Underling

"This may be the first excerpt on this kind of matter found that the resident Templar didn't confiscate. I guess its not that important, but still worth adding to your collection. From what I've seen, its written something that isn't Old Tongue, so maybe you can read it. In any case, with Love, your Beloved." - An excerpt from a piece of parchment found in the camp of a Temple funded artifact dig site in northern Highsun, several days after the all of the digging and research staff disappeared without a trace. The following pieces of information were found within a nearby leather bound book, of which had been subject to the nature of a Repose spell. However, where the book had not aged, it had been burnt, torn and ruined beyond reading in many parts of it.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Underlings tend to have an incredibly unique pool of traits that their species share. Many parts of their design cannot be said to be set in stone, however from my observations there are several things that they all have in common.

• Two legs, a torso, two arms and a head (all good to have).
• A full, humanoid style spinal column and skeletal system. There are many 'variants' of Underlings that I have seen that have tails and even wings! I haven't the chance for further research or a full autopsy of these specimens, but these extra limbs appear functional. Its safe to assume for now that their biology supports these parts.
• The ability to reproduce with other Underlings, despite incredibly different traits and genes, which lends to the theory that the Bile controls what does and does not get passed on to support a functional organism. The children of these wild variances share the lesser extremes of each parent, resulting in a relatively physically moderate creature. 
• The five senses, (not surprising).
• The same internal, not counting skeletal and muscular, organ structures, as far as I can tell, is extremely similar to that of the homo sapien across nearly all aries. 
• Human reason and logic, which lends to the idea of their neural structure being largely the same as not only each other, but their predecessors as well. 
• The ability to generate C.S.E.P. in much larger amounts than many other species of sapien.

Now that this is said, there are dozens of things that are not guaranteed to be shared from individual to individual of this species. I theorize that many of these differences are related to Bile in some manner, but I cannot be certain of how, exactly. Here, to name just a few;

• Crown structure, first and foremost. Most Underlings I have encountered appear to have some bony growths similar to Old World bovine, caprine, ovine and even reptilian creatures. Typically, the larger the growth the more their skeletal and muscular biology has adapted to supporting it, resulting in their kind being wide necked and thick skulled from the looks of it. Males tend to have larger versions of these crown structures, something they have not yet dubbed in their currently primitive language. The purposes of these structures are not yet determined.
• Extra additions. An addition to the last point. As mentioned earlier, some Underlings have whole, functioning additional and or modified body parts such as a a tail or set of wings. However, not mentioned earlier is that these parts are not uniform in nature. One Underling's wings may be like that of an avian, and another's may be like that of a bat and so on and so forth. This goes for tails and other traits among their species. The purposes of these 
• Coloration. While many of them have the tones of their genetic Old World ancestors, among them are others who do not. For instance, I have seen many who had a skin tone similar to blood, others who had tones of a deep ocean blue and others with skin not unlike that of a domesticated animal, spotted and pink hued. The same can be said for their hair and eyes, although these are more extreme in terms of tint, tone and hue. In a few cases, I have even seen those among their kind that share coloring with that of now-extinct avian, reptilian and flowering species. Whether this is a resurgent trait in Bile or divergent I am not sure. 

Growth Rate & Stages

The development of the homo aries is remarkably similar to that of the homo sapien, save for a few particular parts. First, their crowns do not develop until after their fetal stage, often piercing the skull during their first year or two of life and growing slowly until puberty, at which the growths expand rapidly into their 'natural' adult forms. The same can be said for any external limbs and modifications. Secondly, they age a year or two less than the standard homo sapien, but their lives only go as far as 50 years before succumbing to old age or what I have determined to be a cancer of sorts, which extremely common within the destabilized G.R.S. areas without proper protection. This aging occurs within the last 5 years of their life, advancing rapidly turning their once post-youth bodies into decrepit and old frames within this time frame (a horrible sight to witness for an outsider such as myself).

Dietary Needs and Habits

Interestingly, in a rare development I believe is largely unrelated to Bile, the Underling digestive system has well adapted to the GRS region. For instance, not much edible plant life grows here, but there are many kinds of radioactive fungi and mosses. The aries esophagus or stomach, (something I have to come to find only though encountering of a sick Underling who was not able to keep his gut full and allowed me to take samples of his vomit), is lined with glands that excrete a nullifying mucous-like substance which severely depletes the radioactive strength of materials consumed.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

The only place I have observed Underlings have been within the G.R.S. region. For some strange reason, it is a commonly held idea that venturing beyond the underground homes is bound for not only bad for themselves, but their communities as well. I believe this is an ingrained, biological limitation.

Average Intelligence

The increased crown space does not guarantee an increased internal skull space, however I believe the Bile in some manner has taken advantage of this. Among certain Underling individuals, typically the ones with larger and more robust crowns, is a clear show of increased intellect and learning capacities. Other than this, their intelligence, unlike many other Blooded kinds, has not decreased at all.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

A development I have seen many times here, the development of night vision within all of the Underling species. I cannot be certain, as I haven't the chance to see this directly for myself, but I believe there is a tapetum-like structure within the eyes. I am not certain if development is accidental, evolutionary or resurgent, but due to their general location under the surface and within the G.R.S. region, it proves incredibly useful in such a place with little light.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Interestingly, aries, like many of the species within GRS, have formed a sort of symbiotic bond with mites. I cannot tell how, but the ability to manipulate them comes at an early age, usually during puberty. Whereas it may take years for a normal sapien to manage to understand and control their mites, an aries typically comes to be able to control them in a year or less. If i had to wager how, it would be that the mites fully develop throughout the body during this time, bonding to their nervous, cardiovascular and digestive system's in the process. As mentioned previously, their ability to control the mites more must be related in some way to their capacity to generate C.S.E.P. due to any other reasons I can currently tell. I cannot tell if their ability to generate this more is due to their location within the G.R.S., an evolutionary trait, a mutated trait or even a resurgent trait related to Bile.  It must be either one of these or another, unseen cause.

Not seen within the book

The huntsman had finally come to the surface. His home village had not been far from the a tiny and very-uncomfortable-to-squeeze-though hole in the wall of Unside, of which his quarry of leaping drakes and smaller saurians had learned to escape through once they saw him, of which he was not a very good huntsman yet. However, the last week had yielded less and less food for him, largely because most of the lesser saurian beasts had migrated south for this part of the year, leaving him to deal with even less of the beasts to hunt. Not being one for tradition but rather foolishness, it was near the day's end with not anything to bring back and he had seen a drake fly through this hole. It smelled of a crisp, cold air from the other side as he came close on his own. Crawling through it had taken him several minutes and through many tight spaces, of which he had thought he was stuck in the limestone crevice once on the way through. Coming out the other side, the air was freezing to his skin. He covered his dark eyes, of which ached heavily due to this newfound light that had not fully exposed itself until reaching the other side, a kind of light he had never seen before. Standing, he had heard stories of 'Highsun', the surface before, but had never seen this place in reality until now. He overlooked a lake under the shadow of a mountain, heralded by a dimming, seemingly endless blue 'sky'.

Scientific Name

Homo Aries

Origin/Ancestry

Homo Sapien

Lifespan

The eldest I have heard of lived to be 62 years. I suspect this shorter age is a limitation of the species in general.

Average Height

Including crown height, 5'8" among females and 6'2" among males.

Average Weight

This varies wildly between individuals due to their biological make up, but if I had to guess, between 120 and 160 lbs. among females and 190 and 230 lbs. among males.