I pesci non piangono 1. Nonna, ho dei nuovi amici!

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La fanart del giorno 14. Fimsh (By Duskar)

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!

Ancora una volta, oggi il personaggio rappresentato è Sangreal, disegnato per noi da Duskar!

Una splendida illustrazione digitale, che cattura benissimo un momento assolutamente plausibile per Sangreal: affascinato dalla tecnologia umana, ma contemporaneamente troppo "timido" per esplorare la superficie (troppo luminosa, troppo pericolosa, troppo rumorosa, troppo... tutto per un pesce abissale), raccogliere ed esplorare ciò che degli umani raggiunge il fondo è una cosa che potrebbe fare. 

Sembra quasi che si stia chiedendo che razza di potere serva per creare un oggetto così grande, pesante e resistente, intrigato e preoccupato al tempo stesso. Ovviamente è piuttosto raro trovare qualcuno capace di lavorare il metallo, negli abissi, e le ancore sono oggetti misteriosi che rappresentano bene il mistero degli esseri umani. 

Persino l'inquadratura del disegno suggerisce mistero, con una parte del suo corpo e dell'ancora invisibili. L'ancora è ancora attaccata alla sua nave? È stata abbandonata nel mare, per qualche motivo? C'è qualcuno che sta scendendo in acqua, e Sangreal rischia di essere "scoperto"? 

Bello pensare a tutte le possibilità.

La fanart del giorno 14. Looking at the light (By DoodleDeity)

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!

La fanart di oggi, realizzata per noi da  DoodleDeity, rappresenta il nostro main boy (se così si può chiamare...) Sangreal, in tutta la sua lunghezza!

 

Una delle cose più interessanti, esteticamente, di questo personaggio è proprio la lunghezza del suo corpo, questo nastro d'argento, striato di linee color carbone, che si muove nelle profondità del blu... e  DoodleDeity ha fatto un gran lavoro nel ritrarlo. Guardate che spire sinuose!

E chissà cosa sta contemplando, con questo sguardo rivolto in alto... cos'è che lo attende nella luce? Forse un giovane biologo marino (di nome Seraphin)? 

O forse non ci vuole andare, lassù. Non di nuovo.

Sangreal ha dei sentimenti complicati nei confronti dell'accecante luce della superficie...

Pistrix Religion

The religious beliefs of the Pistrix are so deeply rooted in the daily lives of their people that they have no name and, at times, aren't even classified as religious. There is no division of beliefs into different religions, or different branches of the same religion, but rather basic beliefs shared by almost everyone and a myriad of traditions tied to the place where the cult is practiced.

This is henotheism (from the Ancient Greek εἷς/heîs "one" and θεός/theós "god"), a type of religion that differs from true monotheism because it accepts the presence of other deities, in addition to the principal one, but categorizes them as generally unworthy of worship or at least inferior to the greater deity around which the entire cult is built.

Thalassa

Known locally by a myriad of names (or even no name at all), Thalassa is the principal deity of the Pistix religious cult, and represents the ocean itself.

Thalassa has no mortal body, but is the water itself in which creatures live, sentient, knowing, and older than any other deity, which she herself gave birth to. She can reproduce both by parthenogenesis and through a special process called "the Dream," in which its inhabitants give her their thoughts as raw material from which to draw the forms of imagined creatures.

Thalassa gives rise to both aquatic and land-based life; the latter was created specifically to harness the power of the Sun (one of the deities Thalassa gave birth to) to create food and resources that will ultimately return to the water. Wood, for example, a material that comes from the earth, is considered a product of the Sun.

Thalassa is also called: the Mother, Sea, Tethys, Ocean, or simply She in colloquial speech.

Curiously, Thalassa is also the name of an ancient deity in the human world: in Greek mythology, θάλασσα1, literally "sea," is a divine female personification of the collective salt waters. Her name may be of pre-Greek origin and connected to the name of the primordial Mesopotamian sea goddess Tiamat.

The Roman mythographer Hyginus (c. 64 BC – 17 AD), in the preface to his Fabulae, calls Mare (another name for Thalassa, as we have already mentioned) the daughter of Aether and Dies (day), and therefore the sister of Terra and Caelus (Sky).

It is extremely interesting to note that the words for this ancient deity are the same for humans and pistrix, although this is likely a loanword from human languages, which the pistrix have voluntarily assimilated in their attempt to appear as human as possible.

Minor Deities

In pistrix religious practices, not all individuals worship minor deities, limiting themselves (but not always) to acknowledging their existence.

Some of the most widely recognized children of Thalassa appear to be:

1. The Sun (also known as the Great Light or Helios). Elder pistrix communities, living at greater depths, tend not to recognize him as a major deity, but as one of Thalassa's minor children, albeit one of the mother's most beloved. The Sun is credited with creating the shipworm, or turu (Teredo navalis). Since the turu is a protandrous hermaphrodite, it is believed that the Sun is also a protandrous hermaphrodite, but that its cycle of transformation from male to female repeats itself every year, thus explaining the temperature difference between winter and summer.

2. Frozen Waters, also known as Sedna (a name borrowed from Inuit cultures, where she is known as ᓯᑦᓇ Sitna, ᓯᐊᑦᓇ Siatna, ᓴᑦᓇ Satna, or ᓴᓐᓇ Sanna), is the personification of low temperatures and the collective of creatures that thrive in such conditions. Among the indigenous people of Canada, Sedna is known as "the one far below," or as the woman of the depths or the one who does not want a husband. For the Pistrix, Frozen Waters is depicted as a pale seal with large, icy eyes. It is sometimes accompanied by a school of Channichthyidae, or icefish.

3. Dead Waters, curiously a representation of freshwater, areas where pistrix cannot venture. Although full of life, freshwater frightens pistrix: the danger is almost invisible, death comes relatively quickly. Dead Waters is generally depicted as a naga with an extremely emaciated body, a completely black face, and white eyes. Sometimes it is drawn with "green threads," probably a way to represent grass, a type of plant with which pistrix are not very familiar with.

4. The Storm God, also known as Dagon, is one of the least influential deities in the lives of pistrix, concerned only with rain and wind, phenomena that interact with the surface of the sea, but not with the depths where pistrix reside. He is often depicted as a huge fish-man, with the upper body resembling that of a deep-sea predator, and the lower body resembling human legs. He is sometimes depicted with arms, and one of his attributes is monoliths, through which he controls the weather.

5. Ryūjin, the Dragon God, whose dominion is not uniformly recognized: some populations believe he has power over the changing of the tides, others over medicine, still others that he is simply one of the sons of Dead Waters, and as such is weaker, and less important, than the deities born directly from Thalassa. He is depicted as a dragon with a long, thin body, a blue body, a red crest, and three fingers on each hand. His rage is said to be capable of destroying immense areas, but he is not often enraged, and he normally sleeps in his coral 

Certain actions are considered blasphemous by the pistrix against Thalassa and are met with disdain by society. One of the most serious blasphemies is referring to a creator deity with male pronouns, or even with a male name, as the very concept of creation (as well as, obviously, that of childbirth) is connected to the concept of femininity.

The implication of the existence of male sea deities, such as Poseidon, is considered blasphemy of the highest order.

Thalassa does not directly punish blasphemies in those who practice them, but simply "withdraws" her protection from the blasphemer, leaving them to wander the sea in a condition the pistrix define as "naked," meaning alone against all the creatures that live in the oceans, disconnected from the inner cycle of life and death, destined to become nothing more than prey in desperate flight. Blasphemous individuals are not supported and helped by pistrix society, a way for them to show their naked condition, deprived of the immense grace of Thalassa.

 

 

Gallery of images (Click to enlarge!)

An incarnation of Sedna	Dagon hugging the monolith	+
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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! 🌵🎨

Characters - King Azoth

King Azoth during the war

King Azoth is a legendary monarch who, according to the stories of the Mediterranean and Atlantic pistrix, defended his species' spawning grounds from merfolk invasions until the (historically uncertain) moment when he was killed while valiantly fighting alone against an army of over a thousand merfolk.

The details of Azoth's life are largely the product of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians, both human and merfolk. For many pistrix, however, he remains a solid historical figure, believed in almost religiously.

He was the "husband" of Queen Serpent.

Appears (not directly, but in flashbacks) in: the first book in the Odyssey saga, and also of the eponymous comic.

• Fish Don't Cry - Book [Tapas][Wattpad]
• Fish Don't Cry - Comic

Debate on Historicity

Although the Azoth bloodline, with its hundreds of descendants (or so-called) scattered across the world's oceans, appears to be a historical reality, the truth of who this common ancestor "king" was is highly debated.

One school of thought sees the king as a true historical figure, a leader and inventor who united the entire pistrix people under one banner to fight back against the merfolk's abuses, and who paid for this boldness with his life.

Some scholars, however, maintain that Azoth was nothing more than a fictional hero of folklore, or even a partially forgotten ocean deity, later associated with real events, such as the destruction of the Vertical Castle, one of the most important gathering and burial sites for the pistrix. There appears to be no documentation attesting that the pistrix ever had a centralized government, much less a monarchy. Other mythological figures later "historicized" can be cited as examples of a similar process of mythologizing, such as Hengest of Kent, a legendary ruler, or the well-known King Arthur.

Even Azoth's supposed lifespan of over seven hundred years appears to be a completely invented detail, although the pistrix (none of whom, among those interviewed, have reached that age) swear that it is natural, and even common for their species, to live that long.

Gallery of images (Click to enlarge!)

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Colonna 1	Colonna 2	colonna 3
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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! 🌵🎨

[Character] Sangreal

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

Full Name: Sangreal

Species: Pistrix (Apocapisces regalecus)

Preferred Pronouns: He/him are the most commonly used for him, but he doesn't care about whatever pronoun.

Occupation: Shrimp farmer, fisherman, sea warlock's helper.

S.O.: Demisexual pansexual.

Nationality: French.

Weight: 300+ kg / growth indeterminate (in the future)

Length: 642 cm at first appearance / growth indeterminate

Physical Structure: Elegant, compact, the majority of body (especially the tail) is ribbon-like.

Smells of: Seaweed, shrimp.

Sangreal is a Pistrix, the co-protagonist of "Fish Don't Cry," the first book in the OdysSea saga, and also of the eponymous comic.

• Fish Don't Cry - Book [Tapas][Wattpad]
• Fish Don't Cry - Comic

 

Appearance

Sangreal is a relatively large Pistrix for its age, with a total length of six meters and forty-two centimeters. However, he's still young and could reach a length of thirteen meters. He has clear blue eyes, with an exceptionally high-performance tapetum lucidum that makes them highly reflective and gives it the characteristic "shiny" effect in dim light, even when the ambient light is very dim.

His body has an articulated, human-like torso, which is grafted onto a body that could be compared to that of an oarfish: very long, laterally compressed, and with a red dorsal fin that starts from the middle of its shoulder blades and ends just before the tip of its tail. Of the approximately 400 rays of the dorsal fin, the first six are elongated to varying degrees, forming a crest with diamond-shaped flaps of skin at the tips of the rays.

His mane is semi-stiff, with the tips always tending to point upward.

His skin is scaleless, and his body is covered with a layer of guanine that gives it a silvery, reflective appearance, almost mirror-like in its smoother areas.

Sangreal initially appears as a typical male pistrix, with a slender body and a thick, carmine-red beard, pigmented very similarly to its fins. Like all pistrix, he can change sex if its chosen mate is of the same sex and if it is the larger of the pair (it is always the larger individual that becomes, or remains, female, to maximize egg production), which is why his appearance changes slightly in the second half of his life.

He is fortunate enough to enjoy a plentiful, high-quality diet, so even during his female phase, he retains his full beard (which is generally minimal or almost absent in females), even as he grows in size and his muscles become more prominent, while his lower body becomes capable of storing fat.

The pistrix's face, although resembling that of a human, is not structured the same, having evolved from a skeleton completely different from that of mammals. The mouth can be opened and protruded, becoming much larger than it appears, a small jewel of evolutionary engineering that can fold in on itself with highly refined mechanisms. When not used for predatory acts, a pistrix's mouth appears, at a casual glance, indistinguishable from a human's. 

"Human form"

When Seras Alkahest uses her metamorphic magic on him to transform him into a "terrestrial" being, Sangreal appears human, though not exactly ordinary. 

Standing over two meters tall, with broad shoulders, a thick red mane, and medium-long, slightly wavy hair, Sangreal often draws the gaze of others. 

He loves wearing tailored suits, and Seras is particularly happy to be able to pay for them so she can show off such a "jewel": his clothes are often made of fine and/or delicate materials, silk (sometimes even spider silk) and velvet, with discreet decorations around the pockets or on the lapels of his jackets, woven from precious metals. 

His patent leather shoes are rarely dirty, as Sangreal doesn't move his legs much, thus having no opportunity to get them dirty or dusty.

Sangreal's human skeleton is identical in shape to that of a human, except for two details: the hyperossification of the spinous processes of its vertebrae, which are taller and bulkier than those of an average human, but difficult to spot for the untrained eye, and some vestigial pieces of cartilage on its face.

The skeleton of pistrix, like the one of oarfish, contains distinct areas of hyperostosis, or hyperossified bones, along the back, and it is these that have been transposed into hyperossification of the spinous processes.

As for the skull of fish, it is extremely complex. When transforming him into a human skull, Seras decided it would be more convenient to leave some pieces of cartilage in their original form, rather than transforming them into other parts of the skull, which might give Sangreal's face a strange appearance.

Sangreal's cheeks are therefore very well defined, and can even make a slight clicking sound when gently tapped. The somewhat abnormal shape of these cheeks is hidden by his thick beard.

There is also a small layer of extra cartilage, left over from his gills, on the back of his skull, but it is very thin and also hidden by his hair. 

Sangreal is not as strong as he seems, despite his unusual height and beautifully sculpted body. He doesn't have great balance and prefers to sit, with his legs elegantly crossed. Another thing that doesn't seem obvious is his extreme flexibility: he can bend double, touching his knees to his forehead, and he has no problem reaching any part of his back with his hands. Sangreal's bones are less mineralized than those of a human, giving him almost contortionist-like abilities.

And speaking of hands: his are unusually large, even for his size, and help him swim efficiently. Although he is clumsy on land, especially when he has to run (though not when he stands still, tending to maintain a nice, elegant posture), in the water he is very agile.

Personality

Sangreal almost always appears calm, with a proud and elegant bearing, so much so that humans who encounter him often fail to understand his true nature.

In reality, Sangreal is enthusiastic about new things and full of joy over the little things in life, but the way he speaks and moves is influenced by his need to conserve energy, typical of his species that lives in the cold depths of the sea.

Like other specimens in his community, Sangreal speaks fluent French.

Despite his enthusiastic personality, his desire to be kind to everyone and meet new people, Sangreal feels terribly lonely, useless, and lacking in qualities. His species prioritizes pairing, but he has never been chosen by another individual, and at his age, it seems difficult, even impossible, to find someone to share the rest of his long life with.

Pistrix do not live in family groups, nor do they form lasting bonds of friendship beyond that of a pair. Instead, they begin testing each other from childhood, choosing a mate as soon as they reach adulthood, usually confirming the "special relationship" they began to form years earlier.

Sangreal, at the moment of his choice, was rejected by the young female with whom he had formed a special bond.

To avoid living alone, he was forced to live with his grandmother, a huge female pistrix who had lost her mate and who always encouraged him to stay home and help her. Although completely normal in other cultures, this coexistence caused Sangreal's reputation to plummet. He was unable to find another mate, mocked for his increasingly clumsy courtships. In fact, some females did find themselves interested in him, particularly because of his growing beauty, but by then Sangreal couldn't even perceive their advances, his self-esteem so shattered that he was convinced he was utterly repulsive and unworthy of the presence of other members of his species, and this believe was reinforced by his grandma.

Sangreal, no longer having to protect his offspring or spend time with his ideal partner, ended up focusing primarily on food, of which he became a connoisseur. Its ability to find high-quality krill, and even to farm some species of crustaceans with high nutritional and organoleptic value, has made him better fed than the average specimen of his species, resulting in his fins being particularly red (due to the carotenoids ingested and the general composition of its food) and his beard particularly developed, making it an aesthetically ideal specimen. I

His taste for food has only grown over time, but so has the "refinement" of his palate: Sangreal is particularly picky, unable to tolerate the taste of nutrient-poor foods, or those containing the wrong nutrients.

He likes to try everything, and is certainly interested in human food, but most cooked and/or fermented foods deeply disgust him.

He particularly loves foods rich in fat and protein, and his diet normally consists exclusively of highly nutritious crustaceans.

Sangreal also enjoys very much talking to open-minded, willing people who understand his complex and profound feelings, which to some humans can seem vaguely alien.

Sangreal, has a peculiar relationship with nudity. Among pistrix, being naked isn't seen as taboo, but sometimes, especially among those of "noble" lineage, as slightly inappropriate. Sangreal doesn't like to wear clothes when in the water, and tries to avoid it despite others seeing him as somewhat bizarre for it. 

Outside the water, Sangreal loves beautiful clothes, and is often so covered that only his fingertips and part of his face (the rest of his beard being obscured) are visible. He wears layered suits, gloves (most often fingerless), and doesn't like to go around with bare arms or legs.

However, even out of the water, Sangreal has no problem stripping completely in front of those he trusts, and there's no malice in this behavior. In some situations, he can't even show the skin of a forearm; in others, when he feels comfortable and confident, he can go completely naked. The amount of exposed skin is closely linked to his feelings: sadness, anger, or fear cause him to cover up more, as if hiding under several layers of clothing to hide from his "enemies," even in extremely hot conditions. He's also extremely respectful of others' feelings, and if he even vaguely notices (or infers) that his nudity might make someone uncomfortable, Sangreal remains fully clothed. 

Although Sangreal has a majestic and menacing appearance, both due to his often rigid pose and his "intense" expression, he actually does not have a quarrelsome attitude and prefers to avoid conflict when he can, also because his body is relatively fragile, especially if he is not in a very high-pressure environment. 

Screenshot from camera trap footage

 

Trivia

• Sangreal has had a passion for "sea monkeys" (Artemia salina) ever since Professor Seraphin Panorme showed him videos of them being raised.
• Sangreal has difficulty telling male humans from female humans (although he is improving, he will probably never be able to tell 100% of the time).
• 
  Sangreal has a strange relationship with bread, half fascination and half disgust. 
  The fact that bread is made from a "goo" of small seeds crushed with adedd water, that it is leavened by the waste products of microorganisms (their "farts") and that these microorganisms are then all killed by cooking, makes this food disgusting to him. 
  At the same time, he is delighted by the smell of baked goods, can't understand why his human body starts salivating when he smells the fragrance of freshly baked bread, and he likes the taste of bread. 
• Sangrealy  has a very special pet: it's a Stylephorus chordatus, or tubefish, named "Anxiety You Get When You Smell Ammonia in the Water," or "Ammonia" for short.  

Gallery (click to enlarge)

	By Samifer
	By Claudia Ponto
	By @zavalas-toes.bsky.social	Young
By cjcraziness	With Rosas
By Duskar	By  Crystaluna	By by anthonymakessomeart
By Ifreann7	By Ecto-Stone	---
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Human form

		colonna 3
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Do you want to draw a fanart of Sangreal? Do you want us to feature it in his official pages? Here's the rules! (click on the arrow to de-collapse or collapse this section!)

Wow. It's so absolutely cool that you decided to draw our long boi! Thank you, your work will be appreciated and loved and cherished.

There are only few (easily followable) rules if you want to draw him. It's almost like there are no rules, wow!

Following them will be easy: 

ARTWORK (still or animated)

• SFW: allowed
• NSFW: allowed too! Canonically he would sexually interact ONLY with Seraphin, so if you want us to share your art (with links, of course) in his official page(s) he can be only with Seraphin Panorme! But since we don't care about canonicity, and like to leave people free of expressing themselves, you can draw art of him shipped with whoever you want, your own OCs included! Just keep in mind his anatomy: in his natural body (this means, unless he's being magically transformed into someone else, like a human being), Sangreal doesn't have a penis. He can be portrayed both as a male or a female, but he always has a beard. Yeah, the only hard rule is that he always has a beard XD

STORIES (written or illustrative)

• SFW: allowed
• NSFW: allowed too! Same rules as for artworks. Bla bla bla, he doesn't have a penis, bla bla bla, if it's not with his canonical partner we can't feature the story but you can still write it, bla bla bla the only important thing is that he has a beard.

OTHER

• Fan merchandise: not allowed for now, sorry! We're not that famous, and we're pretty much poor, so allowing other people to make money from our ideas sounds... ehm... a bit depressing to us. This stance can change in the future! But for now it's a big NO NO.

🌵🎨 All the drawings on this page (and probably on the others too, unless otherwise specified) were made by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma.🌵🎨.

La fanart del giorno 9. Pistrice (by Samifer)

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!

Questo bel bestione sarà il protagonista di una storia che stiamo pianificando, non ha ancora un nome preciso (solo un placeholder, Lysandre, come il personaggio di Pokémon XY che ha ispirato un paio di sue caratteristiche), ma ha tutta una storia già pianificata... onestamente è strano per noi non conoscere ancora il nome di un personaggio di cui abbiamo già delineato tutti gli altri tratti, ma speriamo di trovargliene uno fantastico al più presto!

Di solito il nome è la parte più facile e e divertente per noi, a volte creiamo personaggi a partire dal nome (e magari da una o due caratteristiche che vogliamo rappresentare proprio con quel nome). 

Ma quello da cui siamo partiti qui è il nostro pesce marino preferito, il regaleco! 

Il disegno di oggi l'ha realizzato un artista francese, Samifer.

  

 

E guardatelo. Oh, guardatelo! Le sue pinne sono così rosse, con un bel colore profondo, con ombre scure che sfumano facendole sembrare di seta. Pinne di un esemplare assolutamente sano (e attraente per la sua specie, uh uh, anche se ovviamente nella sua storia è un po' un "forever alone", perché, insomma, è divertente... personaggio con un aspetto eccezionale, che però non riesce a trovare qualcuno con cui condividere la sua vita, per motivi completamente scorrelati con il suo aspetto).

Samifer ha catturato perfettamente il suo aspetto inumano, alieno come può esserlo quello delle creature che vivono nelle profondità degli abissi, al contempo elegante e maestoso e... leggermente spaventoso. Il modo in cui l'occhio, per essendo perfettamente dettagliato, brilla in quel modo... wow.

L'unico piccolo "problema" del disegno è che le pinne decorative presenti sulle braccia dovrebbero essere sul retro degli avambracci, nella zona del gomito, e non di fronte (dove sarebbero, probabilmente, poco idrodinamiche durante il nuovo, ma non siamo esperti), ma a parte questa piccola discrepanza con il design originale, il resto è assolutamente fantastico.  

Questo grazioso signorino è un Pistrice, e se volete sapere qualcosa di più su di loro, eh, trovate qui la scheda della specie.