Xurxo G. Penalta

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The Rudd is an often misunderstood member of the fauna that populates the vast Loop rainforest.

Its parsimonious attitude and the very low level of activity it exhibits day to day, make it seem disengaged, disinterested in anything around him. Mature Rudds may remain in one spot moving at an glacially slow pace, absorbing nutrients from the soil beneath them and softly filtering fluid particles from the air.

They only become noticeable during mating season, when they produce loud snorting sounds and their sweat glands inflate and become externally visible on their body, making the particular odor that characterizes their sexual availability.

There are so very few of them and they have such dilated life cycles, many rarely get to reproduce, since finding one another becomes so extremely unlikely.

The Rudds role is essential in one of they characteristics of the Loop Rainforest, the mega flora that populates it. Since after feeding from it the mucus trail Rudds leave behind regenerate the soil to an incomparable degree, overpowering its carbon potential and oxigenación levels so much that the seeds fortunate to grow on it can do so in at 4 times the regular speed and 8 to 10 times the size. Thus this barely noticeable creature is instrumental on one of the most iconic features of this unique environment.

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The Otomn in its Floral stage is a voracious predator. Consuming most sorts of fauna it comes across in the Loop Rainforest. Its natural camouflage and amazing versatility of speeds place it ahead as the most lethal hunter in the area. The Otomn movement can go unnoticed at both ends of the velocity spectrum. Becoming so still and purposeful in its movement when prey is unaware of its presence, becoming practically invisible. And then moving a lightning speed as it attacks its victim, which mostly remain oblivious until impacted by its jaws or claws.

After the hunt is secured, although rarely perished, the Otomn secretes powerful fluids through its four frontal appendixes that quickly erode enough of the outer layer of their prey to penetrate beneath it and dilute the innards of the creature, which the Otomn will rapidly aspirate, avoiding all solid and indigestible elements.

Towards the end of 3 to 4 cycles that the Floral stage lasts the Otomn must have consumed enough nutrients to build enough strength to generate the chrysalis that will see it evolve to its maturity, the Aerial stage.

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The Ellmizho is often believed to be a carrion feeder, and while opportunistic findings of carcasses, as well as unsupervised eggs on momentarily empty nests, are a large part of its diet, there is a seasonal aspect to the nutrition of the female of the species.

During the estrous period and throughout their pregnancy, female Ellmizho’s turn to hunting live prey and consuming solely fresh meat and eggs, if they can find them. Completely abandoning the consumption of carrion.

This remarkable shift in their nurture comes as the cycle begins, in the first days of hormonal rearrangement, their side effects cause a severe purging of most digestive flora regularly used throughout the rest of the cycles. Leaving the animal with the bare basics for digestion and an instinctive appetite for plain but highly nutritious, low toxicity sources.

The clear inflammation and the abundant markings caused through the purging process signals males the launching of the mating cycle and suitors are attracted to engage the females attention.

To achieve this and although they would never consume it, due to its low odor and bare taste, compared to the fermented and rotting meats they mostly consume, some males will hunt down live prey and present it to receptive females as offerings.

This dietary pattern is carried on throughout the pregnancy by Ellmizho mothers, although their nomadic mates absent themselves after the estrous cycle concludes.

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Female Teelows cross the vast regions of the Ullam Frost through the snow to seek a potential mating partner. This journey may costs many of them dearly. Multiple threats and perils can arise throughout the 6 week trek as they walk alone through the iced landscape. Teelows rely on following their familial memories, an inherited instinct, to find the routes that led their ancestors to reproductive success. This useful legacy may unfortunately lead them astray, as in many cases the terrain has changed in the time between generations and what was once a safe passage may have now become a perilous one.

When Teelows reach the green Ullam valleys the fight for partners can be more dangerous than the trek itself. Exhausted after the pilgrimage competing females may fight each other for a mates attention and approval. The confrontations can be grueling and the heightened stress and accumulated over exhaustion alone can make the females collapse and die.

The much smaller males witness the many efforts from their caves, where they nest, and if interested reward them with attention by leaving the nest and engaging on the courtship ritual.

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Nowadays Laplam lizards feed mostly Guyitts, invasive rodents species that the early settlers used as experimental subjects for development of multiple acclamation medical treatments, serums, vaccines and antibiotics. During the first 35 cycles of the arrival the breeding and use of Guyitts was so widespread that 3 full farming facilities were operative.

During the wind wall of 682 one of them got destroyed and the surviving Guyitts made it out into the wild. Batches of scientifically pre acclimated varieties were ideally designed to thrive in the environment and quickly became invasive.

Thanks to their astounding birth rates and exponential growth, Guyitts presence quickly displaced the native Polsat, a flightless bird that occupied the same area, which is now almost extinct. On the other hand Laplam lizards populations have tripled since records are kept and have double their size. 


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The only time Ell ever saw a real Ord was when one was stranded on the Central beach. Ord’s were rare already back then and almost gone now. Never really knew if it was alive still, how could he. Areas of its majestically iridescent skin still changed colors instantly when poked with a stick or even when softly hit by the waves.

The creature was larger than any animal Ell would ever see and as he later found out, it was quite a small specimen within the Ord family. Probably a male, severely damaged after mating. Severely weakened by the 3 months of pursuit of a partner, or more, and the many clashes that follow the courting. Many suitors do not endure beyond the copulation ritual. Nor get to hear the Ord Song, the unique female chant that occurs afterwards. A low frequency internal vibration, but perceivable outside, that signals the females ovaries to descend, thus opening their canals for impregnation. Females consciously control this mechanism by the Ord Song and can decide not to perform the vibration, thus remaining fertile for other mating opportunities, if the male, the environment or available nutrition are deemed unfit or stressful for the female.

The sight of Ords vibrant skin were crucial on Ells life, it was after this encounter he decided to take on the path of becoming a chromatic developer.

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Allophs carry large amounts of fluid weigh within the fat cell matrixes that fill their many bulging bladders.

They cross over the Willby Valley to load up on the mineral gel that slowly pours out of the cracks on rock walls and crevasses. By firmly pressing against the walls with the hardened frontal region of their craniums, adult Allophs increase mineral gel secretion from the rock face, which they absorb through small organs within the seams of their cranial sutures. Once a crack is bared of gel they move their search to a different area and begin the process again, until the girth of their bulges has expanded enough in size that they feel their skin tighten, which will trigger a satiety response. Making the Alloph feel full; Depending on the cycles season, a satisfying fluid loading can take from 4 to 5 hours on damp periods, to over 3 or 4 days of hard stone pressing on dry periods.

On their return journey Allophs excrete the abundant mineral salts derived from processing the gel. The salt deposited on their pathways is abrasive to the voracious Toll mollusks that populate most other areas of the Willby. This exemption makes the pathways, created by Alloph pilgrimage through the ages, a unique environment in which to find several types of flora that is simply unable to thrive elsewhere in the valley due to the ubiquitous presence of the Tolls.

Once back on their safe nesting regions Allophs reunite with their offspring. The weary travelers kneel or lay down on their sides. Eager with thirst the younger members get their fill of fluids by pressing their developing foreheads against the bulges of the exhausted adult, rapidly absorbing the precious liquid through their cranial seams. The fluids they ingest were fully processed by the adult previously and are immediately digestible and highly nutritious for the cubs who enthusiastically push each other for a spot to drain.

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Mondhols are some of the most extraordinary pack hunters in the Lonmar Steppe. With their unrivalled stamina, a small pack of 4 or five Mondhols can chase down a large Elamond 20 times their size. Both their persistence and their tracking abilities are second to none.

Mondhols have no specialised respiratory apparatus since they breathe cutaneously, allowing them for a constant exchange of carbon dioxide for oxygen, leaving them unconcerned with thermoregulation. The absence of breathing organs not only helps with their extreme lightness, but breathing through the skin also provides them with a full body scent sensory organ. One of the sharpest know to exist; Mondhols dynamic olfatometry can reach between 10 and 88 on the odor prism. 

Highly territorial, Mondhols packs always return to the moister regions within the Lonmar to replenish fluid reserves on their dorsal sacs, depleted after their feats of hunting endurance, and recover by bathing on the pools that keep their skin moist.

This makes them specially vulnerable to the environmental changing conditions the Steppe has seen in the last 12 cycles. The Mondhol populations and specific packs have dwindled to a third of the earlier records and forecasts are not auspicious. 
The Mondhol, such an extraordinary predator, unrivalled on so many fronts, may soon be extinguished through merely remaining on its native habitat.

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After hatching, female Enssamo infants stay with their mothers until their third cycle and up to the fifth in the case of males.

Long enough for their eye sight to be completely developed. Quietly staying secluded under the sticks and mud of the finely camouflaged riverbed nests carefully constructed by their mothers months before the eggs are laid.

Although one of natures sharpest eyesight and able to see color gammas beyond the Lem spectrum, complete darkness is crucial for young Enssamos; their developing conical eyes must remain unexposed to direct light sources for enough time, so that the corneas are able to endure it. Paradoxically, their characteristic protruding eyes provide Enssamos with a panoramic field of view, while such high sensitivity demands to build up a strong tolerance, an endurance training period, that if ignored could make them blind and unable to sustain themselves in the wild.

Even if as adults the Enssamos become some of the most effective hunters in the rainforest, this developmental condition renders them blind for the first few cycles of their life.

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The Bogalls recognizable sound is as characteristic of the Lonmar Steppe as its blue Ulm grass.

Bogalls mate during the late light seasons and in the nights of the period passerby’s will hardly sleep. The local cultures know how to prepare the glass sap of the Alsia root to block off the frequency of the matting call for enough time to rest through the night.

The Bogalls deafening call is essential for the species survival; it needs to be strong and constant enough to reach down to sufficient depth to wake the females from their underground hibernation. Otherwise females might wake later in the season when the chances of the fertile window closing are much higher.

In general females tend to hibernate at depths of 3 or 4 feet but some can reach down to 8 or 9 feet if the soil is too cold or overly dry. These changes are dependent on the preceding cycle average temperature and the chosen area.

This is what will mostly tint the portrait of the Lonmar Steppe on the lat light seasons.

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Nursing wounded and orphaned Emjos back to health and reintroducing them into their original wild environments takes a great deal of infrastructure.

Aside from their considerable size and sturdy built, Emjos are delicate creatures with complex behavioral patterns and intricate in group relations. All of these have to be carefully considered and regularly tended to in every step of the process.

From veterinary surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists to caretakers and behavioral analysts are involved with each animal at different stages of their recovery.

Caretakers and groundskeepers spend the most time in direct contact with the Emjos and as a result strong bonds are formed between them.

Rogg a groundskeeper of the Emjo nursery section has worked with some of these animals for well over 4 cycles. Mothers and orphaned calves recognize him every morning as he walks into their enclosure and trot to greet him, emitting warm whaling sounds and competing for Roggs attention. Emjos love getting the hardshell areas scrubbed. The dry mud gathered after their regular wallowing routines concentrates on the rigid skin while it easily falls from the softer striations. Wild and captive Emjos scratch themselves against tree trunks or lean sideways against rock walls, but Roggs brushing is more effective and less demanding. 
Roggs feels this bond as well. As he has participated in the coaxing protocols to pair the grieving mothers and the orphaned calves into adopting each other. He always liked Emjos but participating in their rebinding has brought him much closer to them. An orphan himself, raised in a communal boarding school. Rogg is often moved by this expressions of familial ties, the likes of which he never enjoyed.

With each successful pairing he feels more accomplished and in awe of the restorative capacity of this incredible animals. The Emjos.

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Although Marhn has been tending to this Horned Ollies for 8 cycles he still finds them mesmerising. How such large, mighty creatures can move so gently across the terrain. He can barely hear them if he closes his eyes.


For Marhn it’s hard to believe this natural wonders could one day cease to be. They seem as much a part of the landscape of the Elyanno plains as the Cobb Mountain Chain or the Sawff river. 

As a child Marhn had seen Horned Ollies in the old docu rolls and encyclopaedic archives of his units knowistry. Ollies were his favourite and loved to depict them on the simulators whenever teaches gave them task free access. He knew them by heart and was one of the best among his classmates at emulating them. His sims could even make sounds, emote and make eye contact. Loop copies of Marhn’s sims were often shared around by classmates and they even got to impress the students of higher grades that saw them. He was a natural. 

Around Marhn’s 2nd cycle, brief but ghastly reports of the plea of the Horned Ollie started to emerge. Sadly as he grew older, colonies grew smaller and foreseeable extinction was in the horizon. It only got worst and worst. All conservation efforts failed as the environment of the Lacla continued to degrade. Nutrient scarcity and the irreversible toxicity of the ground were too severe for the remaining Ollie population, already weakened and massively stressed. Reproduction numbers had thinned like the quality of the environment and the precious few new births faced a dire prospect.
 
At the time Marhn volunteered into the Assisted Migration Program, he did it only as a brief aside, something to help during a 3rd of the cycle at most and return to his position in the Ella Department of Analysis. It was his career after all. Once there, he worked on managing and strategy which felt closer to his profesional expertise.

When the recruitment notice for ground positions came up in the internal boards, he felt his skin rise with electricity. He hadn’t even considered it. He had come there just to help. Being actually close to the Ollies had not occurred to him. See them in person.

Soon after he applied for the position and was transported to the Elyanno plains, Marhn saw them for the first time. This environment was as new for Marhn as it was for the Ollies. Feeling of doubt, fear and trepidation whenof facing the unknown landscape. He felt that within him as much as he saw it in them. He felt synched to them. This changed Marhn for good. It became clear he would not go back to an office. Not as long as he could afford to be out in the open. Out with the Horned Ollies.

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Tall Almanos from the Elegg region are much taller than their counterparts from the tropical areas of the Molnnory, Known as the Mute Almano. 
Out in the open terrain the Almano reaches 2 meters by their first cycle and some can reach 7 meters by sexual maturity. In the tropical forests they rarely go above 3,5 meters. Managing much more height under the tropical tree coverage would be a hinderance.
 
Height aids the Tall Almano with the air filtration. Permitting their circular respiration, with constant inhalation through their multiple nostrils situated under the large striations on their long necks. Through which they emit their characteristic uninterrupted whaling sounds with occasional loud chirps that can be heard all across the terrain. The chant known as the Almano Song, pushed to its louder registries acts also as deterrent for predators. 
The complex language employed by the Almanos in their song is complex and allows constant communication among themselves as they keep a scattered herd. By mirroring the same chant with a slight variation they talk back and forth throughout the expansive terrain. Distances up to 10 Kilometres and even further subsonically. This way the Almano Song keeps the herd located and in contact at all times optimising the herds security, as well as scouting for best spots and procuring nutritional findings. 
The constant chanting and replication is shared and modified simultaneously by each member of the herd. This external chorus is seen was a manifestation of the herds inner spirits and preoccupations. Shepherds follow the choirs chant to assess their wellbeing and monitor their attitude. 
All Tall Almanos shepherds use protective gear, as their seemingly uninterrupted whistling sounds can easily reach 180 decibels. Even then, veteran shepherds tend to suffer severe hearing loss over time. 
Contrary to popular belief, the Almano from the tropics, known as the Mute Almano, isn’t silent but it communicates mostly subsonically with its herd, which are much smaller and even more spread apart. Over the years, chant recording studies and analysis have demonstrated a clear use of similar language patterns for both species. 
Derived from this perceived differences the Tall Almanos herds from the Elegg region, are popularly referred to as “Almano Choirs” and those who shepherd them colloquially known as “conductors” as well as the tropical Mute Almano, from the Molnnory, be considered a solitary species.

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Cover for issue one of moonray whale hunter character.

Story by Brandon Graham for @Moonray game

@royalboiler

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galactus & silver surfer commission. ink, zipatone and whiteout.

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silver surfer & Galactus commission on sketch cover.