akdosom ("Graid")

[Bard]

(i'll just set this up now. sorry)


[Data Entry] Graid

1 Etymology – 



3 Habitation and Population Statistics

3.1 Historical -  

Average population stabilized at roughly 400 million. Most Individuals regularly cycled between living nomadically and taking residence in developed centers of civilization, instead of exclusively one or the other.

3.2 Contemporary -
 
Population receding at 59 million. Otherwise, living conditions are mostly unchanged, though the permanent populations of cities have significantly grown.

 

[Bard]

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.

[Bard]

6 Culture and Society

6.1 Classification -

6.2 Roles -

6.3 Social Structure -

6.4 Economics -

6.5 Conflict Management -

A long standing practice is a dual playing competing melodies while savagely beating each other with bear fists. The one who remains playing their song wins.

The graid are slow to violence, and not unified enough to declare war. But if their kind and world was threatened, they would unite, and enter the conflict as if it were a full scale crisis of survival; they have too few numbers to approach it any other way. Sabotage is heavily employed, attacks are constant. Because graid never sleep, in war time they literally do not spend a moment not fighting or preparing to fight.


6.6 Technology and Artifacts -

6.7 Communication -


Hearing being very powerful among graid, vocal communication is the main method of communication. the language of the fifth age is almost universal. with a few exeptions, all languages are only variations of the Ashad language.

the modern writting system is decended from the Iberainan script. Symbols are layered on top of eachother. Graid eyes could not read flat paper, hence it is carved into stone or clay, and they hear the shape of the symbol. Several tiers of language exist, both written and spoken, for use in different situnations. For example, the edict script could never be used in place of the labor script. However, they are still all adaptions of the same core system.

so in review:
spoken language from Ashad
written language from Iberaina

6.8 Philosophy and Spirituality -

6.10 Art -

6.11 Entertainment -

[Bard]

reserved for planet

[Bard]

reserved for characters

[Bard]

reserved

[UFO King]

A carapace nine inches thick!? Zounds! Are they regularly exposed to massive amounts of radiation? Are there gigantic predators on Earthsky? And how long have they been around, anyway?

[Bard]

Radiation? there is a fair amount more than average, but not really.
 

Giant predators? oh dear. there's a reason the graid became apex predators through might, instead of mind.

i'll just give a few highlights to illustrate my point. no, I wont describe what they look like (and any pictures on GS are no longer valid) thats for the wildlife section on the planet sheet, if we ever get one.

first, lets not forget the graid themselves. They have no social instinct until reaching sentience. that means they need to be able to withstand a lot of blunt trauma.

next I would bring up the Achara. not large, but travels in large pack. has wicked running speed, 20 inch long talons known to break through rock, and an intellegence greater than anything but the graid themselves. not the danger they used to be though, now that they have been 'civilized.'

The Yrasslr are the largest animals currently living on earthsky, roughly the size of three Apatosaurus.
there are currently 138 of them currently alive. These ancient roaming titans have names and stories associated with them, individualy (such as say Nyvrsing, eternal rime, Beast spirit of the north). oh and they they could totaly crush you with a flick of the wrist (they do not have wrists)

and finaly, if the Yrasslr are a force of nature, the Vrenjai is a legend. Graid naturalist can't explain how such a creature can exist, let alone fly, speculating it has some innate ability to sing to the winds. a mysterious and ancient power, The vrenjai has been confirmed to carry off Graid who spent a little to long in the open at high elevations.
as far as it is know, there is only one pair of Vrenjai on the planet.

how long have they been around? Very long.

[UFO King]

Whoa, Earthsky is a real planet of legends.

[Yuu]

Though, definitely not for the faint of heart.   

[Bard]

thats why graid don't have those. It's a land of beauty and power.

ok, now i'm going to start the monumental task of filling out the history for the graid. to make this possible, i've cut my work down to just the nine ages of the fifth cycle. which is...everything, actualy. the first four cycles are not not really relevent, being lost civilizations with only a couple character from that far back. so that starts with Reatustra forming Ashad among the great plateaus, and ends with now.

Kudos to the two people that will skim it and then probably give me some kind of compliment about it.

[Badger Man 22]

Challenge Accepted. I will read all of it. Twice over!

[Yuu]

Ditto. 

[Bard]

lame. I just wrote 2 pages worth of stuff and then when I click post it says I timed out, and erases is all.

[SimplyNecro]

The data vampires strike again!