Tal's Wildlife
Tal's Primitive Creatures (原生生物) is a title for any and all creatures and flora native to the Planet Tal. While all Talyxians can arguable be classified as "primitive," we will assign this term to the more wild species, rather than the sapient ones, like Talyxian Stalkers and Rooters.
Most of these creatures are not humanoid, often appearing in forms considered to be monstrous: the horrendous mollusk-like Dondokos similar to land octopuses, the Forest Leeches with powerful invertebrate bodies and hungry jaws, the insect bodies of the pesky Weasel. While many Talyxians hold forms of a nightmare quality, there are also more gentle-looking types that have been domesticated as livestock, though these still look rather strange when compared to the Earth equivalent beasts.
The majority of these wild Talyxians are classified in the "Shellfish" family (conchology), bearing a hard shell exterior somewhere on their bodies.
Many of these Talyxians pose a threat or inconvenience to the sentient races, especially the Eltus, but taming and domesticating some of them is possible.
Note: This article is completed but is still in need of revisions, mainly proof-reading.
Definition
In general usage, the phrase "primitive creatures" refers to animals that existed in primeval forests and early periods of time. This is only partially true when we use this term in the Vilous universe. All creatures that lived on the planet Tal before any Eltus races appeared are classified under this term "primitive creatures", having originated from an earlier time than the Eltus are involved in. This umbrella term overlaps with the common label of Talyxian.
Classification
Primitive creatures generally fall into one or more roughly broad classifications:
- Shellfish species, sporting a shell around part or most of their bodies, generally exhibiting a peaceful nature
- Sessile organisms, creatures generally rooted to one location and remaining immobile, this would include stationary plants
- Sapient species, including Talyxian species like rooters, stalkers, and associators
- Talyxian-type small animals
- Feral beasts that exhibit a combination of both shellfish nature and Talyxian nature, this includes large leeches and actinias, often these have monstrously violent natures while still featuring a shell formation on their bodies.
Some feral animals that are more Talyxian in appearance may show a lessening of the inorganic features, changing to a shellfish nature, when they are successfully tamed by people. There may be some correlations beyond the species division, but this is currently unexplored.
When using the word in spoken language, the term "Talyxian" generally refers to the race of a measurable sentient species, such as the Talyxian rooter. The term "Shellfish" is used for the docile, harmless, or useful animals that offer convenience or entertainment to Eltus people. These words are not used in a particular definition in regards to biology terms, especially since Tal's biology is not clearly defined into separate groups, like animals and plants.
Peculiar features
Primitive creatures have unique particularities that are obviously different from the Eltus and common creatures of Earth. As an example, some of these creatures feature other genders than the simple binary female and male, sometimes up to four different genders. These genders may change based on environment, and common Talyxian genes allow cohabitation and cross-breeding. This can allow for the mixing of different genes and traits regardless of appearance and apparent ecology.
Some primitive creatures in the northern regions of Tal are able to emit a strong miasma effect, but details remain unknown about how many and which particular types are able to do this.
Relations with the Eltus people
The majority of the feral Talyxians are harmful and dangerous to sentient races, and the Eltus have followed a variety of ways to cope with these feral invaders in each region. they are still an important part of the Eltus people's lives. Each area of the Eltus adopts a coping method to deal with these primitive creatures, offering a wide variety of methods to adopt. In the northern regions, the feral Talyxians are usually intentionally avoided, if not Most of feral them are harmful to sentient races, a wide range of people make a individual method for coping with them in each place. In modern time, people everyday use them to industry by developed hunting technology, not only repulsing. Like that, they are very close to a life of sentient races in any case.
Creatures which are classified in talyxian species avoid salts for some reason, hence Eltus people use salts as safety protection against harmful talyxian creatures in many areas. In the episode of Vilous comics, "salt outpost" on page 4 of "Gathering Herbs" is one of example of those.
There are not so many dangerous creatures in mountains and desert zone. But there are very lot of dangerous and ferocious creatures in forest zone mainly, it is reckless to walk the suburbs without arms. People generally use car or horse, and sometime surround themselves with bodyguards to get across the suburbs. A bodyguard is very popular job in a tourist sites, and an areas where there are always a lot of caravans on road. Local hunters, or guards of bandits who have many knowledge of wildlife serve as a guide often, and people can hire them at a low rate. Especially, sergals have most superior ability for coping with primitive creatures.
Flora
The common "plants" of Tal are akin to sessile organisms similar to barnacles, actinia, sponges, or basket stars. Most of those are classified under Talyxian-Plants. They usually don't have chlorophyl, and their features are totally different from Earth's common flora. They also are primitive creatures.
Main article:Talyxian-Plants
Green plants with chlorophyl similar to the ones from Earth are belonging to Eltus-Plants, not Tal's original flora. And they are fairly rare sight, making them a desirable and fairly valuable item on Tal.
Domestic animals
There are various domestic animals in Tal, most known domestic animals (mainly quadruped herbivores like a cows, horses, pigs, and sheep) were derived from shellfish creatures. Shellfish species are generally docile, harmless for sentient races, and people can tame them easy, and are able to do selective breeding. But also they will become easy to feral animals if they lost owner or left from cultured habitation.
They have a good quality of their meat, most of them are able to be ridden by people for locomotion, and a "shellfish milk" that are taken from cow-type of them is very popular animal products in Southern dairy farmer.
Cows, bulls, and horses are usually called as "shellfish", but there also are domestic animals that are not classified under shellfish species; chickens, birds, dogs, and feral animals maybe show nature of talyxian or so on. Such animals have very various differences of physical features, for example there are very long legs things, legless things, and small bipedal things that are tamed as pets. Unlike Earth's biology, their species division are not classified in strict definition by people. As common features of Tal's living things, they are able to be done crossbred or selective breeding by experts even if they have totally different appearances mutually.
Desert creatures
There are some various creatures, "Shiniku-asari(Carrion eater, or Scavenger)", land worms, small leeches, and "Koyubigai(Little finger shellfish)" in the Sailzane. People see them rarely, but they sometimes come on neighborhood of the Gold Ring due to saltlake's water. They don't avoid salts so much, and tougher to dryness, and radiation than forest creatures. Some microkinds of them are increasing on Colvilous saltlake, members of "Gold Ring gardener association" have difficulty dealing with suppressing and eliminating them.
Their microkinds that people can't watch them by the naked eye bring a threat peculiarly than middle or small size of them. Salts that Eltus prefer are poisonous for Talyxian-Plants, are able to defend from Talyxian-Plants. But if a few of Talyxian creatures who don't avoid salts increase and mutate, they cause that salts will produce many chlorine that are poisonous for Eltus-Plants. Also bigger size of them than the small size of them may promote activity of their microkinds.
Gallery
Common bird in Tal. This is a kind of talyxian creature.
Actinia head.
A sergal hunter in the NorthEast, hunted a wild talyxian hog. There are ascidian shelves in the background.
Cub Cracked / Mowamowa the stalker and various creatures that are around her.
Mountain leech and Ta'ls actinia.
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Cracked the stalker hunting various creatures.
