Dhun
Barendar is the homeland of the strange plant-like species known as the dhun. They are a private, reserved people who make their homes in the lush temperate broadleaf forests of interior and northern Barendar. They are self-appointed guardians of these forests.
Appearance
Dhun stand 1.5 to 1.75 meters and weigh 130 kilograms on average. They bear a faint resemblance to other labians, such as the varhani and hakanu, however their skin is covered in rough, barklike scales and their builds are more robust, with shorter necks. Their scales are dark brown over most of their bodies, transitioning to green at their head and extremities. They have short legs with large six digited feet and long arms with large, double thumbed hands.
Their heads are crowned with two twisting and branching antler-like growths. These growths sprout bright green, frond-like structures that look like a combination of feathers and leaves. Like all labians, dhun are beakless. Dhun eyes are large, with irises of iridescent purple or dark green.
Physiology
Dhun are primarily detrivores. They sustain themselves by consuming decaying plant matter, such as fallen fruits, leaves and twigs. This is supplemented by the photosynthesis of symbiotic algae that grow in the skin of their extremities and their horn feathers. Their metabolisms are very slow, requiring little air or food, compared to other warm-blooded animals. In extremity, they are also capable of burying themselves, leaving only their feather-fronds above the surface. In this state, they enter a hibernation they may maintain for decades.
Their black, iron infused teeth are large and thickly enameled. Dhun saliva is very acidic and oxidative, suffused with enzymes to break down normally indigestible proteins and carbohydrates, such as cellulose and lignin as well as keratin and chitin. They chew their food slowly and thouroughly, like ruminants and like ruminants, will regurgitate and rechew any undissolved food material. Complementing this robust digestion is a very large stomach.
They have, which on the surface may seem counterintuitive, a very well developed sense of taste and smell, but tastes and smells perceived as revolting to other creatures are pleasant and pleasurable. Chewing a clump of rotting leaves or a chunk of week old rotting carrion brings as much enjoyment as a meal from the finest restaurant. In fact, they much prefer long dead organic matter over freshly cut or killed.
They are dual-sexual and produce both male and female gametes, but they cannot self-fertilize, instead exchanging male gametes with other dhun. These gametes grow from swellings in the surface of their horns that burst into a cloud of orange, pollen-like substance. Mature dhun can induce this fertility at will. Once fertilized, a single egg, covered in a hard, nut-like casing develops from the back of their head, growing and swelling until it detaches. This egg is partially buried in moist, well conditioned soil and tended by the parent until it hatches in three years, after which it continues to grow and mature still rooted, taught and cared for by its parent and the other adults of its sanctuary, before uprooting as an adult after 36 years.
The dhun are a species modified in ancient times by the advanced biomancy of their ancestors' tecuhtli masters for the sole purpose of toiling at manual labor, day and night, with minimal need for food, shelter or rest. As such, their strength and endurance is immense and unlike most excultids, their bones are large and solid. An adult dhun weighs three times as much as a varhani, though they are of similiar height.
Way of Life
Dhun live in small, loose communities known as sanctuaries. These sanctuaries are scattered throughout the forests of Barendar. In these sanctuaries, dhun spend their lives in quiet contemplation and contentment. With minimal requirements for food and shelter, and with life spans believed to be several centuries, dhun have little need for work or what they consider the frenetic lives of other races. There are some dhun who feel the need to travel. These dhun have a desire to see the world outside the forests. Some want to establish homes in other lands, learn more of the life of Torvalen or learn of its civilizations, though dhun are a rare sight in cities. Although most dhun see this desire to leave as strange, the pursuit of knowledge is an accepted and respected goal. Very few are motivated by lust for wealth or power. These desires are considered signs of dangerous insanity among the dhun and are distasteful and incomprehensible to them.
Though hearty, they are prone to injuries caused by drying skin and dehydration. They have an aversion to being near fires for the same reason.
Though they may conceive young whenever they wish, the long-lived dhun carefully limit their own reproduction, keeping their total population remarkably stable. Young are produced in the event of an untimely death due to accident or disease, but generally young are conceived only once every 168 years, in a communal ritual known as Noohr.
It is common for dhun to take decades-long vacations from consciousness by choosing to bury themselves and enter a hibernation state. This activity is called entering the Shunha M'hur, the "Dream of M'hur". It is believed that dhun in this state are connected with the consciousness of M'hur itself and through it, the consciousness of other dhun in a similar state. The decision to enter this state is more common among elderly dhun as well as those who have experienced the loss of a loved one, be it a fellow dhun, or long-cherished tree. Dhun emerge from this state happy and refreshed in spirit.
That minority of dhun that choose to venture from their lands usually travel to the nearby human nation of Yngheim in northeastern Barendar across the Sutberg Mountains. Such dhun are usually young. They can be found walking through the settled countryside, watching the industrious Yngir at their daily labors. Aside from learning and amusement, another motivation for traveling to human lands is for what they consider the delicious delicacies to be had. Among their favorite are fresh horse droppings as well as warm, rotting hay and the partially fermented vegetable waste found in midden heaps.
Though the dhun are not known for their sense of humor, they find all this ceaseless activity to be an endless source of amusement. To them it seems utterly pointless and bizarre, yet at the same time many admire what the humans of Yngheim have built. Some of the more adventerous sort venture into the capitol city of Yngborg. There the city has constructed a large nature sanctuary for visiting dhun, allowing them a place to rest after the stimulation of civilization becomes overwhelming.
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