Apraati
The apraati are giant apes who are 9ft tall (range of 6-12 ft) with an armspan just as wide. They live underground in the lava tubes created by the Bleeding Mountain in the frozen wastes of Scorus.
Due to living in an environment with two extreme heats, they have developed heat regulation adaptations for both hot and cold environments. They have a thick coat of fur that insulates against heat on specific sections of their body. The rest of their body is hairless. When they wish to remain at their current temprature, they curl into a ball posture exposing just the furred sections of their body to the outside temprature. This helps retain their core tempratures not letting heat escape or enter their furry shell. When they wish to disperse heat, they extend out their limbs allowing their skin to touch the air and dispel heat into the atmosphere. When the apraati venture into the cold wastes for food, they put on special clothing to help sheild them from the cold and eat "lava bugs" to increase their internal temperature before leaving the tubes. Even with these measures apraati cannot survive top side forever and must return to their tubes they become to cold to remain outside.
Some species of Apraati are tuned further to either end of the heat adaptation spectrum. For example, those living closer to the Bleeding Mountain are better at handling heat and those near the coasts are better with the cold.
Colouration
The apraati's fur is in greyscale. It ranges from charcoal black to snow white whith most falling into the middle grey tones. This colouration helps with camouflaging as stones or snow on the surface while they ambush hunt.
Their most common skin tone is red making them look like a stone filled wi
Culture
The apraati are intelligent species with language and culture. they often trade with the Ome nations on Scorus.
They live nomadic lives, moving when food in one region runs out. as such they do not have great settlements.
The apraati have not dedicated their minds to developing technology thus have a low technology level.
Religion
The Apraati are most spiritually and cosmologically aware of Desaith's species and the giants realm. Their religion focuses on peering into the giant's realm and gaining profound knowledge from that experience. To accomplish this, the Apraati look into the minds of many different people and creatures of Desaith and pull threads together that allow them to look into the giant's realm. As they look into more and more creatures, they can start to see the connective tissue of the world, once they have amassed enough threads of this tissue, they can look into the giant's realm. Very few Apraati accomlish this and it must be done at an individual level. Apraati cannot share these threads with one another, they must be earned in their own right.
collecting these threads often leads to individual extrapolations of what life means. Therefore there are several splinter religions who have formed their own set of values based on their learnings. All wish to see into the giant's realm but each feel differently about what life on Desaith means.
The founder of the parent religion is the reincarnation sect's leader. He was the first to enter the giant's realm and Drokar granted him eternal renewal in exchange for helping him keep order on Desaith.
Umbrealla religion name idation:
- Vision
- sight
- weave
- spool
- understanding
Gaining insight could be seen as weaving a tapestry or gathering a spool so that you may start to weave the threads together. Perhaps those terms could be used as levels in the church? gathers or weavers?
Clothing
Their clothing is inspired by mesoamerican cultures pre-colonization taking large influcence from those cultures that lived in hot dry regions.
They put a thin layer of clay on the seems and edges of their fabric clothing to keep flames from setting the most vulnerable parts of their clothing aflame when they move around the lava flows. Fabric is held in high regard due to the religious imagery associated with it.
Most wear head dresses that emphasize their use of Apraati Mind Magic. These often hold reflective or clear beads to emphasize the ligth coming from the conjuration. The religious class takes this system to a high level. Those high in the church wear taller head dresses that amplify the casting. Those who have reached a level where they can peer into the giants realm where one that focuses the light into a beam above their heads when conjuring.
Relations
The Ome historically hunted the apraati for a short time upon the species meeting each other. The Apraati remember and there is a cultural dislike to the ome.
Food
Apraati are omnivores. They eat a great deal to support their large bodies. In the lava tubes, the apraati eat lots of fungi, mosses, lichen and insects native to the tubes. However when they need a greater quantity of food, they leave their lava tubes and go to the surface where they forage the plant life of the boreal forests and ambush hunt prey in the forests and in the tundra.
To ambush hunt, the apraati curl up into a heat sealing ball formation that resembles a rock then camouflage themselves with the snow or plant life that surrounds them. They will then wait for prey to approach them. Once their prey is close enough, the apraati will spring out of their ball form, grab their prey and kill it as quickly as possible. They will use their large sharp tusks to skewer their Peet's brain or use their strong muscles to break their backs. Once they have their prey, they will bring it back to their lava tube and cook it with their family.
Mind Magic
See Apraati Mind Magic for details on their magic system.
Old art from AJ
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