Ursikka

Populating Triaxus children’s horror tales, ursikkas roam the Triaxian wilderness during the wandering planet’s winter years. These enormous, nightmarish praying mantises stretch 20 feet in length and stand as tall as 25 feet—mostly due to the long, slender walking legs on which they skitter with an eerie speed. Ursikkas’ grasping forelimbs each end in sharp pincers capable of shearing flesh from bone, and their three-part maws can open wide enough to swallow humans whole. Freezing saliva drips from their gnashing mandibles, which can injure and trap prey. Ursikkas are endlessly hungry creatures that act primarily on instinct. As such, they view all smaller creatures as food. During their planet’s long winters, ursikkas terrorize Triaxus’s extensive rural lands to secure the several tons of meat they need each week to survive. They prefer to consume large, cold-blooded creatures, but hungry ursikkas pursue any viable prey, particularly victims that seem sluggish and easy to catch. As winter draws to a close, ursikkas become especially ravenous as they prepare for a long hibernation in their summer abodes: cocoons constructed from their own freezing saliva. The cocoons’ temperature resistance makes it an exceptional insulation material for delicate machinery, and Triaxian factories long ago devised chemical baths that make the cocoons more pliable. Freelance hunters can collect considerable bounties for these cocoons. Summerborn Ryphorian actively seek and destroy slumbering ursikkas—not only to profit off their cocoons and hides, but also to cull the predators before they awaken the next winter and pose an active threat to communities. These local crews and hunting teams periodically join forces, each benefiting from the others’ aid. Their joint hunting ventures are limited to the summer seasons. This is in part because ursikkas almost always consume their cocoons to recoup the expended nutrients when they emerge in winter, and also because hunting hibernating ursikkas is safer than tracking active ones. The creatures are still ferocious even in summer, but their saliva production slows considerably during hibernation, and unless an awoken ursikka can eat enough to build a new cocoon, it often dies from exposure. Disturbed ursikkas sometimes rampage in the verdant summer wildernesses, desperate to eat and then return to sleep. Thanks to their tempestuous tempers and voracious appetites, ursikkas typically live solitary existences. However, where prey is abundant, ursikkas sometimes live in pairs or, rarely, in small hives. Even then, they typically hunt alone and fiercely guard their kills from their kin.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

URSIKKA HIDE ARMOR Some of the most intrepid hunters seek out ursikkas—and wily scavengers often search the tundra for fallen ursikka bodies—to harvest their hides. Ursikka hides are light, supple, and have an insulating quality that traps body heat, making them an ideal material for cold weather gear and clothes. Talented armorsmiths can create flexible light armor from this leather, basic ursikka hide armor provides cold resistance, and the resistance increases for advanced and elite suits respectively. Ursikka hide armor is uncommon in shops on Triaxus, rare across The Pact Worlds at large, and nearly impossible to find elsewhere in the galaxy. In some places on Triaxus—especially in the rural Allied Territories and Ning—wearing a suit of ursikka hide armor is a point of pride, a symbol of one’s courage and hunting prowess. For this reason, and to reap the rewards from selling this valuable resource, mercenary bands sometimes fan out across the planet’s rural locales specifically to gamble their lives on hunting these violent creatures.