Phrian

The Phrian are a race of mammalian creatures. Much of their body is covered in fur except for the palms of their hands, sections of their face, and the underside their tails. Within the Phrian race there are two sub species that have emerged from years upon years of drifting apart. These being the Phrian Lather, and the Phrian Lugnen. One may tell the species apart by the length of eithers snout as well as the texture of their hair. Lugnen typically have shorter snouts as well as more wiry fur while Lathers have longer noses and finer fur. Evolutionary drift has taken hold and due to petty racial discourse less and less Lathers and Lugnen chose to attempt to reproduce with one another, in fact it has become a toss up of whether a child would even be born due to too much drift in the individuals own genetic make up.

Reproduction Differences

The major difference in Phrian reproduction is the length of egg incubation and growth in and out of the Far's stomach. Once the egg is passed to the far's stomach it incubates for circa a month (change) and once outside the egg continues to grow for another five months (change).

Unique Risks

If racial tensions weren't enough to keep Lathers and Lugnens apart, even if a mixture of the two races manages to have a child there are high risks of birth defects. The child is at the lowest risk when the Far the only one of the apposing race. When it is either the Venfar or Tranfar the child is at extremely high risk. Most of these defects result in mutilation of the tail gills and as such sterility of the offspring. Other rarer cases result in a loss of sent, and by association loss of taste, early in life. The healthiest of these children are still expected to have a shorter life span than the average Phrian and are generally ridiculed.

Gender and Variation

Apart from reproductive roles, each sex is physically different from the others. The general descriptors for all genders and species in the pillar apply here but Phrian genders like and other species also have other unique gender induced traits that make them different. Far, have much longer and floppier ears than the other two as well as having longer hair in general. Venfar and Tranfar have shorter and stiffer ears as well as shorter fur in general. Tranfar typically have much rougher skin. Venfar have longer than normal arms and wider faces.

Diet/Dietary Anatomy

Phrian live on a diet of minerals from pockets of deposits among the Anaqui veins and well as miscellaneous biological substances dropped from the top of the pillar. They will also consume smaller local mammals that live within the pillar, whether this be ???, ??, or ????. The material received from the top typically takes the form of brown strips of fiber. Due to there heavy diet of hard materials Phrians have two rows of blunt hooked teeth that are used to grind strong minerals among the brown fiber and protein down to digestible size. This is incredibly rough on the teeth and is why food of organic nature is always eaten with said minerals. This is also why Phrians have two sets of teeth, were one set to be ground down to being unusable in old age, another set is right behind the previous. Once the minerals are ground down they, and the biological material, are passed into the first stomach. Here stomach acids dissolve the biological material leaving the minerals alone. The minerals then get separated from the biological material into a separate smaller stomach with much stronger acid that is capable of breaking down the minerals. All of this gets turned into fuel for the body. Phrians bodies are optimized to produce the most amount of energy out of little substance and as such have very little waste. When there is waste however it simply gets passed through the previously mentioned gills in the tail as a liquid. This happens incredibly infrequently however due to the restrictive nature of Phrian living conditions. As little as possible is wasted.

General Anatomy

Phrian are built hardy. While there is a difference in fur and snout in Lathers and Lugnens they do also share many traits. Due to the cold region of the pillar they have occupied for so long they have developed to grow an immense amount of hair, not in length necessary but in pure follicle count. Another special trait of the Phrian is that their bones are laced with iron. This gifts them with incredible bone density and a broken bone is extremely rare. The ugly underside of this gift however is that cuts can become incredibly dangerous. Phrians bodies produce a biological solution that creates a thin layer between flesh and the bone. This solution keeps the iron in the bone from oxidizing, rusting. Were a cut to reach the bone and disrupt this protective film the cut needs to be treated with extreme rare lest the bone will decay in that area.

The pillar has rather little gravity. This is part of the reason Phrians can walk around comfortably with iron in there bones. It has also resulted the lack of necessity for dense and complex muscle structures. This lack of an extensive muscle structure is also very helpful when it comes to food intake; requiring less than one would originally think to sustain their body. Of course this thought process applies less when referring to Venfar whos muscle structure increases in general size but not complexity.

Phrian eyes on the other hand, are very complicated. Phrians have two different eyelids, and outer lid that opens vertically and an inner eye lid that opens horizontally. The outer eye lid is simply for protection and long eyelashes can be found around the rims as an extra measure of protection. The inner eye lid can be closed so that Phrian may see in infrared. It is a matter of reducing the kind of waves that can reach the eye. When fully exposed, and both lids open, the eye is capable of seeing in light and color complete with a muscular iris to open and close the pupil. The iris expands and contracts from the corners giving the pupil a general star shape. When the inner lid is closed the type of waves reaching the eye is changed so that when in the complete dark, Phrian can still see. When both eyelids are closed of course no waves make it to the pupil.
Language/Vocals The description of the Phrian language begins with a depiction of what they have to work with. Phrian vocal cords are rather primitive compared to those of a reptile (change). Rather than having cords (reptiles) Phrians produce sounds with a series of circular membranes found in the front of their throat. These membranes have different size holes in the center than air passes through as its exhaled. This resulted in the creation of a vocal language based off of pops, whistles, and rolling noises. This is not the only way Phrians communicate however.

Phreesign

In very basic conversation with one another Phrians use hand signals capable of communicating basic ideas, plans, or emotions. More complicated ideas and thoughts are reserved for vocals. Phreesign came about out of necessity. If everyone spoke freely when inside a metal pillar noise would overtake all as voices would endlessly bounce off of the sides of the pillar. This is why for simple things hand signals are used.

Phreephone

Phreephone is the the vocal part of the Phrian language. Through a series of pops, clicks, and whistles blended together more complicated thoughts and ideas are communicated. Vocal conversations are generally reserved for important, technical, or theoretic conversations.

If categories were to be made, vocal speaking would be reserved more for technical and important topics where precision is important. Phreesign is then left to handle the day to day topics as well as conversations of emotion. Due to the only vocal conversation being carried by higher pitched noises, Phrian ears are rather unevolved and can't pick out many quieter baritone sounds.