Ceasg or Mersalmons

The ceasg or mersalmons (Maregens salmo), are a species of merfolk characterized by anadromous migration, that is, the movement from salt water (where the adults live for most of their lives) to fresh water, where they reproduce.

Appearance 

Robust and strong, ceasgs closely resemble common merfolk, but lack fins or membranous decorations on their arms or head. 

Their undersides are covered in cycloid scales with rounded edges, which are silvery or blue when adults are in the sea, outside of the breeding season. They come in two sizes: regular, the most common, and jack, a smaller version that matures much earlier.

Sociality 

Socially, mersalmons are divided into two categories: dominants and gregarious. The dominants, more extroverted, have greater decision-making power and are the reproductive specimens, while the gregarious, although they can still be extremely intelligent, form groups that follow the directions of a dominant. 

Each social group (be it a shoal of two or three individuals or a platoon of up to thirty) will be led by one or two dominants, who can be of either sex, although dominant pairs typically consist of a male and a female. 

The mersalmon hierarchical system also involves the physical appearance of individuals. Dominant individuals tend to have a heavier, patternless torso, with darker, solid-colored skin ranging from olive to brick red, while gregarious individuals are lighter-colored, leaner, and often exhibit camouflage patterns on their torso and face. Furthermore, gregarious mersalmons, both male and female, are always beardless. 

During spawning, dominant mersalmons, both male and female, undergo a color change: their scales take on various vibrant warm hues, primarily red and gold. Although rare, some male mersalmons (an estimated one in four hundred) also exhibit a color change on their skin, which becomes green, with the extremities of their upper limbs (arms and wrists) being particularly dark (and known as "gloves"). The contrast between the green skin of their torso and the intense color of their tail scales makes them particularly striking, but also highly visible to predators. This is why "green" males are so few: it's difficult for them to survive and pass on their genetics. 

Gregarious mersalmons, however, remain unchanged. 

Dominant male mersalmons tend to adorn themselves with objects found on the seabed, whether organic or inorganic. Many are attracted to human-made artifacts, even those seemingly without decorative value, such as food packaging or floppy disks.

Because they are nearsighted outside the water, gregarious mersalmons often act as "extra eyes" for dominant individuals, scanning the surrounding environment for danger or interest when they are fully or partially surfaced. Sometimes, gregarious mersalmons are even equipped with lenses, either separate or framed (actual spectacles) to aid them in their task. 

Although dominant male mersalmons are renowned for their displays and ritualistic battles, in the absence of a female to court, they tend to treat each other with marked camaraderie. Even during the breeding season, they can be seen half-beached on the rocks, chatting amiably with each other, waiting to spot females and begin fighting to attract them. 

Dominant males who have good friendships with each other (often even brothers) often "choreograph" their skirmishes in the presence of females, thus creating fights that appear much more intense and therefore attractive. Because they don't have to worry about actually getting hurt, as their opponent isn't actually trying to subdue and injure them, they can better display their fins and muscles and challenge each other, even verbally. Male friendship among mersalmons is essential for successful breeding. 

Besides gregarious and dominant mersalmons, there is a third type of mersalmon: jacks. Jacks mature much earlier than "regular" mersalmons and, as such, maintain a very small size. Furthermore, even during the breeding season, they don't change color, remaining inconspicuous. Jacks do not have any dominant/submissive relationships with other mersalmons; they do not engage in courtship displays and do not fight among themselves or with other mersalmons. An adult male jack weighs about forty-five to fifty kilograms, compared to over one hundred kilograms for a full-sized male, and would have no chance of winning in an open fight.

Reproduction

Mersalmons live their adult lives at sea, but to reproduce, they migrate to the upper reaches of rivers, to their birthplace, which they recognize thanks to their extraordinarily developed and selective sense of smell, aided also by the so-called "migration memory," the only fundamental memory that cannot be erased, even with the aid of magic. 

During the reproductive period, mersalmons exhibit distinctive muscle growth; this hypertrophy is not solely for aesthetic reasons (although it appears to contribute significantly to mate selection), but is necessary to sustain the effort of climbing waterfalls. Unlike true salmon, mersalmons do not stop feeding during migration, but their appetites grow, leading them to become extremely voracious. 

During spawning, males readily court not only females of their own species but also those of other merfolk, and sometimes breed with them at sea before continuing their migration back to their birth rivers. Mersalmon genetics are particularly recessive, and hybrids tend to resemble their mothers much more closely. 

Pure mersalmon juveniles, born in freshwater, may stay for a period in their natal stream or swim immediately to the sea, but in most cases they remain for a few years in the lakes they encounter on their way to the sea before returning to their home sea. During these intermediate lake stops, the young initially adopt coastal habits but then become semipelagic, only rarely touching the seabed. 

Mersalmons are oviparous, and the female lays up to two hundred eggs. Newborn mersalmons are the smallest of all merfolk.

Gallery (Click to enlarge!)

A nixen and a mersalmon	Chibi gregarious male
Chibi "green" male	A green male and a jack	Two males talking
		Interspecies courtship (Nixen x Mersalmon)
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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
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Aboletto [English version]

Abolettos (Lacrimae somniorum) are spirits belonging to the Lemures group. In the paralarval stage they are known, together with two other species of the same family (Lacrimae sanguinis and sidereum), as tears of desires.

Appearance

As adults, abolettos have the appearance of large spherical masses two to six meters wide, generally flattened at the poles, green, yellow or blue in color, translucent enough to allow a glimpse of the luminous energy center, which is located right in the center of the body.

They have no eyes or ears, si they orient themselves in the world only through taste, the perception of pain and that of vibrations. The surface of adult abolettos is soft and pleasant to the touch: the sensation of touching them has sometimes been described as similar to that of a hot water bottle made of agar agar jelly.

During their paralarval stage, they tend to be brighter, with a crystalline surface, and gather in small colonies that, when they manifest in the material world, are particularly pleasing to humans.

When an adult aboletto is injured, it protects itself by instantly forming a series of long spines on its surface, giving it the appearance of a big sea urchin.

Behavior

Abolettos are extremely passive spirits, which simply remain in the same spot even for years, incorporating dust and dead materials that touch them through their skin, feeding very slowly. They are completely harmless, except for the long spikes that form on their surface when they are injured, and due to their extremely elastic and robust consistency, they are difficult to cut or pierce, so the possibility of being accidentally stung by their rising spikes is very low.

They rarely manifest in the material world, and when they do, it is generally due to mistakes or the fault of other creatures that transported them. When this happens, they have no problem surviving in the material world, feeding primarily on dust, dry leaves, dead insects, and other things that settle and remain on them for a long time.

Habitat

Abolettos are an indicator of healthy and life-rich areas, thriving primarily within complex spirit ecosystems. Well-developed abolettos can generally be found wherever there are living forests with large trees.

Diet

In their natural environment, abolettos feed primarily on non-encoded ectoplasm and various remains of other spirits' meals. They are excellent detritivores and help maintain healthy ecosystems.

Conservation

They are unfortunately a vulnerable species, hunted by humans as one of the easiest ghosts to keep in captivity. Unfortunately, although their immobility makes them easy to keep in small terrariums, these creatures adapt poorly to captivity, requiring good air exchange, and variable conditions in terms of humidity and temperature: they could easily survive in a temperate forest, but die after a few weeks if kept indoors.

Furthermore, their natural distribution area is progressively shrinking, due to the destruction of forests, both ectoplasmic and natural, and deforestation.

There is an old, and barbaric, practice that consists of capturing the young of this species and locking them in transparent glass jars, making a wish and waiting for the paralarvae to shrink until they die of hunger and disappear, and the disappearance of the "wishing tear" should in theory mean that the wish will come true. This senseless custom, without any magical or scientific basis, has further reduced the number of specimens of abolettos in nature.

Trivia

• The largest aboletto ever measured was 20 feet, 10 inches in diameter.

• For a long time, abolettos were not considered living beings, but some sort of mysterious natural phenomenon.

• It seems to love the vibrations produced by whistled tunes, one of the few things that can make an aboletto move, and in this case try to roll toward the source of the sound.

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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