- ECHOES -
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"Survivors of the Kaltic Blight, Echoes were once another creature entirely. After the Change overcame them, the offspring that survived became… different."
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H A B I T A T
They can be found in the various forests of the lands, including the Northern ones, and occasional cave systems.
P H Y S I O L O G Y
Echoes are abnormally, almost absurdly tall. One of the lingering effects of the damage that was incurred when the plague swept through them is that they do not stop growing. They will eventually, if they live long enough, become so tall that their bones can no longer support them and they will be unable to walk, strange and spindly and terrible. Even before that however, they reach full maturity around seven feet tall from their footpads to the top of their head. Around the time they slow and become hard to move, they’re approximately nine feet tall or so.
It takes three years for one to grow to maturity, and it seems to be a remarkably painful process for the young echo. Often, when one hears their howling it is not howls of the hunt, but howls of discomfort at the rapidity of their own growth. It takes another six years for the echo to be too tall to sustain its own movements.
Echoes are tall, lean creatures with a near unnatural speed throughout northern woodlands and, armed with five long, razor sharp claws, are a formidable foe. It is this speed and their uncanny intellect that makes them dangerous, especially when they co-ordinate, making up for what they lack in physical strength.
Their bodies are covered in a layer of dark, mottled fur that can hold shades of whites, greys and browns, blending eerily well within the trees of the forests. They have two sets of eyes, one set smaller and set below the other for assisting in night vision, and whilst they’re normally entirely black they are quite reflective with light shown their way.
Their strangest feature is the bone-like plating moving over the forehead and outwards either side like gnarled roots, though it could be said their style and shape is mixed between antlers and horns yet matches neither description in full. Sometimes they grow moss, and can be either bone white or blackened in colour. Extending from this, their snouts don’t seem to match any known creature, but elongated and filled with teeth ideal for tearing through flesh and hide.
Diet: They are carnivores, and take to devouring anything they can overpower.
Lifespan: Between fifteen and twenty years.
B E H A V I O U R
Echoes are unique to other arboreal beasts in that they are incredibly clever and crafty compared to other creatures in their environment. Dumb ones are approximately as intelligent as a great ape; more crafty echoes are even moreso. In spite of this intelligence, they cannot communicate with the sentient races of Altera, are not playable, and under no circumstances are palatable to the company of them. Enhanced their minds may be, but their consciousness is wholly alien, bizarre, and totally unique to their own species.
Given it was a plague from the Qlippoth that changed them so, their unique sentience bears some resemblance to Qlippoth’s own. Echoes are no longer solitary creatures, but often live in quasi-tribal arrangements with up to a dozen of their other kin. While they have a central den somewhere, members of the tribe will often individually go off to find food and bring it back to the den. The mother of all of the echoes in this tribe will typically never leave the den. If they die, the echoes seem to feel their suffering and it will drive them permanently mad and spell the end of the tribe. It is theorized that when the mother lives, her children are able to communicate to one another through the living mother. When the mother dies, all of the echoes are unable to speak to one another anymore, and feel the death of her.
A B I L I T I E S
[Night Vision] They have one set of eyes that are primarily there for seeing in the darkest of conditions, able to see with perfect clarity.
[Mimicry] Mimicking sounds they’ve heard and recognise, they remember a great variety of words and phrases and can recite them perfectly. Sometimes they say what they hear in a different tone or intonation, too, including in pitches loud enough to make those with sensitive hearing almost dazed.
[Connected] They are able to commune with one another through thought and intent, though do not speak in a manner of which mortals can comprehend.
W E A K N E S S E S
They are made for the forests, and whilst they are one of the top predators within this domain, they are quite exposed if they venture beyond it. If their den mothers are killed, the madness they give in to makes them far less careful and can be known to venture in plain sight.
Y I E L D S
[Echo Hide]
[Bone]
Credit: blargtheawesome
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