Vrilqul (vrɪl-kul)
The Vrilqul are sometimes called the centaurs of the sea, though they live around or near most of the waterways of the world.
They rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the world, seeking no empire or power for themselves, since all things end. All they can do is live in the flow, preparing for the seasons of lack that will inevitably follow.
It is said that the vrilqul are born from the tears of Emohr, divinity of compassion as they fell into the sea. Even some of the vrilqul believe this to this day.
They were born to remember that all this rise, fall, and rise again. Nothing is forever, not even loss. The sea of time brings all things cast into it back to its shore eventually. It is for them to live in the flow, not the bend it to their will or to stand against it.
According to the oldest singing shells, the Vrilqul once lived in peace beneath the waves of the sea, without a care for the affairs of others. One day, a dark shadow fell upon them, and great nets stole the bounty of the sea as well as some of their own people. The elders followed the shadows back to the land where they found their people bound to wooden stakes like wilted kelp. In the light of the moon, they freed them and led them home.
After much deliberation, they chose to leave the waters of their birth and venture onto land to tend to the waters as a farm their fields. The founded the first villages, which grew to cities, then to states. Now, the vrilqul guard the waters from those who would take more than is their due.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Vrilqul possess a hard crablike carapace all over their body that they molt periodically throughout their lives. They walk on six, pointed legs. Their four, plated arms end in gauntlet like hands. Segmented chitin covered their tentacle-like ends to their arms. They are amphibious capable of breathing in the air or the water and possess a series of glands under their lobster-like tail that allowed them to live in fresh or saltwater.
Genetics and Reproduction
The Vrilqul are not precious about their children. The females lay a clutch of around a thousand eggs in the nesting lagoon's so often built under their homes. The male fertilizes them and take the first watch over the brood.
They take turns guarding the eggs until they hatch. They cast food into the nest pool until the larva molt and the brood gate is open for the megalops to swim free into the open water.
Growth Rate & Stages
Vrilqul eggs take about two weeks to hatch, during which time they are guarded by their parents.
Once hatched, the larva are tended in the nest lagoon by their parents for thirty to fifty days. They are completely helpless in this stage. Their bodies are soft and their shells are extremely thin, resembling little more than a tentacled head with a shrimps tail. Ten tentacle-like limbs enable them to swim.
Eventually they molt into their megalops stage. Their four front limbs reveal pincer-like appendages at the end while the six remain grow longer and stronger. The bud that will develop into their trunk and head form little more than a bulbous crab-like body with a spike between their eyestalks. The six legs under their lobster-like tail helped them resemble a strange chimera of the two creatures. At this stage they are released into the open water. Live in this stage for twelve to sixty days depending on how much they and how fast they grow. At this point, they are on their own.
After eighteen to twenty molts, they enter their sheritani stage where they resemble an adult vrilqul more than a crab, but they are not developed enough to live out of the water. They will continue to fend for themselves in small bands for the until they are around seven years old, at which point they return to their village and emerge onto land.
These returned children of the sea/lake/river. are welcomed into the community. Few survive to this stage out of the many who swim free to the next, so their return is celebrated.
Additional Information
Facial characteristics
Atop the trunk of the Vrilqul body, an open shell, reminiscent of a helmet or the hardened cowl of cloak. From the cavernous darkness, twin eyestalks protruded and bent up to the sky. While the head could not move or turn, the stalks could turn in unison or separately to look around.
Their liplike labrum hide behind their nest of tentacles which were shielded behind their maxillae.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Vrilqul can see color, shape, shadow, and light as well as any of the others on Nalea, bur also track movement.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
The vrilqul feel the tug of the tides in their flesh. As such, most of their cultures are built around the lunar cycle and/or the tides. Even inland, far from the seas, the ebb and flow touches them all.
All things come and go of their own time. As such, they do not trust quests for power or acquisition of wealth or power. Even these will fade in time as the tides of good fortune go out.
Everything ends and is born again.
Average Height
1.4 m to 1.8 m
Average Length
1,4 m to 1.8 m
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
The color of the Vrilqul's shell is determined by what they eat in the period just after they molt, so many choose their molting diet carefully to have the coloring they desire. The pattern is random and beyond their control.
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