Lorkim
| Lorkim | |
|---|---|
| Base Information | |
| Classification | Scavenger/Reducer |
| Terrain | Forest, Jungle, Plains, Hills |
| Locomotion | Terrestrial Walker |
| Size | 12.0 kg |
| Speed | 48.0 kph |
| Strength | can lift 25 times their mass for a short burst exertion |
| Social Structure | Solitary unless breeding events at end of life cycle |
| Weapons | +1 Teeth, Horns |
| Armor | None |
| Source | |
| Homeworld | Harkim/Foralin (Far Home 1531) |
| Multi-world | No |
| Canon | No |
| Extinct | Extant |
| Reference | Author: Ronald B. Kline, Jr. |
The Lorkim is a non-intelligent creature native to Harkim (world) (D7857CD-2) in the Harkim/Foralin (Far Home 1531) system. They are scavenging reducers native to a world just beyond the in the Rimward Federation.
Physiology & Ecology
They have a 4 year lifespan, with sexual maturity in 20 months. They breed once and this is an end of life cycle event. The males compete for breeding and work to mate with as many females as possible. They die as a result of their exertion and the violent battles for dominance. The combat is an impressive display, hissing, wing and tails flaring in threat displays. They are metabolically very active under normal conditions, males don't eat during this final courtship phase which contributes to their eventual exhaustion. Exothermic chemical metabolism is used to maintain their homeothermic body temperature. They are scavengers and reducers. They are very efficient in their use of nutrients and energy and produce very little waste aside from indigestible inorganics they may encounter. The males are much more vividly colored than the better camouflaged females. The females gavid with fertilized young encyst in a gelatinous slime layer hidden in a nook or cranny. Litters of 99 young erupt from this slimy cyst having consumed the dead parent. They are designed to fend for themselves as soon as they emerge as 0.4kg fry.
Their leathery epidermis is a highly enervated and sensitive tactile array. They have four short antennae on their head. They have a crest with motile tendrils growing from their cranium. The "head" is for sensory input and integration, the main nerve clusters are in the thicker chest cavity. They are invertebrates, the body uses hydraulic cylindrical tubes, sleeves of polysaccharide mesh with mineral deposits. Muscle fibers work along side fluid actuated joints. There are no true boney structures. The two short arms are immensely powerful. The organism can lift up to 25 times its mass, or roughly 300kg in a sudden surge which is shocking considering their 12kg mass. The incompressibility of fluids contributes to this forklift like performance. They are descended from flyers. They retain vestigial wings and the flared tail has membranes and support members and borosilicate spars for a steering tail/rudder. These membranes serve as thermal regulatory cooling radiators now, to keep their body temperature from climbing too high. They have three clusters of three photoreceptor pigmented eye spots. General - Their sense of touch is highly sensitive. - They can lift 25 times their own weight. - They are highly energetic.Breeding age is 4 years, with two genders and viviparous gestation. They are homoeothermic and give birth to litters of about 25 young every nine month. They are carnivore pouncers and can live anywhere there is liquid water to swim in. They are nearly the same speed in and out of the water. They live and hunt in large family groups and interbreed regularly once they reach sexual maturity near the end of life. Adult males lead these groups, with a large number of female hunters. Younger males are driven off and fight to rejoin large groups once they mature. They are bilaterally symmetrical and have a long spined proboscis with a 30cm piercing tongue. They are extremely agile and communicate with infrasonic signals. They perceive these bellows with sensors in their feet. They use the water and mud to partially mask their infrared signature. They are voracious ambush hunters. They lurk in and around watering holes and charge from the water’s edge to grab unsuspecting prey items, often twice their size. There are amphibious, and the faces are covered in fleshy protrusions which serve to disguise their heads. Their two eyes are shrouded on either side of their head, with single large lens that can be independently moved, targeted and focused. The thick neck and shoulder musculature drives the penetration of the stabbing mouth parts. There are a pair of long forelimbs which end in a pair of flexible, strong tentacles on each arm. These are used to grasp and hold prey while they stab and drain nutrient fluids. They have six long digitigrade running legs. Their evolutionary precursors where plains runners which adapted to the water after environmental and competitor species exerted selective pressures on their gene frequency. Their deep blue integument secretes slimy and oily fluids to lower their coefficient of drag, insulate and protect from parasites. They exchange atmospheric gases but can remain submerged for at least ten minutes while stalking prey. They have six nostrils in their face and three paired sets of lungs. Their basic blue coloration owes to their copper based circulatory fluids. They have sky blue patches on their dorsal surfaces and a creamy brown colored ventral surface. They have a thin brown lateral line which delineates these two regional patterns. The arms have patches of sandy yellow and the legs have sky blue diamond patterns. They have a broad swimming tail which they move from side to side to propel them rapidly through the murky water column.
Biochemistry
Their unusual biochemistry involves copper based circulatory fluids which contributes to their blue pigmentation. They are exothermic and metabolically highly energetic.
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References & Contributors (Sources)
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis), Captain, and Lead Naval Architect Ronald B. Kline, Jr. of the Imperial Navy
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science