Bronzed Narwhal

WIP - Summercamp 2023

One of the three species of narwhal that exist across Etrea, the bronzed narwal is the largest and most impressive. They can grow to about twenty feet long and weigh nearly four thousand pounds.
The bronzed narwhal is white in colour, speckled with brown and grey. When they are born they are very dark, but they lighten with age. They are long and sleek, with a wide flat tail fin. They also have two small front fins. Unlike other cetaceans, they do not have a dorsal fin and instead have a dorsal ridge. Another adaptation they have that is not shared by other cetaceans is that their neck vertebrae are not fused together, giving them flexible necks. Like all cetaceans, they have a blowhole, which allows them to breathe air when surfacing. After each breath, it closes with strong muscles so water cannot get in.
All males have a long spiral tusk, which is an elongated canine tooth. It is bronze in colour, which is where the bronzed narwhal gets its name from. On rare occasions, double tusks are grown. Females also sometimes grow a tusk, about twenty percent, but this seems random.
Bronzed narwhals live exclusively in the oceans around the Expanse in the Frozen North. They usually gather in pods of between five and ten individuals, though during the breeding season this number can grow to one hundred. They communicate with a mixture of whistles, clicks, and knocks, created by air in chambers near the blowhole.
Their diet consists of a mixture of fish and squid, with around fifty percent of it being northern cod.
Bronzed narwhals are the symbol of Clan Sceilon and denote power and ferocity.
Qasceile merfolk use the tusks to fashion weapons and for decoration. It is forbidden to hunt bronzed narwhals, even in times of desperation, so all horns are scavenged from narwhals that have died from natural causes or killed by predators.
Narwhal tusks are sometimes sold as unicorn horns across much of Etrea, though they are rare to come by.