Phase 2:Undmos Kin'toni Clan

History

Psychology

Biology

The Undmos are adapted to the deep canyons, scree fields and razor-sharp outcroppings of the Necerine Rocky Valley. They are long slung and quadrupedal of build. Their collarbones are elongated and their spines highly flexible. Due to this, they can squeeze into tight rocky fissures to avoid the glare of the sun. This also means they cannot stand fully upright, meaning a poor reach and combat leverage against vertical opponents. Their skin is mottled basalt grey and rust-brown. It is coated with an layer of raised, overlapping keratinized scales.

These scales act as camouflage in their native environment. They lack almost all hair, all that remains is needle like, short, sparse bristles, colored dusty copper. These act as tactile sensors in pitch-black tunnels. This lack of hair makes cold environments deadly as they cannot retain heat well. The eyes have wide, slit-like golden irises. Inside these iris are very dense rod cells and dual-axis stabilization muscles. Due to this, they can tack their moving prey even while scrambling vertically.

As these tracking muscles are highly specialized, they suffer from severe motion blur if the kin'toni turns their head quickly horizontally. This causes temporary disorientation. The outer ears are long, asymmetrical, and deeply funneled,. These ears act as acoustic dishes to allow them to find the exact location on a heartbeat or a shifting pebble. The nose has downwards facing nostrils with heavy hoods and thick mucous membranes for detecting the smell of blood, even over the miles of dry wind.

The teeth are short, broad, and chisel shaped, with an reinforced base adapted to chewing though the calcified bones and tough hides of local life. These teeth lack piercing efficiency, making latching onto a prey animal's throat tiring. The claws are thick, short and shade like, and are made of an dense, iron-infused keratin/. These claws act as chisels and allow them to wedge into rock fracteres for climbing. The claws, being short and stubby, are poor at slashing and tearing flesh.

They have wide, fleshy feet, with an split, two-toed hoof design. These hooves have high friction, leathery pads able to grip even on slick, near-vertical limestone walls. These hooves are adapted for hard ground, and therefore in soft ground, the kin'toni sinks in, and often gets stuck. Inside, they have semi-rigid, shock-absorbing stays for ligaments in order to stop joint dislocations during canyon drops. This is done via the RNA packets driving iron and calcium into the major joint ligaments.

The blood vessels have an massive, centralized vascular plexus in the torso as the main concentration of blood vessels. This acts as an thermal sponge to absorb and store heat from sun baked rocks at dusk. This also means that if they remain in cold areas too long, they become sluggish and slow of motion, and can even fall into dormancy. The blood contains a rapid, specialized protein for sealing deep wounds from sharp rocks to save on blood. This is procured by the hepatic cell clots. Such protein is heavy on water and energy use.

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