Whale

Whales were the largest mammals in the world. They were gentle sea-dwelling creatures that migrated from place to place in the oceans. While peaceful, whales were known to only attack ships and other sea creatures when provoked.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The whale ear has specific adaptations to the marine environment. In humans, the middle ear works as an impedance equalizer between the outside air's low impedance and the cochlear fluid's high impedance. In whales, and other marine mammals, there is no great difference between the outer and inner environments. Instead of sound passing through the outer ear to the middle ear, whales receive sound through the throat, from which it passes through a low-impedance fat-filled cavity to the inner ear. The whale ear is acoustically isolated from the skull by air-filled sinus pockets, which allow for greater directional hearing underwater. Odontocetes send out high frequency clicks from an organ known as a melon. 
The whale eye is relatively small for its size, yet they do retain a good degree of eyesight. As well as this, the eyes of a whale are placed on the sides of its head, so their vision consists of two fields, rather than a binocular view like humans have. 
The olfactory lobes are absent in toothed whales, suggesting that they have no sense of smell.

Civilization and Culture

Historical Figures

The Leviathan is an awnshegh that is a huge whale, scarred from long ago battles it is probably the largest living being on all Aebrynis. The sight of its flukes smashing against the water is cause for any rational captain to turn their ship hard about and lay all sail to vacate the area.
The leviathan is ancient, and dates back to at least the battle of Mount Deismaar, most sages agree that the huge beast was created during the War of the Shadow by Azrai to wage war upon the Masetian people. The leviathan does not appear to be intelligent, but is frequently credited with malevolence for it seems to actively, if randomly, destroy shipping.
Due to making it's home in a strait in Vosgaard between the coastline that has the Icemarch. Battle-fens, and Lutkhovsky, and the smaller island of Torova Temylatin, this area is considered suicidal to sail through even though it is only active for a few years every seventy to eighty years.

Geographic Distribution

• Vosgaard