Stone-Nosed Wombat

"They are amazing and odd little beasts, they eat stones, metals and silic cacti roots, which is where they get their hydration, and seem to somehow find excellent nutrition from such a strange diet. That protruding amber crystal like structure that sticks out from the center of their nose, between their nostrils, is actually a sort of horn/tooth sensory organ, with a variety of amazing qualities. Besides this, like all wombats their....feces, are small like perfect cubes, which is so strange and impressive, however even stranger is the nature of this waste product. Unlike most other animal waste of any kind, the waste of Stone-Nosed Wombats is actually a useful product to harvest, its excrement are cubes of extremely dense mineral salts, by products of an inexact diet. Many nomadic cultures used them to smoke and cure meats to make them last longer, and cuisine today in regions around the Teeth of the World treasure them as fine seasoning, with some of these animals being raised almost as a sort of livestock, though full domestication has proved futile. A most marvelous creature, one rarely seen but a member of the Animal Arcanium family worth studying."

An excerpt from a letter written by Andoris Kheeitt, to the famed naturalist Montague 'Mochi' Cuchilian Williamson Esq, in hopes of having the naturalist visit his homestead and to meet the marvelous Stone-Nosed Wombat during Mochi's next expedition of study into the southern Rohara, near the Teeth of the World

"One might first have a gut reaction of a negative sort to the concept of consuming feces from any animal, and I assure you dearest reader, that was of course my initial reaction. However if for no other reason but for science I had to try it. For scientific posterity, and so I did. I shall be the first to acknowledge that gut reaction, while valid in almost every case, was simply invalidated in this case nearly immediately. It is a marvel, as everything about this unique and elusive creature is."

Mochi, in a lecture to a university hall of budding natural sciences students, some two dozen in total, but two months after accepting the invitation of Andoris Kheeitt.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Stone-Nosed Wombat is built much like its mundane cousins, short legged, stout quadraped, with shovel like front claws for burrowing, and teeth that similarly to rodents, never stop growing. However they have uniquely tough hide, their fur seeming almost thick and crystalline to the touch, their skin hidden beneath having notable dips, divots and stiffness, not unlike rocky soil or stones. This is very likely a defensive adaptation, and one of its first markers of its Arcanium classification, to deal with predation from the likes of Sand Racers, Bloodpetal Scorpions and Redwing Tunnel Hawks.

They are marsupials and as such, they have pouches upon their belly, the females in particular having a notable size pouch, the opening facing behind them to insure that as they dig and burrow, a major activity that they spend most of their life doing almost continually, they do not cover and smother their baby with soil and rock dust.

Biological Traits

It is a difficult process to understand even with a variety of specimens, six in total, having had their inner workings and organs examined by various notable peoples in the fields of biology and naturalism, however it would seem their digestive system operates not just off of breaking down the things they consume, but utilizing the nutrient rich waters stored in silic cacti roots for hydration and to fuel a process that involves almost alchemy occuring within their digestive system and tracks, resulting in the appropriate nutrients and minerals being absorbed and utilized by the wombat's body. The rest, the excess and waste, is somehow dehydrated, condensed down into a perfect cube like shape about 1.8-2cm in all three dimensions. An adult may produce eighty to a hundred of these a night. This shape and their dry nature makes their waste extremely clean, as it stacks upon itself, and surprisingly clean and scentless.

Their horn-tooth also seems to allow them a sort of instintual reaction that some might recognize as very similar, in fact directly the same as, a geomancy spell. The horn will flash topaz briefly, thrumming with power, as a burst of manna floods forth from it in cone, a thunderous crack being heard, as bits of rock and soil are flung in a cloud of piercing and cutting discomfort and agony out nearly 30 feet (9 meters), striking everything in front of it. This innate ability seems to not be a conscious effect, nor always at the ready, but seems a limited sort of response, likely tied to this creature's affiliation to Domhan, the manna of earth, and a more unconscious instinctual effect used as a desperate last resort, not unlike a far more common creature in other regions, the skunk. Often it will first put on threatening displays, including the horn-tooth flashing topaz over and over again, and the creature scratching and tearing at the soil and rock beneath its feet. It will bare teeth, arc its back, showing off its powerful front legs, the digging claws. Then if all that fails to dissuade an intruder or predator the animal will lower its head and the thunderous crack of the sandblast releasing will be heard and then felt by the intruder or assailant.

Genetics and Reproduction

Stone-Nosed Wombats have a rather unique mating ritual. The males, as is common, have a displayative side to things, their horn-tooth losing its dulled amber tone and becoming a more brilliant topaz toned color for the months of Oniva, Aurilis, and Torvalis, to attract a mate. However it is the females, oddly enough, whom do a sort of courtship ritual, and one that is uniquely interesting. They will bring a piece of metallic ore, something like iron or copper, or perhaps gold or silver even, in hopes of winning over the male with a bribe of such fine food. If the gift is deemed acceptable, the pair will mate, then part ways, as the females rear the young alone.

It takes about fourteen weeks for a baby Stone-Nosed Wombat to gestate and be born, living within the pouch of their mother, off her milk for a further three months, the first of which the baby is blind and hairless, and would not survive a single night outside the safety of its mother's pouch. After three months, the baby will begin making excursions outside its pouch, the mother digging her tunnels and burrows a noticeably wider to accomodate her baby's presence. The baby will spend the next six to seven months, until the mating season begins again, eating, growing and traveling with its mother, learning life skills from her. Its horn-tooth will start to come in at around the fourth month of life, and similarly its tremor sensitivity will begin to develop. Mothers have been observed glasswork enclosures, burrowing warrens used for studies in recent years, playing a few unique games with their young to help teach them to use their tremor sensitivity and their newfound detection capabilities for various elements. They will make the baby stay still for a few moments, and move into the burrows out of sight, before letting out a single sort of scraping sound, likely using their horn-tooth upon stone and packed walls to make it, to inform their young to follow them. They'll move about, insuring they are walking around the tunnel they are hiding in, expecting their offspring to find them via its tremor sensivity. The mothers will also hide bits of particularly tasty metallic ores and mineral chunks around the tunnels and encourage their offspring to seek them out, teaching it to utilize its natural mineral sensitivity and detection ability.

Growth Rate & Stages

After their first year of life, Stone-Nosed Wombats are ready to go their own way from their mother, their coats having come in, their rocky skin having fully developed, and their claws, horn-tooth and teeth an appropriate size and strength. Though they will do so, they will not compete for a mate, and males will not experience the color shift of their horn. This is the 'sub-adult' phase of life, another year living as an adult, but having not quite yet reached sexual maturity. They will live another eighteen to twenty years on average, with the oldest adult ever recorded estimated to have been twenty-four years old when she died.

Ecology and Habitats

The Stone-Nosed Wombat lives in a very narrow, but long band of habitat that cuts across the arid central region of the continent of Gavis-Lune, a region named for its stone monoliths and protrusives that dominated the landscape, the remnants of what was once likely a mountainous region once long ago, now little more than protruding mesas and boulder like structures surrounded by parched earth, sand, clay and stone. Yet here they thrive, for below the burning sun and oppressively dry heat, below the earth, for a creature such as this, in fact for many a creature there is a glut of nutrition available, a bountiful harvest for those creatures adapted to it. Unlike their mundane cousins, Stone-Nosed Wombats spend more or less their entire lives below ground, having a deep sensitivity to intense light or luminsence of any kind. When they must come above ground they will do so at the darkest part of the night, and only for as short a time as is actively possible.

Dietary Needs and Habits

As previously mentioned, Stone-Nosed Wombats get most of their nutrition from earthen minerals and metals. Iron ore, quartz, silicates, basalts, copper, tin, silver, and even gold. They mix this with the sugar water storing root systems of Silic Cacti patches to acquire nutrition and hydration and it is an impressively sound process, metabolically, with little to no moisture loss, and very little in the way of wasted nutrition.

Once again, this diet also comes back in part to their horn-tooth. This protrusion seems to let off, when the wombat so desire it, a unique sort of low frequency vibrations, very short distance, in a cone, that weaken and soften the stone, soil and ores in front of it, helping facilitate its burrowing and allowing it to easily traverse almost all obstructions it might come upon.

Behaviour

Not a whole lot is understood about behavioral patterns or psychology of this interesting creature due to a sheer lack of an appropriate volume of observed research data.

Additional Information

Domestication

They are not truly able to be domesticated, they simply do not respond well to attempts, but that hasnt stopped people from simply settling at the edges of regions known to be favorite feeding grounds, dangerously close to the Teeth of the World, just to garner the benefits, financially, of their presence, harvesting their....well waste. Furthermore they can be a reliable marker of larger ore and mineral deposits and are a creature who's presence will excite prospectors when they come upon signs of them.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The most interesting and culturally shocking usage of these animals if of course, their feces. As their feces are just condensed and fully dehydrated mineral salts in a perfect cube shape, they are actually extremely valuable and an important resource to even creatures like the Sand Joten tribes that oft traverse the region, as well as the surrounding cultural border regions within the nations of Susma, Rohara and Valewyr, as they are used as seasonings, as well as key preservative agents, a custom that to people without the base of knowledge, would seem disgusting and likely dangerous or deadly.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

They are a rare species, and likely a keystone species within the Teeth of the World, the biome and region they live on the continent of Gavis-Lune.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The amber toned 'horn-tooth' protruding from this creature's nose, its name-sake, ranges from 12 to 18 centimeters (4.7"-7") and has a variety of functions. It is an indicator of age, and health during mating season, with males shifting shades to a deeper topaz color during mating season, the brilliant and shinier the shade, the healthier the male is. Beyond this, they seem to act as almost divining rods of sorts, over estimated distances of nearly 1/2 a mile (800 meters), for all kinds of minerals and metallic ores, basically driven by the wombat's need for nutrition. Furthermore this horn-tooth holds and is attuned to, in a sensitivity sort of fashion, Domhan. They can sense the use of Geomancy magick likely as far away from them as food.

Furthermore, like many subterranean animals, Stone-Nosed Wombats have a distinct sensitivity to movements over soil and softer earth, and even stone. This 'tremorsense' seems shorter range, and is likely an extra sensory capability evolved to aid in predator detection and avoidance.

Stone-Nosed Wombat Reference Sheet

Scientific Name

Marsupialia Lapideus Uteroat

Origin/Ancestry

Assumed to be descended from ancient marsupials, and likely closely related to the other two wombat species. Assumed divergence sometime after the Sundering as magick was unstable.

Lifespan

19-21 years

Average Height

26"-30" (66-76 cms) at the shoulder, with females often being slightly shorter, but stockier and more robust

Average Weight

22-40 kgs (48.5-88 lbs) again with females being the stockier and more robust members of the species.

Average Length

Adults grow to around 1-1.2 meters (40"-47.25") in length, with females generally being the longer members of the species.