Anji Shrimp
Racial Magic
First Ability
☀️Rithaldis' Charge
They can store up radiant energy inside their bodies without limit and cannot be harmed by radiant energy. They can convert this to energy, empower their body with it or re-release it like an aura at will.
Second Ability
☀️Rithaldis' Slip or Movement
Movement allows them to walk, step or move on or through radiant energy such as beams of sunlight. They can briefly turn into sunlight and travel in a given direction before reforming, moving at the speed of light. This quickly eats up energy. Those with Slip can allow their body to interact with physical matter similarly to sunlight, most matter passing right through them. Their flesh changes over into sunlight only where they are being touched and quickly reverts back once the foreign object is gone. To ordinary eyes they may appear an illusion, untouchable but beautiful.
Zuvaath's Fertility
Able to increase the fertility of invertebrates and aid in the healthy development of and birth of these organisms. Some females of this species generally inherit this ability, boosting the fertility and healthy development of young for all fellow shrimp around them, sometimes even doubling the healthy eggs produced!
Original Ancestor
Fairy Shrimp
Lifespan
Length
Coloration
A unique crustacean which usually only appears amid the wet season in the Shamsi Desert, Dawn Ahrayn and Kemet though some might make their homes within desert oases and wadis. Extraordinarily tenacious, their eggs lay dormant within desert sands for years at a time awaiting rain. Even as eggs, they absorb radiant energy in their environment and store this away until its time to hatch. Cousin species from all across Emynea are usually waterbound but some anji shrimp are capable of taking to the air during the day thanks to Rithaldis' Movement! However, they are rather slow and showy, making an ideal snack for many predators, only capable of brief bursts of speed while swimming along sunlight. Those with Movement manifestations can be seen throughout the year but most of this species emerge when the rains finally arrive and the desert bursts with life!
These are active swimmers which need temperatures of 77 F (25 C) or higher to survive. Like many shrimp, they are filter feeders and are able to filter 2 litres of water in a day. Their bodies possess 20 body segments, 11 of these an anchor for leaf like phyllopodia (swimming legs). Unlike other crustaceans they lack a carapace, their exoskeleton thin and flexible. They have a tendency to swim upside down, filtering organic particles like bacteria, microzooplankton and detritus with their legs or scraping algae from surfaces. They also have two compound eyes on noticeable eye stalks alongside two pairs of antennae, two small and two long and cylindrical. Most of this species mature in less than two weeks of life, females producing 100-300 clutches of eggs or far more with the aid of specimens with Zuvaath's Fertility. Most are capable of producing 35-40 clutches in their lifetime but must be fertilized between each clutch. They need to produce as many young as possible, most if not all of them slated to become dinner!
Most anji shrimp live within shallow rain pools in the rainy season but the most mobile of these crustaceans live within wadis and oases. They usually spend the night hiding within these waterways and emerge during the day to soak in sunlight or feed. However, they only breed during the rainy season and their numbers are always few outside of this window. Anji shrimp hatch amid the rainy season in astonishing swarms, eggs laying dormant in dried mud throughout the rest of the year if not for several years. A sheer explosion of these slow and relatively large shrimp draw in all manner of birds and fish, the Shamsi Desert thriving during these brief but lush periods. Anji shrimp spread into new areas amid seasonal flooding, swarming across seasonal rivers and lakes and leaving innumerable eggs behind. Waterways glimmer with their fluttering forms, predators greedily snapping up those unlucky enough not to make their exodus across the desert. When the waters dry up, their eggs enter a state of dormancy caused diapause, capable of withstanding harsh drought, frost, hypersalinity, desiccation, exposure to radiation and even the vacuum of space! Even if they are disturbed and moved they can retain this dormancy, capable of spreading to totally new locations via wind or predators. In this state, they can survive even for centuries.
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