Tyrm

Did the walls just move?

— Miner

The Tyrm is a gentle giant who never stops growing, this with the addition that their scales not only look like, but are also as hard as stone, often leads to people confusing them with rocks or even mountains.
As one can imagine, the Tyrm doesn't have any predators. Only Humans and Anima ever managed to kill a Tyrm by accident. This was due to the Tyrm featuring tunnels called "Cunis" which weave through their body and leading into their stomach. These Cunis are often lined with scales, just like their outer skin, which can contain wanted materials.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Tyrm is a heavy quadrupedal dragon that grows hard, stonelike scales over its body which then overgrow with a variety of plants. It has neither a confirmed maximum height nor a confirmed maximum length or weight. The side of its body features several holes, these holes form corridor like structures inside of its body, called Cunis, which then end in its stomach. This way the Tyrm gathers all needed nutrients. This passive way of "hunting" is the reason why the Tyrm has no mouth.

Biological Traits

The Tyrm don't have a normal digestive system, this is mainly due to the fact that, once they become immobile, the produces feces would cause illnesses and inflammation on the animal. Instead all food is lead, through tunnels leading inside of its body, into its stomach and subsequently dissolved completly. All non-usable matter consumed by this process is excreted through the gaps between their scales.
This substance also serves the purpose of a fertilizer and softener. It softens the scales of the Tyrm to a certain amount, so that plants can settle and as such Tyrms tend to have a vast variety of plants growing all over their body.

Genetics and Reproduction

When a Tyrm becomes fertile is largy dependant on their size. Once they reach a size that is roughly equivalent to a small tree, they copulate. This only happens once in their lifetime. Here the female can have several partners, while most males only mate once.
The female then stores the semen inside their body in which it will be stored until much later in their lifecycle when they reach a size where they become immobile. Only then the female starts to produce an egg every year which she then fertilizes.

Growth Rate & Stages

The growth rate of a Tyrm is generally based on the amount of food they can aquire.
The eggs of a Tyrm are just as hard as their scales and as such are not prone to be cracked or eaten by predators. They grow up in their egg over a period of five months.
After hatching, they are usually already several ten centimeters tall and have already formed some smaller cunis which are large enough for smaller rodents to enter. This is called the "Pebble-Stage"
After several years, once the Tyrm has reached a certain size they enter their most mobile, the so called "Boulder-Stage". This is usually accompanied with the search for a mating partner.
Once they left this stage and grow even further they begin to get more and more sluggish which ends in the Tyrm not being able to move anymore. This so called "Mountain-Stage" is the last stage in their life cycle.
In this stage the Tyrm keeps growing as long as a food supply is available, most Tyrms meet their end in this stage due to them not being able to get rid of plants covering their head. This means, most of them suffocate in the end.
Tyrm bodies take a long amount of time to fully decay and as such are often regarded as normal boulder or even mountains.

Ecology and Habitats

As long as there are animals, the Tyrm is able to live in this habitat. Some smaller specimen were spottet in the deserts, while the largest were seen in central, Orcerta.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Tyrm can digest every living matter, as long as this matter gets through their Cunis into their stomach.

Additional Information

Domestication

Tyrms are usually not domesticated, but there is a family that has taken care of one for generations.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

<<Coming soon when i thought about something better than "plants" or "Saxum">>

Facial characteristics

The Face of a Tyrm doesn't feature a mouth, this is due to their unique way of receiving their nutrients.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The Tyrm has very bad sensory organs, which degrade further ones they get immobile.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Every species can be regarded as a symbiotic one in the case of the Tyrm, due to the plants growing all over their body and the corridors inside of its body serving as shelter for smaller animals.

Lifespan

Unspecified - oldes specimen still living

Average Height

Unspecified

Average Weight

Based on height

Average Length

Roughly twice their height