akdosom ("Graid")

4 Biology

4.1 Anatomy –

Graid are six limbed quadrupeds.
Size varies enormously, from just under five feet to the fabled extreme of six meters.

External:

Body covering consists of tough, leathery scaled skin and a dense 9 inch calcium/keratin carapace.
Legs are tipped with hooves. Arms have large rounded, hollow pincers, each with a pair of tentacles inside.
Head contains two eyes and a pronounced muzzle. Hair may grow on the head and down torso. Eyes can see color and shape not depth.
Hearing is an extremely powerful and robust sense. Graid can sense highly minute sounds and use echolocation to find the shape and location of objects.

Internal:

Graid are invertebrates
The Nervous system in graid is also the muscular system, with the center buried deep within the torso Muscle ‘strings’ operate the body like a puppet, with a rope and pulley system. The hand tentacles are external nerve strings.
Breathing is handles through lungs with openings to air on the back of the torso
Graid have no blood, and are in total less than a quarter liquid. Functions, such as digestion and circulation are handled by centimeter-long flagellates. Outside of the tight organ sack, most of the body does not receive regular nutrition and maintenance at all, because as it not alive

4.2 Physiology –

Inefficient gathering and circulating of energy is countered by low usage. (Just let it go, man)

Misc. Details:
omnivor
Healing is extremely slow.
Extremely vulnerable to airborne toxins

4.3 Genetics –

4.4 Life Cycle –

Graid begin as larva expelled regularly from the body of adults. The larva quickly, burrows underground and enters the pupa phase, where they gather nutrients from soil and sunlight. After a varying but generally long amount of time, the pupa digs back to the surface and breaks open, leaving the fully formed and full sized graid in its wake. The graid starts animalistic but may gain sentience.

Though the survival rating of larva and pupa, and newborn stage is less than one hundredth of a percent, upon reaching maturity there is no natural limit to a Graid’s life, and graid have only one natural predator.

4.5 Subspecies and Variations –
Graid come in many sizes (6-12 feet is normal) many colors (gray, white, black, blue, orange, red, green, yellow, brown). Hair has the same range of color and can be anywhere from a few coarse strands to a full scalp and back.
Graid come in many builds and the actual area covered by the shell varies widely.

5 Psychology -

5.1 Consciousness and Memory –

Graid, as somewhat necessary for their infinite lifespans, have permanent memory and have no type of unconscious state.

5.2 Mentality and Emotion –

Graid Begin their lives purely animalistic and starkly independent. Each graid much reach sentience individually. It is, in fact, an unexpected side effect of their infinite life span. The process can take millennia on its own, though influenced by society the time is much shorter.

As for emotions, graid have a wide and full range, some that would be difficult to explain. The one trait graid lack is any arbitrary need to hurry.