Races of Heimland: The Surakh
The Surakh (meaning "Spider-Folk") are the most violent and vicious race in Heimland, even more than the Indagarians. Dwelling in the dark regions of Surakhnit, these fierce beasts are the result of a nuclear-bomb dropped on Indagar centuries before.
The beasts attacked the Old Folk after 500 years of peace, resulting in the Folk dropping Big-Bahama, their second and last atomic-bomb, onto the city of Surakhnit and the mountains of Raginwald, resulting in the creation of the Drekkin. A special characteristic is their instinct: the Surakh have, through breeding, been able to raise what would normally be instinct into a form of hereditary-memory. Every Surakh is born with all of the knowledge and memories of its ancestors, to the point of knowing what different animals taste like, even ones they personally have never encountered. Sometimes when a Surakh consumes another Surakh, it gains its memories.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Surakh are chelicerates (related to spiders) and therefore arthropods. As arthropods they have segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a cuticle made of chitin and proteins; heads that are composed of several segments that fuse during the development of the embryo, their bodies consist of two tagmata (sets of segments that serve similar functions: the foremost one, called the cephalothorax or prosoma, is a complete fusion of the segments that in an insect would form two separate tagmata, the head and thorax; the rear tagma is called the abdomen or opisthosoma), the cephalothorax and abdomen which are connected by a small cylindrical section (the pedicel), fangs that are venomous and fold away behind the upper-sections while not in use, thick "beards" that filter solid lumps out of their food as Surakh can take only liquid food, large claws for capturing prey and scorpion-like stingers they use to spin webs. Their eight bulging eyes are lidless, their noses nothing more than narrow slits, and their mouths round tooth-filled holes covered in a thick carapace of keratin when not in use.
Biological Traits
They share ancestry to the Indagarians
Genetics and Reproduction
Females lay up to 3,000 eggs in one or more silk egg sacs, which maintain a fairly constant humidity level. Sometimes the females die afterwards, but females that live on will protect the sacs by attaching them to their webs, hiding them in nests, carrying them in their chelicerae or attaching them to their spinnerets and dragging them along.
Growth Rate & Stages
Baby Surakh pass all their larval stages inside the egg and hatch as spiderlings, very small and immature but similar in shape to adults. Surakh care for their young, the brood cling to rough bristles on the mother's back and females respond to the "begging" behavior of their young by giving them their prey, provided it is no longer struggling or even regurgitate food for their young. However, at some point, the females sacrifice themselves to be eaten by their young so that they may gain ancestral-knowledge from her. If there is no mother, the father will sacrifice himself for food.
Ecology and Habitats
Dark caves in Heimland
Dietary Needs and Habits
Surakh are strictly carnivorous, attacking eating whatever they can catch when they hunt at night. When hungry they will sometimes cannibalize each other if food is lacking.
Biological Cycle
Having a short lifespan, Surakh grow rapidly and die quickly, turning to a pulpy black puddle of boiling smelly fluid when they do.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Surakhnit, in Heimland.
Average Intelligence
Akin to a common man, albeit similar to dogs.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Having spent some time in caves, the Surakh have evolved to navigate their surroundings through echolocation, even in daylight.
Civilization and Culture
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Ksksksky and Surakhiya, which both evolved from the language of the Old Folk.
History
The beasts originated from the Indagarians who were exposed to nuclear-radiation from Big-Kahuna, the first atomic-bomb of the Old Folk. The radiation caused some of the few Indagarians in the city to mutate into horrible beasts that feared the sunlight and retreat into the caves, where they formed the city of Surakhnit.
The beasts at first survived by cannibalizing each other, then gradually evolved to spin webs and trap large prey such as pigs, wolves and sometimes even other races. Due to being mutants from a nuclear fallout, these beasts lived for short periods and so reproduced rapidly by evolving to lay eggs protected in egg-sacs. After 500 years of evolution, they had completely changed from the Indagarians they once were and the mindless monsters were ready to attack the Old Folk once again, leading to the event of Big-Bahama.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Homo-Sanguisuga-Aranea
Origin/Ancestry
Born from a nuclear holocaust, formed from the Indagarians.
Lifespan
6 years
Average Height
8 m
Average Weight
6 bahar (a "bahar" is a unit of weight used to measure weights in living beings. One bahar is 2 metric tons).
Average Length
6 m (from head to abdomen).
Average Physique
Agile and speedy, but slow in the forests. They are more adapted to the harsh crags of the mountains.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Although they prefer to be naked, Surakh will sometimes paint their bodies with paint during special hunting-sprees and festivals.
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
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