Titanspawn
Titanspawn are creatures native to the Frostmere that are spontaneously birthed from the Titansblood shed by the Titans shackled to the Burdensome City of Gelethis.
Because they are creatures that are born and live in the Shardscape, they are considered a begotten race. Some, however, argue that the designation invites confusion and misapprehension of their origin as titanspawn are born solely from the Titans' shed blood and cannot arise from the wild energies of the Shardscape, unlike other begotten. Many argue for their classification as a secondary species, instead, as their existence is secondary to and wholly dependent on the existence of the Titans.
Basic Information
Anatomy
As titanspawn come in a variety of sizes and body types, it is difficult to make generalizations about their body layouts. However, one thing that holds true for most titanspawn is that they are possessed of hexapodal bodies with bilateral symmetry. This is rather curious as they are descended from the Titans who are, themselves, tetrapodal.
Genetics and Reproduction
Titanspawn in captivity have been observed reproducing through two primary processes. The first is self-cloning. When a titanspawn has consumed enough biomatter, it ceases the hunt and searches for a safe place to spawn. Once it has found a suitable location it undergoes a dramatic transformation where it produces a thin, venous membrane expands into a roughly ellipsoid sac whereupon its body is rendered down into its constituent parts and two identical but separate instances of the titanspawn are formed. This process takes approximately 24 hours to complete, at which point the reproductive sac ruptures and the two newborn instances of the original titanspawn gorge on the remains and leftover liquid for their first meal.
It is unknown what triggers the second reproductive process but it starts in much the same way as the first. Instead of producing two clones of the original titanspawn, however, the reproductive sac bursts prematurely—after the original titanspawn has been fully rendered down but before the copies can form. The fluid contained within the sac spills out into the environment whereupon it coagulates to produce a fleshy biological mat covered in hairlike cilia that can excrete a powerful adhesive and potent digestive enzymes. This mat grows as it is able to digest and absorb biological matter that falls into it.
Once the biological mat has absorbed enough biomass, it spontaneously produces reproductive sacs of its own, birthing clones of the original organism or entirely new titanspawn altogether.
Growth Rate & Stages
When a sufficient amount of titansblood pools in a given area, titanspawn begin to emerge fully formed from it given enough time. Though there seems to be no discernible pattern to the kind and number of titanspawn that can emerge from a pool at any given moment, observations suggest that the volume of the pool of titansblood determines the effective upper bound of a titanspawn's size, or the amount of titanspawn that can emerge from a single spawning.
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