La fanart del giorno 34. ATTACK (by Cranium.corvid)

Benvenute e benvenuti in questa rubrica in cui vi mostriamo le fanart dei nostri personaggi, disegnati da artisti talentuosi da tutto il mondo, e le commentiamo! Perché, insomma, un po' di fierezza ci vuole, no? Siamo fieri che le persone scelgano di disegnarli, e per dimostrarlo mettiamo i loro lavori sotto lo spotlight!

Il disegno di oggi è stata realizzato per noi da Cranium.corvid (per ArtFight, a cui le nostre artiste ufficiali stanno partecipando)!

Sara Barker è uno dei soggetti preferiti dei nostri "fanartisti", forse uno dei nostri personaggi più disegnati in assoluto, insieme ad un altro dei nostro licantropi aurolupus, Furiadoro. 

In questa bellissima illustrazione, la testa di Sara riempie lo spazio, il color oro del suo pelo è intenso, vibrante... e vibrante è proprio la parola giusta, con i contorni che sembrano vibrare nell'energia di un attacco, i denti scoperti, gli occhi spalancati. 

È ancora una Sara palesemente giovane, a cui mancano tante delle cicatrici, con il pelo più corto, e le cui proporzioni rispecchiano l'età che lei stessa aveva poco dopo gli avvenimenti de "Il Fiore e l'Artiglio", in cui si è trasformata per la prima volta, ed è interessante qualcuno che ha voluto ritrarla durante questa fase della sua vita.

Sara è la protagonista del webcomic Sara's Fitness Vlog, ma anche un personaggio ricorrente dei libri della saga di The Way Of Legends, e proprio in questo momento Il Fiore e l'Artiglio sta venendo tradotto in inglese, come "The Claw and the Rose"! Speriamo che i nostri amici anglofoni si incuriosiscano e ci diano un'occhiata ;)

Merfolk

(Ti sei perso, viaggiatore? Se stai cercando questa pagina in italiano, puoi trovarla qui!) 

Merfolk or seafolk (Maregens sp.), sometimes incorrectly known as "mermaids," are a genus of sentient aquatic creatures capable of breathing both on land and underwater. They are found in marine and freshwater waters in both temperate and cold regions, but are completely absent from the polar regions. 

They are immediately distinguishable from all other creatures by their humanoid torso, with two arms equipped with sensitive, prehensile hands. This contrasts with their lower body, which is extremely similar to the posterior portion of a bony fish—scales and fins supported by rays. 

Although there is no phylogenetic similarity and their physiology is very different, some tend to lump merfolk and sea sorcerers together; in reality, as mentioned, there is no relationship between the two species, and it is impossible for them to hybridize. 

Deep-sea sirens were once mistakenly believed to be Maregens, but scholars later classified them within the genus Abyssugens. The more recent genus of sentient, pseudo-humanoid creatures, Apocapisces, can also be confused with merfolk by the uninitiated, but scientists have never classified them as similar, and the merfolk themselves consider it a downright insult to lump them together.

Appearance and Physiology 

An adult male

Merfolk are characterized by a distinctively heterogeneous appearance: half "human" and half "fish." 

"Torso" (Upper Body) 

The upper body, from head to waist, is humanoid, generally furless except for hair on the head or, very rarely, a beard. On the neck, they typically have three pairs of gill openings (but some species have up to six pairs), unprotected by any operculum (except for a particular nordic herring-like subspecies). 

They have well-articulated upper limbs, called arms, capable of wide movements, and hands with opposable thumbs and versatile gripping capabilities, not unlike human hands, whose fingers can be webbed or separated. 

The color of their hair and skin is determined by the presence of pigments called melanins. Their skin tones can range from very dark brown to very light pink, while their hair color varies from white to black, passing through blonde, red, and brown. It is not uncommon for the skin on the face, torso, and arms to be spotted or striped, with patterns that vary depending on the species, subspecies, and individual. 

Respiration

Merfolk have a dual respiratory system, one of the most complex systems in nature—so complex, in fact, that it's unnatural.

The peculiarity of possessing both gills and lungs simultaneously is the "dream" that guided humanity to create the "water people", the merfolk: to dominate two worlds, land and water, they needed populations capable of surviving completely disconnected from land.

Merfolk gills are like those of osteichthyes, or bony fish, and are covered by a gill cover composed of a thin sheet of bone (which in turn is covered with skin).

The concentration of dissolved oxygen in water is much lower than that of air, so the gills must be significantly more efficient than mammalian lungs at extracting all the oxygen they can.

For this reason, the water in the gills flows in the opposite direction to the blood, thus always maintaining a different concentration gradient.

Merfolk's gills are located on the sides of the neck and may seem a bit small compared to the overall mass of the specimen, especially very large ones! But this is where their dual respiratory system comes into play: they possess large and highly efficient lungs, comparable to those of some marine mammals, and can rise to the surface to breathe in atmospheric oxygen and refuel before diving again.

Thanks to the continuous oxygen supplementation provided by the gills, merfolk can remain completely submerged for very long periods, especially in well-oxygenated waters, where they very rarely need to surface!

Eyes 

Like humans, merfolk have close-set eyes and binocular vision, with a high-definition field of vision in front of their head, typical of predators. Due to their adaptation to aquatic life, however, their lenses are more similar to those of fish than those of humans, making them "nearsighted" outside of water, with the ability to see objects up to a maximum of thirty to forty meters away; when underwater, they cannot see beyond the surface of the water, partly due to light refraction. 

Merfolk eyes have two eyelids and a nictitating membrane, but no tear glands. A merfolk's eye is similar to that of other vertebrates, but adapted to a darker marine environment: it has a membrane called the tapetum lucidum, which lies behind the retina and reflects light back to it, improving light perception and visibility in darker waters. The effectiveness of the tapetum lucidum varies by species and subspecies, and is optimized in those that are distinctly nocturnal or live at greater depths. 

The color of the irises varies greatly depending on the individual, location, species, and subspecies, and can be any shade, from the deepest blue to the brightest red, and even white or completely transparent. 

Chest 

Muscularly, the pectoral area of merfolk is similar to that of humans, divided into the large pectoral muscle and the small pectoral muscle. Because they are not mammals and do not breastfeed their young, both males and females lack nipples, although some specimens may have nonfunctional vestigial ones, a very rare characteristic linked to their human ancestry. Also due to their "kinship" with primate ancestors, some females exhibit a peculiar adipose tissue arrangement, with accumulations of tissue in the pectoral area that appear to mimic human breasts, but which serve no purpose other than to store fat. 

In any case, the fatty deposits on the chest of female merfolk are not particularly voluminous and simply lend a more sinuous shape to their overall silhouette, without protruding too much. 

Sometimes, the pectoral area is "decorated" with variously colored scales, cycloid or ctenoid in type, in a pattern that varies greatly in shape and size, but generally covers the center of the chest and the clavicles. 

Nixen, which possess placoid scales (also known as dermal denticles), almost never have chest markings. 

"Tail" (Lower Body) 

The fusiform, streamlined lower body features a lateral line (a special sensory system that detects low-frequency vibrations and pressure waves generated by the motion of solid bodies in water) and ends in a large, rayed tail. These rays (lepidotrichous) are articulated with several parallel bony or cartilaginous elements, called radials. Another characteristic of this genus is the presence of a swim bladder, a large, modified lung sac containing a gas mixture, which allows for sophisticated adjustment of their hydrodynamic trim, allowing them to surface or submerge with ease, without having to rely on muscle strength or the use of external weights, as humans would. All merfolk lack hind limbs, leaving only small vestigial bones within the body that are not connected to the vertebral column. 

During embryonic development, however, they exhibit the beginnings of these limbs, which spontaneously regress as they grow. The lower body of these specimens also displays a light, flexible covering of scales, consisting of thin, differently pigmented bony plates. In addition to the caudal fin, which is necessary for propulsion and therefore movement, merfolk possess four other essential fins: a dorsal fin, two ventral fins, and an anal fin. 

Dorsal Fin 

Almost all merfolk have a dorsal fin on their backs, whose function is to provide swimming stability, preventing the specimen from capsizing during rapid lateral movements. This fin is sometimes absent in specimens living in polar regions, as it would hinder swimming under ice. The dorsal fin varies in shape and size among the various merfolk species and subspecies, a useful feature for identification. 

Caudal Fin 

Unlike that of fish, this fin in merfolk is arranged horizontally and moves from bottom to top. This characteristic allows the merfolk's tail to be distinguished at first glance from that of a fish, and its function is to propel the fish through its vertical movement. Even in this case, shape and size vary among species, and therefore these characteristics can be used for identification, especially for large species. 

Anal fin 

This fin, located not far from the cloacal opening, serves to stabilize swimming. However, in males of some subspecies, it is highly developed and colorful and is displayed during courtship to demonstrate the fish's health. 

Ventral fins 

These are paired, or double, fins located higher than the anal fin, just below the abdominal region. They serve a stabilizing function and are used to quickly slow the pace by flexing them downward. 

Musculoskeletal System 

Because they are not designed to support body weight, merfolk bones are light and spongy compared to those of a human. They contain a high concentration of fat, which aids buoyancy. 

The rib cage is composed of a variable number of ribs and is very flexible, allowing the lungs to collapse during deep dives and preventing nitrogen buildup in the blood. The pelvic girdle (pelvis) is absent. To ensure adequate oxygen supply during dives, merfolk muscles contain myoglobin concentrations 3 to 10 times higher than those of land mammals. 

Beyond these common characteristics, merfolk exhibit a wide variety of shapes and colors, clearly distinguishable depending on the subspecies.

Behavior 

Sociality 

All merfolk species are gregarious and can form very small groups of two to three individuals, called shoals, or medium-sized groups of four to thirty, called platoons, or schools, ranging in number from thirty-five to a thousand. 

Schools, which are the most common aggregations of merfolk, can be sedentary and form villages, or they can be nomadic. 

Nixen (Maregens pistrix) tend to remain solitary or form small nomadic groups, but there have been documented cases of one or more individuals staying with mixed shoals of different species. Merfolk villages, built on the seabed, are always well-hidden and carefully maintained to blend in with the surrounding environment: the houses, which often extend into caves beneath rocks, are covered with thick layers of algae, flotsam, stones, and coral, making them difficult to spot by humans who might explore the area. 

Politics 

Some populations in restricted ranges have developed forms of government, generally monarchies. 

Diet 

Merfolk are omnivores with a tendency toward carnivory, adapted to be formidable hunters. Contrary to what most modern works portray, they are unable to speak a common language with fish and crustaceans and do not consider them their "brothers," but (like humans do with animals) livestock, prey, or more rarely, pets or threats. 

They have no qualms about eating human flesh, which they consider delicious. However, to preserve their relationships with them and prevent war from spreading to their villages, many communities do not actively hunt humans, only eating them if they find drowned bodies. 

Courtship and Reproduction 

Merfolk breed during a specific period of the year, known as "rutting." Rutting males undergo a change in their coloration and court females with dances, songs, and displays of their colorful bodies with outstretched fins. Ceasgs or mersalmons (Maregens salmo) undergo a reproductive migration to mate and lay their eggs in freshwater, traveling up rivers until they reach suitable lakes. 

For the more elongated and more flexible merfolk, mating involves the male wrapping his inner body around the female's, while in the larger and less flexible species, the male and female swim parallel to each other until the male inserts one of his two hemipenes into the female's oviduct. 

The hemipenes are normally covered inside the body and are exposed for reproduction through the erectile tissue. A peculiarity of the merfolk is that erection is caused by the pumping of water from the outside into the body, which an organ called the siphon introduces into the corpora cavernosa of the erectile tissue through a special orifice. It is therefore impossible for a merfolk to mate outside of the water: not only would an erection be impossible, but also the expulsion of sperm, due to the erection of specific structures that pump it out, occurs thanks to the use of water. 

There are numerous documented cases of female merfolk conceiving offspring without mating with a male, through a process known as parthenogenesis. However, this is always thelithotic parthenogenesis, meaning it produces only other females. Some small, stable populations of oceanic merfolk are composed exclusively of females who reproduce by parthenogenesis. 

Depending on the species, merfolk can be viviparous, ovoviviparous, or oviparous. In the latter case, the rarest, a small number of large eggs with abundant yolk are produced, up to a maximum of eight. 

The birth of healthy octuplets from eight different eggs is considered a very good omen, and the mother who produced these offspring is generally rewarded by the dominant male of her school.

Fishing 

Merfolk meat is considered delicious and prized, but these creatures are rarely actively fished for human consumption. However, there are accounts of merfolk being hunted and killed in the past by specialized crews, called "mermaid hunters," who sold their prized loot for astronomical sums in various fish and meat markets, or directly to wealthy nobles who could afford it. 

According to the stories spread by the mermaid hunters, merfolk were evil creatures whose singing seduced sailors and caused their ships to crash against rocks, causing them to fall into the water and drown, only to be devoured. Therefore, it was only right to treat them with the same consideration and hunt them for food. While it's true that merfolk enjoy consuming human flesh, their song isn't enough to enchant humans enough to drive them mad and commit suicide against the rocks. It was therefore merely an excuse on the part of mermaid hunters to quell the pangs of conscience of those who purchased merfolk from them. These rumors persist to this day. 

The meat considered the most prized is that of the ceasg, often compared in flavor to that of the grayling (Thymallus thymallus). Although they were fished more than other merfolk in the past, ceasg remain the easiest of their kind to spot, due to their unique reproductive ritual and their strong, fearless personalities, which lead them to easily come into contact with other species.

Trivia 

1. The "Fiji mermaids" are not a true species of mermaid, but rather artificial and monstrous hybrids created during the 19th century (first in Europe and then in America) to satisfy the era's taste for the bizarre and grotesque, with the aim of proving the existence of mermaids. To create them, parts of mummified animals (especially fish) and other materials, such as papier-mâché, pumice stone, and wood, were used. These curious collages became very popular in American sideshows and in public and private collections of the time. The "Fiji mermaid" was made famous by Phineas Taylor Barnum, who featured it in his shows. 
2. Mermaids' purses are the empty egg sacs of certain species of cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays) found stranded on the shore, as humans commonly call them; merfolk actually use these organic objects as bags to carry small items. 
3. In 1891, Oscar Wilde published The Fisherman and His Soul, a fairy tale about a fisherman who falls in love with the mermaid he caught.

Gallery of images (click to enlarge!)


(This gallery would have too many images, so it's incomplete! If you want to see more images
about merfolk, CLICK HERE)

		A young merfolk captured by a sea warlock
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3

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Pistrix

A male pistrix.

Pistrix (Apocapisces regalecus), also known as pistrici (singular pistrice), or as serpents rouge in France, or even by the evocative name of reddragon sirens in English-speaking places, are a genus of sentient aquatic creatures.
Unlike the more well-known and common merfolk, pistrix cannot breathe atmospheric oxygen, lacking lungs. They share a number of aesthetic and physiological characteristics with the pacific oarfish (Regalecus glesne), so much so that the other merfolk species themselves often refer to pistrix simply as "oarfish".

They are sadly known as harbingers of bad news and, according to some, even of the apocalypse. 

 

Taxonomy

Despite their humanoid torso appearance, pistrix are not mammals: they do not give birth, but lay eggs, and are unable to produce milk. Taxonomically, they are much closer to the regalecus (Regalecus glesne) than to humans. 

The distinctly humanoid appearance of their torso (at least at first glance) is due to two factors: 

1. Phaneric mimicry. By imitating a distant species, such as the common merfolk, pistrix may appear less desirable, or simply elicit more empathy among the merfolk themselves, who have hunted them for years and continue to do so (albeit less heavily, perhaps thanks to the deterrent of the pistrix's humanoid appearance); 

2. Evolutionary convergence. Long before developing a more human-like face with frontal eyes, pistrix developed arms, through intense modification of the muscles of their pectoral fins, and with these they learned to construct objects. The rest of their torsos later adapted to the arm muscles, giving them greater dexterity.

Not all pistrix, however, have a particularly human/merfolk appearance, and their "atavistic" appearance is clearly visible in the body shape of young ones. 

Appearance 

Pistrix have a humanoid torso, with two arms, generally slightly longer than a human's, and hands with opposable thumbs, contrasting with a lower body that is extremely similar to the rear of an oarfish. 
Their body is completely devoid of scales. 
Adults have a pale silver, ribbon-shaped body from the waist down, laterally compressed and extremely elongated, with a dorsal fin extending the entire length. Their color ranges from pale pink to bright red, passing through orange and rust, although deep scarlet is the most common. 
The body often features wavy dark spots, sometimes in the form of dots and sometimes stripes.

Typical adult female

A series of faint horizontal stripes, similar to "grill marks," is evident in some specimens, while absent in others. After death, specimens rapidly lose all color and pattern. 
Pistrix have extremely long bodies: the longest specimen ever measured exceeded seventeen meters in length from forehead to the tip (autotomized, therefore without caudal fin) of its body. 
Adult pistrix rarely possess a tail, due to the very common autotomy, or voluntary detachment of the last portion of the body (similar to the way lizards shed their tails). For years, it was believed their bodies abruptly ended without a tail fin. Now, the true appearance of these creatures' tails is known: they have a unique "webbed" appearance, reminiscent of a dragon's wing, and, like the dorsal fin, are very vividly colored, generally scarlet red. 
Their skin, although scaleless, is densely tuberculatized, especially on the ventral area, where these small, horny protuberances resemble small, sharp-tipped cones and are one of the few defenses these creatures possess against predators.  

Color and nutrition 

A malnourished specimen

An unbalanced or insufficient diet can cause a pistrix to completely change their appearance. The color of a pistrices' fins and mane is primarily due to natural molecules called carotenoids, such as astaxanthin, which are introduced into their bodies through the consumption of carotenoid-rich animals, primarily krill, which in healthy specimens constitute nearly 90% of their diet.

A specimen that hasn't been able to consume their adequate amount of crustaceans will rapidly lose the color in their fins, but that's not the only side effect: to function in the frigid depths where they live, pistrices must consume fatty foods, such as crustaceans, and limiting this will make the individual much slimmer.

Almost always, a malnourished specimen is unable to maintain their full body length, which requires a constant supply of calories, and will autotomize, losing part of their tail through self-detachment. Specimens with an incomplete diet will therefore have pink fins, rather than carmine red, slimmer bodies, and almost always lack a caudal fin. If the incorrect diet persists, the fin rays can suffer structural damage, becoming droopy, rather than erect.

 

Behavior

Although their serpentine appearance has inspired legends of these creatures moving on land, pistrix are fully adapted to living in the ocean, at depths of at least 150 meters. 

Not only are they unable to crawl on land (unlike their naga cousins, also belonging to the Apocapisces genus), but being forced onto land is a highly traumatic experience for them. Their delicate bodies, lacking the protection of scales, are easily damaged when dragged along the ground, especially given their weight, and they are too compressed laterally to crawl on their bellies. 

Furthermore, they cannot breathe on land, unlike merfolks. 

If a pistrix manages to survive on dry land for hours, it is only thanks to their extraordinary resistance to low oxygen concentrations, but if they are not re-hydrated with salty water, they still risk dying of dehydration within the first fifty to sixty minutes.

Sleep

Pistrix, like all fish, sleep with their eyes open, as they don't have eyelids, but curiously, they prefer to sleep in particularly dark environments.

Unlike many other fish (especially non-deep-sea ones), their primary way of perceiving danger is not their eyes, but their highly sensitive lateral line and their electrical field. Pistrix fish are able to emit electrical impulses and then detect changes in the electrical field that forms around their bodies, thanks to a series of delicate sensors on their skin (which is bare, completely scaleless), allowing them to perceive their surroundings with extreme precision even in total darkness.

Their highly sensitive electrical field is also one of the reasons they dislike being physically touched by others: this is perceived by their sensors as an interruption of the electrical field, and therefore a source of stress (their brain may interpret it, for example, as the approach of a predator).

To avoid interrupting their electrical field, pistrix fish sleep without touching any surface, remaining stretched out and upright in the water.

They typically sleep in pairs, about five feet apart, and their combined electrical fields reassure them of the safety of the water and their partner's presence.

They can dream, but they lack rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, so they lack the bizarre, rambling dreams that humans are capable of producing. Their dreams are more mundane, resembling memories or deep meditation.

 

Typical adult male

Culture

The pistrix once knew how to create pages that were impervious to water, by spinning chitin from shrimp shells into tissues from which they cut pages and then injecting ink into the semi-transparent surface layer of the page, much like tattooing. 
Today, this art is lost, due to the fall of the pistrix civilization and the impossibility of its stable reformation due to threats from the common merfolk, who are much more numerous and aggressive. 

Time and aging

Pistrix have no real concept of the passage of time, or at least nothing close to the way humans perceive it.

Since ancient times, humans have measured time by observing the passage of day and night, or even by the changing world around them through the seasons. But in the abyssal depths, where sunlight doesn't reach and seasons have little meaning, pistrix don't count hours, days, or years.

It goes without saying that celebrating a birthday is obviously not part of their culture.

Considering the events pistrix remember, however, it's possible to establish that they are an extremely long-lived species: some specimens remember the Gray Age and even the time before Ragnarok, more than three hundred years before the events of "Fish Don't Cry."

Their bodies are of indeterminate growth, although after a certain size, they slow down considerably. The size of a pistrix is ​​determined by many factors, not only by the time it has been around, but also by its diet, water temperature, amount of movement, and even its subspecies.

Sometimes, ancient pistrix can be shorter and smaller than younger specimens, especially if they have experienced long periods of malnutrition or have undergone several autotomies. It goes without saying that it is not easy to determine a specimen's age without laboratory testing.

Sangreal, one of the few specimens that have consented to tissue study, is estimated to be around 40-45 years old: he may appear middle-aged compared to a human, but he is young, albeit already mature.

His grandmother, a much more imposing specimen than him, was already as tall as she is now when Sangreal was born, which makes it safe to assume she's at least a hundred years old, and given her memory of certain past events, she's probably well into her 250s or even 300s.

 

Diet

Despite their imposing size and menacing, sharp appearance, pistrix are harmless to most marine creatures, feeding almost exclusively on small crustaceans.

Life Cycle 

Unlike merfolk, pistrix lay eggs; these are able to float in the water column thanks to a few drops of oil present under their thin, semi-transparent shells. 

The eggs hatch into extremely ornate young, with long-rayed fins and small, poorly muscled arms, which only over time take on the "human" appearance of those of adults. Pistrix hatchlings are overall much more fish-like than primate-like, and lack the characteristics that make them anthropomorphic: their eyes are very large and lateral, their hands are tiny and webbed, their torso somewhat flattened laterally, and their gill covers are very prominent.

Sex change 

To maximize their reproductive opportunities in the vast ocean, pistrices can change sex if their chosen mate is of the same sex. The larger individual always becomes, or remains, female, to maximize egg production.

Females tend to be heavier and thicker, with slightly fatter tails, but they also have less dense beards and manes, and shorter fins, unless they have sufficient access to food to maintain both their greater weight and their prominent fins, but this is an extremely rare occurrence in nature. 

Reproduction 

Pistrix are strictly monogamous and bond with a single partner for life, a characteristic that underpins all their social interactions, their way of life, their hunting, and their raising their young. 

Their courtship is lengthy and complex: the choice of a mate begins when the pistrix are still young, and consists of a series of approaches that will ultimately reduce the social group of young to about twenty individuals. Each individual in that group will then be subjected to a test known as the "love knot": a dance in which the two pistrix circle each other, trying not to touch, despite being very close together—an extremely difficult task given their great body length. 

During the love knot, the two individuals must demonstrate a strong connection and be able to reliably predict the other's movements. If the two individuals touch each other more than three times during the dance, the courtship has failed, and the two pistrix will attempt to court someone else in their social group until they manage to tie a perfect love knot with one of them. 

Their breeding season occurs during the cold months, specifically October, November, and December, and when it arrives, the individuals move, obviously in pairs, to specific locations in the sea known as "hatching grounds". 

Hatching grounds are territories considered "neutral" by other merfolk, and therefore uninhabited. However, specific tribes of Maregens may attempt to conquer these territories, which the pistrix consider crucial to their survival, and in these cases, fierce clashes between the species can occur. Defending the hatching grounds is the only circumstance in which pistrix are willing to fight with Maregens in modern times. 

Hatching sites often develop around human-made structures, such as weather buoys, abandoned oil rigs, and floating garbage islands, where newborns can hide.

Fertilization in pistrices is ​​external, occurring through the simultaneous release of milt (seminal fluid) and eggs, which are then mixed together to ensure fertilization of each egg and better oxygenation, through an extremely fascinating ritual:

1. The two individuals, the male and the female, arrange themselves in a cross position, with one male vertical and one horizontal. This position is also called the panopticon, due to the fact that it is used not only as a starting position for mating, but also, traditionally, to check for dangers around them, at different distances and depths in the water.

2. The two individuals then close their bodies into a ring, touching their tails with their hands, one around the other, somewhat like the "classic" interlocked wedding ring illustration. This position is also called "the rings," and for pistrices, it is an extremely private and intimate position, performed only by romantic exclusive couples, and only during mating season.

3. In this position, the gametes are released, and will be located at the center of the two rings.

4. The two rings, formed by the bodies of the parents, begin to rotate, creating a water movement that keeps the genetic material within the formation and simultaneously mixes it.

The eggs have different hatching times, depending on the ambient temperature and the amount of oxygen in the water, and can range from 60 to 90 days.

Trivia

• Since pistrix is ​​a Latin word, the plural of pistrix is ​​technically pistrices, but the plural is often left unchanged, simply as pistrix. They can also be called "pistrici", but pistrices is more correct.

 

Gallery (Click to enlarge!)

	By  Samifer	Panopticon pose, stylized
Size comparison with deepsea merfolk and common merfolk	Vertical swim (with oarfish)	Young adult female
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🌵🎨 All the drawings in this page (and probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts! 🌵🎨

Portal of Miomarto

" «Oh my God...» September touched the edges of the black hole, then put a hand into the chasm, shivered, still smiling happily, and pulled it out «... A Portal of Miomarto, a space-time gap. Technically it is not possible for something like this to exist, Miomarto has only demonstrated twice that it is possible to use the Portals, but the current ones, under the custody of the magicians, who are the same ones he used in public, do not seem to work. They are... legend. The formula to activate them is secret, the principle of operation is... impossible to understand» he swallowed twice, then ran a hand over his face, the same one he had previously put into the portal «But this... is already active, isn't it?» "

- From "Urban Legends"


Magic is nothing but an element of nature, like matter, light, combustion or time, but it can interact with each of them to manipulate it. While it is common among magicians around the world to use magic to create or channel light, start a combustion, or change the shape and consistency of matter, the manipulation of time is not as common, as it is considered very difficult and fundamentally dangerous.

To travel through time, very complicated formulas are needed, which must incorporate high-level mathematical notions, and these formulas must be updated through the drawing of incredibly complex magic circles, which can take from nine to forty-six hours of work just during the drawing process, and the energy of the magician who activates these magic circles is drained almost to death... or beyond.

Miomarto's Revolution

Alberico Ziomanno Miomarto (1919-2000), a brilliant Italian inventor, was the first and only magician capable of creating a system of travel in time (and space, even between different dimensions) that was safe for the traveler (obviously as long as he didn't get into trouble in another era), through a brilliant intuition: he incorporated magic circles into an electronic device.

No more wasting entire days drawing magic circles! No more being drained of energy and dying (or almost)!

In 1935, Miomarto created electrical circuits that had the shape of magic circles for time travel and that were activated simply by the passage of electricity. As for the magical energy, which was essential for activating the powers of space-time deformation, he used simple magic storage batteries (or aura batteries, invented almost two thousand years earlier by Saadaa of the Serpents) and made sure that these could release their energy to the circuits. And so he created devices, which he called "Analexichronothermogeographic Portals", capable of opening "holes" in reality through which one could pass, in an absolutely painless way and without any dangerous consequences for the organism, to other places or eras, in the present, in the past or in the future.

There were only two public demonstrations of use and none of them included a journey in time, but only in space; in any case they proved effective and amazed the magical community.

Despite the great demand, no other public experiments were ever carried out. The reason given was "recharging the aura batteries for such a use is too expensive, therefore the portals will be used again only in case of absolute necessity, for matters of life or death".

“ «This is pure idiocy…» Vlad approached the silver suitcase and started touching it, turning it, he even tried to open it, but he gave up, perhaps for fear that that thing, that apparently alien technology, could explode in his face «September, do you by any chance know how to recharge one of these?»
«Um…» the wizard approached the suitcase «This is an aura battery»
«An aura battery?»
«Yes» September seemed surprised, then chuckled softly, looking at Vlad from under his eyebrows and bangs, with his head a little lowered «You said you study black magic, you can't tell me you've never heard of aura batteries. How do you think Sauron's one ring worked?»
«But the one ring was this big» the vampire measured, between his index finger and thumb, a length of about three centimeters «And it had the power to destroy a land. This is as big as a bag!»
«That's why it's almost impossible to recharge. Wizards haven't managed it, it would require, at least in theory, the power of the aura of a million souls» ”

- From "Urban Legends"



Later, the magical community began to refer to the analessichronothermogeographic portals simply as "Miomarto's portals".

No public experiments were repeated, but legend has it that Miomarto used the portals to travel through time twice more before he died.

The limitations

Although extraordinary in their power and "convenient" for the traveler, the mechanics of how Miomarto's portals work reveal some important limitations.

The first is that once you arrive at your destination it is impossible to return to where you came from: the portal does not have two usable "faces", one at the place of departure and one at the place of arrival, but only one, the one powered by the equipment at the place of departure.

A hypothetical traveler who wanted to arrive, for example, at the North Pole, once they had passed through the portal and arrived in the ice, would find nothing behind him, no way to go back. While this may not seem particularly dramatic for space travel, it is instead a terrible consequence in the case of time travel, because the hypothetical traveler would have no way to return to their own time.

It was thought to nullify this unpleasant effect by connecting two portals of Mymarto together in order to have an entrance and an exit, but after the death of their inventor no one was ever capable of applying such a modification or even of fully understanding how the equipment worked.

Another limitation is, of course, the amount of energy needed to open a portal and keep it open for a certain amount of time. A popular myth claims that the power of "the auras of a million souls" is needed to fully recharge the batteries of Miomarto's portals, but this is a completely false notion: no one, in that case, would have been able to operate these complex magical devices.

It is true, however, that the life force of a single person is not enough to recharge the batteries and that Miomarto used a portion of the magical energy of seven hundred volunteers, as well as himself, for a single recharge.

The volunteers were then rested and fed abundantly and none of them suffered the slightest side effect. Five portals It is common knowledge that Miomarto created four portals.

Nowadays, two of them belong to the Ministry of Light, one belongs to Lilith and one is considered by most to be missing, but was actually kept secret by Alberico's grandchildren, Mack and Jack. Almost no one knows that the portals created by Miomarto were actually five: a low-consumption prototype, which however risks killing its user with each activation, plus the four known portals. The prototype is currently preserved by the Ministry of Darkness and its use, considered too dangerous, is not accessible to anyone except the Black Warden, who in any case has never turned it on.



Trivia

• Even aurolupus lycans, creatures immune to magic, can pass through Miomarto's portals: this is because the portals act on the surrounding world and not directly on the traveler.
• The most used portal of all is the one belonging to Lilith, the only person in the world able to regularly collect enough energy to make it work even once a month.
• The portals, during the creation phase, have never been tested on animals, but only on human beings.

Aurolupus lycans

General information and warnings 

Also known as Goldenwolfen, the Aurolupus are a kind of canine/primate shapeshifters very often confused with the real lycans (Homolupus homolupus) or with the werewolves (Lupus hominarium), but capable of hybridizing with both. They are extremely rare and dangerous, therefore it is advisable not to approach one (in particular if you do not have experience with lycans or werewolves) and, if you encounter them in your zone, to denounce their presence to the competent authorities. 

A reminder for the magic users, that these creatures are completely immune to magic both outside and inside their body and therefore that your powers, however developed, can't in any way  kill them nor retain them. Due to their incredible bone and muscle density, bullets too may not be decisive in their killing.

 

Origins 

The most probable ancestor of aurolupus beasts is the Xenocyon Lycaonoides, a large canid that lived in the Pleistocene, between 1.8 million years and 30,000 years ago, which feed on antelopes, deers, elephants, wild horses and probably also men. 

It is assumed that the Xenocyon have crossed with a primitive "prototype" of lycanthrope and thus acquired the ability to change, albeit in a rough way. 

Over time, the aurolupus has refined its mutation skills, although modernly they still do not love to acquire and maintain a humanoid form. 

According to some scholars that specialize in the study of this primitive species of shapeshifters, the fairer fur that some specimens show is the result of the interbreeding with the extinct species of lycans known as white terror (Homolupus terribilis), from which modern aurolupuses have inherited not only some shades of their fur, but apparently also greater mental instability and greater aggression than that of their Xenocion ancestors. 

Another species that seems to have contributed to the creation of the modern genetic heritage of the aurolupus is the unfortunately recently extinct small African werewolf (Lupus hominarium africanus), from which it seems that they inherited the ability to be totally refractory to all kinds of magic. 

However, some researchers argue that the aurolupus have become refractory to magic at the beginning of their evolution due to a spontaneous genetic mutation and not because of the intersection with the small African werewolf. 

The first complete standard of the species and its breeds was officially established by the CPF (Company for the protection of the forms) on 18 December 1898 and was reworked again and catalogued in 1980. 

 

Appearance

General characters: the aurolupus or goldenwolfen is shapeshifter werewolf-type of medium-large size, with light fur, strong and  muscular, heavy skeleton and solid structure. 

Everything in their figure must give an idea of ​​rough strength and must strike fear in the heart of the enemies. The ears are erected. 

It is distinct in three different types: supergoldenwolfen (giant), goldenwolfen (medium) and splinter (small). 

The most common and functional type is the goldenwolfen (medium), the smallest and more rare are the splinters, while the supergoldenwolfen are considered practically legendary.

 

Fundamental measures

the aurolupus has four different forms of transformation, in order of height to the shoulder: feral, native, human and fullmoon. 

Supergoldenwolfen (giant size)

Feral (lupine type): prefer the females between 70 and 88 centimeters at the withers, males between 71 and 93 centimeters at the withers. The minimum required height is 70 centimeters, there is no maximum height. 

Native (hyena/wolf of caves-like type): preferred height for females between 89 and 150 centimeters at the withers, preferred height for males between 94 and 160 centimeters at the withers. Interestingly, in the aurolupus supergoldenwolfen, the native form can grow at much greater heights, but only temporarily, depending on how much they have nourished before their transformation. 

Human (humanoid type): minimum height of 1.85 m, maximum of 2.22 m for both males and females. 

Fullmoon (anthropomorphic body, covered in fur type): minimum height of 1.90 m and maximum of 2.50, both for males and females. A margin of -2 centimeters is tolerated for females with optimal proportions and +2 centimeters for males that display optimal proportions.

A blind supergoldenwolfen male in native form

 

Goldenwolfen (medium size) 

Feral (lupine type): females between 63 and 72 centimeters at the withers, males between 63 and 74 centimeters at the withers. 

Native (hyena/wolf of caves-like type): preferred height for females between 89 and 120 centimeters at the withers, preferred height for males between 90 and 140 centimeters at the withers. 

Human (humanoid type): minimum height of 1.68 m, maximum of 1.82 m for both males and females. 

Fullmoon (anthropomorphic body, covered in fur type): minimum height of 1.80 m and maximum of 1.97, both for males and females. A margin of -2 centimeters is tolerated for females with optimal proportions and +2 centimeters for males with optimal proportions. 

Splinter (small size)

Feral (lupine type): females between 60 and 64 centimeters at the withers, males between 63 and 70 centimeters at the withers. 

Native (hyena/wolf of caves-like type): preferred height for females between 70 and 110 centimeters at the withers, preferred height for males between 75 and 115 centimeters at the withers. 

Human (humanoid type): minimum height of 1.50 m, maximum of 1.78 m for both males and females. Full moon (wolf/humanoid type): minimum height of 1.80 m and maximum of 1.97, both for males and females. A margin of -2 centimeters is tolerated for females with optimal proportions and +2 centimeters for males with optimal proportions. 

The full moon size of this breed is identical to that of the average race, having an incredible expansion capacity (although, of course, remaining much lighter). 

General appearance

Head: the head is in the shape of a cone, powerful and about 45% of the height at the withers, on average wide between the ears. The skull-muzzle ratio is 50%-50% in lupus form. The jaws, upper and lower, are extremely robust and remember those of an hyena. The nasal bridge is rectilinear, with a wide base that is decreasing moderately in width from the background towards the forward. The lips are strongly pigmented, from brown to black, well stretched. 

Powerful and complete teeth (42 teeth). The upper incisors are scissor on those of the lower jaw. Sometimes the upper canines are so long that they protrude outside the mouth. The teeth are almost never completely white, more often than a light yellowish color. The tongue is covered with filiform papillae, curved and forming a hard hook towards the throat, the function of which is to allow the animal to have a stronger adhesion to the things that it's heating, also allowing it to scrape deeper the bones of the prey captured. The zygomatic arches are well marked and a powerful bone structure must be noticed with a single look. The eyes are of medium size, round, golden or ocher color, that can become brown in human form. Never blue or gray, in a pure specimen. The ears are from medium to small in size. In all feral (non-human) forms they are triangular, very spaced from each other and attached high, turned forward, without hair inside.

Neck: powerful, long, very muscular and with a slightly arched superior profile. It is adherent, always free of dewlap or loose skin round the throat. 

Body: Powerful back; The rump is wide, of medium length, inclined by about 23 ° on the horizontal in the lupine form. In the native form, the back line descends inclined by the "hump" of muscles and fat on the shoulders until the rear that is low. The chest is spacious, wide and well descended, with well-developed muscle and strong, long ribs with a very curved shape, creating a strong torso shape. 

In human form they often give the impression of working a lot on the development of the torso musculature, although the latter is almost never defined. 

The lines of the body are often defined as more similar to those of hyaenides than canids. 

Tail: in the natural state it is brought horizontally as an extension of the back line, it is hanging at rest. It is thick, from medium-short to short, very well muscled, and give to the beast's silhouette a primitive aspect. 

Limbs: long and well articulated in human and fullmoon form, average length in lupus,  and muscular form in a native form. The thigh is always of medium length, wide and strongly muscular. It may happen that the goldenwolfen have long arms in proportion to those of a human being of equal height. The feet have strong, arched and well closed fingers. In native and fullmoon form they have long curved and highly pigmented nails, of an array of colors that can go from the light gray to black, passing from various brown shades. 

The pawpads are dark pink, olive or brown in color. 

Gait: naturally brought to the trot, they have a powerful pace with good extension. Often, due to their proportions and the way they move their feet, aurolupuses seem clumsy: nothing further from reality, since these creatures are very agile (except in the fullmoon form, where the muscles change structure and are connected on bones and cartilage in order to have great power, but little agility and looseness) and capable of sudden direction changes.

Skin and fur: the skin is never very fair and the most common color is the olive, immediately followed by the "spotted" (brown leather with extensive olive patches). In rare cases the skin can be entirely brown. Among the supergoldenwolfen it is common that the skin is a little lighter than their similar and medium-sized fellows, but even in this case they are never pale. The hair and fur is dense, hard, straight with admitted rare traces of undulating. On the face, on the feet and palms the hair is very short; The dominant males are the exception that exhibit a thick beard on the chin and throughout the lower jaw line, only sometimes accompanied by mustache. The length of the mane and hair on the tail and back defines the social role within a pack and is closely related to hormonal production: the higher the rank of a specimen, the long the mane will be. In addition, males generally have a little longer mane than females. Ideally we can say that the most hairy specimen will be the male alpha and the one with the finest and short hair will be the female omega. Aurolupuses have no undercoat and therefore suffer the cold. 

The colors admitted for the mantle are: honey with red-brown, brown or light gray patches, single-colored honey, single-color gilded, golden with brown/black dorsal strip, light gray with saddle and golden mask, Isabella (cloak that derives from the cream gene, which dilutes the yellow, gold and brown colors, leaving the black of legs and muzzle unchanged), sand, sand with mane brown, ocher with brown brands, yellow merle. 

It is possible, although very rare, to meet specimens of a gold color so light that they seem almost white, but these are often very penalized, compared to their more intensely colored brothers, being more delicate, easily spotted by preys and in general not chosen by partners for mating.

All possible fur colors

 

Behavior

Nevrile, reactive, prone to biting, the aurolupus has a character difficult to manage by a non-expert and even the most expert could have a bad time: they are definitively animals that have nothing domestic and therefore is heavily advised against any attempts to domestication by whoever. 

Normally they live in heavily hierarchized packs and love to fight. It is one of the few species with real "expansionist aims", willing to attack and kill other pack, even of their same species, in order to take their territories, even when they have no need for them. The rarity of this species is mainly due to the ease with which different packs collide and kill each other. 

The very known rule of the lycans, for which they themselves should never reveal their existence to human beings, is one of those rules to which the Aurolupus do not give any weight, actively chasing men and women, who are among their favorite prey.

 

Communication

Extremely communicative, the aurolupus speak their own exclusive language, the Garou of the Children of the Sands (Gogroorawleefaaa off) of which they are able to pronounce the phonemes in any form, including the feral one. When they try to speak any human language (which are usually able to do only when they have assumed a completely humanoid form) their accent seems a strange mixture of German and Spanish.

To be talked about in a correct way, the Garou of the Children of the Sands also requires a particular body mimicry. The same sentence, accompanied by different gestures, can also have opposite meanings. 

Courtship and reproduction

Aurolupus reproduce once a year, in spring, when females (only in the presence of males that stimulate their interest) go into heat. Both males and females are polygamous and the same litter can belong up to three different fathers. Dominating males submit those of lower rank by mounting them and, if someone rebels, the situation can lead to terrible fights in which males show off all their athletic qualities and their strength to impress females. It is always and only the females who decide who to mate with, but it is almost certain that they will always choose the most violent male, the one that has inflicted the greatest number of humiliations and wounds to the other males of the same pack (or even of different packs), since violence excite them sexually. 

Approaching a pack of Aurolupus during the reproductive period is a bad idea, especially if you are male: the males of the pack try to submit specimens of their own sex of almost any other species. Even females sometimes fight with other females for the privilege of mating first, or in some cases several times, with the alpha male. 

The alpha female always has the right of choice on any male, and mates first of all the others, also rarely fights, because when she does it the objective is to kill, not to just injure. 

The males are not kind during mating, and so the females, with the result that many close couplings can debilit a specimen. 

The gestation lasts about three months, at the end of which the puppies are born on the open ground or in a cave, depending on where the pack has settled in that period and atmospheric time. The blind and deaf puppies are cared for very little by the mother (who breastfeeds them only, between one hunting session and the other) or by the father, but generally remain throughout their time with the nanny of the pack, a specimen (of sex independently male or female) who has the role of protecting all the little ones of the pack and does it with commendable ferocity towards enemies and tenderness towards the puppies, who warms, cleans and instructs.

 

Religion

Deeply animists, they do not believe that divinities are purely spiritual beings and have an interesting pantheon of creatures that manifest themselves through natural phenomena, such as thunder or fire. The most powerful of their divinities, to whom they offer human and cattle sacrifices alike, is the Great Wolf of Sand, born from a storm in the desert, which is considered the mother of all the aurolupuses, who are not considered created by the same deities they have created other animals. 

Their shamans thus summarize the vision of their people: “Humans are children of the mud, with a heart of mud and an air soul. The werewolves were born from the flesh of the wolves and have a heart of meat and spirit of shadows. Vampires were born from the flesh of the dead, have a heart of ice and have no spirit. We are children of the sand, with a heart of meat, and our spirit, like that of dragons, is flaming and immense, terrifying. We have been created to dominate on any other hunting or non-hunting species".

 According to their religion, all lives have the same value, except those of the aurolupus, which are worth much more.

Famous aurolupuses:

• Blindfury
  
• Herzeleid 
• Furiadoro (Daughter of Blindfury)
• Alejandro Roberto De Rocamora (Son on Blindfury)
• Sara Barker 

Trivia

• Aurolupus specimens have the extraordinary ability to be completely refractory to magic. 
• The thing that frightens the aurolupuses most (and someone could object by saying that it is the only thing capable of frightening them in general) is the fire, that they fear and worship, declaring that it is the substance of which their souls are made. A forest fire can literally paralyze an entire pack of fear. 
• During the full moon they become so aggressive that they cannot control the impulse of fighting, despite being lucid. The next morning, they remember exactly everything they have done, unlike how it happens with many lycans and especially with uncontrolled ones. 
• It is very rare to find hybrids between the aurolupuses and other species of lycanthropes, not because they do not mate with them too, but because they almost always kill them during the mating process. 
• The saliva of the aurolupuses contains bacterial charges which can often be lethal for a human being.

Gallery (Click to enlarge images!)

	Colonna 2	colonna 3
Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3

  

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