine to form up behind him. With Vergil still living and being regarded as a moral, righteous, and protective leader, it became an unwritten gospel that the Sempryses were divine leaders of the Durant faith and their role as leaders of the Durant faith became canon. Upon their deaths, their sons would assume the position as prophet and leader of the Durant faith. Each Semprys would have only one son (as to prevent contention over the assumption of the role as the Durant Prophet) while any accidental births would be given up for adoption and their true heritage kept secret from them. This situation occurred only twice, and due to obvious implications this practice was kept secret, with not even the adoptive families knowing who it was they were adopting.
Throughout the centuries, the Semprys families gained a number of enemies. There was only one leader, though, who became regarded as the greatest threat to the family line. That man, Vladmir Frenz, presumably operating as an agent of the Purist agenda though his intentions were ultimately unknown, set out to not only eliminate the Semprys lineage but to dismantle the Durant faith altogether. Following the public assassination of Mark Semprys, son of Vergil and a young boy presumed to be his son, it was mandated that the senior Semprys never come within five hundred miles of his son. With this seemingly endless onslaught of aggressors, a group of warriors was established to protect the Semprys family. They were named the Ditrinity.
Over the centuries, attempt after attempt was made on the lives of the Semprys family by Frenz, while there were several instances of his coming extremely close. Eventually, though, in 204 M.I, Vladmir Frenz had been able to catch Leon Semprys and his entire family by surprise, finding them all in one place for the brief period of time they were allowed. It was here that he killed Leon, his family, his daughter, and presumably his son. After this point, it was considered that the Semprys line had ended, and Frenz's crusade came to an end. At this point, it was the head of Leon's Ditrinity, Peter Scarsborough, who acted as the leader of the Durant faith. The role of prophet, however, was left vacant.