Hydras
Overview
The first hydras were spawned from the sea titans Phorcys and Ceto, and they have become a terrifying addition to the ecosystem with the titans’ defeat. These multi-headed, reptilian creatures come in a variety of shapes and adaptations, but all share an incredible regenerative ability to regrow lost limbs and even sprout new heads, unless the wounds are cauterized. Indeed, hydras do not reproduce by normal means: a grown hydra will inject an amniotic substance into one of its many heads and intentionally sever it, planting it into the earth. The amniotic substance immediately coagulates the head’s stump to stop it from bleeding out, and within days the head will generate a new body under the earth.One of the last assaults on Ogygia came from a gigantic hydra known as the Devourer, and the heroes who slew it were cursed by its blood to gain traits of the hydra and its powerful healing. Since this attack, further study showed that injecting semi-acidic hydra blood can impart a hydra’s powers to any mortal, at the cost of becoming more like the hydra with time. Hydra blood immediately bonds with any other species’ blood, and each successive infusion is more potent than the previous, but with time the subject may gain hard scales, serpentine necks, or a lashing tail. Such beings are known as hydra-blooded, and small cults of hydra worship have cropped up throughout Ogygia to create more and more of these hybrids. They believe that, with time, they will mutate fully into hydras themselves with no remaining trace of their mortality.
Hydras can be represented by any variation of a hydra, including Theros’s ironscale hydra.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Similar to a large monitor lizard, but with a neck usually similar in length to the tail and ending in an elongated head with needle-like teeth. Limbs are webbed to enable semiaquatic lifestyle, and the tail is often lined with jagged fins and a crest for additional locomotion. Body is covered in scales halfway between those of a lizard and a fish. Blood is semi-acidic and aggressively bonds on the genetic level with the blood of any other species.
Adult hydras have three heads, but hydras that have lost heads will have two for each one damaged or removed. These will attempt to grow from the base of the neck, splitting the original head and neck in half as necessary before reforming each half as individual heads. Some hydras have been found with mutations to this growth, with new heads growing out of wounds or points of separation instead of neatly splitting the original head.
In addition to the brain in each head, hydras also exhibit a smaller brain in the chest region. This appears to be the reason that each individual head does not have an individual personality, allowing the hydra to maintain a singular identity no matter how many additional heads it grows.
Genetics and Reproduction
Asexual reproduction through a form of budding. One head is filled with an amniotic substance and severed, at which point the wound immediately coagulates. The severed head is then buried in fertile earth, and after 5-7 days will regenerate an immature body capable of locomotion.
Growth Rate & Stages
Infant hydras have highly undeveloped bodies, with stubby tails and limbs that are more like flippers, contrasting with their adult heads. The infant hydra will live mostly as an ambush hunter in the marshes and swamps where it was "born," and its rate of development will depend on its access to food. A hydra with plenty of nourishment can grow to adulthood within a month, steadily developing two additional heads, elongating its tail and gaining fins, and advancing its flippers into powerful, clawed limbs.
A malnourished or inconsistently-fed hydra may experience significant mutations during its growth and appears to prioritize heads over other limbs. Some extreme hydra mutations have been found that more closely resemble an octopus with serpents in place of tentacles, or whose limbs have partially developed into upper jaws.
Ecology and Habitats
Ogygian swamps, wetlands, and marshes. Young hydras are primarily born in swamps with brackish waters.
Some hydras have adapted to an entirely aquatic life in the ocean.
by Umberto
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Significant darkvision with short-range electrosense to enable hunting in murky waters and loose mud. When sleeping, one head will remain awake to control the main body and will rest once the others awaken.
Contents
Details
Origin/Ancestry
Spawn of Phorcys and Ceto
Lifespan
200 years
Average Height
15 feet at the shoulder
Average Length
30 feet
Geographic Distribution
