Lurva Monch

Discovered in the heart of a massive volcano, these creatures have a mixed heritage between earth elementals and primal lava dragons, boasting a creature of an increadible lack of intelligence and an appetite for consuming lava.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A four-legged creature the lava murnch has a large tail, and a craggled rock-like exterior, their misshappen jaw is poorly suited for consuming anything other than liquids, yet it also proves an incredibly effective tool in disabling predators of their species, as the superheated mouth and serrated teeth make it's bite shred as dangerously as a shark's bite, with the added pain of coating the offending creature in superheated magma.
Additionally, the three-legal talons with which thse creatures have are more than suitable for being as a bludgeoning weapon, or for gripping and grinding stone out of their way with surprisingly alacritive movement as they dig or climb their way throughout their home caves.

Genetics and Reproduction

A lurva monch is by it's nature - asexual, showing no gender traits until one of them ages sufficiently and is capable of evolving into a Lurva Monch queen. With defensive capabilities and a slightly increased intellect, she is an egg-birther, capable of filling lava pools with her young and protecting them. Knowing that the heat keeps them well incubated and with their natural affinity to breathe lava as if were air, her young can hatch typically with relative peace.
in the presence of a queen, a lurva monch will form a small matriarchy, based around the presence of a queen as the creatures will dedicate themselves to protecting her and her young, whilst one or two of the remaining oldest lurva monchs will gain genitalia with which to fertilize the queen's eggs. - A strange phenomona that Irene has recorded is that it seems that the most "distant" Monches are the ones most likely to gain male traits, which acts of a natural form of preventing inbreeding amongst the young.

Ecology and Habitats

Lurva mocnhes can be found in any volcanic terrain, or soon-to-be volcanic terrain as their presence will eventually terraform wherever they live into a pseudo-volcanic, although without it being driven by tectonic collision, these laval flows are often significantly more predictable and manageable, allowing for a slow growth of their mountain and an enrichment of the territory - making it incredibly vibrant and rich in various minerals and geodes as a byproduct.

Dietary Needs and Habits

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Behaviour

Whilst territorial, these creatures are easily pacified by offering them "flavored lava" which often consists of enriched lava, which they will treat more luxuriously than regular lava. The matter can be as bare as offering them fresh lava from a different area, or even making it seem different to them, these creatures - whilst equipped with defense mechanisms have no predators, and no reason to distrust others. Instead, they're just happy to be themselves.
Although, worth noting - is the exception that if they feel their eggs threatened, a lurva monch will stop at nothing to remove the unfamiliar presence from their caves.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

These creatures have a passive sensitivity to stone and lava around them. This perception extends to their ability to redirect currents of lava, and slowly excavate them turning any place they live for extended periods of time - into a volcano. Shockingly for their lack of intellect though, the lava flows they cause are rarely unstable or impossible to control by an exterior intelligence force.