Ice-Wyrms Species in Kingsmaker | World Anvil

Ice-Wyrms

Draconic worms of Ice and Coldness

"The wyrms in the zoo might be cute, yes, but they doesn't represent their greatness in the wild even in a single bit.
These sorry excuses of a majestic species are as pathetic as the entire zoo of Scamall.
And don't get me started with the wyrm, that took out all my friends in Sepernius... that was a horryfling train of a beast!"

Dross, reliving memories

Basic Information

Anatomy

An Ice-wyrm can get easily identified by its quite characteristic anatomy. Their facial structure is comparable to that of a Drake with the striking difference, that the face is divided and scrambled into four parts. The jaws appear divided and horizontal, acting more like many-toothed pincers than an actual maw. The vertical portion is horned and features no distinctive features besides being an indicator of the age of the wyrm. As seen in the row of horns on these segments one can count the rows of horns to determine their age, as one is getting added to the icy plates every year. All plates of the wyrm's body appear frozen and transparent as if they got chiselled out of ice and set together around a spectral worm-like body. The body is segmented into icy, rib-like, parts keeping the aetherial body compressed into a graspable form. Wyrms possess short, stubby arms with massive claws, that act like eyelids hiding away the lizard-like eyes in their palms.
They however have no legs and fly in consequence as segmented, worm-like, creatures through the air.
 
Domesticated wyrms feature the same morphology but in way more tolerable for the eye, looking like a cute parody of its wild cousins.
The primal wyrm on the other hand lives up to its age being an amalgam of countless horns and massive ribs keeping the monstrosity whole. Their eyes are however comically small with their arms not really being sized to the colossal frame of their body rendering them essentially blind.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Domestic:
Wyrms, siphoned of everything that is making them dangerous to Purists, can be found in the major cities of Etherium. To protect the citizens, who are devoid of the Veil, are only these harmless variants allowed inside the city borders. Wild Ice-Wyrms are usually friendly to humanoids and are quite popular as pets, which means that domestic wyrms are only present in Etherium and Etherium alone.
 
Wild:
Wild Ice-Wyrms can be found in many areas of Prius. With them being draconic ice-spirits does the Veil allow their arcane birth within the late seasons to grow up in the winter and wander in the spring over the ocean to the edges of the polar regions to not smelt in the warmth of the summer months.
Wyrms are migratory spirits, who will each year return to the place of their compression to socialize once more with the humanoid friends they have made in their conquest of 'becoming whole' permanently joining their chosen friend.
 
Primal:
In the deepest south of Sepernius came my expedition crew and me, Silent Watcher Dross Hegraven, across one of the very few primal representatives of an Ice-Wyrm. We interacted with wild wyrms, who were hibernating at the coasts waiting for summer to pass.
None of them even dared to move deeper into the icy hell of the south pole. They had the respect of their much bigger cousin terrorizing the magnetic south pole and we should have listened to their pleas to not continue. My guide, who was able to communicate with them, told me that the wyrms are nothing more than food to the primal kin, one who feeds on every source of warmth in its way, being the coldest entity on the entire planet.
...
But we didn't listen and continued on our path to the doom of all I ever cared about, becoming nourishment to the wyrm, the bane of my sleepless nights. I was too stubborn to let one train of death dictate my legacy. And I paid dearly for my foolishness. ...
 
Excerpt out of Enlightened Watcher Dross Hegraven's
diary of bitter reflections. (written 4990)

Primal Ice-Wyrms are scattered sparsely, counting to a grand total of maybe 10 exemplars due to their massive size and monumental age. They are survivors devouring any other wyrms, who are threatened to get twisted into a primal reflection of themselves.
That is because the older the primal wyrm gets, the closer does their temperature crawls to absolute zero, which in consequence expands its diet to feast on younger primal wyrms to avert their end.
Due to the influence of the primal Veil needed to even start the revert mutation can primal Ice-wyrms only get encountered in the Squa'osa Archipelago and in Sepernius. There are no records of any primal animals outside of these two locations.
Lifespan
Domestic: 8 - 10 years
Wild: 4 - 6 years
Primal: 150 - 200 years
Average Height
Domestic: 0,3 - 0,4 m
Wild: 1,0 - 1,7 m
Primal: 15 - 20 m
Average Weight
Domestic: 0,1 - 0,2 kg
Wild: 0,8 - 1,2 kg
Primal: 8 - 12 kg
Average Length
Domestic: 2 - 4 m
Wild: 8 - 10 m
Primal: 300 - 450 m

Powers


Being the animal representation of what will be a cryomancer once the symbiosis had happened to have Ice-Wyrms numerous cold-based abilities to slow their prey or sap it from their precious warmth.
 
Wyrms are often seen to use their snake-like body to straighten it to a long tunnel charging an Ice pike in the far back of their aetherial body to launch it like a slingshot by instantly slamming all segments as close together as possible shooting the pike out of their maw.
 
If they have immobilized their prey they devour it whole and keep it between their segmented casket until the body is colder than theirs successfully having transferred the body warmth to reinforce their icy segments. They will leave the body unharmed rendering it often possible to revive their prey with the use of a simple campfire.
"When I raised wyrms as a teenager I often let them nibble on my arm to feast on my low merfolk body temperature until it got uncomfortable for me.
They might not get sated by that, but it boosts your friendship with them.
They like glowing pieces of coal to zap making having a barbeque with wryms a fun time.~"

Pale, cryomancer.

Usage


Due to their diet consisting in its entirely of heat are Ice-wyrms often used in refrigerated warehouses.
Letting them roam free in the ceiling to keep the temperature at all times at the temperature of their own body.
 
Note: The wyrm gets colder and more hungry with age. To assure a temperature of 1°C should only be 2 years old wyrms get used and exchanged after precisely one year.



Cover image: by Vertixico

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